DESCRIPTION

Blending rally sport with street racing is Vanishing Point, an arcade-style driving game for the Sega Dreamcast. Racing on public roads, players compete not only against the clock, but against civilian and rival vehicles as well. Competitors depart at varying intervals and, though players will tangle with challengers, the main objective is to attain as fast a race time as possible. Players can unlock many items by competing in the Single Race, Tournament, and Stunt Race modes. The Single Race mode allows players to choose a vehicle and then a track to compete on, while the Tournament mode is more structured.

Tournaments involve a series of heats, each taking place on a number of courses. By placing first in each heat you'll be rewarded with anything from new vehicles to new tracks, movies, or gameplay modes. Featuring official licenses from many top car manufacturers, players can look forward to getting behind the wheel of everything from VW Beetles to luxury sports cars from BMW, Aston Martin, Ford, Lotus, Audi, and Alfa Romeo. Once unlocked, the Tune-Up Shop allows you to tweak individual aspects of your vehicle, though every item in this shop must be unlocked before use. Vanishing Point's real-time particle system results in smoke, collision sparks, skid marks, and dynamic lighting. The Stunt Race mode offers a selection of timed stunt challenges, requiring players to master a variety of maneuvers in order to complete the assigned tasks within the given time limit.

Multiplayer modes provide standard racing competition for multiple human competitors, in addition to less run-of-the-mill offerings in which racers smash balloons en route to the finish line or face off against one another in a game of "Chicken." The title also makes use of the Dreamcast's online capabilities, in the form of an Internet Challenge mode. This allows players to indirectly compete against one another by trying to best a challenge offered up by the title's developers. The criteria, such as track, car used, laps, and traffic flow are all pre-set. Players achieve their best times possible and then upload their results to the web. ~ Gavin Frankle, All Game Guide