Race Pro

by Atari

Product Features

• Thrilling Driving Experience: Players will feel every bend and burst of acceleration as well as every emotion from pre-race tension in the pit lanes to exhilaration on the podium.
• Unrivalled Racing World Realism: Users will be deeply immersed into the racing world with ultra realistic car models, official championships and tracks.
• Wide Variety of Cars: Players can choose from vehicles ranging from 200 to over 1000 horse power, GT cars, WTCC extreme cars, formula and production cars.
• Real Life Tracks: Gamers can experience the thrill of sport racing with over 15 real life tracks covering all continents, of which Macau, Porto and Pau are exclusive to RACE Pro.
• Real Life Tracks: Gamers can experience the thrill of sport racing with over 15 real life tracks covering all continents, of which Macau, Porto and Pau are exclusive to Race Pro

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001CZJOSQ
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 17, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,863 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #60 in Video Games > Xbox 360 > Racing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

RACE Pro recreates a breathtaking reality giving gamers the ultimate racing simulation experience so that nothing gets closer to the action and thrill of professional car racing. RACE Pro provides unrivalled realism and deep immersion into the racing world through ultra realistic car models and official FIA championships and tracks. RACE Pro offers a wealth of cars ranging from 200 to over 1000 horse power, as well as a host of championships including WTCC (World Touring Car Championship), Formula 3000 and Formula BMW. Gamers and racing fans alike will experience the thrill of racing these powerful cars on 13 real life tracks covering all continents, of which Macau, Porto and Pau are city tracks exclusive to RACE Pro, and US tracks Laguna Seca and Road America are brand new to SimBin fans.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great if you LOVE racing, but sparse on pretty much everything else., February 24, 2009

By 

L. Blum (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Race Pro (Video Game)

I LOVE this game. I love racing in general. I watch Formula 1, ALMS, LMS, SCCA Racing, WTCC, and Rallying. Forza Motorsport 2 provided me with my racing fix on 360 for a long time, but RACE Pro replaces it almost completely.

RACE Pro is about one thing: racing. Don't expect to be able to buy new wheels, turbos, or cams for your car. Don't expect to be able to apply custom paint jobs or sell cars in an auction house. Don't even expect to take place in online tournaments (unless they are organized by a fan community) or play split screen.

DO expect to have realistic physics (seriously). DO expect to have a BLAST racing online. DO expect to be punished for any mistake you make when you have all assists off.

Overall, this game replaces Forza in the "I want to race online against my friends" catagory (thankfully, I have a group of friends who also have the game - racing against them is obviously more enjoyable than racing strangers). Unfortunately, it does NOT replace Forza in the "polished game I can have fun with when I'm not online" catagory. In RACE Pro there are only two reasons why anyone would want to race the AI: To unlock achievements and to unlock cars. In Forza, you really don't want to race the AI either... but at least you can have a slightly less-boring time doing it (you can rank up in career mode, and the types of races are much more diverse and interesting). But to me, there is no denying that the physics and actual racing are better in RACE Pro. For example, you can rub without spinning instantly (like in Forza) but if you hit someone on the wrong way, you both will end up in the wall - the way it should be. The tire model is fantastic, and the way the game treats braking without ABS is 100 times better than Forza's system. These are just small examples - you really need to experience this game (WITH A WHEEL!!!) for yourself to appreciate it.

The Good:
-Awesome physics
-Racing is great
-Microsoft Wheel is implemented beautifully (almost - see cons) - you don't have to struggle to be fast with it like in Forza
-Interior/Cockpit view
-Diverse range of race cars
-Sound effects are awesome
-Flag Rules! Both offline AND online!
-Qualifying rounds! Again, both offline and online.
-Cool lobby system. It's like NASCAR 09: you join a room and enter a pre-race practice mode where you can drive the track, adjust your setup back in the garage, and then head back out to check how your changes affect your lap time. The host can choose when to end the practice session and move on to qualifying (or skip to the race if he has qualifying off).
-My favorite console racing game I've ever played

The Bad:
-So far, the online service is kind of lame. Sometimes you randomly lose connection to the host and you are booted back to the main menu. Adding to the frustration, if the host goes off the track and gets frustrated, they sometimes just quit - closing the entire game for everyone else. Hopefully a patch can fix at least the game drops.
-Force feedback is very weak with the wheel. This doesn't seem to be a constant problem for everyone - some people report that their feedback is fine, and others, like me, feel amost nothing. Some people don't have any feedback. This seems to me like a bug in the way the wheel and the game see each other, but who knows. If you have a modified MS Wheel where you can adjust the FF level right there on the wheel, then you should be fine - but for the rest of us, you can adjust pretty much every parameter of the racing wheel in game EXCEPT for force feedback (so we're SOL).
-Graphics are pretty meh. I wouldn't say the game looks worse than Forza but it doesn't look better (except for Cockpit View! That makes everything look amazing - seriously).

That's it! If you are expect GRID, don't buy this. If you are looking for a sim, buy this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great game, February 23, 2009

By 

C. Gonzalez (Colombia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Race Pro (Video Game)

I bought this game with very high expectations knowing how great simbin games for the PC are(the best). The game is great, the modeling of the cars and tracks and the AI in general is pretty good and competitive. They do sometimes pass you on the inside, through the gravel, unreal, yes very much so but still the game is great, close racing, realistic if you want it that way. I am sure the experience would be even better if I had a steering wheel(will pick one up soon)
Also keep in mind the price, how come this guys can put out a FIA licensed game for $39.99 when other generic driving games are no less than $60 when they are released. (This huge price difference can also be appreciated on their PC games) Good quality, good driving, good racing, good(and a lot of) cars, great real life tracks, and a very competitive price, get it now and pick up a steering wheel to enjoy it even more.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent but could have used a few more months of polish, February 21, 2009

By 

J. Leigh "jleigh7" (chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Race Pro (Video Game)

Pros:

- Price is good for what you get. I.e. a solid simulation engine.

- Game is highly accessible, even for novices. It allows you either race to qualify or spend more money to skip qualifying.

- Vibrations are depicted mainly by visual screen shake and stronger audio feedback than in Forza. This is to compensate for the lack of steering wheel vibration. Instead the forces on the steering wheel are used to give you a sense of inertia that you might be feeling when making a turn. You don't really get this sensation in Forza. Overall I think Race Pro's approach is more effective. If you want to simulate the vibrations of a car you can easily do so with a Buttkicker. Whereas it is not easy to simulate inertia without having to buy an expensive hydraulic car seat like a SimCraft APEX. Having a wheel tug at you is likely to be the best you can get on a small budget.

- Cockpit view also adds greatly to the sense of immersion which is now becoming a standard part of racing sims.

- Support for steering wheel is good- you can use the track pad to turn your camera while driving, which is not possible in Forza unless you use the standard game controller.


Cons:
- Does not have the large number of cars and tracks as Forza 2.

- Optimal racing line does not automatically adjust with your current speed as in Forza. This is a pity as it is a useful tool for helping beginners understand how fast they need to take corners. Instead, while you know you need to slow down, you don't know by how much.

- Menu interfaces and voice overs are minimalistic and not as polished as most other game titles these days.

- You cannot simply pick any car you want to drive and have a go around a track. You have to earn them in career mode.

- Some reported disk access latency when playing off the DVD. Instead you should install the game on the 360's harddrive.

On the whole, racing simulation enthusiasts will enjoy this game. If you're new to this genre you will get more bang for the buck by going with Forza 2, especially at the Platinum edition price of Forza 2 these days. If you like a more arcade-game-like experience rather than a simulation, Grid is probably a better candidate.