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Dom Robinson reviews
Global Star 
- Price: £19.99
- Players: 1
- Widescreen: No
- 60Hz: No
- DTS sound: No
Corvette. Racing. Sounds like an unmissable piece of fun. Wrong.
I supposed it does what it says on the tin – Pick a Corvette, perhaps even a little red onelike Prince sang about, and go and drive on the open road, but that’s about it.
There’s the usual options to run a quick race, build a career, take the arcade game route – i.e.just unlock more of the models as you go, unlock special events and go multiplayer against a friend,but not online.
On the plus side, in the setting up, I did like the ability to select a year in which to drive,but that’s basically just a way to choose the type of Corvettes you can select from, not a wayto make you feel like Marty McFly travelling back to 1985.
Ok, so that’s the good stuff out of the way.
The driving graphics are reasonable but nothing to write home about, the track-side crowd area plasticky 2D, and your car’s engine just makes basic rasping sounds. When it comes to itsusage, your car just sits in the middle of the screen like it’s been fixed with Blu-tack, as the worldrevolves around it. There’s not even the most basic of movement around this point to give somesense of realism.
The handling feels like it leaves a lot to be desired, as I go slip-sliding all over the place,although I’ve never actually driven a Corvette so maybe they’re all like that?Also, if you wipe-out at any point around the track and need to re-adjust yourself to get movingagain, then the rest have shot ahead of you and you’ll never catch up.
There are long loading times, that last a long time. Rather too long than I care to think about.
If you must give it a try, then do so on rental only. I’m just not quite sure who this ismeant to appeal to. For an automobile racer, it’s very pedestrian. There’s absolutely nothingin it that differentiates it from the rest, such as that you only get to choose a differentcolour for each car as opposed to customising them properly, and while you may be able todrive along up to 50 different tracks in 13 locations, why would you do so when it can’t evengrab your interest from the start?
If you have an Xbox, then it’s best to stick withMidtown Madness 3andProject Gotham Racing 2.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.