Race Pro (Xbox 360)
Posted by Kuang on Wed, 09 Jun 2010.
The Xbox 360 enjoys a very healthy used game market, so every now and then it's interesting to pick up an older title for a few quid and see if it's stood the test of time. As an avid racing fan I always wondered if Race Pro by swedish developers Simbin was worth a look, and so finally grabbed it for a fiver the other day.
Race Pro was the latest in a long line of hardcore racing simulations by Simbin, the studio behind the superb GTR, GT Legends and Race WTCC titles on the PC. They're well known for producing painstakingly accurate simulations of famous cars and tracks, backed up by realistic physics and handling and plenty of additional opportunities for geekery in the form of tuning and performance analysis.
This title attempts to continue that tradition, offering a range of races featuring Minis, Radicals, Caterhams, current and classic touring cars, three levels of GT racing and even Formula 3000. You'll sign up to one team contract at a time following a trial to see if you have what it takes, and then take these cars to famous tracks from around the world including Laguna Seca and Brands hatch. Racing follows the usual Test > Tune > qualify > race process, with the option to pick from with three selectable levels of difficulty that can be further tweaked to fine tune the level of challenge. Expect up to 16 cars on the track at once, which creates a lively and chaotic atmosphere on the tighter street circuits and will almost certainly result in performance altering damage until you learn to preserve your space on the track and remain aware of what everyone else is doing.
Ok, that's the specification out of the way. How does it play?
Not very well, in all honesty. The thing that really grates is the handling. I'll assume we're all playing with force feedback steering wheels, because that's the only way to really enjoy a simulation rather than an arcade game. The problem is that there's little sense of what the car is doing communicated back through the controller - you're effectively limited to a slightly variable self-centering force, and the vibration motors aren't used at all. What this means is that the steering wheel doesn't react to skids or loss of traction so it's impossible to know exactly what the car is doing, and there's absolutely no point in having a realistic physics engine if the feedback isn't there to allow you to make use of it.
Compare this to Forza 3 where you can actually feel the car shifting traction around and even the differentials locking under full throttle and the difference is embarassing. I'm fully aware of the defence use by fans of the game that it's a simulation and if you don't like it it's because you can't play it, but I come from a background of GTR, GT Legends, Grand Prix legends, rFactor and Live for Speed and I'm fully aware of what makes for decent handling. All of those games are tough but reasonably so, and any mistakes you make are your own fault rather than because of flaws in the game engine. If I can get a gold medal in every race in Forza 3 with all driver aids switched off, I think I'm in a good position to assess Race Pro in comparitive terms.
If you can get past this, I'm not even convinced that the underlying physics engine is particularly good - the amount of traction available seems dubious and inconsistent, and there seems to be little progressiveness in the way the cars react to inputs, with snap oversteer being all too easy to create and near impossible to catch. There's no feedback at all under braking so you're not even sure if the wheels have locked unless you look at the speedo and try to calculate how quickly you should be slowing down.The overall feeling is one of being completely disconnected from the road, and that's the ultimate sin for any hardcore simulation.
The graphics and sound leave a lot to be desired too. The later Gran Turismo games on the Plastation 2 are far more appealing in both senses. The textures here are flat, the colours are too plastic and saturated and the car models are simplistic and lumber around the track like they're made of wood. Your gearchanges sound like someone smacking a barrel with a hammer, and the engine notes appear to have been run through a cheap transistor radio until they're distorted beyond recognition.
The only positives I can find here are that the cockpit views aren't bad, and the variety of cars on offer is pleasing, even though they're so little fun to drive that it just adds insult to injury and you have to unlock them all through the career before you can try them out. That all of this is coming from the previous masters of driving simulation only serves to make me feel like they just couldn't be bothered, a feeling that's backed up by the rough and minimalist presentation. I was expecting Bugatti but I got bargain basement, and that really sticks in my throat.
To summarise: If you want a pretty game with lots of accurate cars and astonishingly detailed and realistic handling, buy Forza 3. If you want pyrotechnics and eye candy with more of an arcade feel, but still underpinned by a razor sharp physics engine, buy GRID. If that sounds good but you prefer to drive offroad, buy DiRT. If you want flat out adrenalin fuelled arcade mayhem, buy Burnout Paradise. In a market like this there's simply no reason for Race Pro to exist, and I suggest you avoid it.
