This review was written by member Libea Bramburti – thanks Libea!

Racing games have always been the main reason I got into gaming. From Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix, Papyrus’s Indianapolis 500, rFactor, Forza 2; I have had to race them all. Since the release of GTR, Simbin have always been the kings of PC racing simulations. It is with excitement on my part (and scepticism on behalf on many simulation purists) that Simbin’s first foray into the console gaming genre broke cover. Could they pull it off? Would it be watered down? Would it have the polish expected by the Xbox generation? The answers are largely no. But it’s not as simple as that.

Read on!...
Race Pro is the consoler’s great hope and Simbin’s first title to ditch ISI’s ageing gmotor physics engine in favour of their own homebrewed Lizard platform. This new system is claimed to be more advanced than gmotor, allowing a greater degree of precision to the handling and also taking advantage of new advances in graphics and sound. This, I would imagine, is probably the reason the game has been pushed back time and time again for 'tweaking'.

Dear god, finally release date is here! I just about managed to stop myself skipping to the Xbox like an excited girl. After about ten minutes, I could barely contain my contempt.

I think the first thing that will really shock is just how pedestrian the frame rate is. Simbin have quoted that we have 30 frames per second (FPS) smoothly pouring into our visual cortex. I think 20 is probably more accurate. This would have been acceptable 5 years ago but in an age where Forza 2 and GT5 Prologue are pushing 60 FPS, it really grates.


The second thing that will astound you is when you go for the first bend. No force feedback, vibration or anything from the controller. What?!? That’s a pretty big bug to release a shiny new game with…

Although, calling Race Pro shiny is a bit generous considering its graphics are hugely disappointing. Gritty, patchy with little or nothing of note, it lags behind even some of Simbin’s older gmotor-based efforts. I’d go as far as to say that rFactor looks better (and runs smoother), on my cheap laptop, that this. The reflections are mental. You’ll often see the telltale sign that a rudimentary cube map was used as opposed to having a real-time reflection system. Driving past trees will not stop the lamp-post reflection going over your bonnet or the strange spotty pattern that crops up from time to time.

So, it’s a massive fail then? Sigh… wehhhlllll… no… I mean, well, yes… But no. Not entirely. Kind of.

Okay, faults aside, the handling of the cars is pretty bloody good. Every action is nice and analogue. Brakes and throttle are smooth and easy to judge while the steering is great (considering you can’t feel it). Using the bonnet view speeds the frame rate up a touch and I’ve a feeling that, when they get it working properly, online is going to produce some special racing. Which is good news, as the AI sucks quite hard. On professional level, it’s easy to finish a race 20 seconds ahead of the CPU.

The selection of cars isn’t bad either. From screaming Radicals and single seaters to thumping GT cars and precise world touring cars, they all handle how you would expect them to. It’s a shame that they are a bit too quick with average lap times coming in at almost 10 seconds quicker than their real-life counterparts. This dents the simulation aspect more than a little.

Tracks are a very different collection (dictated of course by the real life race series) and make a nice change from the usual trudge around Nürburgring and Suzuka that seem to be the mainstay of racing titles. Macau in particular takes skill but rewards when you string a section of tight bends together, it’s extremely good fun. There are some downers however with the combination of the overly tight Porto street circuit and the god awful driving of the AI causing some quite intense frustration.

The structure of the game takes a little from Codemasters Grid by having a career mode that you need to complete to unlock all the cars and tracks on offer. This unfortunately has none of the flair or presentation values offered by Grid making it a totally dry affair. There isn’t much of a challenge for anyone here either as, for the majority of the career, the AI prove to be little more than mobile chicanes. With the poorly-implemented damage, it also makes the whole thing a ‘punt the opponent out of the way for two corners and grind through race after bloody race’ job. There’s no incentive to play a clean race here what so ever. Strangely, playing the single race mode seems to ramp the AI difficulty up a huge amount.

Other game modes include, a time trial mode for all those hot-lappers out there, practice (which is pointless when you have time trial) and hotseat which allows you to race in shifts with either a mate or a CPU driver. There’s sadly no split screen option but it’s probably omitted to avoid the frame rate dropping further still.


So what’s my overall opinion? I’m not sure that I’ve even formed one yet. My biggest fear is that, with the negative feelings coming even from the Race Pro fanboy forums, Race Pro is not going to shift many units looking and feeling as amateur as it does. This doesn’t bode well for future console sim racing. The financial hit that Simbin could face may once again force realistic racing back into the comforting arms of the PC.

There is the hope that a patch will appear and solve all the issues but, as it is, there are far too many bugs to recommend buying it. I haven’t had to put down my hard earned cash to pay for Race Pro but, if I had, I’d have trouble with having handed over money for what is a pretty sketchy beta. If Simbin can pull it out of the bag and fix the force feedback, frame rate, AI, collision detection, some scratchy samples, the online play and the poor damage model, it would be a worthy racer for casual sim-racers. As it is, I can only tell you to cross your fingers and wait and see.

65%

8-D
Wonderful driving physics.
Wide and varied selection of cars and tracks
Online potential

>:-(
Way too many bugs to have been released at this stage
Some elements severely dent the simulation claims