Is the daddy of driving sims the mother of all console exclusives?
Having seen the cropped screenshot at the top of this page, you may well be sat there, quietly tutting and thinking to yourself “those blithering idiots have only gone and previewed GRID all over again.”
And if that’s the case, then you’re completely wrong. But don’t be too hard on yourself about it, because on first impressions, it’s an easy mistake to make.
As with GRID, RACE features touring cars. And GT cars. And various other forms of motorsport which range from high performance production vehicles to itty-bitty single seater cars that look a bit like tiny F1 cars.
And as with its apparent rival, RACE lets you unleash all that collective horse power around a selection of the world’s most exotic bits of tarmac. Indeed, for reasons that aren’t actually clear, both games insist on writing their names in uppercase.
So surely they’re going to be identical? Well, no.
Sure, both titles may share certain common elements in terms of vehicles and circuits, but to assume that RACE is eyeing up the same bit of track as GRID couldn’t be further from the truth.
If you’ve played GRID, then chances are you’ll have noticed that it’s a bit ‘arcade-y’. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind – and despite not being the most realistic game ever, it was still able to offer a compelling blend of speed and challenge.
But Swedish developer SimBin doesn’t ‘do’ arcade-y. This is a studio that cut its teeth in the ultra-realistic PC driving sim market, where realism is a staple requirement and the likes of Burnout, Ridge Racer and Daytona are seen as the antichrist.
SimBin first shot to fame after it released GTR, which was based on the FIA GT championship, and instantly won over the fans by offering the sort of grizzly realism that makes the likes of Forza and Gran Turismo seem like a pleasant afternoon drive.
Although considering that one of the company’s top brass used to race a Dodge Viper GT car in the real championship, that’s perhaps not so surprising.
A sequel and an aborted 360 version later, the Gothenburg based developer then turned its attention to the all-new FIA World Touring Car Championship, with similar results. Now it’s teamed up with Atari to bring all the action of the WTCC to the 360 – albeit with a few refinements.
While we’re expecting RACE Pro to feature a wider degree of optional driver aids (to cater for those used to the more easy going antics of console driving games), the fact Atari is already banding about phrases such as “ultra-realistic” and “precision physics and handling” would seem to suggest that Pro will feature some seriously hardcore handling.
But that’s not to say that SimBin will be delivering a straight laced touring car sim. Of course – as the RACE moniker suggests – the World Touring Car Championship will figure prominently.
Thanks to the official licence, we’ll be seeing the Chevy Lacetti, BMW 320si E90, SEAT Leon and the (now withdrawn) Alfa 156 that have dominated the championship over the last few seasons.
Indeed, these will be available in both traditional and ‘extreme’ form, which will feature more power and more grip.
But there’ll also be a supporting cast of vehicles that caters for pretty much every taste. Entry level drivers can go straight for the Mini Cooper Challenge, while those who prefer their cars to be untouched will prefer production machines such as the Audi R8 and Dodge Viper SRT10.
Alongside the touring cars, the selection of real life racing cars will include GT cars from Aston Martin and Saleen (amongst others), and single seater Formula 3000 and Formula BMW machines.
This isn’t the complete car list by any means. But it does suggest that Atari’s promise that the cars featured will cover a range of 200 to over 1000 bhp is much more than empty PR waffle.
The same is true of the circuits. RACE Pro will feature 15 real life circuits from around the world. As with the cars, Atari and SimBin have yet to confirm all of the circuits which will find their way into the game, but the list so far looks promising.
These will include circuits such as Macau in the Far East, and Pau and Porto in Europe (all of which are exclusive to RACE Pro), as well as Laguna Seca and Road America, which will be familiar to Forza 2 fans.
Indeed, SimBin has been looking at ways to make the gameplay more diverse as well. While there are obvious restrictions on just how much you can do with a racing game, the studio is giving it a go nonetheless.
For instance, there’s the Hot Seat mode. This social gaming feature requires a player to drive a certain distance, then hand the pad over to someone else, with the general idea being to use quick reactions and precision driving to accelerate the pace of the game.
Naturally, it’s a given that all the usual career and online multiplayer modes will be present and correct, although Atari has yet to confirm the ins and outs of these.
With the game due out this November though, hopefully it won’t be too long before these are revealed, or that we get given the chance to go hands-on with SimBin’s maiden console release.
