Top Gear RPM Tuning is yet another street racing game out in the world. Unlike most other street racing games, Top Gear has a very low budget, but the game it self is very good. Out of all the street racing games I've ever played, this one seems to be the most real, also it is one of the funnest to play. This game features a story aswell, that goes very well with the game. The story mode is very short, but still much funner than just trying to win every single race and say hahaha now I am the best. The game features only 8 cars, but they seem to use each one of them well. Like I said before this game has a very small budget and can't afford to get real car licenses. So what they did was just made 8 cars that look just like a real life car, and give it a different name. I didn't really mind this, because it's quite simple to pickup on which car is which. They have a good variety of cars as well in the 8 cars. The tuning of the cars are very good too, they have lots of different ways to tune your car, and fix up your car (the looks of the car). They don't have very much fine tuning of your car, but then again what street racing game does? The gameplay of this game is very good, it's one of my favorite parts of this game. The racing is the most realistic racing I've ever seen in any street racing game ever. The controls seem kind of hard at first, but once you get used to the cars handling they get very good. All I can really say is that the racing is just great fun, good controls, and realistic. Another thing that is good as that this game as absolutey no rubberband effect as in most other street racing games. Also the game makes it much better if you race less arcade style where as you have to use the brakes and pay attention while you are driving, it is almost very real. Except sometimes the computer racers are kind of crazy, but another good thing is the computer can mess up too just like you. So don't ever give up on a race, because you never know if the computer may mess up. The damage physics are okay I guess. They have no effect on your when it gets damaged, just visual stuff, and you will never have to repair your car. Once a new race starts it's back at 100% health. It is quite good when you hit something really hard they will go into like an above screen of your car, and you can't move for a few seconds, they encourages less risky driving. The last great thing about this gameplay is that they let you use other streets outside the track, unlike in most other street racing games. Like NFSU series for example they have like a set course of you, and you can't leave it at all! Of course they set up little short cuts inside their track, but it's still not the same thing. You can choose whatever path you want in this game, as long as you get to the point. The graphics in this game are not that impressive at first, but once they grow on you, they have the most realistic street racing graphics. At first they can seem alittle big, and cartoonish, but once you get used to them they get almost like a clean NFSU 2 graphics. I like this games graphics much more than NFSU2. I don't know about NFSU though. The background stuff is quite good, and most everything else seems to be good. The music in this game isn't very good at all, it's just a bunch of horrible techno music that keeps getting played over and over again to death, but it does have passion into the game. It can also keep your mind into the game with all that annoying tapping and stuff. The cars in the game sound very good, and most the adjustments that are made to your car have some effect on the sound of the car. The game offers to modes of gameplay, Adventure mode, which is the main story mode, and Tuning mode, which is a mode where you buy and tune cars and do any race you want (kind of like an arcade mode except you have to buy and tune cars). The story mode is about some guy named vince who wants to get his stolen car back, all he has is a lead of some gang called redset. So he goes to this guy to buy a tuning car, and he helps vince out and stuff. The story is really much more complex than this as you move along though. Throughout the story mode you will be doing more than just racing. You will have to pursuit people, win races/tournaments, win 1 vs 1 races, race other people to certain places, and race against the clock to certain places. You don't have to win every single thing to move on, but you do have to win most the stuff. I really liked the story mode, I found it much funner than most other street racing games where as all you did was race against other people and say like "yeah I beat you I'm the best". The games story is quite good, although lame and unrealistic at times. The tuning mode is nothing more than an arcade mode with much more to do than most other arcade modes. You can buy cars, sell them, tune them, and race them. You have to buy a car to do races, once you have a car you will have to win races to earn money to fix up that car. You can choose any race you like, so this mode can be quite fun at times, but does get old quick. The story mode can be easily beaten in 10 hours, and the tuning mode can get boring quite fast, so this game doesn't hold much value after about 15+ hours. Although this game is very cheap, only 20$ brand new and I've seen it less than 10 used. This game is a great value for the price, although I reccomend you rent the game, because it only has about 15 hours of gameplay. In the end this is a very good game that could of been something special if it had a bigger budget and more time to be made. I think this game could of been the NFSU killer, but it will have to settle for progress in the world of street racing games. I hope more street racing games follow the direction of this game, and if they do we can see a bright future.
By danmorgan302 | Review Date: Mar 09, 2005 | XBOX
being british i love top gear with all the shots at americans taking by the host (it's good stuff) but i don't know if there is an american version of the tv show, never the less from such a widely loved racing show in b... Read Full Review
Top Gear RPM Tuning is a rare, budget-priced tuner car game. In this game you play as Vince Riker who wants to start street racing. I don't really know what this game is about because I never played it that much because ... Read Full Review
