SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Review: GTR: FIA GT Racing

We are now becoming so used to games and simulations featuring accurate cars, tracks and physics that it must become increasingly harder for any developer to claim ground breaking leaps in terms of realism. Because of this, the reviewer and ultimately the user becomes more and more choosy and critical. We must bear in mind that even if this review at times can seem a bit critical and harsh, it is simply because the expectations are sky-high, seen in the light of the high fidelity simulations that we have become accustomed to, and the marketing hype that surrounds new titles (e.g. GTR, NASCAR SimRacing).

GTR is a full-blown simulation underneath the hood, and you'll realize that once you have bypassed the obstructions that have been put in place to hide that fact from the casual gamers and from reviewers who are not used to driving simulations ("where's the X-ray gun?").

GTR faithfully recreates the FIA GTR 2003 season with accurate car models, liveries and tracks and is packed with features like the MoTec interpreter, support of TrackIR, and LiveTrack.

Without pit-personnel, the simulation does come across as being a bit cold, sterile and uninvolving.

The setup options lets you enter the garage and adjust all parameters that can be adjusted in real life and the MoTec utility is a great asset when you study your laps and check percentage time on accelerator, on brakes and coasting, exit speeds, gear changes and a billion million other stats. This utility is simply and truly fabulous — provided you have an interest in these things.

GTR is supported! Despite some warts, especially a troublesome multiplayer code, SimBin continues to improve upon the product with patches. This is very commendable in a time when other developers sometimes seem to think that once the product is out of sight it is also out of mind.

You will still have to make up your own mind if GTR is the simulation for you: The cars must be driven precisely on the racing line and braking into corners or broadsliding out of them is simply not possible. You have to brake before the corner, coast through it and gently feed in the throttle during the later stages of exiting the corners. If you think this sounds like fun; go get a copy now!

GTR has raised the bar for simulations based in ISI's gMotor 1 (plus GTR specific enhancements) and SimBin have dragged every bit of extra "horsepower" from it. At times it feels like they have shoehorned a simulator into, well, an engine that at times gives up. We can hardly blame SimBin for limitations to the engine, such as not having a truly fluent and seamless 24 hour time-progression for the 24 hour races. We most emphatically hope that GT Legends and coming products from SimBin will utilize the much improved gMotor version 2, which can be appraised in the rFactor MP demo that is available for download.

Has GTR raised the bar for simulations? In my opinion yes and no. Yes because LiveTrack, and setups that can be downloaded from inside the game are entirely new features. No because everything else is a continuation of what has been done with EA's Formula 1 titles. And no because some of the old ISI gMotor1 feeling is still there.

The fans of hard core racing simulations should get this title as we need someone like SimBin who will make simulations for us, and I think that the coming titles from SimBin will raise their quality even more using the latest game engines available to them.

Minimum System Specifications

Microsoft Windows ME / 2000 / XP
1.2 GHz Intel / AMD CPU
384MB RAM
DirectX 8.1 compatible gfx card 32MB
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
1GB free harddisk space

Recommended System Specifications

Microsoft Windows XP
2 GHz Intel / AMD CPU
512MB RAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible gfx card 128MB
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
1GB free harddisk space

Reviewer's System Specifications

Microsoft Windows XP, SP1
2.5 GHz Intel / AMD CPU
512MB RAM
FX 5900XT gfx card 128MB w. 61.36 drivers
AC97 onboard sound card
>1GB harddisk space
Logitech Driving Force Pro Steering Wheel
ISDN connection

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