Got All Day?

For my first full on game review, I thought I’d start w/ my favorite racer of all time, TD Le Mans for Sega DC! I’ve always been a big racing fan. Racing games account for almost half of all games I own. I’m really excited about some games that are about to come out too, on to the review!

Game Options/Info

1-4 players
VMU compatible, 31 blocks
Race controller, Jump pack, and Standard controller
Rated for everyone
Over 40 detailed cars
Two competition classes, GT and Prototype
5 play modes (Time Trial, Quick Race, Championship, Le Mans, and multi-player)

Mode Details

Quick Race. Basically your basic arcade style setup, just pick a car and go race. Great for getting familiar w/ the computer AI. You do have some options in the setup screen if you so choose. 3,5,7,10,15,and 25 lap options. You can turn tire wear on/off, same for fuel usage. For weather you have the choice of Dry, Wet, or Varied.

Time Trial. This is great practice, and you don’t have the other cars to fight with, so it’s ideal for the beginner. You have the same options as w/ Quick Race, with the addition of Continuous laps, which means no limit! Here you can also have a ghost car on/off. The ghost car is simple your previous lap, it appears as a faint image and has no affect on your lap if the two come together, its like a ghost! It’s cool to give you something to race against.

Championship has no options available. You are given a car or two to pick from and go racing. The tracks and laps are predetermined. Each level consists of 3 or more races, laps increase as you progress. You are awarded points for each race, you must have the most points at the end of each multi-race segment to progress. Before each level you are given a new car or two to select from. I am about a third into this and don’t particularly care for it. You can only save your games in the pits (more on this later), so pitting to save your game is basically suicide in this format. Therefor you must be committed to finishing all necessary races if you’re looking to progress to the next level.

Le Mans. This is what its all about. You can choose to do 10 min, 30 min, 1 hr, 6 hr, or 24 hr races. All races simulate 24hrs, except for the 24 hr of course. This is ultra cool because you get the change from day to night regardless. You have the same tire, fuel, and weather options as above. See gameplay for more on this mode!

Difficulty

There are three modes of difficulty.

Beginner is pretty much useless, unless you’ve never played a racing game in your life. It has stability control, which helps keep the car from fishtailing and spinning out, which isn’t too bad. The thing that is very overbearing is that the computer brakes for you in this mode, which is very annoying. Not recommended!

Intermediate. This is the area where I’ve done the most racing. It offers some stability control, but braking is all up to you. This is vital, cause in the Le Mans races, you can beat the computer cars most in the area of braking, some of the cars you’ll encounter are actually a bit faster, so out braking is essential! I also found it necessary to go through the races in this mode in order to unlock faster cars. If you go right into expert Le Mans races you’ll get your head handed to you (at last I did!). You can unlock cars in the 1 hr, 6 hr, and 24 hr modes only, and obviously you have to finish first. I didn’t find this to be tough. Even in 24 hr mode, I would save at my convenience, not when it was most appropriate according to the race situation, I still had a 17 lap lead when it ended.

Expert. Ok, here’s the challenge if that’s what you’re looking for. Here, the computer cars are fast, relentless (they don’t make mistakes!) and you have no stability help, meaning throttle/brake management (and the laws of physics) become very important. I’m really just getting into this, but its definitely not easy and takes a lot of concentration to keep turning consistent laps (I can’t imagine what it takes in a real racecar!).

Saving

Why would I dedicate a whole paragraph to this? Cause it’s a bit unique, some may not like it either. Here’s how it works. You can only get the save option screen by entering the pits. Upon entering you get a pop-up screen that gives options for fueling up, tires, and game saving. You can choose how much to fuel up, based on percentage (see qualifying for details). The reason this is so important is cause when you pit, you lose time, (30-40 seconds typically). In a tight race this could be more than enough to lose it for you, so pit wisely! Basically, if optimum performance is what you’re going for, then you only pit when you run low on fuel. Depending on your car, a tank of fuel will last close to an hour, so you see how this style of save option can be a real pain if you don’t always have a full hour straight to devote to your races.

Gameplay/Control (9)

I’m going to base this on the Le Mans races, as this is the highlight of the game. The other races follow the same format. If you are looking to do any of these races it is highly recommended (and in expert essential) to qualify and do it well. A tip, before the actual qualifying run, you have the option to go to the garage and tweak your car. Cut your fuel down to about 20%. You will only have two qualifying laps (the second will be the fastest) and the cars in this game actually recognize fuel loss in the speed and handling of the cars, which is very neato. After you finish, be sure to go back to the garage and bump your fuel up to 100%, starting a race w/ low fuel is not good!

The gameplay dynamics are very good. You have a few control options which is good. You can steer with the d-pad, or the analog stick. I choose the stick, as its more linear and responds to subtle adjustments better than the button mashing required of the pad. You can accelerate with the A button, or the right trigger. I choose the trigger as again its more linear and is more like a real throttle, meaning you can utilize partial throttle but only pushing in part way, where the button is on/off and requires tapping to get anything less than full throttle. For braking you can use the left trigger or the B button. I choose the B button here. I find it difficult to brake w/ the left trigger AND try to steer with my left hand. Also, the position of the B button is right where my thumb falls, so all my throttle/braking can be handled by my right hand. The X button allows you to view behind you (the view is acutally from the front of your car, so you can see yourself and your competition). The Y button changes your view. I always race in third person so I can see my car. I find it to be easier to judge my lines when I can see the car and exactly where its at on the track.

The cars offer a very realistic view of endurance racing. They handle as they should, based on the car of your choice. Computer AI is generally fair. The AI rarely goes out of its way to knock you around and screw up your lines, although if the AI is seeking the same line as you, it will hold it, hence contact. One of the details that is impressive is the sensation of speed is very good. This is enhanced by the ability to draft. As cars reach higher speeds, you’ll see two faint streams of “air” from behind the car. By positioning your car behind and within this stream, you get lowered wind resistance, hence a lot more speed, just like the real world of racing!

Graphics (8)

The graphics are outstanding! The car models are all very crisp and realistic. The backgrounds are very good, though there is minimal pop-up and aliasing. This game meets or beats virtually any PS2 racer overall, except for GT3 of course. Even a few of the PS2 games which may edge it out on the car modeling, generally get killed w/ brutal aliasing, making this a preference for me over-all. I think this edges out PS2’s version, which is titled Le Mans 24hrs.

Rain effects are pretty good. The raindrops themselves aren’t bad, but the spray from the tires and the overcast gloominess of the sky are top notch. The most impressive weather effects are the change from day to night. The sun effects are very realistic. In fact, when close to setting the sun sits low in the sky (as a big orange ball) and it stays positioned properly, and the car’s shadows are always accurate in relation to the suns position. The color of the cars also affected based on the suns intensity and position.

Cool details are things like the glowing of the brake rotors under heavy braking. They are especially impressive at night. The nighttime visuals are also very good. The track stays well lit, but the headlight effects are still very good. The nighttime lighting also gives the proper effect of artificial light, where was the daytime lighting actually accurately portrays natural sunlight. Puffs of smoke from the tires and exhaust are also well portrayed. Absolutely no slowdown or glitches in the graphics, even with multiple cars onscreen.

Sound (8)

They really paid attention to the details here. As far as music goes, I never use it in racing games. The music is your general generic techno arcade style, not really interesting IMO. The sound effects however are top-notch.

The engine sounds are not only accurate based on car, but they actually took care to highlight the IMPERFECT revving of a high performance engine. This is key, cause if you’ve ever experienced high performance engine sound, its not the perfect, lifeless, linear sound most games tend to produce. The tones of the engines are appropriate, from the beastly V8 of the Panoz to the midrange drone of the Porsches.

Another nice effect is the transmission. As you accelerate, and especially decelerate, the transmissions have a realistic “pop-pop-pop” sound. Engine revs accordingly to give a realistic vibe. Other sounds, such as rain spray, tire screeches, and the crowd are pretty standard fair for video games.

Overall (9)

Basically this is a great looking and sounding game which will satisfy any race fan. The multiple race options and levels of difficulty are ideal for the casual to hardcore racer. Includes numerous cars from major manufacturers (Porsche, Viper, many race teams) and a bunch of real world tracks. For less than $30 it’s a real steal for the DC gamer.