RELEASE: Out
in Europe, USA Release February 06
Introduction
As you begin to delve into
this discussion of Simbin’s excellent new
driving sim GT Legends, I feel it is only fair to
make a small disclosure. I am, have always been,
and will always be a gear head. You know the type.
. .dirty fingernails, back issues of Road &
Track lying about, a broken connecting rod hanging
proudly on the wall of the garage. . .so when I
saw my first driving game in an arcade in the late
70’s, I was hooked.
It was an immense black cabinet,
with a stick shifter and a ‘green-screen’
monochrome CRT. It was simple, repetitive, but one
of a kind, and it easily devoured a summer’s
worth of paper route profits. Next came Pole Position,
in glorious 8 bit color (“Prepare to Qualify!),
and later when PCs became commonplace, I fell in
love with Papyrus’ DOS classic, IndyCar Racing.
I have since driven dozens more.
And it has been an interesting
ride. . .the past couple of decades have seen the
masterpiece Gran Prix Legends, as well as Microsoft’s
unspeakable CART Precision Racing, and everything
in between. The world of the virtual driver has
certainly been an uneven road, as publishers struggled
to find the proper balance between the realism of
a true sim, and the mindless bling of a modern arcade
racer.
In GT Legends, Simbin has
succeeding in combining elements from both ends
of the spectrum, and the result is an almost perfect
driving game, which should offer something for every
wheel-equipped gamer.
The Experience
Although GTL is not the first
historical racing title, I must say that Simbin’s
attention to the stylistic trappings of the late
60s and early 70s goes beyond any racing game I
have ever seen. In the first screen of the game,
in which the player enters the name of his or her
profile, these immersive details quickly take hold.
In the screen shot below, check out that old school
font, and the pastel blue & orange made famous
by Gulf Racing! Throughout this and the various
other menu screens of the game, Simbin have also
added some truly raucous and trippy tunes to solidify
the historical feel (I am reminded of the first
time I loaded BattleField VietNam, and was greeted
by Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Go Ask Alice’
– a classic moment). Granted, this kind of
thing doesn’t require any kind of programming
genius, but it does reflect the spectacular attention
to detail that Simbin lavishes on this title.
The game is modeled after
FIA-GTC racing, a popular vintage racing series
in Europe. Although the cars are old, the settings
are not, and you night feel like you are in a bit
of a time warp sitting in your 1965 Shelby GT350,
while the LCD screen of the lap timer ticks away
on the dash. The courses are modern as well, and
you will drive on many dedicated road courses that
were not in existence in the 60’s, and others,
such as the Nurburgring, which have been entirely
reconfigured since these cars had their heyday.
Ah yes, the cars. I scarcely
know where to begin. . .for someone who has traveled
hours for glimpses of some of the machines represented
in GTL, to see them recreated in such painstaking
detail is a real treat. Check out the screenies
on this page, and behold the suspension of the 914-6,
the brake calipers, even the red towing eye. And
when you turn on the motor, the sounds are truly
awesome. From the strained whirring of the tiny
Cooper inline four, to the raspy roar of the Shelby-modified
Ford small block, each car has a carefully crafted
sound, each unique, and each as stunning as virtual
car you are sitting in. The GT40, 911RSR, Shelby
Daytona Coupe, and AC Cobra are just a few of the
beasts you will unleash.
Each model also has unique
strengths and weaknesses, which actually reflects
favorably on Simbin’s choices for the cars
represented in the game. Few models share handling
characteristics, which creates a great variety in
driving experience as you switch from car to car.
In tighter courses, the underpowered Mini Cooper
is dominant, sliding past the American V8 machines
as their suspensions struggle through the tight
bends. However, driving a Cooper on a course with
any kind of long straightaway will leave you yearning
for a few more cylinders as Mustangs and Corvettes
blast past you like you’re pulling an anchor.
Again, Simbin triumphs in
its attention to detail as the old racers react
in very realistic fashion. The chassis gently rocks
back and forth on the starting grid as you rev your
motor, and during the race, the observant driver
will notice the bumper of the car in the rear view
mirror dropping slightly between gears, and the
back of the car in front rising under hard braking
as the rear suspension unloads. If you are accustomed
to driving on radial tires, as most of us are, the
“vintage” bias ply rubber takes some
getting used to as well. Instead of progressively
breaking loose like a radial, when these old dogs
let go, they let go completely, and the driver better
hope for plenty of room to scrub off speed and get
them hooked up again before sliding off course or
into a wall. And those tires and brakes can wear
out, too. You have to drive them as a limited asset,
because driving hard through every corner for an
entire race will leave you out of traction at the
end, and too much hard braking will leave the binders
faded away to nothing, usually when you need them
the most.
Cup Challenge
Cup challenge is the ‘career
mode’ of GT Legends, and it is the added ingredient
that transforms the game from a simple update to
GTR (which would have been excellent) into an instant
classic. Similarly to the Need for Speed series,
“Porsche Unleashed” in particular, the
player must progress through a series of races to
unlock faster cars and bigger courses. The cars
used in these races are doled out in rough historical
progression, starting with 60’s GT and Touring
cars, and moving on to the early 70’s. For
those who like to say they have “beaten”
a game, this is the mode for you, but don’t
expect your conquest to be over in a few hours.
The final contest of the 60’s era includes
8 lap races on 6 road courses, one of which is Spa,
where a quick lap is a little shy of 3 minutes,
so completing just that part of the challenge will
take almost a half an hour! Unless, of course, you
go too hot into Turn One. . .then its back to the
starting gate.
This is an excellent design
decision, as the “Cup Challenge” is
the icing on an already outstanding game. There
is something very rewarding about completing a challenge,
and having an opportunity to use your winnings to
buy a new ride, or even be awarded a free one for
your efforts. Simply driving race after race can
get monotonous, and this model adds goals to the
game which undoubtedly will make it more interesting
to a broader audience
Tuning & A.I.
Like many games before it,
GT Legends allows some fine tuning of components,
as pictured in the screenie above. The options are
straight forward, which is sure to disappoint some,
but there are enough settings to start learning
race car setup. I for one am thankful for the easy
interface and simple options here – for me,
a driving game is about driving, and I would prefer
to leave engineering to the engineers!
Machine AI in this title
is fairly solid, but like any attempt at endowing
silicon with human skills and faults, it has some
glitches which are easy to nitpick. There are five
difficulty settings, from novice to Pro, and my
first complaint is the massive gap between Amateur
(the middle setting) and Semi-Pro. Notwithstanding
a big crash, I found Amateur was easily dominated.
I typically skipped qualifying, started last on
the grid, and came in first. On Semi-Pro, I qualified
in the lower 50%, and found it very difficult to
crack the podium. Perhaps a “Driver Strength”
setting as a percentage, as found in many games,
would correct this issue.
A.I. behaviors, though, were
fairly solid as I said. A.I. drivers get in one-car
wrecks and wrecks with one another, and generally
drive solid lines, but in the places where they
didn’t choose good lines, ALL the A.I. cars
followed the same poor track, which was a bit odd
and broke the realism a bit. Another A.I. glitch
involved protection of inside passing lanes. . .sometimes
your computer opponents would blithely watch as
you late braked them deep into a corner to pass,
and at other times they would erratically move in
to cover the early apex, often running into you
in the process. This was more than a little annoying,
and made me wish for a virtual paddock where I could
go after the race and thump the offending driver!
Graphics
Graphics in this game are
fairly demanding, and there were occasions when
my high end rig (PIV 3.4 EE, X850XT/PE) was close
to bogging down at 16x12 with AA enabled. However,
GTL does provide a separate setup applet, which
allows the user to switch from DX9 to DX7 rendering,
which would give lower end machines the boost they
need to enjoy the game.
As I have said, the level
of detail in this game is fantastic. The cars are
absolutely gorgeous, and if you choose the “cockpit”
view while driving, you can enjoy highly detailed
interiors as well. The clouds and lighting effects
are top rate, and you will be amazed at the changes
in light and growing shadows as the sun actually
gets lower during a late afternoon race! There doesn’t
appear to be any bad weather racing, but there are
night events with some pretty cool head and tail
light effects. One word of warning though, if you
insist on the console-esque level of bling found
in “NFS:Most Wanted”, you are bound
to be disappointed. The graphics engine itself,
while good at rendering what is asked of it by this
title, looks a bit dated in comparison.
Conclusion
Simbin made some excellent
choices with this title. Sure, they could have simply
updated their very solid GTR with vintage cars,
and called it good, and it certainly would have
been good, with outstanding graphics, physics, and
drivability. Instead, what they have done is taken
elements from previous games, and very effectively
integrated them into GTL to make it even better.
Take the historical feel of Gran Prix Legends, and
get rid of the astronomical difficulty level. Take
the complex tuning options of Richard Burns Rally,
and hone them down to the essentials, with adjustments
a player might make on their own car. Take the rewarding
adventure of progressing though NFS: Porsche Unleashed,
buying better cars and unlocking wilder tracks,
but retool it with a realistic physics engine and
better competition.
What is the result? GT
Legends, simply the best driving game ever written.
Contacts:
Reviewer: J.R.
"Rasta Monsta" Gregory
Editor/Designer:
Allan "Zardon" Campbell
| Game play |
19/20 |
| Graphics |
17/20 |
| Sound |
18/20 |
| Value |
19/20 |
| Preference |
18/20 |
| Overall |
91/100 |
