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Review:

11th September 2002:
TOCA Race Driver
The latest instalment of the TOCA Touring Cars series has arrived, and this time has a story that accompanies the racing action.
Posted by Marc Hull - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

While Formula One is often heralded as the best motorsport, with more substantial TV coverage and a more widespread fan-base, the world of Touring Cars can actually be a lot more exciting. Whereas F1 races last up to 2 hours, with hardly any overtaking for 70% of the time, Touring Car races are shorter, and force the drivers to take more risks and make their moves early. So, when Codemaster's TOCA Touring Cars series tried to being this sport to the gaming audience back in 1997, it was an instant hit, and gained better reviews than other big-hitters such as Psygnosis' F1 '97. TOCA 2, released in 2000, improved on this successful formula by enhancing the graphics, updating the cars and remodelling the tracks, and once again it got a good response from reviews worldwide.

However, since then, a lot has changed. The original PlayStation has been superceeded by the PS2, the racing market is more crowded than ever, and Sony have released GT3 which has raised the bar for almost every new driving title out there. So, for the next generation version of the TOCA series, Codemasters needed to do something different that would make the game stand out from the crowd. Their solution was to make a story driven racing game, where you see what goes on before and after each race, so animations sequences show you signing up with a racing team, or fighting with an opponent who you 'nudged' off the circuit in the last race. However, in the final product, this isn't simply a sideline to accompany the racing, but plays a considerable part in the game, since the game starts off with a sequence showing your father being driven off the track after winning a race, and dying in the ensuing crash. Some time later, and your older brother has become a professional racer, and you hope to do the same, however the rivalry between the you and him, and the tie-ins with your father's 'accident', provide some interesting twists throughout your career.

For the racing side of things, the game plays very similarly to Infogrames' V-Rally 3 in that you get e-mails from different racing teams asking you to do a test run with them before they will offer you a contract. Once you've signed up with a particular team, you then have to race with that team for a season, and then new offers from more successful manufacturers may arrive depending on how well you place in that particular season. Once in a race, the action-packed nature of the sport will provide you with plenty of enjoyment, and although the difficulty curve is initially a bit high, once you get used to the handling of your car you'll be winning races in no time. However, be warned that this is no arcade game, so using other cars as buffers before you reach a corner will not only mean that you get an earful from their teams after the race, but also that your car will be crippled. Although this is slightly annoying at first, since you're likely to go off-course more than a few times at the start and total your vehicle, the damage system actually works very well. As the game progresses, you'll begin to drive much more carefully, since you know that losing even such a delicate part as a wing will cause your car to lose downforce, and make it more difficult to turn on corners. Visually, the damage is also quite impressive, as bits of car fly everywhere during major crashes, and from the in-car view you can even see your bonnet crumple under pressure.

However, graphically the rest of the game is a bit hit-and-miss. The cars look good, with a high polygon count ensuring that smooth curves are accurately recreated and realistic reflections providing that GT3-style sheen to them, but the tracks are a different story. On courses that take place on a hill, so you can see the rest of the track trailing off into the distance, there are real 'jaw drops to floor' moments, but on others the near-view detail seems to be lacking considerably when compared to other racing games. Some stands have a single textured, un-animated plane to represent the crowds sitting in them, buildings are very angular and sometimes blurry, and spectators standing near the track are easily recognisable as 'cardboard cut-outs'. The developers have tried to emphasise the speed of the game by using a motion-blur system, which makes the game look great during the in-car view or when moving fast during replays, but as the cars come up to corners and slow down the effect disappears and you begin to notice the blandness of the track more. The frame-rate also seems to struggle in places, espcially during replays at the start when the camera pans out to show many cars at once, and sometimes your opponents move very jerkily across the track.

In terms of sound, the game contains some nice engine noises, which are different depending on the cars you are racing, and your pit-crew who radio in during a race aren't over-used or annoying like in some racing games. The voice acting in the cut-scenes is also nicely done, although some of the Americanisms might make you cringe at times. For length, TOCA Race Driver will keep you occupied for many weeks before you fully complete it. As well as championships to race in, where you gain points to move from tier-to-tier, eventually racing in the World Championship, you will also get rival races from time-to-time where you can win new cars. There's also a single race mode for practising on circuits that you've unlocked in the Career mode, and a multiplayer option for up to four players. The game also features a whopping 38 tracks modelled on real-life circuits, and 42 real touring cars to select from, meaning there's plenty for racing fanatics to sink their teeth into. A lot of the races are also made more enjoyable by the number of opponent cars you are racing against, with my personal favourite being a race around Vancouver with 14 Mini Cooper cars - classic!

Overall, TOCA Race Driver's story-driven racing title is a great game that will keep racing fans occupied for ages. While graphically it's patchy in places, and may lose out to titles like GT3, there's quality where it counts; in the gameplay and the length. In a market saturated by racing games, this should stand out at the top of your list.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

TOCA Race Driver tries to add a story to the tried-and-tested racing formula, and produces a very engrossing and fun game. The plot is advanced through excellent realtime cut-scenes, and adds more incentive to continue playing than other titles out there. The graphics aren't some of the best on the PS2, with some lackluster circuits, but the gameplay and length more than make up for this.

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