Sega Rally Revo was a real surprise for me. I hadn't really been following the game's development since its announcement so when I saw it, I was impressed.

Revo is, of course, following in the footsteps of a long illustrious line of arcade racers, the first of which hit in 1995. When the recently formed Sega Racing Studio set to turning this beloved arcade racer into a next-gen title they looked at the success of the arcade cabinets and tried to decide what they wanted to focus on for the console version. What they came away with was the vibrant graphics, the variable handling and the close racing, the way that in the game you always seemed just about to lose or win up until that last second of the race.

What they came up with was a graphically impressive rally racer that seems to hit a lot of sweet spots.

The level of detail on the cars was just amazing. You could, for instance, see detailed tread on the tires and the brakes behind the wheels as your drive. Mud, dirt, water, slop all over the car and effect its appearance. And this isn't just done with glorified decals, but with particles, meaning it's unique to that particular splash. Mud will dry and change color, water will wash it away, it looked amazing.

I know you've heard this before, but the track also deforms as you race. The guy showing off the game pulled a series of donuts on a bit of dry track and it slowly dug it away until water started to ooze out of the ground and that section became muddy. Next he zoomed the camera angle in and showed us how the tires actually bumped over the ruts he had just created. This track deformation will mean you will have to find new lines and deal with turns differently each time around.

The game will have six environments including ones set in the jungle and others in the snow. All of the vehicles are licensed and the game will include cars in four categories: four-wheel drive, two-wheel drive, classic and bonus.

Unfortunately, the game won't really have damage modeling for the cars, the most you can really do is scuff a car up, which is a bit of a disappointement. Online will support up to six players. While their will be no cross play between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions (obviously), the team is looking into potentially supporting cross-play between the 360 and PC versions. Brian Crecente

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