Video Games : TOCA Race Driver - Best Sellers (PC)

Rating: - Good fun but flawed
I must start by saying this game has brought me hours of fun and frustration, and that is one measure of a good racing game.

Some of the slower race series (e.g. BTCC, European Cup) are quite good, although none of the cars in any series really feel sharp. Faster cars like the V8 Supercars and DTM feel slow-witted and suffer from terminal understeer and I was left feeling like a passenger too much of the time. These are razor edged, rear wheel drive, >500bhp racing cars, but they're not remotely difficult to drive.

The AI drivers are dim-witted and rely on violence to get you out of the way. The races are too short and in spite of the claims, there is no qualifying which means you have usually 3 laps to make up between 4 and 8 places depending on your random grid position.

It is possible to go outside the career mode and run custom races, with qualifying and user-defined number of laps. However, this reveals bigger flaws in the game, with easy pole positions and no challenge in the race.

Damage is on the arcade side of ridiculous. You can run a TVR Speed 12 into a tyre wall at 200mph, back up and drive off without damage, yet some other racing incidents generate unrealistic damage to the vehicle. Rear wings and front splitters fly off in accidents, yet the physical damage isn't reflected in the cars' handling. No form of abusive behaviour on the gears and steering seems to cause any damage to the engine, gearbox or tyres either.

It claims to be both an arcade racer and a simulation, but on the simulation side it is seriously lacking.

Online play is fun, bringing a new dimension to the game, but also flawed. It's too easy to cheat by bypassing chicanes, and there is no race control or automatic disqualification for stupid actions like driving the wrong way.

There is also a lack of flexibility when setting up a multiplayer game. The only way, for example, to limit the cars available, is to choose a pre-set racing series (of which there are many). If, for example, you want to just have TVR Tuscans or Mini Coopers, you need to use the chat window to tell other players about your "special" rules, and kick anyone out who isn't playing ball.

Graphically, the game is fairly good, with a brilliant sensation of speed on tracks like Monza in the faster cars. Sound is a little weak.

Force feedback is fairly poor, even with the v1.1 patch which is supposed to improve things.

The storyline is extremely cheesy, and if you grow to dislike the main character it becomes annoying to not be able to race under your own name except in multiplayer.

I have had a lot of fun with this title, but it is eclipsed by Race Driver 2 and with its successor now available on a budget release, the only reason to choose this title is if you really, really want to race the British Touring Car Championship.

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Rating: - The best of its kind
If you haven't played it, do. Great story line, nice one lap races, great graphics. what more to say.

You will need at least a P4 chip and a decent Graphics card.