The PS2 has seen a whole horde of racers despite its short time on the market. While most of them are very similar, referring to the overall concept of the game, Pro Race Driver brings a very fresh, innovative experience to the PS2. The main reason for Pro Race Driver’s noticeable distinction from other racers is the fact that Pro Race Driver actually has a strong story replete with characters and movie-scenes. As the story begins, you are given control of a racecar (read "racecar" backwards!) driver named Ryan McKane. The story will revolve around your goal at becoming the best racer in the world. However, you’ll have quite the way to go because as you initially start you’re a nobody. The story will progress around your family -- who have had an illustrious career in the sport -- and friends Pro Race Driver sits in the simulation basket of the abundance of PS2 racers -- boasting real cars, real drivers, real tracks, and real times. This alone helps it stand strong as a simulation. However, in addition to these real-life elements, PRD also features real-time damage, which is the last piece in the puzzle of a true simulation. Unlike GT3 and the such, your main goal isn’t to tweak-out and augment all the various parts in your car, but to, instead, focus on the racing aspect of the game. While this may seem somewhat disappointing at first, Codemaster’s main intent is to deliver the most realistic, natural racing feel to date. Helping to pull this off will be their incorporation of FEM, or Finite Element Modeling. What this does is deliver one of the most genuine looking wreckage and damage marks that any video game has seen. Additionally, the AI and physics facets of the game have been amply worked on to help deliver one of the most realistic driving experiences. Codemasters has added a plethora of cars to choose from, 42 in all. Only 24 have been disclosed, however:
There are also a plentiful amount of racing events -- all real-life ones too! Here’s the list of events, which span all around the world.
Pro Race Driver also features a whole slew of circuits -- 38 in all. These tracks are organized in sections: Americas
United Kingdom
Germany
Australia
Europe And Elsewhere
Pro Race Driver, as far as visuals go, is quite impressive. The cars themselves are complexly detailed from head to toe, err...hood to wheels. Each vehicle features over a whopping 15,000 polygons, how 'bout them apples? In addition, Codemasters has also rendered some very impressive skids, complete with tons of smoke and dust as your car burns rubber. The sky's look has a very genuine look, showing some excellent clouds and impressive looking beams from the sun to boot. That’s all for now. Pro Race Driver is slated for a release later this year, at a currently undisclosed date. 3/20/2002 Joseph Comunale |