I love racing titles. Not in a wide-eyed, infatuated, know-every-bump-in-the-track fanboy way, but in a quiet, contemplative and enthusiastic manner.
I'm proud to say that I have indeed played an entire 161 lap Bathurst 1000 on TOCA 3, and even the FlatOut franchise has spent way too long taunting me with gravel traps and hidden rocks. The only reason I continue to play racing games is that I consider myself relatively good at them. Until today, that is. Today I realised that I actually suck at racing games, and it's all thanks to RACE Pro.
The problem is that virtually every racing title out there, from Gran Turismo to Mario Kart, is primarily designed to provide enjoyment, followed by realism. Although many of you may have been driving for a number of years, you probably aren't capable of piloting a McLaren F1 around Brands Hatch at three hundred kilometres per hour, but by sinking into the embrace of a comfortable chair and tapping the power button of your console with your big toe, you can be afforded a glimpse of what this experience might entail.
As such, game developers have a vested interest in making you look good, because otherwise you'll grow tired of what is supposed to be entertaining escapism.
Developers SimBin have taken this concept of hand-holding and thrown it out the window. RACE Pro, even on the easiest of settings, cannot be conquered simply by showing up on the grid and accelerating at the right time. Likewise, you can't hop into a default vehicle and expect it to perform intuitively without any kind of customisation. Although everything about RACE Pro reeks of arcade action, treat this game like GRID and you'll spend more time in the sand than a US Army recruit.
Our preview code, kindly supplied by publisher Atari, has given us an insight into what the finished version will look like when it's released on February 26th. The game consists of fairly standardised racing fare in the form of Single Race, Career, Championship, Practise, Time Attack and Multiplayer modes, although the Career option was unavailable with this particular build. Attacking the game head-on by diving straight into the Single Race option is typically the best way to approach any new racing title, so that's exactly what we did.
Refreshingly, there's no shortage of vehicles and tracks to choose from. Promotional material from Atari suggests that the final game will have 350 car models from 48 manufacturers, including Aston Martin, Saleen, Audi, BMW, Volvo and more. After spotting the Gumpert Apollo however, I lost interest in those other cars, and with ill-deserved confidence decided to try a hot lap in a car that I can confidently state is capable of ripping my face off.
One thing is for sure, RACE Pro isn't lacking in the customisation department. Prior to your race, you can change ABS, traction control and stability help settings, along with toggling the race line and transmission options, and qualifying/race length values. There's also the AI population and skill level, and under the advanced options you'll find damage sensitivity, weather conditions, brake/tyre wear and flag rules. These comprehensive tweaking options should probably have been a first warning as to the realistic nature of the game.
Once you've entered the loading screen, you're greeted with tutorial tips based on the very track you've chosen to race. These consists of corner markers that explain the best way to treat each section of the track, hinting that some parts may not be suitable for overtaking, and others may cause you to inadvertently get a toe in the gravel trap. This probably should have been my second warning.
Lining up on the track, the view by default shows your car model front and centre. You can change this to an in-car camera showing a detailed steering wheel and roll cage, or flick to a front bumper camera that will provide you with a more accurate view of the track. The right stick will also allow you to move the camera around your car and view any damage that you may have caused. Sorry, that should be will cause.
The right trigger accelerates, and more importantly, the left trigger brakes, although all this can be modified to suit your preference. Once you've set everything, all that remains is to get used to the vehicles and tracks themselves.
The Gumpert Apollo could hardly be described as an asthmatic vehicle in any situation, but I certainly wasn't expecting such brutal acceleration off the line. I also didn't expect my AI companions to actually accelerate away from me, considering I'd bravely set them to the lowest difficulty rating. Where driving skill is concerned, most men are hopelessly optimistic about their ability, and in this case I'd assured myself that catching up was a simple matter of out-braking the AI at the first corner, a concept that whilst admirable in planning, failed miserably during the execution.
Mentally conducting a post-mortem on the first corner during the subsequent re-load screen, I couldn't determine if I'd been travelling too fast, or if I'd accidentally panicked and stabbed the throttle by mistake. It's hard to accept that you can screw up a corner by a factor of 170 kilometres per hour, however upon repeating the same race start with similar results, it would appear I had spectacularly run out of talent. At this point, the BMW Mini challenge suddenly became quite appealing. Even attempting to master these significantly slower and more predictable vehicles wasn't without trauma.
Just in case you're under any illusions, RACE Pro is not an arcade game. It's a racing simulator, through and through.
Happily, after about half an hour, the corners became easier and I could settle in to the racing experience and begin to enjoy it. Once the initial learning curve starts to straighten out, you can really get a sense of achievement when you clip an apex, or manage to sneak past an AI competitor. Graphically it's a pleasant experience too, with high quality textures and reflections, and although the code isn't finalised, RACE Pro certainly won't fail to meet next-gen expectations in this area. SimBin have even snuck their own proprietary physics engine in too, which we look forward to reporting on in more detail at the game's release.
Although the multiplayer side of things wasn't active with this build, Atari have stated that you will be able to play online through LIVE, and in addition you'll have the system link and co-op modes to mess around with. With a number of championships including Audi R8, Caterham 200/260/320, F3000, Formula BMW, GT Club (Pro and Sport) Radical SR3/SR4, SRT10 Viper, WTCC and even Koenigsegg CCXR there's a little bit of something for everyone.
There may be a number of racing titles vying for your attention at the moment, but none will offer the same level of realism and challenge that RACE Pro boasts. We can't wait for this title to hit the shelves, and we'll bring you a full review just as soon as we can score a retail copy.
