25 replies to this topic

[Rob G]

I picked this game up last Wednesday (for PS2) and have been playing the heck out of it since then. In most cases it's a huge improvement over TOCA 2. For starters, there are now 80 tracks, 100 championships, and 35 different types of racing.

I've only unlocked about half of the classes, but the open-wheeled cars that I've tried so far (Formula 1000, Formula BMW, Formula Palmer Audi with the power button, and F3) are loads of fun and handle infinitely better than the few types that TOCA 2 had. The historics are fun, although they don’t seem nearly as authentic as the junior formulae listed above. The one disappointment in the formula cars was the Formula Fords, which are way too easy to drive and don't slide at all.

The Aussie V8s handle similarly to TOCA 2, and the other touring car and GT series I've tried have been very enjoyable. I've also done some off-road racing, rallying, rallycross, stock car racing, and I've driven the muscle cars too. If you played TOCA 2, the rallying was atrocious. This is much, much better, on par with some of the Colin McRae Rally games, although there are only a few stages that I've sene so far. I'm not overly interested in the rest of it, but the variety is really nice, and I don't think the phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none" really applies here. Most of it is well done. While the ovals are tremendously improved over TOCA 2, I was disappointed that I was able to completely blow away the field at Dover.

Probably my biggest gripe about TOCA 2, and indeed all the TOCA games before it, was the "floaty" handling, when the cars seemed to get airborne over the slightest undulation. Codemasters have finally addressed this issue with TOCA 3. The cars stick to the road much better, and the kerbs are now proper kerbs and not speed bumps lying parallel to the path of travel. Bathurst has been completely redone, so the cars no longer fly through the air with the greatest of ease. Many of the other tracks have been improved too. Sadly, Oulton Park is a lot worse than it used to be, especially the area after the first turn approaching where the short and long courses split. Newly-added Spa-Francorchamps has some problems too, especially a huge dip in the right-left complex after Eau Rouge that you really have to pussyfoot through if you want to stay on track.

And speaking of staying on track, TOCA 3 has a penalty system now. If you go off in qualifying, your time is disallowed for that lap. It’s way too picky and frustrating. It doesn’t matter if you end up wading out of a gravel trap at 20 mph - it claims that you “gained an advantage.“ Fortunately, it’s more forgiving in the race, although you can get a 5 second time penalty if you leave the road.

Has anyone else tried this game yet? What are your thoughts?

[Thanh Ha]

I agree, it's a lot more fun than V82 especially with Pro-Sim on, but I agree that the penalty system is my biggest beef, I'm pretty pissed everytime I run a little wide and get my time wiped, they should have done that only on some corners, and I got penalised once for another guy running into the back of my car.

[benn5325]

Got up to the Formula BMW. It's a blast.
Yes, the penalty system is a but of a bugger, but this is a fun game.

[MoMurray]

I bought it Friday and played all weekend. Lots of fun. The Classic rally series with the Quattro beast is great.

Oh I bought the cheat codes and opened the whole thing up. All except the Honda series.

Mo.

[Axe007]

Thanks for the reviews guys.

I just got the game, yet to get home and hook my steering wheel. Sounds like a fun to me.

[Dolph]

Originally posted by MoMurray
I bought it Friday and played all weekend. Lots of fun. The Classic rally series with the Quattro beast is great.

Oh I bought the cheat codes and opened the whole thing up. All except the Honda series.

Mo.

"bought"?

[Thanh Ha]

You can grab the code for the Hondas here: http://www.honda.co.uk/racedriver

[Rob G]

Well, I've cleared 31 of the 32 tiers of the World Tour mode and have now embarked on the Pro Career mode in open wheelers. I'm having a really hard time putting it down.

Some addtional observations:

The AI drivers in the MG XPower championship are total a-holes. At Sandown I got bounced around like a ping pong ball in a lotto machine. It was as if they didn't know I was even there.

One of the Honda championships unlocked at the website posted above is lawnmower racing. I found it more fun than the go karts.

Aside from that, the most bizarre racing has to be the monster trucks. It's a half dozen of them on a motocross-type track. Kind of nice for a change, I guess, although I was a little bothered by the engines going silent whenever I was airborne. If I'm floroing the gas while in the air, the revs should go sky-high, not drop off.

And speaking of silent engines, there is a glitch where the engine audio cuts out occasionally. I've read elsewhere that other people are having the same problem, so at least I know it's just not my copy and/or PS2. Still, it's annoying, and it makes driving with a manual shift extremely difficult when you can't hear the engine.

Other than that, the game is fantastic. In the other modes besides World Tour, you can tune your vehicles more comprehensively than in TOCA2, and the explanations are very well-explained for those who don't know much about setting up a car. Also, the cutscenes are very nicely done - although there isn't much of a story this time around (not a bad thing, IMO), I still found them well worth watching.

[le chat noir]

Is anybody on xbox live with this game? I'd be happy to take you on. My gamertag is my username here, so look me up.

[RRT1963]

Is this game available in NA or just Europe?
I"ve been searching the mass retailers in Canada for a sniff of the game and they don't seem to be carrying it.
We got tons of nascar though

[Rob G]

Originally posted by RRT1963
Is this game available in NA or just Europe?
I"ve been searching the mass retailers in Canada for a sniff of the game and they don't seem to be carrying it.
We got tons of nascar though

It's available here in the US at least. I think it came out here a week before Europe got it.

[RRT1963]

thanks, maybe'll I'll slip across the border and pick one up

[Tomecek]

Still no PC version available, but demo was cool. Yeah, the penalty for going off track is stupid though...

[Beamer]

Bought the game last week. It's called DTM Race Driver here in The Netherlands. In pro-sim mode it actually feels great and you really get the racing thrill and feel. Maybe even more than in GT4.

Downside is the minimal set-up changes you can make, and the impossibility to change setup during practise (or am i missing something?).

I'm halfway through the worldtour now, halfway through the GT pro-career mode and halfway through the time-trials in pro-career mode. All with the pro-sim options turned on. But I have the feeling I'm missing something. I'm a decent racer in these kind of races, but lapping 5 to 7 seconds fasterthan the AI cars seems to be more than I should be able to. In the caterham's I actually lapped the entire field in a 5 lap race!!!

In open wheel racers (up to formula BMW) it's still 3-4 seconds a lap (in race, not quali). Is there a setting i'm missing????

[Rob G]

Originally posted by Beamer
Downside is the minimal set-up changes you can make, and the impossibility to change setup during practise (or am i missing something?).

Try this in a free race just to make sure, but I'm almost positive that when you stop a practice session before your final lap starts, you can go to Tuning, and then back to practice. However, I believe it only gives you whatever the number of laps you had remaining before you ended it. If you want to keep doing more practice laps, you'd have to hit the pause button again and select Restart, but I don't know if that would give you all 3 laps again or if you'd still only have the one or two remaining.

Originally posted by Beamer
I'm halfway through the worldtour now, halfway through the GT pro-career mode and halfway through the time-trials in pro-career mode. All with the pro-sim options turned on. But I have the feeling I'm missing something. I'm a decent racer in these kind of races, but lapping 5 to 7 seconds fasterthan the AI cars seems to be more than I should be able to. In the caterham's I actually lapped the entire field in a 5 lap race!!!

In open wheel racers (up to formula BMW) it's still 3-4 seconds a lap (in race, not quali). Is there a setting i'm missing????

The AI generally does get tougher the further you go into your career, but even on the hard setting most of the races are still pretty easy to win. I'm using it to my advantage by breezing through the Pro Career mode in 3-lap races on the Hard setting so that I can unlock everything. Then I'll go back to the Free Races, crank up the AI difficulty to 110% (presumably harder than Hard), and hope that the races will be tougher.

Oh, and if you're looking for competition in the Indycar races, forget it. Even at 110% I was blowing everybody away. :

[MAJP]

I only tried the demo on the Honda Civic, it's very good but, it has some stupid rules, so why I can't put a wheel of the track when I'm not cutting trough chicanes. I receive a warning even when
i loose time.

[JMR]

I find the game interesting to learn the UK tracks but unfortunately the times are crazy!
I can run 42 sec at Brands Indy in a Clio Cup, only braking twice on the whole track when the real car struggles to get under 52sec. A good 997 cup runs in in high 47s so that's a gripe... Other than that, I really am not interested in having to unlock all the games to get to the cars and tracks I'm interested in!
Good game though
JM

[Ivan]

Just got the game the other day.

[Beamer]

Originally posted by Rob G

Try this in a free race just to make sure, but I'm almost positive that when you stop a practice session before your final lap starts, you can go to Tuning, and then back to practice. However, I believe it only gives you whatever the number of laps you had remaining before you ended it. If you want to keep doing more practice laps, you'd have to hit the pause button again and select Restart, but I don't know if that would give you all 3 laps again or if you'd still only have the one or two remaining.

If you 'restart'in practice (going back to round 0, you can end the session and return as if you never started it, so plenty of setup opportunity than!

Originally posted by Rob G


The AI generally does get tougher the further you go into your career, but even on the hard setting most of the races are still pretty easy to win. I'm using it to my advantage by breezing through the Pro Career mode in 3-lap races on the Hard setting so that I can unlock everything. Then I'll go back to the Free Races, crank up the AI difficulty to 110% (presumably harder than Hard), and hope that the races will be tougher.

Oh, and if you're looking for competition in the Indycar races, forget it. Even at 110% I was blowing everybody away. :

I didn't notice the possibillity of putting the AI at a 110%. That helps! Most of the time that does make it competitive! thanx!

[Ivan]

btw - just to let you lot know you can turn off the cut corner default so that it won't penalize you!

[Menace]

Just got this game for PC, and boy is it fun and looks good with everything on full!

[A Wheel Nut]

I downloaded the demo and was really disappointed. Won my first THREE lap race by FIFTY TWO seconds after starting off the back of the grid.

[Jodum5]

I rented the game for a week and Ihave to say its ridiculously easy. Most of the time I didnt bother to optimize mysetup and I usually managed to qualify first and win every race. IF the AI was much more difficult it wouldve been a perfect game

[Montoya1]

I'd buy this game except I want to run accurate textures.

When the very first Toca games (not the race driver ones, the originals) came out you could download 'skins' to keep the cars up to date. I remember I used to race the Aiello Primera as Matt Neal with the red 100+ colour scheme.

I did a similar thing with the Colin Mcrae Rally games.
Very out of touch nowadays, not sure it this sort of thing still goes on, other than for the F1 games.


dw

[Skully Collins]

TOCA is an enjoyable game.

With full licensed tracks, fully licensed cars.

As well as that, beginners to this sport have a great tutorial in Rick (via the cut scenes). One thing that really stood out for me was the graphics and the attention to detail on some of the circuits, especially my favourite cicuits, Spa-Francorchamps.

The damage is also pretty goo, although the suspesion does seem to get damaged pretty easily on the open wheelers and some GT cars as well.

[Menace]

The game is ridiculously easy unless you run it at custom difficulty set on full. It's still good fun though.