"carPG" to highlight the story elements of this refined racing game. Players
assume the role of Ryan McKane who witnessed the death of his father as he
was driving in a NASCAR-style race when he crashed (read: was sabotaged) and
died. As the story progresses McKane grows from a test driver into a
world-class racer. Along the way sibling rivalry may get the better of him,
but McKane has to overcome his brother poking fun on his driving skill as he
grows.
The purpose of the story is to give you motivation. It also has real-world
elements. Various racing managers will approach McKane to enlist his
services as a racecar driver, and as you turn McKane into a bonafide racer
other teams may try to hire him. I wouldn't exactly compare the story's
depth to a legitimate RPG, however, a racing game with plot and script is
certainly a fun and unique way to give a shot of adrenaline to the genre.
The 58-person development team has previously worked on TOCA racing titles.
Pro Race Driver is the fourth racing game the group has embarked upon, so it
feels and looks refreshingly smooth.
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There are 13 championships in total and four real-world races that include
DTM from Germany, V8 Supercars from Australia, and the British TOCA Tour.
The other nine are fictional. Pro Race Driver, despite its generic name, is
replete with 42 licensed tour cars from the likes of the Mercedes CLK to the
torque-happy Dodge Viper GTS-R. It also boasts 38 international tracks,
including Bathhurst, C***te, Hockenhiem and Silverstone. The tracks span
locations in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and islands in
the Far East.
The Xbox and PS2 versions will not support online play, but each console
will support up to four players on split screen. The PC version will be
playable online and will allow 20 players to compete against one another.
The three versions are similar graphically with the PS2 version lagging
behind from a visual standpoint, but that's expected.
The cars will take collision damage and in a very detailed way. Different
damage will occur depending how the collision took place, and if it involved
metal, plastic, glass, ***, or alloy. Codemasters says the damage system
in the game was modeled after real-life crash tests. This way the crumpling
effects on the car parts mirror what would happen in the real world.
Pro Race Driver stood out at E3 because, while it was visually solid -- not
quite at the level of Project Gotham Racing or Gran Turismo 3 -- it did give
a bit more meaning to winning a race (read: avenging one's father) than
acquiring superficial trophies or cars. .
--
Damien Smith
ICQ: 77028579
F1 2001 rank: -11.512