ATV Offroad Fury 3
Author: Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine

Acclaim’s ATV Quad Power Racing 2 offered a nicely arcadey—and surprisingly polished—counterpoint to Sony’s ATV Offroad Fury series. With its outrageously unbelievable courses and antisocial kick-and-punch mechanic, it was a refreshing alternative to the more realistic Offroad Fury.

Yes, I have a point. See, now that Rainbow—the studio behind the first two Offroad Fury titles—is owned by THQ, the Offroad Fury series has been taken over by Climax, the developer of Quad Power Racing. The product of this union, ATV Offroad Fury 3, is a somewhat schizophrenic melding of the two styles: Rainbow’s simlike structure and reasonably realistic track design has been combined with Climax’s unrealistic ATV handling and somewhat imprecise trick system. The result is that the game doesn’t excel in many areas, and while the track design and basic game setup will be familiar to Offroad Fury fans, the handling will just feel wrong—to the point of curse-out-loud frustration.

That’s not to say the game is a disappointment, though. Climax has drastically improved the incredibly strict way the series handled both colliding with obstacles and going offtrack, for example. The new studio has busted out some pretty impressive graphical tricks, too; lighting and weather effects are particularly amazing (even though they seem to cause a bit of slowdown here and there). And the game is awfully similar to the previous entries in the series—it’ll be close enough for most casual fans, and perfectly adequate for newcomers. It just lacks that hyperrealistic polish of the earlier games.