by: Jason Solorzano

March 04, 2009

Race Pro is touted to be the most realistic car simulation ever. Unfortunately it's about a hit or miss with Race Pro as some things come out to have a very arcade feeling instead of actual simulation. Race Pro is not going to give you anything out of the ordinary experience that you can get from any other racer. There is Exhibition, Career, Multiplayer, Championship (tournament) mode and local co op. But the thing that sets Race Pro apart from the other racers is the driving.

Driving just feels right with Race Pro. The feel from the cars are bar none the best out of any racing game you will play. The controls, vibration, everything just comes together to make the controller feels like a racing wheel. The In-car mode adds to the realism and should be mandatory for every racing game. Every car feels different, sound different, and have several nuances to get use too. Watching videos doesn't do this game justice in determining how realistic these cars handle. The problem is the crashes and car damage can seem unrealistic but it is something that can be over looked.

There are several modes to play with on Race Pro but the main mode is Career Mode. In Career mode you start off with a set number of credits that you can use to buy contracts to race. Each race is separated by car classes and areas to race in. On completely the contract, you are given more credits to compete in more racers. You can save some credits by doing a tryout qualifier and beating the given time. Once completing a class level then you can go to arcade mode and race with that car. The A.I. Drivers for Race Pro is pretty challenging though. It is easy to mess up while driving and the A.I. drivers seem to right behind you to take the lead even in the easiest difficulty.

A lot of the other modes are pretty useless. In multiplayer, there is no set of rules to follow while entering a race. All you do is drive with the same set of cars for a certain amount of time. There is no goal or race lobby so it’s practically useless. Even though this is a car simulator, some fun factor added to it would have been made the game more enjoyable to play. Instead of separating it by cars, different type of modes to play other than racing each other online or time attack modes would have given this game some legs.

Online is a bug fest and lag is definitely noticeable. It could be just my end but there is a problem where I go into super speed mode around the track. There doesn't seem to be a goal in multiplayer either. There was no lobby system or laps to be completed. It just takes you to a race in progress with a time limit. After the time limit is up then you end going back to the main screen to join another game. You are pretty much stuck with Career Mode until a major update comes along to fix multiplayer somehow.

Graphically, Race Pro looks about as average as a game can get. The environments are pretty cut and clean. Framerate is smooth and has no major graphical hiccups. The car models are a hit or miss. Some cars look poorly render and uninspired. Other car models look superb and nearly realistic. With some extra time the game could have looked a lot better but instead it stands out as a standard racer. The game itself doesn't look horrible by any means but it could have looked much better than it is now.

The sound is about as good as a racing game can get and has many customizable options that you can do; car engine, opponents’ car nose, etc. Their really is not anything that is not customizable with the audio. Each car also sounds different which was a major headache with some racing fans. I am not sure how each car sounds specifically, just that a mini cooper and a Ferrari should not sound the same.

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It is hard to sum up Race Pro with a score because it is meant to be a car simulation game above anything else. But I do not think that should excuse some of the other lackluster features like multiplayer and the other modes. The driving portion is excellent which what counts but fails in every other department gameplay wise. It does an average to above average in every other area. Race pro feels like a rushed title yet it is still a good game to rent. Some of the other features do not help the replay value in extending its life so it can be a buy. You can get the most out of Race Pro within one night.

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