The Best of Motorsport Action (in
your bedroom) Updated 21.09.02
MSport UK Takes a look at some of the motorsport offerings currently
doing the rounds...
ToCA Race Driver
Playstation2 - Codemasters
Having always regarded the original ToCA Touring Car games as one of
the most enjoyable, but most frustrating games around, I expected much
of the same from Race Driver, Codemasters' first title in the series
for Playstation 2. And while I have some niggles here and there, I'm
glad to say that they've really pulled this one off, and made a game
which is about as fast and furious an all-out racer as you could hope
for. The game that this is really up against is of course GT3 but the
two are actually very different creatures. Graphically, there's still
nothing that can match GT3. ToCA has all the reflections and lighting
effects which beat almost all comers, and the blurring backgrounds in
the replays give an extra look of speed and realism, but they simply
don't have the finesse and clarity of Polyphony's finest. The same is
true of the modelling, with the cars and tracks being beautifully created,
but just missing that GT edge - the central bonnet ridge of the MG ZR
and ZS is missing all together, as an example. The place that ToCA excels
is in the sheer variety of tracks. Dozens of real circuits from the
UK (Donington, Silverstone, Brands, Knockhill, Outlon and happily, Rockingham),
Europe, Australia, the US and most other places, make this a uniquely
complete package. There are less cars than GT, but after much playing,
it's track variety which will keep you coming back for more.
The controls and physics model feel very similar to the original PSone
titles, but a far more refined version. Still twitchy and quite harsh
when played back to back with GT, it doesn't take long to get in the
groove and develop a driving style suitable for keeping several hundred
horsepower on the tarmac. If you do drift a little wide however, you
may come into contact with one little 'feature' of the game which is
that in some circuits, putting a tyre on the unfeasibly high friction
grass seems to knock 100mph instantly off your speed - one of the little
frustrations of the game. But enough of the bad, because they're really
not that problematic. Much improved is the driver AI with your opponents
doing their best to avoid obstacles, baring grudges if you ram them,
and occasionally messing up all by themselves. It really feels like
you're up against a field of individual, different drivers, with their
own styles and skills.
The one main advantage this game has is its storyline. In career mode
you play the part of Ryan McKane, looking to become world champion and
step out of his big brother's shadow. This means you can only enter
the championships that you have offers to drive in and must complete
track tests to prove your worth. Starting out in the ToCA Championship
you have to work your way up, through other area championships including
the mighty DTM, All Americas NASCAR-style ovals, the World Championship
and beyond. All the time juggling teams, rivals and love interests to
reach your ultimate goal.
The vehicles all handle and sound different as you would hope, from
nimble DTM V8s to soggy handling American metal with the only really
troublesome cars being the Australian V8 Supercars - big powerful engines,
but apparently no tyres and no brakes. Fortunately, if you amass enough
points elsewhere, you can skip the championships you don't like. For
a really awesome sound try racing the Marcos LM600 on chase view with
stereo sound turned up high!
All in all, this is definitely one worth owning, or at least borrowing
off a mate indefinitely. Up against GT3 it simply doesn't feel that
as much time has been spent on the design and coding, but Codemasters
have done what they do so well, and licenced the best championships
from around the world and put together a massively playable package
which will keep you going for far longer than you first think.
Verdict : Fantastic Variety - 2nd Best Racer on PS2.
Gran Turismo 3 - A-Spec
Playstation2 - Polyphony Digital
Like Gran Turismo and GT2 before it, GT3 A-Spec went out of its way
to be the best at what it does and it achieved that goal with room to
spare. An early title to the PS2, it shattered the boundaries of all
that went before it, and even now, there is little to compete with it
graphically or in playablilty. Now out on Platinum, this is the one
game that all PS2 owners should own and could well be worth buying a
PS2 for all on its own.
Originally planned as GT2000, the game was delayed, and delayed again
until its eventual release mid 2001, simply because its creators were
not entirely happy with it, and the pure passion and love that has gone
into GT3 shine through at every stage. The car models are beautifully
made with race car liveries and pearlescent, dichromic paints glistening
in a truly breathtakingly lit environment. The tracks, many taken from
GT and GT2, others entirely new are finished with a similar level of
finesse. This is simply the best looking car game ever.
But it takes more than fancy graphics to make a great game and the
beauty of this is that it's just really nice to play. The controls naturally
favour analogue and manual gears, but if you want to use the controller
buttons rather than analogue sticks, it doesn't throw you into jerky,
violent twitches the way that ToCA can. This is all about racing, with
no quirks or gimmicks. If you want to pick you car, from scores available,
and race, flat out against sensible comuter opponents or up to 3 other
players (with 2 Playstation link-up) in absolute style, you really can't
do much better than this.
Verdict : Still the Very Best.
Driving Emotion Type-S
Playstation2 - Squaresoft
Driving Emotion came to the PS2 utterly un-hyped and as such was ignored
by the majority of gamers. Probably a good thing as very few would have
been able to get to grips with a game which is at best, difficult to
control, at worst totally frustrating. It's aim is pure and simple -
to be an accurate driving simulation which puts you in the driving seat
of some fairly awesome cars. And, to give it credit, it's done just
that. It's just a shame that the way you actually drive doesn't carry
over at all well to a game. Driving, even in a straight line, requires
total concentration and constant correction of the steering wheel. Anything
as complicated as a corner causes all sorts of trouble as the realistically
modelled vehicle dynamics come in to play, but you don't have anything
like enough control to keep it all in place. If you do manage to get
it together and master the controls, it can be pretty satisfying, especially
as once the tracks have been completed in the various power categories,
you get a whole host of racers from the Japanese GT Championship to
play with. The only downside being that the realism carries over to
races - if you make a single error, you lose, except on the Tsukuba
circuit which is easy enough that you can beat the JGTC cars in a 3
Series BMW.
The tracks are pretty varied and there is a decent spread of cars -
about 40 in total, wh ich though not fantastically modelled, are all
recognisable and have varying driving feel. At the end of the day though,
this game desperately wants to be Gran Turismo 3, and it might have
made a useful stop-gap measure until the real thing arrived, but for
the flawed control system. Buy GT3.
Verdict : GT Wannabe - Not Worthy.
Smuggler's Run
Playstation2 - Rockstar Games
Not technically a motorsport sim, this game does feature a handful
of funky vehicles from specced up rally cars to Hummers painted up for
a range of smuggling gangs and it does provide a great deal of realism-free
racing action which is thoroughly entertaining. The maps for the racing
are a vast 15 square miles each, so even though there are only two different
maps in three weather situations, there's plenty to explore as you go
about your smuggling missions.
There's enough variety to keep this game enjoyable as you progress
up the ranks of your gang, gaining access to more vehicles as you go,
and is even entertaining in the free-roaming mode where you can find
the nooks and crannies to use in later races and harass the hordes of
camper vans with which you share the countryside.
Even more fun is the two-player mode where you can race head-to-head
in missions in a variety of game modes, and there's an interesting game
crossover whereby, if you also buy the developer's other title - Midnight
Club Racing, you can swap cars between games. All totally lacking in
realism, but all the better for it.
Verdict : Great Fun - you're knicked!
Midnight Club Street Racing
Playstation2 - Rockstar Games
Like it's sister title, Smuggler's Run, this game is not stricly a
racing sim, but brings in gang tasks and missions to keep things lively.
Set in New York and London, you set out to make your way up the ranks
of the local gangs, racing for pink slips and earning faster cars as
you go. The action is fast and furious and like Smugglers, even better
in two player mode - Catch the Flag with busses being a particularly
challenging highlight. If you have both titles, it unlocks a bonus vehicle
in this game allowing you to drive the souped up Smugglers Buggy though
this is probably the least driveable of them all. Miles of streets make
this a great title for the explorer with dozens of shopping centres,
garages and sports halls to smash and crash your way around.
Graphically, the vehicles are nice enough and bare the top names in
the tuning world - Top Secret, Veilside and the like, but they are a
little cartoony and below par for the PS2 in detail, though the top
spec mini-a-like with fat alloys, huge exhausts and giant speaker on
the parcel shelf gets a grin. The locations are also fairly low in detail,
excusable for the moment because of the sheer scale of the maps, though
the detail in Getaway makes this look like a C- effort.
If you're a pure simulation fan, then the twitchy, pointy, though easy
to handle steering, and a fairly dubious physics model will probably
not be to your taste at all, but for some PS2 fun at a party or when
your mates are round, this is great fun to have at hand.
Verdict : Fun, but choose this or Smuggler's Run - Not
Both!
Dave Stokes - Dave@Msport-UK.com
