Customer Reviews

LeMans 24 Hours

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Le Mans 24 Hours brings home the experience and excitement of endurance racing. The LONG endurance races - Petit Le Mans (10 hours) and Le Mans (24 hours) - are extremely true to Nature in this respect. The tracking of the shadows as the sun crosses the sky during the day, the tracking of the moon and stars as they cross the night sky, the glare of headlights and taillights, the sound of the engines piercing the air, the drying of the circuit as a long, drenching rain gives way to clear, sunny skies; many of these changes are not easily noticed, as so much of your attention is focused on the mechanics of the race itself, and on anticipating the next corner. The exquisite detail afforded to the realism is breathtaking - IF you happen to notice it as you drive!!!

GAME MODES
Le Mans 24 Hours features five game modes:

1.) Quick Race allows you to immediately get started racing. Only four courses are initially available, however, more courses (including the three reverse-direction courses, all unlocked simultaneously) will be unlocked as you win races.

2.) Championship presents you with increasingly-difficult championship series; only the Rookie GT Championship is initially available, but winning each series unlocks the next series.

3.) Le Mans mode allows you to race for varying amounts of time in either the Petit Le Mans (up to 10 hours at Road Atlanta) or Le Mans 2000 (up to 24 hours). Winning at each race length (measured in time) unlocks more cars.

4.) Multiplayer allows for one-on-one competition.

5.) Time Trial is a great place to begin, allowing you to learn the courses on your own pace, with no other vehicles on the circuits with you to distract you. Once you learn the courses, this is where you can really work to improve your lap times. Beat the Goal Time for each course (normally two to four seconds slower than the Record Time for each course) to unlock a bonus car. Only four courses are initially available in Time Trial, but more will be opened as you win races in Quick Race mode.

PLAYABILITY
Le Mans 24 Hours is really a semi-simulation game. It is quite easy to pick a car and a circuit and simply go racing. The car set-up options are rather few, consisting of tires, engine, and downforce. In this respect, anyone old enough to hold a controller and keep a car somewhat on the approved racing surfaces will have fun with the game.

However, handling can be a bit tricky, especially as the tires wear down, or if you are using non-Wet tires in wet racing conditions. In this respect, Le Mans 24 Hours handles only somewhat as a simulation game, as it becomes easier and easier for the car to slide and/or spin.

Each of the circuits is rather easy to learn; some are extremely difficult to master in terms of beating that circuit's Goal Time to unlock a new car. However, the endurance races at Le Mans and Petit Le Mans are both what will likely cause people to buy the game, and cause the most frustrations and headaches as fatigue sets in, essentially simulating the experience of participating in a full endurance race.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Gran Turismo 3 truly set a high bar for all other PS2 racing games to achieve. While Le Mans 24 Hours certainly cannot match the greatness Gran Turismo 3 (primarily in graphics and sound), it certainly delivers an endurance racing experience, at least at Le Mans and Petit Le Mans. Diehard simulation fans will likely be disappointed, especially at the lack of car set-up options, while the novice racing gamer will still have plenty of fun with the game. With twelve circuits and more than seventy cars - of which the majority of both must be unlocked - Le Mans 24 Hours has extensive repeat playability; to unlock ALL the cars and circuits in this game will require several weeks, if not several months.

Overall, I rate Le Mans 24 Hours as a "4." In terms of sounds and graphics, it is certainly not a Gran Turismo 3, nor an F1 2001, nor a Midnight Club: Street Racing, nor a Ridge Racer V, all excellent PS2 games. However, the high level of playability for racers of all ages, the high number of unlockable features and resulting extensive repeat playability, and especially the experience of participating in endurance races (especially at THE most famous endurance race in the world: Le Mans) all accord Le Mans 24 Hours a "4" rating.

Having tried the original Lemans PS1 game by Infogrames I was ready for a disappointment. This game is a quantum leap in realism & playability. If you follow sports car & endurance racing, chances are you will find this game a blast.
You are given a choice of road-racing tracks from around the world including Road Atlanta, Donington, Brno,Bugatti circuit & of course the Circuit de la Sarth at LeMans. The LeMans circuit is very accurately modeled right down to the resturants on the Mulsanne straight. Its possible to match the lap times of the real cars that run the 24 hour race. The assortment of cars is very good & includes GT & sports racers. All the cars that ran in 2000 are there right down to the Deborah sports racer! As you progress you unlock hidden cars. Several very fast group C cars from the 80's are available including the Jag XJR, Lancia LC2 & Sauber. The vehicle modeling is very well done but the rendering of the surfaces varies from good to mediocre. Overall the graphics fall somewhere between Polyphonys' GT2 & GT3. There are some jagged lines & the cars are not as artfully rendered as in GT3 (Compare the Panoz GT & Corvette C5R from both games) This is not to say the graphics are bad, they are OK. If Infogrames can achieve the graphics level of GT3 they will have a better game than GT3.
Gameplay is very realistic, with handling akin to real competition cars. You cant sling these cars around & keep up with the AI vehicles in the hard mode. Just as in real racing, you have to learn the proper braking points, corner apexes & keep wheelspin to a minimum. In the normal AI mode, you can easily outpace your competitors. In the hard mode you have to work your tail off to compete. I found that I could beat the other cars thru the corners & under braking but your teammate driving an identical car ,has a 10MPH top speed advantage down the straight. Hey, who dropped the anchor? It is possible to draft competitors once you pass the 150MPH mark , but a proper rear view mirror would be nice. At times there are up to twenty cars on the track at once & unlike another game, you dont have six cars that would never appear together on the same track in the real world. Here,the choice of vehicles adds realism (that is until you beat the 2000 Audis with your 1988 Jaguar XJR)
The games' weakest feature is the sound. Whoever is responsible has obviously never heard the real thing. The Audi & Porsche 911's sound like dremel tools & the Nissans sound like emasculated mopeds. They did get the Panoz & Mercedes CLK sounding close to the throaty rumble of the real cars thereby avoiding an 'F' for sound.
Pit strategy comes into play & it's neat to enter the pits & have a realistically modelled pit crew spring into action. Unlike GT3, this game has the human touch. You actually see drivers & pit crew, no creepy driverless vehicles here!
The night racing mode is still there & weather conditions are realistically modelled, including a convincing torrential downpour complete with resulting fog. Unfortunately the night racing suffers compared to the PS1 version. Headlights no longer illuminate the surrounding scenery & you dont encounter the oil slicks or burning 911's by the side of the track . As reported,load times are fairly long & parts of the save procedures are a bit clunky. Still, these are minor complaints given the overall fun of this game. If you love Sports car racing, this game is for you! The good features far outweigh the bad & the game is fun to play.

Infogrames, with some more work ,you could have had a 5 star game here. Let's see a third PS version with updated cars, better sound & graphics.

This game is a superior driving experience. I love it. I find the graphics to be impressive, but it's the game play that keeps me coming back. Let's just say you're playing with the AI set to "hard" and you qualify 9th on the grid. You will have to race your heart out to move up positions and you can just about forget about winning: just as you would in real life. But you can have a heck of a good time trying. The computer lets you know at intervals how you're doing to cars in front of and behind you. I'll never forget how I had a 5 second lead over the second place car and how hard my heart was pounding as he slowly ate into my lead; a half a second a lap. If I had not got around traffic that later held him up, I would have lost. As it is, I won by a fraction of a second. That is game play, friends.
Other strengths: Beautiful physics. If you don't take a proper line going into corners you will lose time. Get on the power too fast and you will spin out in very realistic ways. And braking. There's no throwing these cars into corners and sliding through arcade-style. You must brake effectively to win. The best cars are those with great breaking. And speaking of the cars, the games set ups DO make a difference, high or low downforce plays a big factor on different tracks and different weather conditions. The cars that are unlocked later in the game are truly a pleasure to drive. Different cars have different engine signatures, which I love, and tire wear is very realistic.
Pit strategy is also a factor. Several times, I've managed a win by taking on only a limited amount of fuel at the beginning and planning a two or three pit strategy. The extra seconds do count.
There are a few negatives that keep the game from being note-perfect. The default music is horrible, but it is easily turned off so as to hear the engines. The AI on "hard" is almost ridiculously difficult. I have managed to beat it, but only after getting to be perfect on a particular coarse. There is no way a GT car should be able to catch my Panos open prototype car. There are no rear view mirrors, even though the manual says there are. This can be annoying when racing close. Hitting the rear view is not an option in these situations.
It's a cliche, but I really can't recommend this game highly enough.

Great Value! Lots of Fun! Even now in 02 this Game is still a lot of fun. The only thing is the graphics.... the are very good but not excellent. Especially behind the wheel looking at the track but then the replay mode is beautiful and to drive into the night is fantastic! Pit stop is better than a lot of other racing games. The Cars feels real and oversteer can make you spin quickly. I can recommend this, it is real fun and good value especially now for a low price. I still love playing it and we have 7-02. Game Hint: For qualifying reduce you fuelload to a minimum ( like in F1 etc ) .

I haven't played it much yet, but there are some immediately obvious annoyances. Obviously, the load times is one. The save scheme is another. If you change the options, it saves when you leave the options. If you do a time trial, it saves when you leave. I haven't gotten to any races yet, but I assume it would behave the same. It would be nicer to have a save item in the menu, or even making the save optional, instead of being forced to save.

I found the graphics passible, and, as with GT (and GT2 minus its slowdown and other problems), it looks very bad compared to GT3, but isn't an issue once I get into the gameplay. Nonetheless, of the 4 PS2 games I own, it's easily the one with the worst graphics.

The sound is really bad. The cars sound like wind-up toys, and the music is better left off, which, fortunately, is an option.

I'm going to keep playing, since the gameplay has elements that GT3 is weak at, such as more involved pit strategies, a field bigger than 6 cars, weather and time of day. However, GT3 (and GT and GT2) will definitely get more replay time.
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After playing some more, the load times are still extremely bad. Some load time for tracks is understandable, but it's still extreme. Having to wait through the load screen to go from the track to the race standings or the menus is not understandable. Also, the "Race again? Yes/No" menu misses the point, as it doesn't circumvent any of the loading. The auto-save is annoying enough that I pull the save card out until I want to save my progress.

The racing itself is quite good, though. The weather effects are pretty impressive during the race, the clouds rolling in, or the muted sun though the thinning clouds. The rainy night racing isn't as well done, as the fake headlights do nothing to light up the road, so it means driving blind over certain segments of the tracks. The replays have graphical glitches, particularly when it's rainy and foggy, but I've never noticed any such problems during the actual gameplay. The chunky graphics, however, does affect the gameplay when on an unfamiliar track, as it's hard to tell whether the next turn will be a left or a right until it's too close to set up the correct line.

The normal mode AI is about as stupid as the GT3 AI. I haven't tried the hard AI.

There is only rudimentary tuning, so there's nothing like the Formula GT in GT3, where each track needed different settings for success. However, the downforce and tire grades can be changed in the pits, so the weather, tire wear, and fuel usage all factor into the racing strategy.

I read some of the early reviews and it didn't look good for the PS2 version. But I bought it anyway. What sold me was the chance to drive Road Atlanta, never offerred on any previous title. At first, the game was a disappointment. The controls didn't feel good, the graphics weren't spectacular, and the load times were extreme. But I continued through the different modes, learning the tracks and earning new cars, and at some point this game took on a new appeal. With the AI on normal, it is too easy. Put it on 'hard' and it becomes a real challenge. The controls are tight once you get the hang of it. The graphics are actually quite good, especially in replay mode. This is one of the highlights of the game. The replays are awesome. I've been racing video games since the Sega Genesis, and this is one of the best! I was surprised to find a Group C Jaguar available and it is fast! So don't be fooled by all the negative reviews here and elsewhere. Get this game and drive it. Le Mans 24 is a gem!

But everyone else should avoid it. It features long tracks and races that will feel like they take 24 hours to complete. Just depends on what your tastes are I suppose.

The graphics are awesome, the handling is pretty easy and we found that the roads are challenging for novice players. A definite negative is the loading time-it does take longer than other games. All in all, we found the game to be quite entertaining and recommned it to any racing fanatic.

I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to see fifteen of the 24 Hours of Daytona in February 2001, both because it was the first and only time NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt could participate in the event, and because it was my introduction to the beauty of endurance racing. Le Mans 24 Hours brings this latter aspect home. With over 70 cars available (most must be unlocked), players can try out the different classes in endurance racing. Very impressive are the day-to-night and night-to-day transitions, which are so naturally subtle as to be largely unnoticed as players (hopefully) concentrate on the race. Twelve courses (plus three reverse courses) are included in the game, so the focus is not strictly on the Le Mans race itself. Just as great is the addition of the Petit Le Mans (held annually at Road Atlanta). This ten-hour race is a great "tune-up" for the full Le Mans. This semi-simulation racing game will certainly challenge anyone, without being so difficult as to scare away racing-game novices. Overall, Le Mans 24 Hours really deserves SIX stars :-)

I played this game for about 20 minutes and it sucked from the beginning. Maybe I didn't play it long enough but shouldn't a game impress you from the beginning? The load times where unusually long and the graphics were less than impressive. I was hoping this would be similar to GT3 but it is no where near. In short, rent this one first and judge for yourself.