Guinness World Records: the "glitchiest" game of all times.
GRAPHICS: 4
The graphics in Big Rigs, although not completely disastrous, are bad for a 2003 game. The models don't have much polygons, but they aren't horrible. The textures are very varied. There is a road texture in one of the scenarios that has great detail, but most of them are mediocre, and some of them are awful. The terrain doesn't look very well, and has a noticeable LOD change. The draw distance is good, but not great. The GUI looks good, but is too small for the time numbers. There are some nice-looking trees, too. The game has some nice light effects for truck and checkpoint lights, but each one of them has a noticeable glitch with them:
1) When going up a hill, you'll notice the back lights of the truck floating away from it.
2) You'll sometimes see the checkpoint light when there is terrain obstructing it.
SOUND: 2
The sound is incredibly limited. The game has two sound effects: one for the truck engines, and another one for the handbrake. There is no music in the main menu, only one short in-game track that loops forever and eventually becomes annoying. Also, the game doesn't support any kind of sound technologies (i.e. EAX). Turn off your speakers while you are playing.
GAMEPLAY: 1
The gameplay is what makes this game so bad. If you have a truck racing game with bad graphics, limited sound but fun and addicting gameplay, then you will play it. The problem is: Big Rigs doesn't almost have any gameplay at all, and if it has; then it's plagued with an insane number of bugs, glitches and programming errors. Let's start explaining them:
1) AI: The whole aim of this game is to get to the finish line (the well-known checkpoint race) before your opponent does; but your opponent will NEVER get to the finish line. He will not even move, as there is simply no AI here. He will just stand still at his starting position until you win the race.
Correction: When you install the patch, the opponent will move at a slow speed along the track, but he'll stop right before crossing the finish line, so it's still impossible to lose. In fact, the game becomes easier; as you can just follow the opponent's car and cross the finish line when he stops.
2) PHYSICS: The "physics engine" of this game is extremely rudimentary. The trucks just stick to the terrain no matter what you do until the end of the race. If you get to a cliff at high speed expecting to go flying, you'll be disappointed when you see your truck go DOWN the cliff. Also, if you manage to stop when you are descending the cliff, you'll not fall. There's no gravity.
3) COLLISION DETECTION: There is no collision detection at all. You'll just go through anything you can find: houses, checkpoint poles, bridges (you'll just follow the terrain instead of following the bridge) and even sometimes the terrain itself.
4) REVERSE: When going on reverse, you'll see two big bugs:
¤ There is no speed limit when going on reverse. I've managed to reach 200000 mph speeds with this method.
¤ There is no friction. If you release the down arrow, the truck will immediately stop.
5) INSTANT WINNER: After you beat a race, you get a screen showing a three-handled trophy and a "YOU'RE WINNER" legend. The problem is, sometimes you'll get this screen as soon as the race starts; so you'll win the race before even starting it.
6) SPEED ON SLOPED SURFACES: You'll notice that when you are driving through sloped terrain (mountains, hills and up cliffs) you'll go through them at the same speed you traverse flat terrain.
7) TRACTION: You can drive through grass, roads and dirt at the same speed.
8) LEVEL BOUNDARIES: When you manage to get outside the level (which is incredibly easy) you'll find yourself inside an infinite mass of a grey thing (or black if you are playing at a nighttime level). Also, sometimes at high speeds you'll see the truck at rare positions, sometimes at a fully vertical direction.
Apart from these game-destroying errors, the game is not very fun. It features 4 tracks and 4 trucks which have the same speed, acceleration and handling properties. The trucks are a little fast compared to real rigs, and handle in a somewhat strange way.
The Good:
¤ The game can make you laugh.
¤ A very detailed road in one of the tracks.
The Bad:
¤ Everything else.