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Toca Race Driver 3 - Discussion


Romier S

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Just announced today from Codemasters:

 

Toca Race Driver 2006

 

Like previous Race Driver games, TOCA Race Driver 2006 will feature a story-driven career mode that puts you in the role of a driver attempting to make a name for himself by competing in a number of different disciplines. This year's game will feature no fewer than 35 different motor sport disciplines, and it will also boast an all-new pro career mode in which you can choose one specialized discipline.

 

Disciplines available in the pro career mode will include GT, off-road, touring cars, historic, open-wheel, rally, and oval. The pro career mode will challenge you to race your way up through the ranks of championships that span the entire breadth of your chosen discipline. If you choose to pursue a career as an open-wheel race driver, for example, you'll start out racing go-karts, and you'll have to prove yourself in Formula 1000, Formula BMW, and three events before you're even considered for a seat on the BMW

 

A new interview with the developers

 

In TOCA Race Driver 2006 we have also taken online play even further, to fully re-create the excitement of real-life motor racing. Players can now compete in open or closed qualifying rounds, shoot-outs, and practice sessions. Each championship will be fully customizable, with players being able to select independent rules, race lengths, starting grid selection, and AI. Players will also be able to tune and upgrade their vehicles offline using the new track-telemetry feature, then take their saved vehicle setups online to compete against other drivers.

 

All but a few of the circuits in TOCA Race Driver 2006 are real licensed tracks. We now have over 50 licensed circuits, but just as importantly we have fully licensed all the route variations of these tracks, which in effect gives over 100 different circuit variations. For example, we have licensed the GP and Short versions of Hockenheim, which give two completely different racing experiences. We have also licensed more track and car combinations in TOCA Race Driver 2006 so the player has even more variety to choose from.

 

No word on if the budget price will continue for 2006 but I really liked the last Toca and played it online a whole lot with a bunch of folks here. Very much looking forward seeing more on this.

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Geez between Forza, MotoGP 3, GTR (my racing game of choice at the moment), etc the racing genre has seen a huge boost of quality simulations lately. I just dont think that TOCA is going to hold up to games like Forza and GTR unless they up the ante which doesn't seem likely. I enjoyed TOCA: Race Driver as much as the next guy mind you but at the time there were no alternatives to scratch my racing sim itch. TOCA's online support is great, has decent driving physics, vehicle damage, etc but if Forza winds up being all they claim it is (taking everything to the next level) then who is going to bother playing the "next TOCA". Not to mention GTR is coming to Xbox and the PC version is by far one of the most if not the most impressive racing sim's I've ever played. Anyway the more good racers the marrier I guess but I dont see myself playing the next TOCA nearly as much if at all. Who would have thunk it that there would be "too many" racing sims out in 1 year. Life is good for guys like me. :D

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but if Forza winds up being all they claim it is (taking everything to the next level) then who is going to bother playing the "next TOCA".

 

Me. I'll be honest, I enjoy playing Toca more than I enjoyed any of my time with Gran Turismo 4 or the Forza demo. I don't claim to be a racing expert by any stretch of the imagination. To be honest, the depth of conversation that so many racing fans on this forum have (such as you Cyberwoo, Darius, Sam P, Buck etc..) are far beyond my level of comprehension. (again, I'm not a huge racing fan and even less of a car fanatic). I do however know when I'm having fun or not.

 

Toca was quite enjoyable to me. I enjoyed the diversity in vehicles (never got tired of racing the big rigs), the handling of the cars felt good to me and the game was just "arcade" enough for me to get a great experience out of it (while maintaining a good bit of "sim" like function). The car damage modelling was also a great highlight. I loved trying to drive a completely destroyed vehicle through a race. :)

 

I certainly understand the devotion and passion allot of you guys have towards a true realistic racing simulator. I personally find them utterly tedious. The only "simulator" I really ever was completely involved in was MotoGP and that's just because the gameplay was so utterly enthralling for me. It just hit the right spot, dont ask me why. (it's why I so look forward to playing MotoGP3). Games like Rallisport, Burnout, Outrun 2, PGR and PGR2, and Toca I have a complete blast with though. Not that I lump Toca in the same category as a pure arcade racing experience like Burnout or Outrun but I think you understand where I'm coming from.

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Oh I absolutely understand you FutureVoid. I wasn't passing off TOCA 2006 as being an inferior game but just pointing out that I myself might not even be getting it this go around due to the other kickass titles that will be available. I thouroughly enjoyed TOCA for the same reasons you gave and it still might be something I would enjoy playing to take a break from the ultra realistic GTR and Forza (if Forza does indeed wind up being as real as they claim). In fact there is an arcade mode in GTR that feels very much like TOCA, PGR2, etc which is a blast to play. The bottom line here is we as gamers have alot of great choices to make when it comes to our racing games these days. From the ultra arcadey Burnout games, to the sim/arcade hybrid games like PGR2 and TOCA and now the ultra racing SIM's like GTR, Forza, etc. Great time to be a fan of racing games. :tu

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The bottom line here is we as gamers have alot of great choices to make when it comes to our racing games these days. From the ultra arcadey Burnout games, to the sim/arcade hybrid games like PGR2 and TOCA and now the ultra racing SIM's like GTR, Forza, etc. Great time to be a fan of racing games.

 

Definitely.

 

On a side note, I downloaded the demo for GTR this weekend. Haven't installed it yet but all of the praise you and several others have been giving it got my curiosity peaked. I'll post some thoughts on it when I get around to playing.

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Exciting times indeed!!

 

Totally see where you're coming from, Romier. There are quite a few people who enjoy a good arcade experience, but wouldn't mind some simmy elements (like damage, multi-race championships) thrown in. TOCA suits them perfectly.

 

I don't know whether I'll pick this up. GT4 has been keeping me busy and soon Forza will occupy much of my time. Between those and possibly GTR, I will have my racing fixes well taken care of.

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  • 7 months later...

So, demo out today. I just played it for a few minutes and I'm disapointed. I thought I saw screenshots that looked pretty nice and showed off a wickedly detailed damage model, but this demo hardly looks anything like those shots. Visually, it's not much to look at on a modern PC. And where the heck is that sweet damage?!?

 

Might still be a good game for all the crazy different kinds of racing it'll include (lawnmowers are in)...

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Just tried the PC demo. If this is any indication of what the final game is going to be like you can count me out. You couldn't pay me to play something that awful. Basically the demo was a showcase for the following:

 

*Horrible graphics. Where are the nice graphics from the screenshots? Am I missing something here?

 

*Horrible car physics. I did everything I could to try and lose control of my car and not once could I get the damn thing to spin out. Felt like I was on tracks.

 

*Cheasy damage model. Where is the sweet car damage from those screenshots?

 

Bleh I dont even feel like wasting anymore time talking about it. The demo is just plain bad anyway you slice it. You've been warned. Now if you'll excuse me I've got some real racing to do *hugs his copies of GTR and GTL*

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I didn't even realize this game had already come out! I'll be picking it up during my lunch today since it's on sale here for 29.99. Word is the game is an improvement on Toca 2, and the early demo was thankfully NOT representative of the final game. We'll see when I finally get a chance to sit down with it a little later tonight. Anyone else going to be picking it up? I still remember some of those big rig races we had online back in the day.:)

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After hunting for the damn thing for almost a week now (stores either sold out or didn't get any copies in), I finally purchased Toca 3 today. A buddy at EB called me the minute they got some copies in, and I rushed over during lunch to buy it (and pay off three of my March reservations). I'll be trying tonight for a little bit before our Live play sessions so if anyone sees me on, send me an invite and we can try some of the online stuff.

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Rented it and tried it out. Looks really good. Very rare framerate burps but overall it looks and plays real well. OBSCENE amount of variety. Creepy cutscenes but still funny.

 

Unfortunately I'm going out tonight so no live for me - plus I'm on the Blockbuster 30 Games for 30 Nights plan, so there's other stuff I wanna try out. But this one's a great game nonetheless.

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