Shortly after buying my Atari jaguar (Tiger direct deal, it came with T2K,Kasumi Ninja , and IS) I raced to buy AvP. After that I was lost and turned to Jagu-dome for help in finding my next jag game. PDR caught my eye right away. Overhead racers (Super sprint, RC-PRO-AM) have always been my favorite racers to date. PDR is a true 64-bit jaguar game, there is no way this racer could have been a direct 16-bit port. PDR is in my top 15 as a must have jaguar game.

Let’s get started: The game fires up with a very colorful picture of a rally car with the mountain background and the sunset. You are given three options to start (Practice, Start, Load Game). The Practice courses are big open areas of geographical regions in which you will be competing in the game. The Practice areas are actually quite fun to play around in and do tricks with your car. You will be running your car through all sorts of terrain and weather such as pavement, dirt, sand, and snow. The cars physics change depending on the surface of the pavement. You will also get full-blown weather as well as night races as you go.

Funds and such: At the beginning of the game you start out with $28,000 and a choice of two cars to get started. The first being a Fiat Cinquecento (87 bhp) or a Mini Cooper S. (92bhp). Aside from blowing money on your car, you will also have to spend money to fix it as you race. Depending on how rough or good you drive your car will take on damage to the Engine, Suspension, Tires, Brakes and Lights. At the end of each race you will be given the option to fix these items in percentage increments. You will also be charged entry fees for the races you participate in. To stay ahead in PDR you have to drive carefully, beat the clock, and beat the opponent. Wining keeps your funds coming in to keep your car running good and later to buy new cars.

Car’s and Group classes:

Group N

Mini Cooper S

Fiat Cinquecentro Turbo

Group 2

Vauxhall Astra 16V GTI

Renault Clio Turbo

Group 1

Ford RS Cosworth

Toyota Celica CT-4

Tour the world in 5 weeks: Since I have never been out of the U.S.A. I just have to take Time Warner’s word on the whole climate and track settings. You will spend 1 week at each location, each location has several events you will participate in. The game events are varied in challenge from races to time trials to skill tests with obstacle courses. The locations in order are, England, Arizona, Italy, Finland, Kenya, France, Corsica, and Sweden.

Gameplay, Graphics, Gameplay, Graphics: PDR is a very sharp game graphically, the cars the tracks and the backgrounds have tons of detail. I found that sometimes I was loosing races looking at the scenery, which means these guys did their homework. The game has a true arcade feel to it (was there ever an arcade version? ). The control is very sharp and responsive; you will find this a very rewarding game and very frustrating at times. My word of advice to you though is on the skill test, which wasn’t documented at all in the manual. Here is a cheat to give you a better idea of what they’re asking you to do. I had no idea what I was supposed to do the first time I played.

Skill Test:

Start GO

Drive and then break placing your front tires on the first line, the little guy will confirm by throwing up the flag. Next you must park your car, swing around throw it in reverse and back in, once in hit the breaks and come to complete stop to get the flag. Navigate the turns then run up to the road cone spiral, try not to hit any cones or walls for they subtract seconds. The objective is to get to the center of the spiral then come to a complete stop on the spiral symbol. If you did the cones correctly they will disappear, fallow the arrow to the exit, place your car square in the exit box and stop. You did it!

Scores:

Graphics: 10 Great Graphics, fine attention to detail and high frame rate.

Fun Factor: 10 Arcade style racing action on your jaguar.

Sound: 8 No T2K soundtrack heard but I don’t think you will mind.

Final thoughts: This game is a classic in my mind, No jaguar gamer should be without this hit. Which is not available on other machines. Definitely a jaguar bragging game.

-RayNET, RayNET@IX.NETCOM.COM