2025 review!!!!!!
















@ss

I bought this game for 0.79, realised that one of the cd packages has this game hidden, this is pretty not cool

Yet another game that doesn't work because of some stupid DRM

I recently wanted to refresh some rally games that would run on my laptop with integrated graphics.

I played some CMR 3 and 2005, had quite a bit of run. I also played some Rallysport Challenge 2 on my OG Xbox some time ago.

I never got to play Xpand Rally, but I remember vividly the screenshots in various games magazines with the screenshots of the first iteration back in 2004.

Now, let me get straight to the point.

Xpand Rally Xtreme isn't a great game in my opinion.
While the driving model is quite alright, I have a huge issue with how the graphics aged and how bland the levels are.

To say that the levels are bland is to say nothing, whether it's Malaysia, China, Japan, Italy or US they have this generic look and feel.
While they are kind of more open compared to more walled off in other rally games, they don't feel like rally stages at all.

Apart from that if you look at the textures, especially the roads, they are kinda blurry, generic.
If you run CMR 2005 and Xpand Rally Xtreme and compare them, the difference is striking.

To sum up, in my opinion it has aged like milk.

I was looking forward to seeing what improvements this version featured over the original.
It does not work with a controller, and the original does. The physics are worse in traction and better in gear ratios and acceleration dynamics. And gear breaking still doesn't work, and is honestly worse than the original.

I ran into multiple glitches in quick succession that made it unplayable.

This one gets a thumbs down. The original is fun to tinker with, but this one was just painful by comparison. And that sucks, because Techland has some spectacular racing and driving in their games, and I do enjoy a lot of their games. I was looking forward to this one.

Just play the original in this case. Or better go play Dirt Rally.

This game is borderline unplayable. Chrome Engine can not handle bumpy surfaces, which was not a huge issue in the original game (or GTI Racing if anybody's familiar with that), but in this game some of the tracks are really bumpy, meaning your car will be wandering whichever way it wants without any regards to your inputs. Big shame i didnt ran into these problems earlier otherwise i would have refunded it, but it did cost only a half an euro (was on sale)

A mess that that is only marginally better than Flatout 3

it was not a bad game
Yes: for 50 cent in sale and some childhood memorys
No: but to be honest, it is just realy outdated.

Corrupted save after about 9 hours of playing.

It's almost a good game, but the cars you start with feel lazy and the physics are borked like already mentioned here. It's more difficult to drive on tarmac than gravel, no matter what tires you're using.