SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Review: TOCA Race Driver 3

With Race Driver 3, Codemasters have managed to put a lot of content into this latest iteration of their Race Driver Series. With a wealth of cars, tracks and racing series represented on the DVD, and the addition of some much wanted features such as functional rearview mirrors, the ability to adjust race-length, the number of practice laps, and in some instances the duration of practice and qualifying sessions, the scene should be set for some serious motoring fun.

Launched with a very intensive marketing campaign involving videos showing off damage, physics and emphasizing the importance of using the proper driving techniques, the subtitle on the DVD-sized box proclaims the contents within to be ”the ultimate racing simulator.

Does the latest racer from Codemasters deliver? It rather depends on your expectations.

Installation

Installation went smoothly, but be prepared, it takes a lot of time to install Race Driver 3. You are given the option of a full install which will take up 7 gigabytes of space on your hard-disk, or a more minimal install which will set you back 5 gigabytes. As a minor annoyance, DirectX 9c was installed without any warnings or prompts asking if the user wished to install it. Some developers have long ago realized that it is possible to check for the version of DirectX on your computer and omit installation in the case that your version is up to date.

You are then given the option of installing GameSpy Arcade for online play, and finally something called ”Funster”, which looked entirely unrelated to RD3 as well as decidedly not my cup of tea, so I opted not to install that part.

Before first launch, RD3 lets you decide if you wish to change display and audio settings, and the calibration of screen and audio is done in much in the same way as we saw TOCA Race Driver 2 handle it; i.e. a spinning cube for the visuals, and a tone moving through the 360 degree audio spectrum.

I initially heard some tearing in the audio and thus tried lowering the frequency from the 44 KHz suggested in the default settings. That did not alleviate the problem, but going back up to 44 kHz seemed to cure the tearing sound.

And yes, it’s copy protected Jim. By an entity called Starforce.

First launch

Going into the options menu to set up the controller, I was delighted to find that a set up wizard was available and I duly used that to set up my Logitech DFP wheel. Or so I thought. Because when I started the first race which put me right in the middle of a race in the DTM series, I had no steering, no brakes and no throttle response. After a couple of attempts, I abandoned the wizard and configured my controller manually which worked much better.

Next little hurdle was the first challenge in the Renault Alpine as I suddenly had no sound. As it turns out, if I start the program from the dialogue box generated by the autostart after inserting the DVD, I’ll have no sound. Starting RD3 from the shortcut on the desktop works much better.

With controller and sound sorted, I was ready to race. Well, not quite. For the time being it is necessary to adjust your driver profile every time you launch RD3. If you do not select pro-handling, pro-damage and other pro-options, you’ll be driving the default settings which are in the realm of arcade-handling. I’ve seen rumors mentioning that this small problem should be fixed in an upcoming patch.

Who needs a proper manual anyway? The pamphlet that accompanies the product is more skinny than a supermodel, which seems to be the trend for manuals these days.

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