Review by: BKellogg

When you start, you're given 3 options: Traditional, Quick Link and Netlink Zone. Traditional is playing off ine like regular Rally. Quick Link is to dial, wait for a call, set up options or solo play. In Netlink Zone you can send/check e-mail, register in the guestbook, enter a Rally IRC chat or check the guestbook for other players.

In the guestbook, you can search for other players by city, state, area code, games they own, level of skill or time of day they like to play. You can click on their names to e-mail them or click on the game name, skill level, etc. to narrow your search to certain criteria.

Okay, okay, all that sounds nice but what about the important questions? How does it play? Was it worth the wait? Well, except for a couple of times the game froze and a few connection problems (mostly can be blamed on bad phone wiring and connections) it played smooth as silk. A couple of people said it felt different but I think it's because they were using the pad. I recommend using the steering wheel. The manual says you can't use it with the Netlink, but if you wait until after you select a car to plug it in it works fine from then on.

So far I've played against people in NJ, MI, MN, NH, WI, TX and IL and I'm in MA. (JEEZ! The phone bill!) If they hadn't said where they were from, I never would have been able to tell from the game play. I couldn't see any real latency problems. In fact, it was on the closest-to-me call that I experienced the most freezing.

This was definitely worth the wait. Even the graphics were improved. The only complaint I have is the lack of IRC commands. You can't switch channels without returning to the main menu or change your nick. But all in all I don't think there will be many unhappy Netlinkers with the game. I hope to race you all soon.

Just to mention, VirtualOn also works great. For people without a Netlink, with Netlink playable Rally and VO plus a Netlink modem for a 100 bucks you can't go wrong.