Game Info

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: Polyphony Digital

Platform: PS2

Genre(s): Racing

Players: 2

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Release Date: July 11, 2001

Intro: 

I have to say, the intro to this game had me going.  The camera pans over the shiny curves of a sports car as the garage door opens and we are treated to some pretty sweet graphics as fluid enters the chambers and we have combustion.  Cars were shown on various tracks and there were so many to choose from.  I couldn't wait to get into the game and start earning some of those cars for my garage.  But, after a time, the intro got a little long and I was getting edgy.  I wanted to play.  I knew I could skip the rest of the intro and get the menu screen, but, since I was evaluating this game, I opted to sit through it.  

Getting Going: 

It's been said that gamers don't read the manuals.  There is something to that.  I'm one of those that would prefer to start playing right away and then read the manual for tips and tricks.  The menu offers Arcade Mode and Simulation Mode and I admit, I needed to go look that up in the manual.  Which mode did I have to play to play?  And the options menu was huge. I wasn't immediately sure if I had to do time trials, get a license, etc.  What did that all mean?  I admit, I don't play racing games because I spend too much time hitting the walls. For a player who plays all the time, the menu may have been immediately clear.  For a noob, it was kind of confusing.  The manual answered most of my questions, but taking time out to read it cover-to-cover in order to start playing had my playing hand kind of twitchy. I wanted to play, not read.  I'd like to see more of an in-game tutorial with this game.

Fun:

I'm really not good at racing games.  They're not my genre.  Despite this, I was having fun immediately.  I sucked.  BAD.  But, it was comical. I was getting better with every pass.  I was learning a skill and thinking I could get the hang of this.  That was fun.

Visuals:

Graphically, this game is gorgeous. It was the first thing I noticed. The lighting is amazing.  In the show room when you are looking at the cars you can see reflections on the floor.  The cars look like you'd expect them to look down to the last detail. 

Intelligence:

I didn't feel as if the game played against me very well.  The other cars just run into you.  They make no attempt to go around you, so, if you are in their path, they just kind of unexpectedly thump you.  And there's no damage to the cars.   If you run into another car, it will go off track a little, but come right back.  You are never out of a race because you've hit the wall or taken too much damage.

Immersion:

The soundtrack and sounds of this game are amazing.  I'd have liked to see more language in the game, however.  I'd like to hear announcing of the race or prompts from the pit.  But, still, when I was doing the licensing runs, I could hear the difference in the various car engines.  The only thing that seemed to keep me from feeling totally immersed in the game and what I was doing were the lack of prompts from the pit, which I felt would add a touch of reality, and the aforementioned lack of damage and movement in the AI cars.

Cameras:

Camera angle was a problem for me.  In Licensing, I was trying to see the road in front of me because I wanted to see where I was going to need to stop.  What I got instead was a wider view.  There is a rear view mode, but that didn't do me much good either.  I even got a view of my own car coming at me....um, no.  So, I guess, I would like to see a camera mode that included a first person view in which you can see what the driver sees, including the road ahead.

Controls:

This is partly just me because I am not good with racing games, but I found the controls to be very twitchy.  There were times when I knew I was moving to the left but my car failed to respond and hit the wall anyway and times when I way over-steered and had a tremendous amount of trouble getting the car back under control. 

The team did an awesome job with the HUD display.  There is a lot of information there.  Also, if you want to have the ultimate control of your car, there are a lot of manual settings available to you.  This is a huge game with a lot of detail thrown in.

Ideas:

I went into this game really excited for what I would learn from it and what I would take away from the experience and the game doesn't disappoint.  I can't say I took away a lot of ideas from this one, but it is my first game in the challenge and perhaps the biggest thing I learned is that I may have stepped out of my genre comfort level a little too soon.  I may learn more from games I'm unfamiliar with once I've critically analyzed games I'm more familiar with.  I may return to this game further down the road just for that reason.

Memory:

At first, I was playing the game and I felt like "I'm not going to want to turn this off to go to work" and I thought for sure I'd be coming back to it.  But, as my skills didn't improve, I simply grew frustrated and didn't want to play anymore.