It had to be late 1998 or early 1999 when I bought it. One of the few magazines with a demo disc that I splurged on (I missed out on the exclusive for Half-Life demo back in the day in a different issue).

Back then, racing games were never really super detailed in general. Sure, Need for Speed pushed graphics but fans complained back then similarly to N64 fans - "why are we passing the same barn 15 times in a lap, it looks great but it is the same."

This was the end of the big box era as it was coming to an end. Huge text book sized boxes for a jewel case and sometimes a printed gaming manual inside (another item that was on its way out). Not all releases were in big box but those that were stood out though the writing was on the walls that publishers were trying to save money. Most of the big boxes of this era really only had the jewel case inside.

I remember buying big box games on PC like SiN or Baldur's Gate in a huge box along with R4 Ridge Racer 4 on PlayStation in this little jewel case and joking with the cashiers at EB about how awesome the box art on the PC games was. How we saw so much more on the back, you could actually see the thumbnails of in game action and got a lot more text on the PC games.

We knew, deep down, those days were coming to an end though. We enjoyed it while we could.