Race: The Official WTCC Game

The Good
I have been getting back into racing games lately and was given told that this was a good game.

It took me a bit to get into this game but once I gave it a really good go it was hard to put it down. I did find this a fairly easy game to get the hang of, it was more of an arcade racing game then I normally like but still lots of fun.

The graphics were very well done as was the sound; it really gave a good sensation of speed.

The handling dynamics were very well done; I have been in real tin-top racers and found the feel and characteristics to be close to the real thing. e.g. throw the car into the corner too much and you will spin.

The Bad
The game was fun to a point. This point was when the crashing started.

I was half way through the championship and was left with no choice but to uninstall the game as it continued to crash. These leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth given how hooked I was on this.

As I said above, the graphics are great but the green smoke when rubbing body work was a bit underdone.

Other then the championship mode the game offers no real long term challenge, a typical floor in an arcade racer.

The Bottom Line
This game is well done and effective. I'd still play it if it wasn't for the crashing factor.

It did help me revive my interest in racing games and bring back the great memories of playing the old TOCA Touring Car games. More enjoyment might have been had on my part if I played online or in a LAN setup against friends.

Anyone looking to by this might want to wait for it to be in the budget bin, buying this at full price won't be value for money.

The Good
The game features nice graphics and excellent sound. In fact the sound is better than the graphics. I'm talking about the cars sounds here, not the game's music. The car sounds are very well recorded from the originals and will make you feel right in that hot bucket seat. Every little sound detail is incorporated in this in order to bring all the excitement from the cabin of a racing car to your ears.

About the graphics, since this is a circuit based racer, the circuits have been modeled very well and look very realistic, that applies to the cars interiors and exteriors also. Specifically the cars interiors are beautiful to watch and "live" in while you race. Talking about interiors, the game has a very good interior camera which will let you enjoy the car's cockpit without obstructing your attention from driving.

The game is giving attention to realism, something that is apparently evident from the wide selection of either your controller setups or the actual car setup. The player is able to set how realistic the car handling will be and if driving aids should be applied (which better be otherwise it's a bit of a miss). It seems that a great deal of work was spent on making the cars behave like the real thing.

Apart from having the option to race on each circuit individually, or in the WTCC championship, the player can also duel the real championship's pro drivers in order to beat their best real times on each circuit.

The Bad
The car selection is quite limited to roughly a dozen of cars. The range begins with the new Minis, goes to a selection from the actual WTCC championship including the Peugeot 407, Honda Accord R, Chevrolette (former Daewoo :) ) Lacetti, Seat Leon and Toledo, Alfa Romeo 156 and 156 GTA and a couple of BMW M3s and finally for a flavour of the past a couple of models from the 1987 championship: the Alfa Romeo 75 turbo and the BMW M3 of the era. The variety is not that wide indeed.

Apart from the race to win the championship there's nothing much else to do really. The cars handle very realistically but that is usually in a computer game as you cannot actually feel the forces on your body, to translate them into messages regarding the car's direction and stability.

Regarding camera views, apart from the excellent cockpit view the rest of the play camera-views are not that great, for example the 3rd person view puts the car too near to you so that it looks quite big and therefore drawing more attention of the eye to it than the road in front.

Finally when going in speeds over 120kmh the car's cabin bounces noticeably up and down, in fact too noticeably that may put some people off. If found the bouncing irritating many times and it kept distracting my attention from my driving lines.

The Bottom Line
I have said it so many times before and WTCC the race is no exception: when simulations aim for realism the whole point of gaming excitement is lost, as you don't have any force feedback from your chair in order to "read" the car and position it accordingly. WTCC race aims for being ultra real and tends to push you more in instrument reading than an exciting ride. If you miss the spots you're ending up going on the outside of curves and eventually to the surrounding gravel.

The limited car selection adds another disappointment, you may or you may not like some of the featured cars and that brings the selection limit even lower. There are of course many skins for each car featured according to the real teams, but that is not anything to be really excited of. Very recently (June 2007) there was an add-on released which adds three types of Caterham Super 7 cars to the available playable fleet and I personally think that it is well worth checking out, since Caterham is really a dream to drive, although a bit too much on the hard side!

My opinion on this is that if you're a hardcore racer that pays attention more in getting your lines perfect than going sideways and making the crowds cheer, or if you are a WTCC fan even better, then you should get this game as it will offer you more than you can handle.

For the rest of the world and racing fans, it is just another racing simulation that does not offer anything new or exciting to dream of and it gets a bit too tedious at times that leads to a rather frustrating experience than excitement.