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Graphics

The graphics I find quite pleasing. There is a sort of ambiance to the colors and lighting that is slightly "artsy" and a subtle haze makes the visuals soft in their appearance. The car skins are very reflective when they receive the full light from the sun in open areas and subdued when in shadow. Speaking of shadows, when driving in shadows it is very dark and at times I find it very hard to see the road ahead. I would have liked stronger headlamps as the ones installed remind me very much of ordinary short-beam headlamps.

Lots of tall grass is placed alongside some of the stages, and it moves in correspondence to the wind and when you drive by, adding to the details. Some of the surrounding terrain, like the mountains on the Grand Canyon stage does seem a bit flat and underdeveloped to me at times though.

The in car view is pretty basic in the sense that you see very little of the inside of the car, just very top of your steering wheel, and this view is the same in every car.

Car Skins and Shapes

Although Xpand Rally is not licensed, the cars are named differently than in real-life and have skins that are variations of real-life paint schemes. I find that this does not detract from the overall experience and I have no trouble in identifying a "Tiny Hooper" as a Mini Cooper, a "Monsoon" as a Subaru, A "Lion" as a Peugeot, and a "Cord" as a Ford. The car shapes are very close to their real-life counter parts.

Sounds

The engines do sound a bit monotonous and artificial in-car on the test system. Listening from the external viewpoint during replays sound better. There are nice variations to the sound when the engine is under different loads. The sound of the transmission whine is very well done.

There are no sounds as far as I can tell that lets the driver know that a skid is in full progress. Taking corners sideways on the gravel surface does not produce a single sound of gravel, stones or dirt being thrown about. This is a bit disappointing and as we shall see later, it has some influence on the overall driveability of the cars.

Force Feedback

Force feedback is implemented and the kind of forces you experience are of the rattling variety. In fact it rattles so much that my letter tray starts shedding its contents! I was not able to discern other forces through the wheel on the regular stages, but I did detect some subtle forces informing me of weight transfer when driving round my very own custom made mud-track. In the regular stages, there was little in the way of forces apart from the rumble effect and the driving felt detached from the road surface, especially on tarmac. I'm wondering if mud is the easiest surface type to simulate and gravel and tarmac being harder to get right.

Single Race and Career Mode

You can drive any car and upgrade it with any part in the single race mode. This is nice as a way of letting you sample all the possibilities from the start without having to go through the career mode first to unlock cars and car parts. The downside is that you can only compete in the 3 stages of the Grand Canyon event, as only they are unlocked and initially available to you in the championship mode.

In order to gain access to more rallies, you must start a career and here you have to earn prize-money by participating in events. Hopefully you'll earn enough to pay for the repair of the damage your car takes during the competitions, as well as leaving you with some monetary means so you can save up for upgrade parts and eventually go to bigger and better cars.

There is a very long list of upgrade parts to every car so you should be occupied for a long time to come if you want to compete in all classes.

You can upgrade your engine, your brakes, your transmission including the gearbox and clutch, your suspension and bodywork, to name but a few of the many options. A very good thing is that there is a notable difference between driving the car with the standard locked differential and a limited-slip diff. You will feel a difference in terms of handling and power as you upgrade parts.

Once you are done upgrading, you have the option to test the car on a tarmac track where you can drive as many laps as you like. When doing a particular rally however, I would think that it would be more logical to be able to test it on a road surface that is similar to the stage you are about to drive though.

If you buy a GPS, you will be able to see the route ahead on a small part of the screen. This in effect is the "radar" that is often set to "on" per default in many racing games.

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