Pro Race Driver

by Atari

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000067DPJ
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: May 18, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,930 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Pro Race Driver features 42 licensed touring and racecars, including the Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon, Mercedes CLK, Alfa Romeo GTV, and Viper GTS. Thirty-eight international circuits are re-created under license, including Bathurst, Hockenheimring, and Silverstone. The 13 global championships include DTM from Germany, V8 Supercars from Australia, and the British Touring Car Championship. The state-of-the-art car physics engine was tested for realism by professional race drivers. A customizable car setup provides a uniquely true-to-life driving and performance experience. Real, visible damage is created using the crash test industry's FEM system, and it affects the handling and drivability of vehicles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Gran Turismo still better by far, February 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pro Race Driver (Video Game)

This game is well done, but do not believe those who say that it is the "next coming" of Gran Turismo 3. It most certainly is not. The handling of the cars in PRD is not realistic at all, even by game or sim standards. Codemasters says that actual race drivers tested the game and provided input; I see no evidence of that whatsoever. The display seems to be very low-resolution. Everything looks blurred. I have a high-definition TV and use a component video cable. GT3 looks fantastic; I can read everything including the smallest letters on the instrument panel and in the "GT Auto" screen. On PRD, my eyes hurt after 30 minutes of play. GT3 using the single composite video cable still has better resolution than PRD with any cable. What does Polyphony know that Codemasters doesn't?!?

The track map display on PRD is completely useless. The straights look jagged, chicanes aren't shown (perhaps by a single pixel to the side of the straight), the pit lanes aren't shown, the map rotates (some may like that; I don't), and the car indicators are so huge compared to the track (especially the player's car) that when you're near a corner you can't see any of the map because of the huge red dot. The manual says that your crew will set their opinion of the best settings for the car, but you can change them. In fact, every race with every car starts with the exact same "middle" settings. Adjusting the settings doesn't make as much difference as it should, but that goes back to the unrealistic handling. The cheat codes, for which you must pay, are nothing special either.

If you've never played a racing game on PS1 or PS2 (or Atari 2600), you may like this game. I think it was a complete waste of [$$$]plus shipping plus [$$$] for the cheat codes. Better off to buy GT3, or, if you already have it, buy another memory card and start a new game.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Racing Game Yet for PS2!!!, January 10, 2003

By 

James M. Stafford III (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pro Race Driver (Video Game)

Pro Race Driver is definitely an above-average simulation-style auto racing game. It can best be compared with Gran Turismo 3 in relation to the number of circuits in the game (some of which must be unlocked), although Gran Turismo 3 definitely has the upper hand in terms of the photorealistic graphics and the sheer number of vehicles. However, whereas Gran Turismo 3 has literally HUNDREDS of races and race series, there is no connecting thread or storyline to the game, and this is where Pro Race Driver truly shines.

Pro Race Driver's Career Mode has the player enacting the racing life of Ryan McKane. The game's opening film shows a young Ryan and his older brother at a race and watching their near-legendary father die in a horrifying accident. Fifteen years later, Ryan gets his first shot at a big-time auto racing series. All this is done with nice cinematic cutscenes which sometimes includes cutscenes with rival drivers and team managers based upon the on-track racing actions.

With forty-two licensed cars as well as thirty-eight licensed circuits from around the world, Ryan will have A LOT to overcome (including - and perhaps ESPECIALLY - his own ego) to become a legendary race car driver in his own right, surpassing even the racing community's high expectations of his deceased father. Unfortunately, Pro Race Driver does not include qualifying (this is the one major downfall of the game), so the player is stuck with wherever she or he is placed on the starting grid by the CPU.

Career Mode operates on the tier system. Tier 1 race series use the slowest cars in the game, whereas higher-tier race series use faster and more powerful cars. Again, there are certainly not nearly as many cars as in Gran Turismo 3, but Pro Race Driver does offer a good variety of cars nonetheless. Progressing to higher tiers of race series unlocks both the race circuits and the race cars of each progressive tier, and this immediately takes effect in all gameplay modes.

In Free Race Mode, however, the available cars for a given circuit depends on WHERE in Free Race Mode the player selects one or more circuits to use. The top of the Free Race Mode track selection screen is divided by race series; if one or more tracks are selected from within a race series, only those vehicles which can be used in the series will be available for selection. If the player selects a track from the Freestyle section at the very bottom of the track selection screen, then all unlocked cars are available to the player.

One of the nice things about Gran Turismo 3 is the ability to truly fine-tune each vehicle. While Pro Race Driver does not have nearly as many tuning options, it does offer quite enough options to take a car from extreme oversteer to extreme understeer.

Pro Race Driver does not use rules; in other words, there are no official repercussions (such as ten-second penalties or immediate disqualifications) for unsportsmanlike or dangerous driving, shortcutting corners, etc. Many corners (especially chicanes) do have barriers to ensure that all drivers (including the player) keep to the racing line, and there are plenty of sand traps and gravel traps to significantly slow cars which go off-line at many corners, but this is really the extent of the implementation of any 'rules' in Pro Race Driver.

The PlayStation2 features 256 levels of button sensitivity (for the X, Square, Circle, and Triangle buttons), and Pro Race Driver makes definite use of this feature (but fortunately NOT to the extreme of Total Immersion Racing). Pressing harder on the accelerator button (set to the X button as the default) will provide faster acceleration; pressing harder on the brake button (set to the Square button as the default) will provide harder braking (but pressing too hard induces wheel-lock).

Pro Race Driver seems to be best suited to a player who prefers a slightly- to somewhat-loose car, meaning that the back end tends to swing about. This means that drift-style racing is quite feasible for those skilled in this highly-specialized driving technique, and that plenty of countersteering will be required at most race venues. However, there are certainly enough tuning parameters that a player with good knowledge of car tuning can truly adapt virtually any vehicle in the game to a given circuit.

There are several bonus codes available for Pro Race Driver. These are entered in the Bonus folder of the Options file cabinet. Codemasters provides two bonus codes simply for registering the game and for Code M (Codemasters' online newsletter concerning its current and upcoming games, combined with its special members-only section of the Codemasters Web site); without giving anything away (hopefully), these two bonus codes definitely make the game a little more challenging, especially on tight street circuits such as Vancouver.

Overall, players will likely be spending A LOT of time with Pro Race Driver. To my knowledge, this game has the highest number of real-world race venues of all auto racing games available for PlayStation2; this fact alone makes it an excellent "collectors' item" for diehard racing gamers. Some of the circuits in Pro Race Driver include Hockenheim (both the short and long versions), Monza, Fuji, Aida, Zolder, Silverstone, Donington Park, Brands Hatch (two configurations), Nurburgring, and many, many more. The ability to truly customize races and even race series within Free Race Mode adds tremendous replayability to Pro Race Driver, in a way that Gran Turismo 3 and other PS2 racing games simply cannot achieve.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, December 26, 2002

By 

Andre L. Janniere (Miami, Fl. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pro Race Driver (Video Game)

The worst after so many delays I was angry.IGN's review gave such an impression but turned out to be false.The graphics are terrible(looks like GT1), the handling awful(GT1 handles better).They had the idea to even compare it with GT3 that is a big insult.People do not buy this game save your money or wait for a price drop and buy it used.This game had so much potential and they ruined it, they should have handed it over to the GT3 team to finish the product.I would not have given it any stars but the system won't accept it.These game developers need to realise that GT3 is the benchmark of all racing games and if it isn't up to that standard don't steal people's hard earned money marketing shoddy products.
I am sorry the truth is the truth GRAN TURISM LIVES FOREVER.

Andre Janniere