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Das großartige Treffen dieses Jahr wird nächstes Jahr wiederholt. Wir treffen uns wieder im Sauerlandpark. Diesmal ist der Termin noch nicht fixiert. Also schau im Thread vorbei und gib Bescheid, ob und wann du teilnehmen willst und kannst. Ich will auch!
Ede
Seggl
IGN Review
Graphics
ToCA may not dethrone PGR2 and Microsoft's upcoming RSC2 in graphics, but it does hold up fairly well. Environments don't have the visual polish that we've seen in previously-mentioned games. Courses are bright, colorful and look good enough from arm's length, but take a closer look and you'll notice rumble strips are prisms protruding from the ground with simple textures. Trees are billboards with textures slapped onto two-dimensional sprites and grass looks like something we'd pick out of an Easter basket.
Regardless, the graphics do hold up fairly well, especially when it comes to in-game car models. Each of the vehicles shine like a recently washed car (we get our vehicles at IGN washed by Wally's Carwash), but bash that beautiful ride headlong into a wall and it'll crush, crumple and deform like a real car would. Shards of glass, pieces of metal and even tires will fly off the car depending on the severity of the hit. And since this visual deformation translates to a vehicle that is less responsive or eventually doesn't work, you'll want to keep these rides as clean as possible
Missing are additional third-person perspectives--there's only one. We would have preferred at least two. First person is covered with not one, but up three different angles: bumper-cam, hood and, we like this last one, driver cam. The last camera mimics drive-specific sides. That is, drive a European or Japanese car and the orientation will be right-hand drive (most of the hood will be on the left); drive a American-spec car and orientation will be that of a left-hand drive car. But the most impressive part about the camera system has to be how it reacts. Thank Need for Speed Underground's over-the-top presentation during drag races for pushing the envelope. In ToCA you can almost feel the suspension compressing and decompressing as you go through whoops with rally cars or accidentally hop over rumble strips in first-person perspective. Vehicle hoods even vibrate slightly against the wind. It's a far cry from the days when first-person perspective felt like nothing more than a floating camera.
Sound
Getting the sound right in a racing game is a sort of black art. There's a lot involved in the process and not many are aware of how hard it really is to get a vehicle to sound like what you hear when driving for real. It's not just the sound of a blasting engine, but the wind against the car, the sound of the exhaust behind you, the tires against the tarmac--all these things add up to the sounds we hear.
Someone at Codemasters is listening, too. Sound is excellent and hearing the stereophonic sounds of a wailing engine, smoking tires or rumble strips is hot. Occasional comments from the pit aren't frequent enough to become annoying but add to the overall experience, as do the sound of crashing metal and glass against metal.
Closing comments
Our friends in Europe have obviously been listening to our pleas as ToCA Race Driver 2 features head-to-head Xbox Live support for up to 12 players--tying for online game with the most simultaneous players. A true sequel, but more of an '04 update, ToCA Race Driver 2 takes what we liked about the previous game and adds new cars, new tracks, improved gameplay and better visuals.
Normally the question would be does a sequel with 35 cars, 48 tracks and a lot of the same stuff warrant a purchase? For the car buff, yeah, it does--new cars plus additional tracks and we're sold. But even if motor oil doesn't course through your veins there's no doubt that ToCA Race Driver 2 is not only an amazing game, but worth the buy. The physics are amazing, the visuals just as good and the cars--well, they're race cars, new and old. Let's not forget the nearly 50 venues to race in.
Yeah, some might complain that 35 cars isn't enough, but I'd rather have 35 smokin' cars than a bunch of crappy ones. C'mon, it's $30 for ToCA Race Driver 2; that's nearly a budget game. Even if you bought Colin McRae 04 at the same time it'd be like getting two games for the price of one.
Graphics
ToCA may not dethrone PGR2 and Microsoft's upcoming RSC2 in graphics, but it does hold up fairly well. Environments don't have the visual polish that we've seen in previously-mentioned games. Courses are bright, colorful and look good enough from arm's length, but take a closer look and you'll notice rumble strips are prisms protruding from the ground with simple textures. Trees are billboards with textures slapped onto two-dimensional sprites and grass looks like something we'd pick out of an Easter basket.
Regardless, the graphics do hold up fairly well, especially when it comes to in-game car models. Each of the vehicles shine like a recently washed car (we get our vehicles at IGN washed by Wally's Carwash), but bash that beautiful ride headlong into a wall and it'll crush, crumple and deform like a real car would. Shards of glass, pieces of metal and even tires will fly off the car depending on the severity of the hit. And since this visual deformation translates to a vehicle that is less responsive or eventually doesn't work, you'll want to keep these rides as clean as possible
Missing are additional third-person perspectives--there's only one. We would have preferred at least two. First person is covered with not one, but up three different angles: bumper-cam, hood and, we like this last one, driver cam. The last camera mimics drive-specific sides. That is, drive a European or Japanese car and the orientation will be right-hand drive (most of the hood will be on the left); drive a American-spec car and orientation will be that of a left-hand drive car. But the most impressive part about the camera system has to be how it reacts. Thank Need for Speed Underground's over-the-top presentation during drag races for pushing the envelope. In ToCA you can almost feel the suspension compressing and decompressing as you go through whoops with rally cars or accidentally hop over rumble strips in first-person perspective. Vehicle hoods even vibrate slightly against the wind. It's a far cry from the days when first-person perspective felt like nothing more than a floating camera.
Sound
Getting the sound right in a racing game is a sort of black art. There's a lot involved in the process and not many are aware of how hard it really is to get a vehicle to sound like what you hear when driving for real. It's not just the sound of a blasting engine, but the wind against the car, the sound of the exhaust behind you, the tires against the tarmac--all these things add up to the sounds we hear.
Someone at Codemasters is listening, too. Sound is excellent and hearing the stereophonic sounds of a wailing engine, smoking tires or rumble strips is hot. Occasional comments from the pit aren't frequent enough to become annoying but add to the overall experience, as do the sound of crashing metal and glass against metal.
Closing comments
Our friends in Europe have obviously been listening to our pleas as ToCA Race Driver 2 features head-to-head Xbox Live support for up to 12 players--tying for online game with the most simultaneous players. A true sequel, but more of an '04 update, ToCA Race Driver 2 takes what we liked about the previous game and adds new cars, new tracks, improved gameplay and better visuals.
Normally the question would be does a sequel with 35 cars, 48 tracks and a lot of the same stuff warrant a purchase? For the car buff, yeah, it does--new cars plus additional tracks and we're sold. But even if motor oil doesn't course through your veins there's no doubt that ToCA Race Driver 2 is not only an amazing game, but worth the buy. The physics are amazing, the visuals just as good and the cars--well, they're race cars, new and old. Let's not forget the nearly 50 venues to race in.
Yeah, some might complain that 35 cars isn't enough, but I'd rather have 35 smokin' cars than a bunch of crappy ones. C'mon, it's $30 for ToCA Race Driver 2; that's nearly a budget game. Even if you bought Colin McRae 04 at the same time it'd be like getting two games for the price of one.
relikt
Nö.
naja ich weiß net was ich davon bisher halten soll.. auf der einen seite steht die tolle technik und die abwechslungsreichen fahrzeugklassen auf der anderen seite das gameplay hinter dem noch ein großes fragezeichen steht. DTM1 hat auch überall gute wertungen bekommen und hat sich ziemlich verzeiht, beschissen gespielt.
