Under the direction of Jim Vessella, Electronic Arts has gone back into its vaults and remastered a bunch of its old PC games, which are out today on Steam, the EA App and GOG.
Most exciting for us is a remastered version of the 3DO’s classic version of Road Rash from 1994. You know, the one with the grotesque characters with huge teeth. But hang on… you’re right, the maths doesn’t add up.
That’s because the 3DO game was ported to Saturn, PlayStation and PC in 1996, and it’s that PC version that’s been remastered here. It’s never been available on digital services before, but here it is, currently with 50 per cent off to celebrate its re-release. At £4.49/$4.99, it’s an absolute bargain.
Fundamentally, it is still the old game at heart, where you race high-powered motorbikes through USA-themed courses, throwing punches and swinging weapons at your rivals while dodging traffic and the cops.
However, there are some clear but pleasingly sympathetic improvements. The biggest is the quality of the FMV, which has been remastered from the original tapes and offered in its original captured resolution or upscaled to fit modern displays.
The pre- and post-race scenes now look great. The old CGI videos of new bikes have not been reworked, presumably because they never existed at a decent frame rate and resolution in the first place.
Perhaps the best news of all, however, is that the complete licensed soundtrack has been renewed, with songs from Therapy?, Swervedriver and Soundgarden among others.
But not just in menu screens; you can now race to it too! Rocketing along to the late Chris Cornell’s hair-raising vocals in Rusty Cage is amazing. And it really captures the time period to the point where – for a fleeting moment – you might feel like you’re back in the ’90s, playing the game in a Virgin Megastore in your Fido Dido jumper.
As for the in-race visuals, they are largely unchanged, though they’re running way smoother than before. It’s not rock solid, with a few moments of unexplained hiccups (though who knows what updates my PC was doing in the background), but it’s mostly excellent.
The track and city streets are still displayed as that weird ‘ribbon’ that appears to move left and right in the distance, which can bring on some motion sickness if you’re susceptible. But you do get the highest resolution sprites to enjoy in their still-pixelated glory, and the subtle rotation of your rider sprite in small increments of steering looks great.
Indeed, there’s even analogue steering implementation if you use a modern pad, and vibration support too. The draw distance seems improved over the 3DO original and the distant fogging effect is gone too, but that was rue of the old PC version too.
It’s not beautiful by today’s standards, but it’s more playable than ever.
For this budget price, you really can’t go wrong. It sounds sublime, looks the best it’s ever looked, and hails from an age where gameplay was king. Check it out.
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