I loved the weighty handling of the Clio V6 and the GT Tuning Cup Cars. I loved the directness of the junior formula cars such as the Formula BMW and Palmer Audi. Yes, I know, there were hundreds of cars to try and get right, and clearly when certain cars were really focused on, they felt good. I’m not going to complain about TOCA Race Driver 3’s attempt to incorporate realism into a widely accessible handing model, but I am going to complain about its inconsistency. This was a neat idea, in that arcade mode gives you more grip and allows you to push harder with less frustration, whilst simulation mode really forces you to treat the cars and corners with respect. The majority of people playing this game will have been using a PlayStation or Xbox controller rather than a wheel, so this game had to cater for this mass audience. There are two handling settings to choose from simulation and arcade. I feel like this was an early attempt at something which has now become known as (and I hate this word) “simcade”. If you fire up this game expecting simulation you will be disappointed, but you could say the same about quite a few current racing games that also claim to have realistic handling. I really don’t know what to make of this objectively. This is quite fun to be fair and the overall variation keeps things fresh throughout the gaming experience, but the quality is not at the level of some other popular racing games from the same era. Back to the cars… is this another example of quantity over quality? Well, to answer that question, let’s move the discussion on to the physics.
Learning the circuit isn’t just about learning the layout, it’s about learning this games specific versions. The elevation changes often leave a lot to be desired, especially at tracks such as Spa and Oulton Park, known for their elevation changes in real life. The tracks were created using topographic GPS based data, and although this means that the distances and corner dimensions tend to be accurate, the bumps in the road are where we hit our first bumps in the road. So then, was this a case of quantity over quality? I’d say yes, a little bit, although it wasn’t for the want of trying.
Even F1 2020 didn’t have the correct layout, meaning Codemasters were 15 whole years ahead of, well, Codemasters. This was the largest collection of real world circuits present in any game at that time. They even featured the correct Bahrain short layout, 15 years before the Grand Prix was held. Over 80 different layouts across 37 real world circuits, as well as 13 pretty awesome fictional layouts. We have road cars, touring cars, GT cars, muscle cars, historic cars, single seaters, track-day cars, stock cars, rally cars, historic rally cars, rallycross, historic rallycross, buggies, oval trucks, circuit trucks, monster trucks, sprint cars, go karts, quad bikes… and Lawnmowers? I’ve already explained just how many different championships there are in this game, but the thing that impresses me most about the content is the variety of styles. However, if I can consciously make the separation between nostalgic sympathy and objective truth, I can at least have a go at answering the question ‘how well does TOCA Race Driver 3 hold up 15 years after its release?’Īlso, as an adult, do I still view the game in the same light as I did as an eight year old boy? Wait, this game was a 12+ game, wasn’t it… Lets just go with 12 then… Content I knew it would be rose-tinted spectacles and all that, and there was no real way of avoiding this.
TOCA RACE DRIVER 3 PC PASSWORD SERIES
Of course, going into this series I was well aware of the impact nostalgia would have on my experience.
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