Customer Reviews

Race Pro

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I prefer the realistic racing games, so I play this on Pro against Very hard AI in Championship and Single Race modes. The AI is faster in those modes while the Career difficulty is much lower no matter what you do.

The game looks bad but is functional, the driving feels rewarding and well balanced even with a controller without any assists, the AI is challenging and there is good variety. The greatest thing about Race Pro apart from the car physics and controls is the track surfaces. Each turn has its bumps, dips and camber, so it feels like you're racing on a track, not a kitchen counter in the shape of a track like in Forza. This is what sets this game apart from others, I'd say. F1 2010 is also good at this. You actually have to learn to be careful about the track surface when you accelerate or brake.

Sadly, the AI is too slow on the city tracks and the only way to have fun there is to start in the back and try to make your way through the field, but even then, it's not very challenging. You get a better fight on fast tracks like Road America or Monza, but the AI still has a tendency to brake for no reason in some corners, but that's a problem in all racing games that I know of. The cars feel a bit too strong and I wish it were easier to wreck. The Formula Masters can take a 200 km/h hit and keep going, for example.

The pits can be a problem too, I got stuck there on autopilot and had to restart, or the AI cars will slow way down before pitting and you can easily gain 10 spots during the pit stops. I haven't found a way to turn off fuel consumption so I do have to pit during long races.

I've bought some DLC and so far, I'm pleased with it. DLC is not something I like, but there is no other game that gives me the kind of experience that Race Pro does, and I'd gladly pay for more well modeled tracks like these.

Pretty flawed game across the board, but the battles on the track and the car behaviour are second to none, at least on consoles. I sold Forza 3 and have no interest in Forza 4 now.

RacePro gives an meaty racing experience and with different levels of racing aids offers easy accessibility. If Forza 3 is steak, Race Pro is hamburger. Racing in Race Pro is super fun but the experience is dulled by the bland graphics not even close to those found in Forza 3. It has very realistic physics models and the cars handle really well but sacrifices in the area of menu presentation and track and off track graphics. With the poor graphics and general presentation the game probably won't keep your interest long. It's worth getting a used copy at a low price just for the fun of driving.

I had low expectations for this game (maybe it was the title), but I have been very pleasantly surprised. I am very much in the "sim" camp (vs. "arcade" style racing games, e.g., that horrible pile of junk known as GRID), and was therefore looking for a game that approximates the actual feel of driving at high speed. Race Pro does a good job of that, and allows for a great deal of user-defined tuning to that experience. It is true that the graphics are not spectacular and the experience is pretty limited to on-course racing (e.g., the career mode does not involve a compelling storyline), but for those of us that simply want to simulate racing, this last element is not a problem. The collection of tracks is interesting, containing some beauties (e.g, Brands Hatch) that have been skipped by other games. The choice of cars is a little unusual and does not contain the typical Porsches and Ferraris, but that actually is an added bonus. Overall, this is probably my favorite racing game due to its focus on providing a realistic on-track experience. Recommended.

First of all, this game is fun. I read a review elsewhere that claimed the graphics weren't very good; I completely disagree - I think they're brilliant on XBox 360.

The sim isn't as realistic as I expected. Now, I need to qualify all of this: I'm no Michael Schumacher and I know it! I'm not much of a racer, sim or otherwise. That said, I have a fair amount of sim experience (VirtualGT, GP Legends, GT Legends, et cetera, going back 10 years or so). So, I'm NO braggart! I'm just being honest.

Even on professional mode, it's not very difficult. I expected the level of the PC Legends games - Grand Prix Legends and GT Legends, et cetera. It's a great sim for an arcade game, but it's a lower level "sim" game. I understand the need to reach the masses and work on controllers, but with the wheel and pedal setup in professional mode, this game isn't realistically difficult. The handling of the cars is about 6/10ths or so, they seem to try to make it more realistic by bouncing you around or something.

Anyway, my real gripe is that in order to drive all of the cars, you have to unlock them in the most tedious way ever - going through boring races. It's annoying! You blow through these races, but it takes forever and it's boring. I wish Atari and SimBin had made a choice to either go hardcore or go arcade. The fact that they went 'tweener is a real bummer. Had they gone hardcore, with tough races for 10-15 laps races (30-100 lap races as you get more difficult), it might be okay. But instead you just have to sort of droll through it all to get to the good cars.

The tracks are awesome! The graphics are great! The simulation is okay, but the unlocking cars is irritating.

Anyway, it really is a fun game, but not quite what I expected. I hope that helps!

Good game overall. Needs more car views in garage. Nice in car racing view. Decent overall graphics but not great. Very adjustable according to skil level of player. I would recomend this game.

I really, really, wanted this game to succeed. For me. I prefer driving cars that behave realistically rather than "arcade racers", so I had expectations that this would be a great next step from Forza 2.

The major disappointment for me was that if this is a "sim" then it is a very limited sim. It may simulate the car physics quite well or even very well, but I expect a sim to do more than just physics. I expect it to stimulate as many of my senses as possible to recreate as close an approximation to reality as is feasible. Taste and smell may be taking expectations too far, but I expect good sound, good graphics and a good tactile feel. If any one or more of these fail, the sim has failed in my opinion.

The Xbox website states that Forza 2 is rendered in 720P and RACE Pro in 1080p, which sounds really good. Sadly, I found RACE Pro to look markedly inferior to Forza 2. I set up two Xboxes side by side on identical hi-def screens on the same track (Road America), at the same place in both Forza 2 and RACE Pro, and the difference was obvious. The track detail is just not there in RACE Pro, and the track surroundings are much reduced. A similar, but less rigorous comparison with Forza 1 said that RACE Pro is the better of the two, but that's to be expected in 2009

What I feel I lose with this lack of fidelity is not just a reduced feeling of immersion, but the ability to judge my cornering lines, or even know where the track is going. Too often I found myself off the track and not sure what I did wrong. I promise you that in the real world, I'm just not that dangerous!

This may also be in part a consequence of the lower frame rate because at 150 mph, your car is covering over 7 feet every 30th of a second. Forza's 60 fps halves that interval.

The game is probably optimized for driving with a controller since the manual does not even describe wheel setup. I find that decision strange for a "sim". While it is true that there is some force feedback on the Xbox racing wheel, it is very weak and generic. To me it feels like a somewhat constant self-centering pushback. By contrast, Forza 2's force feedback "tells" me lot of what is happening at the front wheels. I can feel bumps, and changes in traction. I can feel torque steering in high powered front wheel drive cars.

There are good things about this game, that many love. I just can't get past the graphics that make the world seem very indistinct and vague as I drive. I like the in-cockpit view, but that compounds my inability to see where I am on the track by reducing the area of visual information that I am getting about the track.

If you have Forza 2, drive a car very slowly in 3rd person view under a bridge and look at what happens to shadows and reflections, and then realize that when you are racing, you see these shadows and reflections on other cars on the track. They contribute to your understanding of relative positioning and feeling of immersion.

In RACE Pro, the shadows are generic. Cars continue to cast a shadow even when they are in total shade (such as under a bridge). RACE Pro cars do have reflections. But they are generic moving checker-board patterns that bear no relationship to the objects at the side of, or above, the track. You will see moving reflections even if there is nothing to reflect.

The game is also rather buggy, but I'm hoping they can fix that.

While there a are are racing games (PGR), driving sims (Forza), and a boatload of street racing games (NFS), there really aren't any true racing sims for todays consoles. Simbin has created many of the finest sims that call the PC home, but until this release, they haven't made the leap to consoles. Was it worth the wait?

Yes, and no

Yes, Simbin racing simulator fans will enjoy the challenging gameplay and simulation of racing with the convenience of playing on a console. While challenging, various levels of difficulty opens the game up to all players, and the ease of Xbox Live makes the outstanding multiplayer experience all the more accessible.

No, its not for everyone. First off, it is needlessly rough around the edges. As others have noted, more time or money could have given the game polish both in the menus and while driving. If you enjoy Forza, but want a bit more of a challenge, this may be a good game to try.