World Rally Championship, Description and Videos Options

[SWortham]

Oh, the other good rally game I've been playing is Xpand Rally. I played the demo awhile back. And I have the full version now since it came with my video card. The graphics are really good and the realism is much better than Rallisport Challenge. Rallisport is still fun in its own way. But unlike Rallisport, the damage you sustain in Xpand Rally will slow your car down, and you can also kill yourself if you hit something hard enough.

Because the physics are more realistic I can't do as well using the keyboard. I need a steering wheel.

This post has been edited by SWortham: Nov 23 2005, 12:45 PM

[cobas]

I got the Xpand Rally multiplayer demo but its hard to find anyone playing it seems. I can't join any servers because the version is wrong. The demo is 0.9.something and the servers are 1.0.something. No mutiplayer demo servers? I can race anyway and it's pretty good. I like the car damage.

[cobas]

I listed the videos and I mentioned some sites, but here is what each site has:

RallyAlbum
www.rallyalbum.hu/video.htm

(3) 2004 Season Videos by DanDigiMan, Pou, JanK.
(4) 2003 Season Videos by DanDigiMan, Pou, JanK and (anonymous)
(1) 2002 Season Video
(1) 2001 Season Video

(7) 2003 Videos: Finland, Greece, Argentina, New Zealand, Turkey, Sweden, Monte Carlo

Other Rallies and Videos (7):
This is Rallying, Battle for Europe, Crash Video (Another One Bites the Dust)
Symphonia Rally Team, 2002 Tura Rally, Tribute to Kuzi, Mocne Rally

Rally4U
www.rally4u.net

(1) 2005 Video of Sweden, Mexico and Monte Carlo.
(1) 2004 Season Video
(4) 2004 Videos: Argentina, Cyprus, Mexico, Sweden.
(1) 2003 Season Video
(2) 2003 Videos: Spain, Great Britain(RAC).

Other Rallies and Videos (9):
Group B Rally Video, Stopa Amateur Rally 2004, Stopa Amateur Rally 2005, WRC Crash Videos 0-5 (6 videos).

SmokieBum
www.rally.smokiebum.com
(this site sells full-coverage DVDs of the last two years of WRC, $11 each)
2005 Clips: Australia, Spain, Greece, Mexico DVD Sample.
2004 Clips: Australia, Great Britain, Japan, Finland, Greece, Turkey.

Other Rallies and Videos (MANY):
(8) 2004: Carloz Sainz Recap, Castle Hellfire Rally teaser, Irish Rally teaser, Germany Crashes (5).
2004 Race of Champions: Loeb vs. Schwarz.
2004 Race of Champions: Gronholm vs. Ekstrom.
History of Rally Australia
2005 Turkey Stage7
2005 Turkey Stage17

Lots of Assorted short clips of specific crashes and incidents.

This last site is just for the picture gallery, results and news:
http://www.rallye-info.com/

[SWortham]

I need to check out these videos...

By the way, I didn't have much to do this morning so I played some Rallisport Challenge for a couple hours. I beat my old time on my favorite track and uploaded the ghost here...
http://www.gametimesonline.com/rallisport....AM=&where=times

Now I'm in 2nd. I don't think I'll be able to beat _WHEEL with the Peugeot though. He's either really good or a cheater.

I wish I could have captured the replay as an AVI. It was a thing of beauty. I have a program called Fraps that'll do that but it's too slow in this game.

This post has been edited by SWortham: Dec 11 2005, 01:37 PM

[cobas]

More bad news for the WRC. Mitsubishi is pulling out of the 2006 season, and Skoda is pulling their team out too, although they will support private teams running the Skoda Fabias. So as far as official manufacturer teams, that leaves Ford, Subaru.... uh, that's it. So, is WRC dying, or will it revive in 2007? Maybe the private teams will do well and will be fun to watch, but its hard for them to compete with big-budget teams like Ford and Subaru who can afford lots of mechanics, the latest equipment and can afford $100,000 or more worth of replacement parts in each rally.

[LateAPXR]

Is it just me or is SpeedTV no longer carrying WRC coverage? They've already done the Monte Carlo rallye and the Uddeholm Sweddish Rallye is coming up and I can't even find it listed in my media center guide or on their site.

Anyone know what's going on?

I'll be completely bummed if so...I've been waiting a year to get back to Speedvision and my WRC coverage.

[cobas]

I don't get SpeedTV, but you seem to be right. There's people complaining about the lack of WRC coverage, and some petitions going around to restore it. Like I said, they'd better get more manufacturers back into rallying. It can't be just Ford and Subaru with the big budgets. The private teams can have good drivers and cars, but it seems they'll always be a step or two behind in development without multi-million dollar R&D budgets.

[LateAPXR]

Yeah, I took a look at their site and this year it's just Ford and Subaru....there's so little competition among the big dogs that they are starting to report about the smaller teams (which is nice but then it's not).

Even then you're not seeing many different cars. There's the Kronos Citroen private team along with Stobart Ford, OMV Peugeot and Red Bull Skoda. All privateers.

yay.....2 Ford teams. Good for american rallying image but seriously....Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Citroen and Toyota REALLY need to get back in the game (as far as marques go). I'd also LOVE to see Mini come back into the game and start re-living their heritage. Not to mention Audi as well. They revolutionized the sport.....how could THEY of all marques have dropped it?

There are still other big names out there that we have never seen either like Alfa Romeo and Opel. Porsche had a few rallies under its belt back in the '70's I think it was and it'd be cool to see them back in the game but I doubt that would EVER happen.

I think if I saw Mini's back in the game I'd be extremely happy.

[cobas]

New '05, excellent rally music-videos by this SirX guy. High quality video (also big files), good music selection of Rock, Rap and Techno. The 18 videos add up to over 800Mb, and the transfer speed (ok, at 1am EST) was amazing (500kb/sec). The required free FileShack registration is totally worth it. I actually already was reigstered because I downloaded some game demos a while back.

http://sirx.shackspace.com/rally/

As a review, the slow gravel rallies are starting to bore me a bit. I mean, cars plodding through dust at 40mph, over and over... maybe they'll hit a rock. I'm starting to prefer the fast asphalt stretches of Germany, France and Spain. On the other hand, Japan is pretty cool with the narrow forest roads - they go FAST!