RACE Pro review (X360)

Given the popularity of racing games its strange that in this console generation we're very badly served in terms or racing sims. On Xbox 360 your only real choice is Forza Motorsport 2 given that other publishers such as Electronic Arts and Codemasters no longer show any interest in the racing sim instead preferring to develop arcade racers.

This is one of the reasons that RACE Pro is such a welcome release. The other is that it has the best car handling of any console racing game I've ever played. Yes really. The way you can control your car with a joypad in RACE Pro knocks Forza 2 and GT5 into a cocked hat.

But there's more to a game than just the core gameplay and RACE Pro like some other recent high profile releases let's us down in these areas. However I have absolutely no hesitation in awarding RACE Pro a very high mark and recommending you run out and buy it right now.

Handling & AI

I did want to bring you plenty of detail about how the game worked with the official Microsoft wheel. Alas I've failed due to my family being flooded out of our house, so you'll just have to fill in the gaps as I tell you about the game using the control pad. I'll update this review once I have access to a wheel again.

Anyway...

The handling in RACE Pro is sublime. Initially it's not actually that tough but it just feels completely right. I've never felt a console game where the car feels so much like one's own experience of driving a real car. The way the tires grip and subsequently let go is wonderful. The cars scuttle around under braking in such a convincing manner it's almost spooky.

Initial experience with the slower cars makes this all seem rather easy. But to get full control of the cars you'll need to tweak the detailed controller settings, giving you the chance for deeper throttle control and to spin the wheels. Really SimBin should have put the controller settings in the car setup menu because they do make a big difference to handling - for example you'll want to change the steering lock depending on how twisty a circuit you're racing on.

You'll see the AI cars undergoing similar physics experiences as your own unlike many racing games. AI drivers will make mistakes, lose control, try to make risky overtaking manoeuvres or chick-en out of same. There's never been a console racing game that captures the look of sports car racing so well. Squint and it just looks real.

For all these reasons any fan of realistic racing games on consoles should buy the game, no questions asked. But there are some problems and it would be wrong not to mention these.

Where's the game?

SimBin has earned a reputation for brilliant and realistic racing games on PC and here it shows. The presentation in RACE Pro is rather dry, too dry in fact for the console audience. But why can't PC games have some razzmatazz?

Career mode is very dry but the basics behind it work very well. You take on contracts to race for teams. These short terms contracts - most often for three races - have to be bought into. Completing a timed try-out will get you the contract for a rock-bottom price or you can skip it and pay more. Completing the contract provides more credits to take on other contracts.

Other modes include single race, championship, free run, time trial and multiplayer. There are a wealth of parameters that can change for these events including weather, qualifying, flag rules, damage and AI ability.

There are no real problems with what the player is offered, the problem is it is all dry and very matter of fact. There's no exciting presentation or emotional involvement in the career mode. RACE Pro feels more like a tool box for race training than a modern videogame.

Presentation

If SimBin had managed to wrap the exquisite handling and AI in a package that featured graphics and atmosphere on a par with the rather stunning Race Driver GRID from Codemasters then we'd be talking about RACE Pro as a true classic.

Alas the graphics are rather rough at times. It looks like a PC game from a few years ago. The circuits do feature a fair amount of detail, but there's something about the seeming lack of anti-aliasing and uninspiring atmospherics such as lighting that makes the game look flat as a pancake.

Some of the graphical features are positively archaic - such as unmoving reflection textures on the cars, often poor and too invasive cockpit views (taking up the whole scren) and very basic visual damage modelling.

And for those thinking, aha I bet detail has been sacrificed for a 60 fps update, the answers is no. It moves along at 30 fps with plenty of tearing along the way.

I don't know why the game doesn't look prettier. SimBin's PC racing games are much prettier than this and we've seen plenty of Xbox 360 racers that knock this flat. So perhaps it was a matter of time or of budget. Who knows, but it's a real shame that the game's visuals can't live up the excellent gameplay.

Final Thoughts

Sooner or later a developer is going to take the handling and AI of RACE Pro, the graphics of GRID and the customization of Forza - and on that day the console racing game will be perfected.

As it stands RACE Pro is a bloody brilliant game that just lets the side down in presentational terms. Don't get me wrong, graphics aren't everything, but one would really expect a heck of a lot more from an Xbox 360 game these days for that well-rounded experience.

And for those who like to race online the multiplayer is rather good if somewhat hamstrung by a stupid design decision. You'll need to unlock cars before you can host races for those racing series - a really rather silly idea. But the actual online action itself is very good.

Yet while the game has plenty of niggles such as duplicated left-right mirrors, texture shimmer, dull lighting and the like the truth is that it plays better than any other racing sim I've played on console. There are better racing games out there for the current crop of consoles, but there isn't a better handling one whose aim is simulation.

I really do think RACE Pro is something rather special, as good as Killzone 2 in fact, so why not go out and buy it. Perhaps then we'll get a much prettier sequel.