TOCA Race Driver
TOCA Race Driver 3 includes 120 Championships and 35 types of racing through the Championship in World Tour, Pro Career, and Free Race. Also, it has Bonus Championships in different disciplines. They take place largely in the UK and Germany, though many more tracks are unlocked by winning cups in Pro Career, or by setting a lap time record on a course within Pro Career mode. Open-wheel, GT, Oval racing, Rallying and Off-road racing were all featured and can be raced in either a detailed Pro Career mode or an open-ended World Tour. The game features many real-life competitions, including British GT, DTM, IRL and V8 Supercars, as well as a Vintage series, other GT series, and Rally. The Formula Williams FW27 is the featured car of the Formula 1 series in the game. The career mode progresses with various cutscenes featuring the player character's crew chief providing driving tips and general commentary.
TOCA Race Driver
Settings for racing are largely customisable. Players can adjust the number of laps and difficulty level. Race rules such as wrong way, corner-cutting, and careless driving penalties, and racing flags can also be turned on or off. Players can choose to qualify for races, which allows them to secure a position on the starting grid rather than being placed at the back.
Online play allows 12 and 8 players on PlayStation 2 and Xbox, respectively. It is the only racing simulator for PlayStation 2 with an online racing mode. For the PC up to 12 players could race together with the built-in GameSpy Server or by using a LAN. When GameSpy closed in 2014 online multiplayer was subsequently made possible using the Free Tunngle Network but was shut down in April 2018 due to pending requirements of the new European General Data Protection Regulation.
The damage model from TOCA Race Driver 2 is improved. Codemasters added additional damage elements for engine, suspension, axle and steering. Tire modelling has also been improved. Tires are affected by being cool or hot and wear over time.[4] The developers wanted to improve the single-player racing experience. Johnathan Davis, designer on Race Driver 3 felt that in too many games "you start on the grid and either get left behind or your overtake the AI and go on to win. We really wanted people to battle all the way through".[4] Codemasters interviewed real racing drivers to learn what challenges they would face on the track, such as judging braking distances. These were then implemented into the game's AI.[4] It supports Introversion Software's amBX gaming lights.[5]
Race Driver took the game in a new direction, since the main game mode featured a plot (leading to the game being labelled as a "Car-PG") where the user took on the role of a fictional race driver called Ryan McKane, trying to make a name for himself in a multitude of car championships, all the while under the shadow of his more successful older brother and haunted by the death of his father on the racetrack (as witnessed by Ryan as a child).
In the UK, Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine gave the PS2 version a score of eight out of ten and said that it was an "ultra-realistic racer with top visuals";[29] they also listed it in their top 100 games and awarded it a Bronze Medal.
The success of the first TOCA game saw a sequel arrive a year later in 1998. Whilst mainly an annual franchise update of cars and tracks, the game did add more detailed graphics, physics, multiplayer modes and other minor features. Fictional (but realistic) tracks were added, and support races such as Ford Fiestas, Formula Ford and others also arrived. The level of car damage possible during a race was also enhanced, which was a significant selling point compared with the likes of Gran Turismo. It was called Touring Car Challenge in the USA.
The series moved onto the 6th generation of gaming in August 2002, with the release of TOCA Race Driver (called DTM Race Driver in Germany, Pro Race Driver in North America and V8 Supercars: Race Driver in Australia). The game took the series in a new direction, and introduced a plot centering around fictional race driver Ryan McKane, trying to make a name for himself in a multitude of car championships.
The third game in the TOCA Race Driver series was released in February 2006, and continued to expand on the types of motorsport available. Open wheel, GT, oval racing, rallying, and offroad racing were all featured, and can be raced in either a detailed Pro Career mode or an open-ended World Tour. Up to 12 players are supported via Xbox Live and the PlayStation 2 version supports up to 8 online. This series is the only racing simulator that allows PlayStation players to race online before Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. It received good reviews, frequently being compared favourably to Gran Turismo 4 and Forza Motorsport, in the aspects of cars on track, damage and AI.
The series moved onto Playstation 2 in August 2002, with the release of TOCA Race Driver (called "Pro Race Driver" in North America, "DTM Race Driver" in Germany, and V8 Supercars: Race Driver in Australia). The game took a new direction, since the main game mode featured a plot (leading to the game being labelled as a "Car-PG") where the user took on the role of a fictional race driver called Ryan McKane, trying to make a name for himself in a multitude of car championships, all the while under the shadow of his more successful older brother and haunted by the death of his father on the racetrack (as witnessed by Ryan as a child).
Codemasters' TOCA Race Driver series has always been about two things: solid, simulation-based driving, and an insane amount of racing variety. Unlike most other racers out there, TOCA skips the usual methodology of sticking to one main type of racing and overloading the package with a ton of licensed cars. Certainly TOCA does have quite a few licensed vehicles, but they're spread across such a wide assortment of racing disciplines that at times it seems like no two races are ever alike. TOCA Race Driver 3 is the latest game in the series, and it's every bit as good as its predecessors, if not markedly better. The variety of race types has grown significantly, the driving remains a great deal of fun, and the game still presents itself extremely well.
TOCA 3 boasts more than 35 different types of racing, including open wheel, Indy cars, stock cars, GT, historic, off-road, rally, supertrucks, sprint cars, touring cars, monster trucks, and go-karts, among others. While this everything-to-everyone approach might seem like it would lead to a profoundly scattershot experience, it doesn't, because TOCA 3 knows exactly how to handle its business. No one discipline feels neglected in any way, whether it's handling, artificial intelligence, or visuals. But we'll get to all that stuff in a bit. You'll find quite a bit of car variety, with around 70 licensed vehicles in the game. Some races require one specific car type, meaning you won't get your choice in vehicles, but others offer multiple available cars. You can't go crazy and race a Formula Palmer Audi against a monster truck or anything like that, but really, you shouldn't be able to. TOCA 3 is first and foremost a simulation racer, so it maintains some strict guidelines for conduct.
From the moment you boot up the game, you're thrown directly into the action. Once you've created your profile, you actually launch directly into the middle of a race, where you'll start out behind and need to catch up. On the radio, a Scottish gentleman feeds you directions on how best to control your vehicle. Once you've finished the race, you're treated to a cutscene where your Scottish mechanic introduces himself and tells you how things work around there. Mainly, he talks about how true racers exude patience and control at all times. That's good advice, given the way TOCA 3 plays. Sticking to your racing lines and careful driving are rewarded practices, while frequent bumping and cutting corners are often penalized, both with specifically flagged race penalties, and also with what happens to your car when you drive on the infield too much or bump around like a crazy person.
TOCA 3 has some really excellent damage effects, specifically in regards to what damage does to your car, like when you go crashing into a wall at high speeds. For example, your transmission might get jacked up, causing you to shift gears at a slower, more erratic rate; your wheel alignment might go all higgledy-piggledy, forcing you to veer off to one direction or another if you don't hold the steering wheel tight; and your engine might just cut out altogether. Even simply driving onto the infield shows noticeable problems, as your tires start to cool down and collect all kinds of gunk. The visual representations of this damage vary in quality. Open-wheel racers tend to show the physical damage to the car better than most other cars, but if you wreck hard enough, you'll see some nice-looking damage to just about any vehicle.
The actual handling of the cars varies wildly between classes, though one thing remains constant: The faster the car, the more careful you'll need to be. There are 80 different worldwide tracks featured in TOCA 3, and the one thing they all have in common (save for the pure oval racing courses) is that they tend to feature a lot of tight turns that require precise driving to navigate. Even the dirt tracks and similarly offbeat courses need a bit of precision, lest you start sliding all over the place and bust up your car. Watching for turns is key; though, you'll likely experience a fair bit of trial and error with each track as you start to get used to its various curves. The aggressive opponent AI will often take advantage of your mistakes. On normal difficulty, it's not so hard to get back to a decent finishing position if you slide out or wreck, but on hard, it's damn near an impossibility. Fortunately, you can restart any race at any time, and while restarting races over and over again might be somewhat frustrating after awhile, it's a fair bit better than having to complete a race you know you can't win. 041b061a72