I want TOCA reviews!!!
- Thread starter vat_man
- 108 comments
- 2,110 views
- 208
Ask Y2TUSCAN 
I know he has it now.
I know he has it now.
Race Idiot
(Banned)
- 11,439
- Sao Tome and Principe
Hmmmmmm review comming soon
- 441
well here's a mini review for you......i bought it on friday and put it on ebay saturday, but don't let me put you off.
if you loved Toca on PS1 then you will love this game, it looks much better and there seem to be so many tracks and cars. It's great that there are tracks which i think everyone who watches motorsport live, will have visited at least one them, brands hatch is my closest track and it is great to drive around it.
the handling of the car is almost identical to toca2 as far as i can remember, which i do struggle with, it just doesn't feel......i don't know, i didn't want to compare it to GT3 but GT3's handling is spot on, imo....and TRC isn't, it is still a good game, don't get me wrong, but i think i love the GT series too much.
one of the annoying things is i have almost completed the game after about 10 or so hours...now i know i can do all the tracks in time trial, single race and all that but i just can't be bothered...when i get the cash i am going to buy GT concept, i know that can be completed quickly as well but it looks stunning/plays beutifully.
graphicaly i am very dissapointed, i know there are 14 cars on the track at any one time and i know there is damage, but it is just lacking something.
i would give this 7 1/2 out of 10, i did like this game but just not enough. but if you prefer toca to GT then give this a9 out of 10.
if you loved Toca on PS1 then you will love this game, it looks much better and there seem to be so many tracks and cars. It's great that there are tracks which i think everyone who watches motorsport live, will have visited at least one them, brands hatch is my closest track and it is great to drive around it.
the handling of the car is almost identical to toca2 as far as i can remember, which i do struggle with, it just doesn't feel......i don't know, i didn't want to compare it to GT3 but GT3's handling is spot on, imo....and TRC isn't, it is still a good game, don't get me wrong, but i think i love the GT series too much.
one of the annoying things is i have almost completed the game after about 10 or so hours...now i know i can do all the tracks in time trial, single race and all that but i just can't be bothered...when i get the cash i am going to buy GT concept, i know that can be completed quickly as well but it looks stunning/plays beutifully.
graphicaly i am very dissapointed, i know there are 14 cars on the track at any one time and i know there is damage, but it is just lacking something.
i would give this 7 1/2 out of 10, i did like this game but just not enough. but if you prefer toca to GT then give this a9 out of 10.
- 441
DSII.....i would love a steering wheel and peddles with a bucket seat but cash holds me back.
oh there is a lot more to the game...but i am just talking about the story mode.
oh there is a lot more to the game...but i am just talking about the story mode.
- 441
yeh they do.....i stiffen the car right up otherwise you are just ttoo bouncy and send the brake bias to the front otherwise you lock up all over the place, there isn't too much in the setup though.
- 3,300
I dont got any reviews but Pics would be nice, are there custom parts???
- 1,184
The first part of the main review. It's a big one.
This review was made by Dean Evans for the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine-UK Issue 24. This has been copied by Rossell AKA Nigel Elliott for the GTPlanet Forums. This is in no way intended as plagarism.
TOCA Race Driver
Welcome to Days Of Thunder, PS2-style. It's 90% frenetic racing action, 10% animated movie...
Here's what TOCA Race Driver doesn't have. There's no glossy TV-style presentation. No upbeat soundtrack as you drive. There's no easy "Arcade" mode. Nor are there any perfectly polished and quite indestructible showroom roadsters. Instead, TOCA Race Driver is gritty and unglamorous, capturing (whatever Codemasters meant to or not) the amateurish feel of lower league racing. What this game does have is fast and surprising rule-free driving. It also features realistic tracks from Europe, the Americas and Japan, over 30 different cars, extreme damage modelling, and cinematic race replays. It's also one of the first racing games to weave a lengthy cut-scene-based story line into its asphalt action.
This narrative is arguably the games strong point. TOCA Race Driver may simulate Touring Car-style competitions but its got the backbone of a movie - think of Days Of Thunder but on a global scale. In the opening sequence, young Ryan McKane and his older brother Donnie see their racing father get killed when his car is deliberately bumped off the track by a rival. Fifteen years on and Ryan is now an arrogant rookie racer hunting for his first competitive drive. His brother (also a racing driver) introduces him to pit chief Bobby Scott, who in turn sets Ryan up with a test for the AGB Motorsport team. AGB is looking for a driver to compete in the UK-based TOCA Tour competition. One easy hot lap later and you take on the virtual role of Ryan McKane, eager to embark on a global speed career.
Race Day
The introductory TOCA Tour sets the tone for the main Career mode Like all of the competitions, it's essentially a mini-season - 14 drivers contesting six races. In this case it's two races at Brands Hatch and one each at Oulton Park, Silverstone, Donington, and Knockhill. For the most part, the races featured in a season are run over three-laps. One race is slightly longer, but only to make a mandatory pit stop to make the affair more interesting. Unusually there are no qualifiying sessions. The game determines your start position in each race, again adding extra spice to the TOCA challenge. In some races you'll start on the second row of the grid; in others you'll be languishing back on the fifth or sixth row, forced to battle your way to the front.
You prepare for each race in the team garage. Here you get the chance to adjust the settings on your car to suit the circuit your racing on. Seven main vehicular elements can be tweaked - gear ratios downforce, suspension stiffness, ride height, anti-roll, brake bias, and the tyre types. As you take a spanner to the car, your pit chief will offer you words of advice about which settings you should adjust (although he never tells you by how much). By tinkering you can sacrifice downforce and grip for greater speed on circuits that feature long straights. Or shorten the gear ratios to improve your cars acceleration (at the expense of top speed) for the tighter, twisting tracks. Finally you can take your car out on the track itself - either to test your new settings or to famillarise yourself with the layout.
When it comes to the actual racing, the action is frantic and rarely without incident. Once the lights turn green, the chunky cars jockey for position, bumping into each other, bumping, smashing, and crashing into each other in a manic metal melee. You can choose from four main racing views - the classic drivers-eye option, an on-the-bumper cam, an over-the-bonnet view and a zoomed-out chase car perspective. A rear-view option is also included, while a large red arrow appears on-screen behind your car to give you an indication of a rival driver on your tail. Classy (although far from spectacular) 3D graphics bring the action to life as the heavily-liveried cars hurtle around the racetrack. The occasional rain shower adds to the non-stop drama.
Where TOCA shines is in its attention to detail. You get helpful, intelligent chatter from the pit wall as you race, urging you to drive faster, letting you know that you're in the points or warning you that there's debris on the track ahead. Smash deliberately into a rival driver and he might come and berate you for your bad driving in an animated cut-scene after the race. Worse then that, the victim of your aggression might even seek revenge during a race. If you've sideswiped him, he'll actively try and get you back for it.
But by far the most impressive element is the damage modelling. Windscreens shatter and bodywork dents, bends and and gets torn away from the chassis. Hit a wall head-on and the bonnet of your car will fly off, revealing the engine beneath. Repeatedly damage the same wheel and ultimately it will fall off, leaving you to hobble to the pits on the remaining three. As you race, debris begins to litter the track, an engine cover here, a spoiler there, all the result of car crashes up and down the track. It's also good to see that CPU-controlled drivers are as often fallible as you are. They will take corners too wide as they try to overtake, or brake too late and smash into the back of another car. You might turn into a corner only to see one of your competitors barrel-rolling in spectacular style, giving you breathless seconds to swerve and avoid a race-ending collision.
This review was made by Dean Evans for the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine-UK Issue 24. This has been copied by Rossell AKA Nigel Elliott for the GTPlanet Forums. This is in no way intended as plagarism.
TOCA Race Driver
Welcome to Days Of Thunder, PS2-style. It's 90% frenetic racing action, 10% animated movie...
Here's what TOCA Race Driver doesn't have. There's no glossy TV-style presentation. No upbeat soundtrack as you drive. There's no easy "Arcade" mode. Nor are there any perfectly polished and quite indestructible showroom roadsters. Instead, TOCA Race Driver is gritty and unglamorous, capturing (whatever Codemasters meant to or not) the amateurish feel of lower league racing. What this game does have is fast and surprising rule-free driving. It also features realistic tracks from Europe, the Americas and Japan, over 30 different cars, extreme damage modelling, and cinematic race replays. It's also one of the first racing games to weave a lengthy cut-scene-based story line into its asphalt action.
This narrative is arguably the games strong point. TOCA Race Driver may simulate Touring Car-style competitions but its got the backbone of a movie - think of Days Of Thunder but on a global scale. In the opening sequence, young Ryan McKane and his older brother Donnie see their racing father get killed when his car is deliberately bumped off the track by a rival. Fifteen years on and Ryan is now an arrogant rookie racer hunting for his first competitive drive. His brother (also a racing driver) introduces him to pit chief Bobby Scott, who in turn sets Ryan up with a test for the AGB Motorsport team. AGB is looking for a driver to compete in the UK-based TOCA Tour competition. One easy hot lap later and you take on the virtual role of Ryan McKane, eager to embark on a global speed career.
Race Day
The introductory TOCA Tour sets the tone for the main Career mode Like all of the competitions, it's essentially a mini-season - 14 drivers contesting six races. In this case it's two races at Brands Hatch and one each at Oulton Park, Silverstone, Donington, and Knockhill. For the most part, the races featured in a season are run over three-laps. One race is slightly longer, but only to make a mandatory pit stop to make the affair more interesting. Unusually there are no qualifiying sessions. The game determines your start position in each race, again adding extra spice to the TOCA challenge. In some races you'll start on the second row of the grid; in others you'll be languishing back on the fifth or sixth row, forced to battle your way to the front.
You prepare for each race in the team garage. Here you get the chance to adjust the settings on your car to suit the circuit your racing on. Seven main vehicular elements can be tweaked - gear ratios downforce, suspension stiffness, ride height, anti-roll, brake bias, and the tyre types. As you take a spanner to the car, your pit chief will offer you words of advice about which settings you should adjust (although he never tells you by how much). By tinkering you can sacrifice downforce and grip for greater speed on circuits that feature long straights. Or shorten the gear ratios to improve your cars acceleration (at the expense of top speed) for the tighter, twisting tracks. Finally you can take your car out on the track itself - either to test your new settings or to famillarise yourself with the layout.
When it comes to the actual racing, the action is frantic and rarely without incident. Once the lights turn green, the chunky cars jockey for position, bumping into each other, bumping, smashing, and crashing into each other in a manic metal melee. You can choose from four main racing views - the classic drivers-eye option, an on-the-bumper cam, an over-the-bonnet view and a zoomed-out chase car perspective. A rear-view option is also included, while a large red arrow appears on-screen behind your car to give you an indication of a rival driver on your tail. Classy (although far from spectacular) 3D graphics bring the action to life as the heavily-liveried cars hurtle around the racetrack. The occasional rain shower adds to the non-stop drama.
Where TOCA shines is in its attention to detail. You get helpful, intelligent chatter from the pit wall as you race, urging you to drive faster, letting you know that you're in the points or warning you that there's debris on the track ahead. Smash deliberately into a rival driver and he might come and berate you for your bad driving in an animated cut-scene after the race. Worse then that, the victim of your aggression might even seek revenge during a race. If you've sideswiped him, he'll actively try and get you back for it.
But by far the most impressive element is the damage modelling. Windscreens shatter and bodywork dents, bends and and gets torn away from the chassis. Hit a wall head-on and the bonnet of your car will fly off, revealing the engine beneath. Repeatedly damage the same wheel and ultimately it will fall off, leaving you to hobble to the pits on the remaining three. As you race, debris begins to litter the track, an engine cover here, a spoiler there, all the result of car crashes up and down the track. It's also good to see that CPU-controlled drivers are as often fallible as you are. They will take corners too wide as they try to overtake, or brake too late and smash into the back of another car. You might turn into a corner only to see one of your competitors barrel-rolling in spectacular style, giving you breathless seconds to swerve and avoid a race-ending collision.
Race Idiot
(Banned)
- 11,439
- Sao Tome and Principe
Y2T`s personal review on Toca
Wow gee looks like im not needed now but I think its good to have alternate opinions.
I can understand some of HUDSONJONES opinions because sometimes the game can be highly frustrating some times one small nudge can put you from 2nd to 14th on your roof with your car in bits and you saying "****IN W**KER I THATS THE 50th TIME THATS ****IN HAPPENED TO ME ARR I HATE THIS ****IN GAME" although this has happened to me with every codemasters racing game scince micro machines (oh appart from Colin McRae 2 wich was unusually very easy). The handling does seem a tad more twitchy compared to GT3, but it does seem less forgiving at times. The gt series of games have always been my No1 choice scince 1997, but I recently 100% GT3 and my interest in it has been waning for a while now. The idea of a game where the computer controlled cars actually have half a clue of what they are doing and ramming into obstacles would have more of a reprecussion apart from a slight reduction of speed or bumping off another car. At the moment I am still in the first tier of racing which is called super sports although I am on the verge of unlocking the next tier of racing, which includes the DTM and V8 supercars cups. Personally I have found the races in TRD (new abbreviation TocaRaceDriver) exciting, examples include manic laughter when I accedentaly flipped over the leading car in the race on the final turn of magny course, sending me into the gravel pit as well but just enough to let me recover and win the race. Manic swearing as I am purposely taken out by a Peugeot 406 coupe for earlier tailgating. The races in toca just make GT3`s look dull, when I play GT3 I can relax and set fast laptimes easily, wheras toca im always on the edge of my seat concentrating as hard as possible. Also the game has a phenomenal amount of tracks, ive driven in germany, america, uk, japan, australia, france, canada and spain. I found it was exciting enough just to drive the car round the track and tweak the setups, which is what I have been doing more than actuall racing. Recently I have discovered the Australian nutter track bathurst, which I have only seen a couple of times on TV about 2 years ago. It was bloody hard but the track was amazingly fun to drive on, the first time I tried the track I basically wrecked my Impreza, but after a few attempts I was driving over those blind crests with my foot to the floor enjoying every moment. Then I tried it with my TVR Tuscan R and it was even more fun. Although I can see that this game wont take very long to complete, after about an hours racing I was halfway towards unlocking the higher tiers of racing and after playing it almost all day today I am near unlocking it. I was also dissapointed with the graphics, If you drive in any other view apart from the inside car view, it is almost (ok not almost) comparable to GT3, but I always drive on the in car view, although its not that bad and im usually too busy racing to notice the flaws. If you remember that GT3 is basically the best looking racing game out at the moment (ok ok GTconcept looks slightly better but I woulnt count that as a full game) its not so bad because it has 14 cars on track and full dammage to take care of. Sometimes the story can get in the way though, especially if your like me and want to win every race so you restart and have to skip the cutscene for the 30th time, and then you start racing crash, reload the game and skip the cutscene for the 31st time
but occasionally it throws you something interesting. Im not going to say wich game I like better because GT3 and Toca both have their advantages and dissadvantages. Basically if you stuck codemasters and polyphony digital together you would get one heck of a racing game 
Thats a kinda review isnt it?
Wow gee looks like im not needed now but I think its good to have alternate opinions.
I can understand some of HUDSONJONES opinions because sometimes the game can be highly frustrating some times one small nudge can put you from 2nd to 14th on your roof with your car in bits and you saying "****IN W**KER I THATS THE 50th TIME THATS ****IN HAPPENED TO ME ARR I HATE THIS ****IN GAME" although this has happened to me with every codemasters racing game scince micro machines (oh appart from Colin McRae 2 wich was unusually very easy). The handling does seem a tad more twitchy compared to GT3, but it does seem less forgiving at times. The gt series of games have always been my No1 choice scince 1997, but I recently 100% GT3 and my interest in it has been waning for a while now. The idea of a game where the computer controlled cars actually have half a clue of what they are doing and ramming into obstacles would have more of a reprecussion apart from a slight reduction of speed or bumping off another car. At the moment I am still in the first tier of racing which is called super sports although I am on the verge of unlocking the next tier of racing, which includes the DTM and V8 supercars cups. Personally I have found the races in TRD (new abbreviation TocaRaceDriver) exciting, examples include manic laughter when I accedentaly flipped over the leading car in the race on the final turn of magny course, sending me into the gravel pit as well but just enough to let me recover and win the race. Manic swearing as I am purposely taken out by a Peugeot 406 coupe for earlier tailgating. The races in toca just make GT3`s look dull, when I play GT3 I can relax and set fast laptimes easily, wheras toca im always on the edge of my seat concentrating as hard as possible. Also the game has a phenomenal amount of tracks, ive driven in germany, america, uk, japan, australia, france, canada and spain. I found it was exciting enough just to drive the car round the track and tweak the setups, which is what I have been doing more than actuall racing. Recently I have discovered the Australian nutter track bathurst, which I have only seen a couple of times on TV about 2 years ago. It was bloody hard but the track was amazingly fun to drive on, the first time I tried the track I basically wrecked my Impreza, but after a few attempts I was driving over those blind crests with my foot to the floor enjoying every moment. Then I tried it with my TVR Tuscan R and it was even more fun. Although I can see that this game wont take very long to complete, after about an hours racing I was halfway towards unlocking the higher tiers of racing and after playing it almost all day today I am near unlocking it. I was also dissapointed with the graphics, If you drive in any other view apart from the inside car view, it is almost (ok not almost) comparable to GT3, but I always drive on the in car view, although its not that bad and im usually too busy racing to notice the flaws. If you remember that GT3 is basically the best looking racing game out at the moment (ok ok GTconcept looks slightly better but I woulnt count that as a full game) its not so bad because it has 14 cars on track and full dammage to take care of. Sometimes the story can get in the way though, especially if your like me and want to win every race so you restart and have to skip the cutscene for the 30th time, and then you start racing crash, reload the game and skip the cutscene for the 31st time
but occasionally it throws you something interesting. Im not going to say wich game I like better because GT3 and Toca both have their advantages and dissadvantages. Basically if you stuck codemasters and polyphony digital together you would get one heck of a racing game Thats a kinda review isnt it?
It's out here - I'm ducking down to Chatswood EB to get it in about an hour.
My workmate here picked it up on the weekend - he hates GT3 because he reckons the racing's boring - and loves it - absolutely loves it.
...and yes, tuscan, that's a review - no doubt about it...
My workmate here picked it up on the weekend - he hates GT3 because he reckons the racing's boring - and loves it - absolutely loves it.
...and yes, tuscan, that's a review - no doubt about it...
Race Idiot
(Banned)
- 11,439
- Sao Tome and Principe
Bathurst is one crazy track man, but I love driving down those steep hills, well apart from when the car flies off the track and smashes itself to bits on the tyre wall. Also I found the BTTC part of the game the easyest, because I know the layout of the tracks well, looks like watching all those british superbikes, BTTC and british GT paid off
Well, all those of years TOCA will mean I'm pretty familiar with the British layouts, and the Australian circuits will come pretty easily (run Phillip Island yet?).
Bathurst is actually a public road - it's a few hours west of Sydney. If you ever come to Sydney try to get out there - the top of the hill is unbelievably narrow, and you're flat out walking up some of the sections. McPhillamy Park is scary at 60kmh, let alone 160kmh!
There's actually a permanent radar station down Conrod Straight, and the police cruise around there pretty regularly, so you can't be too silly.
Bathurst is actually a public road - it's a few hours west of Sydney. If you ever come to Sydney try to get out there - the top of the hill is unbelievably narrow, and you're flat out walking up some of the sections. McPhillamy Park is scary at 60kmh, let alone 160kmh!
There's actually a permanent radar station down Conrod Straight, and the police cruise around there pretty regularly, so you can't be too silly.
Race Idiot
(Banned)
- 11,439
- Sao Tome and Principe
I thought it kinda looked like a road and it does get helluva narrow. Well if I ever go to australia I probably would do that, although in a rental car . I think philip island is locked still, the only reason I have bathurst is because its part of the Pacific championship, which includes these 2 wicked Japanese circuits, one called Fuji (im assuming its near mount Fuji) and another one called T1 circuit Aida (I think) the latter circuit is great fun its all tight hairpins or long windy straights. Another gripe I have is that allot of the other racing series have made up teams, which is a bit dissapointing, well I suppose some of the cars you see do kinda look horible, I mean I was racing a lime green and pink impreza 
. I think philip island is locked still, the only reason I have bathurst is because its part of the Pacific championship, which includes these 2 wicked Japanese circuits, one called Fuji (im assuming its near mount Fuji) and another one called T1 circuit Aida (I think) the latter circuit is great fun its all tight hairpins or long windy straights. Another gripe I have is that allot of the other racing series have made up teams, which is a bit dissapointing, well I suppose some of the cars you see do kinda look horible, I mean I was racing a lime green and pink impreza
Race Idiot
(Banned)
- 11,439
- Sao Tome and Principe
They better be good comments or Ill err cry 
Race Idiot
(Banned)
- 11,439
- Sao Tome and Principe
wow its 4am in the morning here err perhaps I should go to bed and wait for your reivew.
Race Idiot
(Banned)
- 11,439
- Sao Tome and Principe
Hmmm ok then I will see your review then, lucky its a bank holiday for me or I wouldnt be up this late.
- 10,309
- San Francisco, CA
- Vasco506
- Vasc0
I went up to Bathurst once... Did you try the goldmining thingo there vat_man???
YEEESSSS!!!!! Do you live in Sydney vat_man because if it's out down here in Sydney then i'll go out and get it this weekend...Although i went down to EB on Sat'day and they didn't have it... (thinks it was out Sunday)
Did you try the goldmining thingo there vat_man??? YEEESSSS!!!!! Do you live in Sydney vat_man because if it's out down here in Sydney then i'll go out and get it this weekend...Although i went down to EB on Sat'day and they didn't have it... (thinks it was out Sunday)
- 1,184
This review was made by Dean Evans for the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine-UK Issue 24. This has been copied by Rossell AKA Nigel Elliott for the GTPlanet Forums. This is in no way intended as plagarism.
TOCA Race Driver
Welcome to Days Of Thunder, PS2-style. It's 90% frenetic racing action, 10% animated movie...
Here's what TOCA Race Driver doesn't have. There's no glossy TV-style presentation. No upbeat soundtrack as you drive. There's no easy "Arcade" mode. Nor are there any perfectly polished and quite indestructible showroom roadsters. Instead, TOCA Race Driver is gritty and unglamorous, capturing (whatever Codemasters meant to or not) the amateurish feel of lower league racing. What this game does have is fast and surprising rule-free driving. It also features realistic tracks from Europe, the Americas and Japan, over 30 different cars, extreme damage modelling, and cinematic race replays. It's also one of the first racing games to weave a lengthy cut-scene-based story line into its asphalt action.
This narrative is arguably the games strong point. TOCA Race Driver may simulate Touring Car-style competitions but its got the backbone of a movie - think of Days Of Thunder but on a global scale. In the opening sequence, young Ryan McKane and his older brother Donnie see their racing father get killed when his car is deliberately bumped off the track by a rival. Fifteen years on and Ryan is now an arrogant rookie racer hunting for his first competitive drive. His brother (also a racing driver) introduces him to pit chief Bobby Scott, who in turn sets Ryan up with a test for the AGB Motorsport team. AGB is looking for a driver to compete in the UK-based TOCA Tour competition. One easy hot lap later and you take on the virtual role of Ryan McKane, eager to embark on a global speed career.
Race Day
The introductory TOCA Tour sets the tone for the main Career mode Like all of the competitions, it's essentially a mini-season - 14 drivers contesting six races. In this case it's two races at Brands Hatch and one each at Oulton Park, Silverstone, Donington, and Knockhill. For the most part, the races featured in a season are run over three-laps. One race is slightly longer, but only to make a mandatory pit stop to make the affair more interesting. Unusually there are no qualifiying sessions. The game determines your start position in each race, again adding extra spice to the TOCA challenge. In some races you'll start on the second row of the grid; in others you'll be languishing back on the fifth or sixth row, forced to battle your way to the front.
You prepare for each race in the team garage. Here you get the chance to adjust the settings on your car to suit the circuit your racing on. Seven main vehicular elements can be tweaked - gear ratios downforce, suspension stiffness, ride height, anti-roll, brake bias, and the tyre types. As you take a spanner to the car, your pit chief will offer you words of advice about which settings you should adjust (although he never tells you by how much). By tinkering you can sacrifice downforce and grip for greater speed on circuits that feature long straights. Or shorten the gear ratios to improve your cars acceleration (at the expense of top speed) for the tighter, twisting tracks. Finally you can take your car out on the track itself - either to test your new settings or to famillarise yourself with the layout.
When it comes to the actual racing, the action is frantic and rarely without incident. Once the lights turn green, the chunky cars jockey for position, bumping into each other, bumping, smashing, and crashing into each other in a manic metal melee. You can choose from four main racing views - the classic drivers-eye option, an on-the-bumper cam, an over-the-bonnet view and a zoomed-out chase car perspective. A rear-view option is also included, while a large red arrow appears on-screen behind your car to give you an indication of a rival driver on your tail. Classy (although far from spectacular) 3D graphics bring the action to life as the heavily-liveried cars hurtle around the racetrack. The occasional rain shower adds to the non-stop drama.
Where TOCA shines is in its attention to detail. You get helpful, intelligent chatter from the pit wall as you race, urging you to drive faster, letting you know that you're in the points or warning you that there's debris on the track ahead. Smash deliberately into a rival driver and he might come and berate you for your bad driving in an animated cut-scene after the race. Worse then that, the victim of your aggression might even seek revenge during a race. If you've sideswiped him, he'll actively try and get you back for it.
But by far the most impressive element is the damage modelling. Windscreens shatter and bodywork dents, bends and and gets torn away from the chassis. Hit a wall head-on and the bonnet of your car will fly off, revealing the engine beneath. Repeatedly damage the same wheel and ultimately it will fall off, leaving you to hobble to the pits on the remaining three. As you race, debris begins to litter the track, an engine cover here, a spoiler there, all the result of car crashes up and down the track. It's also good to see that CPU-controlled drivers are as often fallible as you are. They will take corners too wide as they try to overtake, or brake too late and smash into the back of another car. You might turn into a corner only to see one of your competitors barrel-rolling in spectacular style, giving you breathless seconds to swerve and avoid a race-ending collision.
Touring Star?
Obviously, the aim during a race season is to score as many points as possible by finishing in the top six places. All points earned during the opening TOCA Tour season, irrespective of whether you win it, contribute towards qualification for the next racing "Tier". The TOCA Tour is just one of seven competitions in the first Tier (labelled Super Sports). Once you have completed it, you can scan your office email to see if any other teams are offering you a drive. With different tracks available in different tours, you're actively encouraged to switch teams and competitions. By doing so, you add the points gained in the TOCA Tour and edge closer to the total needed to unlock the next Tier of competition - Power Racing. The top Tier is the ultimate challenge, the Lola World Championship.
With ten points for a win and six races in each competition, there's a maximum of 60 points on offer per driving season. But winning is harder then it sounds. The racing here is tough and competitive - you'll need to test your car, tweak the settings and drive an almost flawless race to compete against the top drivers. And as you play, the story advances. Ryan encounters a love interest in the curvy Melanie Sanchez and a rival in super Brit racer Nick Landers. Moving up to the Power Racing Tier, Ryan faces his brother Donnie and the races get harder, the cars faster. There are rolling starts on US speedway tracks, tight street courses with dangerous concrete walls and fast Euro circuits with wide gravel trap run-offs. You'll also find Single Day Events to contest and one-off races (with identical cars and no set-up time) that offer ten championship points to the lucky winner.
TOCA Race Driver quickly becomes incredibly difficult, often frustratingly so. The games does allow you to recover from the gravel traps and get car damage fixed in the pits. But the level of competition is so high that once you make a mistake (or are slammed off the track by another car), you'll find impossible to get back up into the points positions. Like real racing, perhaps, success here is a mixture of skill and luck. You can learn a track inside and out and practise until you can break the lap record everytime. But races can quickly turn into an unofficial destruction derby before you reach the first corner - all spinning spoilers and shattered metal, with you caught in the middle.
The narrative is an excellent touch, though, realistically rendered and brilliantly voice-acted - not a wooden performance in sight. Admittedly playing as Ryan McKane robs you of entering your own name and seeing it emblazoned on the cars that you drive. But the evolving story gives you a reason to keep playing on even if you're a regular 13th place finisher. The pit chief comments also work well, adding a shot of authentic atmosphere, as do the snatches of animation that randomly appear before races. If we have to scrape a key down the bodywork of TOCA Race Driver (and run away), it would be because the camera are slightly twitchy, the controls less responsive then we'd like, and the quality of the replay lags well behind the cinematic playbacks wen enjoy in GT3 and GT Concept. TOCA is graphically impressive but is still not a patch on Polyphony's breathtaking efforts.
Still, TOCA's Career mode - a step ahead of what's offered in V-Rally 3 or even the forthcoming Colin McRae Rally 3 for example - provides real variety and longevity. Between tournament races, drivers regularly challenge you to one-on-one races in specific cars such as Mini Coopers or Dodge Viper GTS-Rs. Win the race and you unlock the car for use in the extra Free Time mode with its Time Trial, Free Race and split-screen multiplayer options.
There's so much game here, and the rising difficulty level ensures that you just won't breeze through it in a couple of days. The chaotic, bumper-to-bumper racing can be both a joy and a frustration, while races can be won and lost through luck as much as skill, just like in real life. But credit Codemasters for giving the CPU drivers some balls, for avoiding a stale F1-style procession, and for producing a game that gives as good as it gets.
Why'd we buy it:
-A huge amount of competitive racing
-Outrageous damage modelling
-An involving story-based boosted Career mode
Why'd we leave it:
-Tough and sometimes frustrating track action
-Fiddly, inconsistent, handling
Graphics: Heavily liveried cars and beautiful scenery: 8/10
Sound: F1 engines growl, Touring Cars whine: 7/10
Gameplay: Fast, tail-to-tail racing against reckless drivers: 8/10
Life span: Extremely challenging Career mode: 9/10
Final opinion: Another realistic simulation of Touring Car racing from Codemasters, blending tough and and uncompromising gameplay with an evolving story line:
8/10
TOCA Race Driver
Welcome to Days Of Thunder, PS2-style. It's 90% frenetic racing action, 10% animated movie...
Here's what TOCA Race Driver doesn't have. There's no glossy TV-style presentation. No upbeat soundtrack as you drive. There's no easy "Arcade" mode. Nor are there any perfectly polished and quite indestructible showroom roadsters. Instead, TOCA Race Driver is gritty and unglamorous, capturing (whatever Codemasters meant to or not) the amateurish feel of lower league racing. What this game does have is fast and surprising rule-free driving. It also features realistic tracks from Europe, the Americas and Japan, over 30 different cars, extreme damage modelling, and cinematic race replays. It's also one of the first racing games to weave a lengthy cut-scene-based story line into its asphalt action.
This narrative is arguably the games strong point. TOCA Race Driver may simulate Touring Car-style competitions but its got the backbone of a movie - think of Days Of Thunder but on a global scale. In the opening sequence, young Ryan McKane and his older brother Donnie see their racing father get killed when his car is deliberately bumped off the track by a rival. Fifteen years on and Ryan is now an arrogant rookie racer hunting for his first competitive drive. His brother (also a racing driver) introduces him to pit chief Bobby Scott, who in turn sets Ryan up with a test for the AGB Motorsport team. AGB is looking for a driver to compete in the UK-based TOCA Tour competition. One easy hot lap later and you take on the virtual role of Ryan McKane, eager to embark on a global speed career.
Race Day
The introductory TOCA Tour sets the tone for the main Career mode Like all of the competitions, it's essentially a mini-season - 14 drivers contesting six races. In this case it's two races at Brands Hatch and one each at Oulton Park, Silverstone, Donington, and Knockhill. For the most part, the races featured in a season are run over three-laps. One race is slightly longer, but only to make a mandatory pit stop to make the affair more interesting. Unusually there are no qualifiying sessions. The game determines your start position in each race, again adding extra spice to the TOCA challenge. In some races you'll start on the second row of the grid; in others you'll be languishing back on the fifth or sixth row, forced to battle your way to the front.
You prepare for each race in the team garage. Here you get the chance to adjust the settings on your car to suit the circuit your racing on. Seven main vehicular elements can be tweaked - gear ratios downforce, suspension stiffness, ride height, anti-roll, brake bias, and the tyre types. As you take a spanner to the car, your pit chief will offer you words of advice about which settings you should adjust (although he never tells you by how much). By tinkering you can sacrifice downforce and grip for greater speed on circuits that feature long straights. Or shorten the gear ratios to improve your cars acceleration (at the expense of top speed) for the tighter, twisting tracks. Finally you can take your car out on the track itself - either to test your new settings or to famillarise yourself with the layout.
When it comes to the actual racing, the action is frantic and rarely without incident. Once the lights turn green, the chunky cars jockey for position, bumping into each other, bumping, smashing, and crashing into each other in a manic metal melee. You can choose from four main racing views - the classic drivers-eye option, an on-the-bumper cam, an over-the-bonnet view and a zoomed-out chase car perspective. A rear-view option is also included, while a large red arrow appears on-screen behind your car to give you an indication of a rival driver on your tail. Classy (although far from spectacular) 3D graphics bring the action to life as the heavily-liveried cars hurtle around the racetrack. The occasional rain shower adds to the non-stop drama.
Where TOCA shines is in its attention to detail. You get helpful, intelligent chatter from the pit wall as you race, urging you to drive faster, letting you know that you're in the points or warning you that there's debris on the track ahead. Smash deliberately into a rival driver and he might come and berate you for your bad driving in an animated cut-scene after the race. Worse then that, the victim of your aggression might even seek revenge during a race. If you've sideswiped him, he'll actively try and get you back for it.
But by far the most impressive element is the damage modelling. Windscreens shatter and bodywork dents, bends and and gets torn away from the chassis. Hit a wall head-on and the bonnet of your car will fly off, revealing the engine beneath. Repeatedly damage the same wheel and ultimately it will fall off, leaving you to hobble to the pits on the remaining three. As you race, debris begins to litter the track, an engine cover here, a spoiler there, all the result of car crashes up and down the track. It's also good to see that CPU-controlled drivers are as often fallible as you are. They will take corners too wide as they try to overtake, or brake too late and smash into the back of another car. You might turn into a corner only to see one of your competitors barrel-rolling in spectacular style, giving you breathless seconds to swerve and avoid a race-ending collision.
Touring Star?
Obviously, the aim during a race season is to score as many points as possible by finishing in the top six places. All points earned during the opening TOCA Tour season, irrespective of whether you win it, contribute towards qualification for the next racing "Tier". The TOCA Tour is just one of seven competitions in the first Tier (labelled Super Sports). Once you have completed it, you can scan your office email to see if any other teams are offering you a drive. With different tracks available in different tours, you're actively encouraged to switch teams and competitions. By doing so, you add the points gained in the TOCA Tour and edge closer to the total needed to unlock the next Tier of competition - Power Racing. The top Tier is the ultimate challenge, the Lola World Championship.
With ten points for a win and six races in each competition, there's a maximum of 60 points on offer per driving season. But winning is harder then it sounds. The racing here is tough and competitive - you'll need to test your car, tweak the settings and drive an almost flawless race to compete against the top drivers. And as you play, the story advances. Ryan encounters a love interest in the curvy Melanie Sanchez and a rival in super Brit racer Nick Landers. Moving up to the Power Racing Tier, Ryan faces his brother Donnie and the races get harder, the cars faster. There are rolling starts on US speedway tracks, tight street courses with dangerous concrete walls and fast Euro circuits with wide gravel trap run-offs. You'll also find Single Day Events to contest and one-off races (with identical cars and no set-up time) that offer ten championship points to the lucky winner.
TOCA Race Driver quickly becomes incredibly difficult, often frustratingly so. The games does allow you to recover from the gravel traps and get car damage fixed in the pits. But the level of competition is so high that once you make a mistake (or are slammed off the track by another car), you'll find impossible to get back up into the points positions. Like real racing, perhaps, success here is a mixture of skill and luck. You can learn a track inside and out and practise until you can break the lap record everytime. But races can quickly turn into an unofficial destruction derby before you reach the first corner - all spinning spoilers and shattered metal, with you caught in the middle.
The narrative is an excellent touch, though, realistically rendered and brilliantly voice-acted - not a wooden performance in sight. Admittedly playing as Ryan McKane robs you of entering your own name and seeing it emblazoned on the cars that you drive. But the evolving story gives you a reason to keep playing on even if you're a regular 13th place finisher. The pit chief comments also work well, adding a shot of authentic atmosphere, as do the snatches of animation that randomly appear before races. If we have to scrape a key down the bodywork of TOCA Race Driver (and run away), it would be because the camera are slightly twitchy, the controls less responsive then we'd like, and the quality of the replay lags well behind the cinematic playbacks wen enjoy in GT3 and GT Concept. TOCA is graphically impressive but is still not a patch on Polyphony's breathtaking efforts.
Still, TOCA's Career mode - a step ahead of what's offered in V-Rally 3 or even the forthcoming Colin McRae Rally 3 for example - provides real variety and longevity. Between tournament races, drivers regularly challenge you to one-on-one races in specific cars such as Mini Coopers or Dodge Viper GTS-Rs. Win the race and you unlock the car for use in the extra Free Time mode with its Time Trial, Free Race and split-screen multiplayer options.
There's so much game here, and the rising difficulty level ensures that you just won't breeze through it in a couple of days. The chaotic, bumper-to-bumper racing can be both a joy and a frustration, while races can be won and lost through luck as much as skill, just like in real life. But credit Codemasters for giving the CPU drivers some balls, for avoiding a stale F1-style procession, and for producing a game that gives as good as it gets.
Why'd we buy it:
-A huge amount of competitive racing
-Outrageous damage modelling
-An involving story-based boosted Career mode
Why'd we leave it:
-Tough and sometimes frustrating track action
-Fiddly, inconsistent, handling
Graphics: Heavily liveried cars and beautiful scenery: 8/10
Sound: F1 engines growl, Touring Cars whine: 7/10
Gameplay: Fast, tail-to-tail racing against reckless drivers: 8/10
Life span: Extremely challenging Career mode: 9/10
Final opinion: Another realistic simulation of Touring Car racing from Codemasters, blending tough and and uncompromising gameplay with an evolving story line:
8/10
Okay - here goes, based on about an hour and a half's game play (and I just lost the BTCC on the first go after dropping the little IS200 on the outside of that first corner at Brands - oh well, at least I beat the Peugeots...).
Graphics: Guys, this ain't GT3. It ain't even Driving Emotion S. That said, tracks are clear, track side signs are clear, and cars are recognisable. If we'd seen it when the PS2 was released, we'd have been impressed - but it's been nearly two years now. There are some frame rate drops when there are mulitple accidents. Backgrounds are okay but not great. The damage is obviously a major plus and accident damage is quite realistically done.
Sound: Mixed. Impact sounds are good, and the BTCC cars sound right. The Aussie V8s do not, however - I don't ever recall them produced gear whine over the top of the motor.
Controls & Handling: I use the original GT3 Forcefeedback Logitech steering wheel, which is at least supported by the game. Steering effort is absurdly light, with limited feelback. Disappointing. Handling of the cars is, mmm..., odd. Vague almost. Not EA F1whateveryear vague, but vague nonetheless. This combined with the very light steering effort makes the control a bit frustrating. There are differences between the FWD, 4WD and RWD cars, although you'd think full throttle in second gear on dirt in an 600hp+ Australian V8 supercar would be enough to spin the car around - apparently not. Set-up changes do make significant differences, which is handy because the BTCC Lexus I started with initially understeered like a greyhound with broken front legs.
Racing: Yeah, yeah, the AI is good. Make the cockup and the AI car chasing you will go through. They make mistakes. They crash. They block. They do all the good stuff the GT3 AI doesn't do.
I'm still a bit up in the air over the story mode. Early on there are a couple of cringe-worthy moments, but there is one good moment when another driver comes to challenge Ryan after a race, who Ryan tells to 'let it go', and throws a paper plane after the irate opponent storms off. At least the characters look real.
There is a nice feature available that allows you to construct your own championships, and tune the difficult level, so that will help with longetivity.
So - overall. Well, when I race, I still go all the way through races without blinking, so the racing has that real edge on it that GT3 lacks - but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed with the controls. Deep down, I really think this is the old PSX TOCA World Touring Cars, updated to PS2 graphics, with a storyline added. I'm starting to think Codemasters has been gradually popularising the TOCA series since the very hardcore TOCA and TOCA2.
I do however acknowledge that:
- I have probably been 'overanticipating' this game
- I will slavishly sit down and play it to death anyway
It's very close. I'm not that fussed about the graphics, and if they could just fix the steering it'd be fabulous. Hmmm..., a decent graphics card, and I can customise the weight of the steering on the PC via the Wingman software. When was that PC release date again?
Graphics: Guys, this ain't GT3. It ain't even Driving Emotion S. That said, tracks are clear, track side signs are clear, and cars are recognisable. If we'd seen it when the PS2 was released, we'd have been impressed - but it's been nearly two years now. There are some frame rate drops when there are mulitple accidents. Backgrounds are okay but not great. The damage is obviously a major plus and accident damage is quite realistically done.
Sound: Mixed. Impact sounds are good, and the BTCC cars sound right. The Aussie V8s do not, however - I don't ever recall them produced gear whine over the top of the motor.
Controls & Handling: I use the original GT3 Forcefeedback Logitech steering wheel, which is at least supported by the game. Steering effort is absurdly light, with limited feelback. Disappointing. Handling of the cars is, mmm..., odd. Vague almost. Not EA F1whateveryear vague, but vague nonetheless. This combined with the very light steering effort makes the control a bit frustrating. There are differences between the FWD, 4WD and RWD cars, although you'd think full throttle in second gear on dirt in an 600hp+ Australian V8 supercar would be enough to spin the car around - apparently not. Set-up changes do make significant differences, which is handy because the BTCC Lexus I started with initially understeered like a greyhound with broken front legs.
Racing: Yeah, yeah, the AI is good. Make the cockup and the AI car chasing you will go through. They make mistakes. They crash. They block. They do all the good stuff the GT3 AI doesn't do.
I'm still a bit up in the air over the story mode. Early on there are a couple of cringe-worthy moments, but there is one good moment when another driver comes to challenge Ryan after a race, who Ryan tells to 'let it go', and throws a paper plane after the irate opponent storms off. At least the characters look real.
There is a nice feature available that allows you to construct your own championships, and tune the difficult level, so that will help with longetivity.
So - overall. Well, when I race, I still go all the way through races without blinking, so the racing has that real edge on it that GT3 lacks - but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed with the controls. Deep down, I really think this is the old PSX TOCA World Touring Cars, updated to PS2 graphics, with a storyline added. I'm starting to think Codemasters has been gradually popularising the TOCA series since the very hardcore TOCA and TOCA2.
I do however acknowledge that:
- I have probably been 'overanticipating' this game
- I will slavishly sit down and play it to death anyway
It's very close. I'm not that fussed about the graphics, and if they could just fix the steering it'd be fabulous. Hmmm..., a decent graphics card, and I can customise the weight of the steering on the PC via the Wingman software. When was that PC release date again?
