Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
The box for Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing The box for Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
Developer:	Stellar Stone LLC
Publisher:	Activision (2003), GameMill Publishing (2004)
Release date:	November 20, 2003
Genre:	Racing
Game modes:	Single player
ESRB rating:	Everyone (E)
Platform:	PC
Media:	CD

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is an interactive computer game that is noted for surreal gameplay and the unusually harsh negative reviews it attracted. The premise of Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is that the player races a semi-trailer truck against one controlled by the game, avoiding obstacles such as police traps and treacherous roads. The game as played, however, involves none of these things.

Because none of the computer-controlled opponents move, there is in fact no actual race. One simply guides the truck towards the checkpoints and on to the finish, and winning is virtually guaranteed. There are also no true obstacles, as the truck may freely be driven on and off roads, through hills and structures, and into the sky without consequence. This is not a special or secret mode of the game, the behavior of heavy vehicles in the real world is simply ignored. The player may travel at virtually infinite speeds, turning the truck even while stationary. Upon completing the race, the player is presented with a large on-screen trophy cup with the text "YOU'RE WINNER!" overlaid, provided that all checkpoints have been passed.

Stellar Stone LLC, developers of the game, released a patch that alters the behavior of the computer-controlled truck. With the patch applied, the opponent does participate in the race, but stops before it reaches the finish line.

At Cheat Code Central, their correspondent wrote, "Imagine a racing game without a race. There is no time limit to beat and there is no one to race against. So what's the point?" and assigned 0.5 out of five points to its overall evaluation. The Thunderbolt Games reviewer concurred, stating "I wish I could think of some redeeming factors for the game, but there simply aren’t any" and awarding one out of ten points.

According to the review published by GameSpot, Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is "so astoundingly bad that it manages to transcend nearly every boundary put forth by some of gaming's absolute worst of the worst and easily makes it into that dubiously extraordinary category of being one of the most atrocious games ever published." It rated the product 1.0/10 ("abysmal").

External links

• Stellar Stone LLC - developers of the game.
  • direct link to their support page, including the patch.
• Alex Navarro (2004). Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing Review. GameSpot. includes a video demonstration of the game
• evilchao2 (2004). Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing General FAQ
• Matt Waldleigh. Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Thunderbolt Games.
• PC Review: Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Cheat Code Central Platinum.
• Metacritic review summary