GTR - FIA GT Racing Game Review

By Kristan Reed Published 14 March, 2005

Authentic? Don't even go there.

Version tested: PC

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There are simulations, and then there's GTR. Simbin's lovingly crafted game observes such painstaking attention to detail that even an electron microscope would struggle to do it justice. It'd give the average Need For Speed Underground fan a nosebleed from 100 paces; and that's just in Arcade mode.

Being a racing game fan and a racing fan are quite clearly two very different things, so I apologise in advance to the racing aficionados for my utter ignorance of what the FIA GT championship is all about. My excuse is I'm too busy playing the games to have a real life, okay? Don't hurt me. Apparently it's now in its eighth season and forms part of the LG Super Racing Weekend. As such, GTR leaves no stone unturned in its quest for authenticity, with all the supercars your heart could desire (over 70 race cars, including Porsche 911, BMW Z3 M and Viper GTS-R), all 10 circuits lovingly recreated (Monza, Donington, et al) and 70 AI opponents to, you know, pit your wits (or wit your pits) against. That's the perfunctory 'features' blurb taken care of: what about the game?

Arcade? [laughs out loud]

'GTR - FIA GT Racing Game' Screenshot 1

It's important to note - before we get into how much GTR turns out to be a petrolhead's (there, we got it out of the way, third paragraph in, we can move on) wet dream - that it's not all about the simulation aspect. An arcade mode makes life somewhat easier on poor fragile souls not quite up to the rigours of big, hirsute, grown-up driving, with four difficulty levels allowing you to basically dip into any track and drive with any car.

The Sunday Driver level is undoubtedly where most gamers will want to start, giving you a quick three lapper, every conceivable driving aid and a somewhat underpowered AI to give an almost guaranteed victory once you've got a feel for the handling and the track layouts. It's sad to note that we're apparently not much better than Sunday Drivers after 25 years of playing driving games, but this is what most gamers will face when they try and drive GTR like a videogame. It's quite clearly so above being a mere videogame. This is feckin' science at work here.

Moving up through the ranks is as tough as expected. At first you'll routinely win any course with any car you choose. Move up a notch and they'll be snapping at your heels, but it's not tough to burst through the pack and take the lead. But the third of the four difficulty settings will wipe any trace of smug satisfaction off your chops as it suddenly becomes a real trial to get anywhere near the front, while staying there requires professional levels of racing knowledge; not just the right racing line, but the right revs, gears, you name it. Even an hour of determined practise will tame the flightiest soul. You quickly know precisely what you're up against. It's a brutal introduction to the main Semi Pro/Simulation dish which will really give any serious racing fan a run for their money, and probably lap them in the process and give a cheery wave.

The quest for the holy racing grail

'GTR - FIA GT Racing Game' Screenshot 2

What is slightly surprising, given how far SimBin has gone in its quest for realism and detail, is how GTR simply gives gamers the option to race every car on every track right from the very beginning. Unlike virtually every other racing game released over the past decade, there's literally no structure, no bona-fide arcade championship or campaign mode to get stuck into. Just all the cars, all the tracks, off you go. I don't know about you, but I believe that the best way to encourage players to hone their driving skills is building a structured sequence of progressively difficult racing competitions that they gradually battle through. This is simple common game design sense, and without it you're literally offered everything, with barely any incentive to play any of it other than offering you much needed practise in order to stand even the remotest chance of being equipped to tackle the Semi Pro and Simulation modes.

It doesn't help that from the very beginning you have a bewildering array of cars to choose from. As good as that might sound to old hands with an intimate knowledge of the car industry, mere videogamers who just want to be entertained by a decent driving game will doubtlessly feel slightly intimidated by all of this. Not only do you have little idea of how they compare to one another, you really won't know where to start. The best part of games like TOCA Race Driver 2 and GT4 is this sense that you're always getting better cars as you go along. You drive well, you get rewarded with a better car, and you can genuinely feel the difference instantly. With GTR it's a case of trial and endless error and with no prescribed learning curve to follow you'll simply flounder.

If you're not already a massive driving buff with an oceanic reserve of patience then all of this choice will be lost on the casual player, which is admittedly how I approached the game. I'm somewhat torn by all of this: as much as it's somewhat nice not to have to go through hoops to get access to all of the good cars, it also means SimBin has effectively passed up the opportunity to coax the less informed driving gamers into what is in most other respects a remarkable achievement. More accurately, Arcade mode is simply a Practice mode by any other name. This game is crying out for a decent structure to provide the hook; as it stands it's intimidation by gaming.

Noobs beware

'GTR - FIA GT Racing Game' Screenshot 3

But if you're prepared to overlook the Arcade mode's deficiencies then there's a game lurking within with (almost too) much to admire if your head is already loaded with technical knowledge about the finer points of understeering on the apex, warming your tyres, adjustable seats (true), three dimensional curbs and all the intricate technical knickknacks you could possibly wish for. Some might find it utterly boring, but, really, this game is simply not for them. Be wary of this fact right away. Instantly accessible this is not. It makes TOCA look like Burnout.

Essentially it's a case of plumping for Semi Pro or Simulation; the latter being largely the same apart from the obvious change of difficulty in terms of car control and minute amounts of periphery considerations in each race such as the 'behaviour' of the circuits (in terms of weather effects, rubber on the track etc) and the ability to turn off every single driving aid. Each mode comes with Race Weekend, Championship or Open Practice, each allowing racing fetishists to follow the exact same convention of practise sessions, qualifying - or just skip the lot and get straight to the main event.

The main modes are simply a brutal illustration of racing gaming science. There's practically nothing more SimBin could have done to make the game any more realistic than it is in terms of the driving physics and how the car physically reacts to the environment. It's getting close to the limit of what you can do on a PC to recreate a driving experience. Of course, no matter how accurate the physics may be, there's still one very important factor no driving game could ever represent - that of actually being in the car itself. It would be very interesting indeed to see how a real professional driver gets on with GTR, because without the real force feedback of the road and things like peripheral vision there's simply nothing anyone can do to simulate that adequately without some insane hydraulics solution and a VR headset. SimBin has tried to solve the latter issue by even going as far as providing TrackIR support, which somehow manages to scan where you're looking and adjusts the in-game camera automatically, but without the necessary hardware I wasn't able to try that cunning-sounding feature out. You can always map it to a joypad (as I did with the rather excellent dual stick wireless Logitech Rumblepad 2, which comes highly recommended, by the way), but it's something of an added distraction when it's already really hard work keeping your car on the road as it is.

Only the oil was missing

'GTR - FIA GT Racing Game' Screenshot 4

In terms of the rest of GTR, as a visual spectacle you can't help but feel it's one of the only things left that could be improved in terms of accurately simulating the sport. As things stand, even with a beefy Geforce 6800 GT under the bonnet, the game doesn't quite leave us quite as breathless as we were expecting. The cars are truly exceptional, but what lets it down ultimately is the generally flat and lifeless trackside detail, a few inexplicable frame rate hitches (where the game noticeably stutters every so often regardless of resolution) and less than stellar weather effects. Sure, you can feel the difference when it's pelting it down, but we were left with the sense that what we were seeing didn't really do the handling effects justice. What we really need at this advanced stage in the PC's history is a next-gen racer that not only pushes the physics envelope but looks the part too. GTR never really gets close to that elusive sense of photo realism that we all want someone to nail at some point.

What you're left with is a stunning simulator that true racing enthusiasts will be able to marvel at for months, but one that will be an incredibly daunting prospect for those of us just merely looking for racing entertainment. It truly goes off the scale in terms of difficulty if you've any intention whatsoever of playing it remotely seriously, and I've never come across anything quite this brutal. Even professional racing drivers would have a tough job, which begs the question whether it's really fair to rate it as an entertainment product? It's a marvellous achievement on paper, but our real-world experiences felt like a whole lot of hard work. Ultimately I have to try to score it as fairly as I can from our my perspective as a gamer who wants to be entertained and also appreciates what it's trying to do. There's definitely lots to recommend about it, and what you put in will be rewarded in time. But maybe I'm just not the sort of person that has the patience or the will to get so heavily involved, so take my opinion as a guide of simply what I think, not necessarily what its target audience thinks. Much like the driving in GTR, approach with extreme caution; the game's only as good as you are.

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7 / 10

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Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tiger_Walts #1 7 years ago

    Anyone tried this with the Xbox pad yet?

  • Floppy #2 7 years ago

    I tried playing Grand Prix Legends after playing the GTR demo. The normally tricky GPL just seemed so easy in comparison. I love it, but can understand all the points in the review.

    If you want a bonefide racing simulator, with fully configurable cars in every minute detail, together with genuine Motec telemetry software plugged in... this is the chap for you. This ain't no Gran Turismo 'top trump collect-em-up' game :)

  • lemonfist #3 7 years ago

    "Anyone tried this with the Xbox pad yet?"

    Yes. You can play the game with it, but a steering wheel would be mandatory if you wish to win any races.

    I pretty much feel the same way as Krudster about the game. I can appreciate GTR for what it is - a marvelous, quite possibly unequalled driving sim - but it's just not fun to play for someone like me who's used to powersliding and crash mode.

  • sir_tripod #4 7 years ago

    I've played this on PC with a FF steering wheel and pedals. It's immense fun. I heartily agree with the statement about having the smile wiped off of your face.

    It's a fantastic game although I've not managed to get stuck into it yet.

  • Stickman #5 7 years ago

    Good review. Probably too daunting for most of us seems about right!

  • Mant #6 7 years ago

    Regardless of the absent feature of unlockable cars/tacks. This type of game will come into itself just like GPLegends has with the online league community which ive start to see crop up here and there. Good but tough game. A one of those games where the engine doesnt sound like a bee in a biscuit tin for once!

  • UncleLou #7 7 years ago

    it's not photo-real waah waah

    Eactly. Developers manage it on the PS2, which is 5 years old now. Why not on modern PCs? Inexcusable.

    "waah waah it's ultra-hard so it must be realistic, cause in reality you can't drive a car in a straight line at 20 MPH without months of practice, just like in this game"

    ;)

  • grimboy #8 7 years ago

    I've played both Demo's and have been looking forward to the PAL release for a while...the game is a sim..your job is to learn to drive these beasts,then race them hence no unlockable stuff(thank god!)..my friend has the German version and it truly is stunning(although i agree about the tracks graphics..a bit bland),the engine sounds are the best i have ever heard in a racing game and the handling is superb.
    The thought of getting good enough to race online is your incentive and to be honest i think once you have this game installed other racers will become pretty redundant...this is what we Sim-types wanted,a game that is truly challenging and has a huuuuuge lifespan,prepare to uninstall most of your other racing stuff cos this beauty will become your number one priority.

    Anyone having trouble with frame stutter?As mentioned in the review it does happen every now and then and hopefully Simbin will patch it up soon.....although racing in the daytime seems to solve this,it's the only disapointing aspect of the game.

  • dynarama #9 7 years ago

    Saitek R440 is a good wheel - I'd recommend it.

  • linkster #10 7 years ago

    Benn pimping this for a good year now to anyone who'll listen. Absolutely fantastic.

  • Genji #11 7 years ago

    GTR - FIA GT? I guess the acronym would confuse so many people that they had to tag "Racing Game" on the end of it, just in case.

  • 3william56 #12 7 years ago

    /waits for the special edition with free anorak

  • Scientist #13 7 years ago

    How many people here have actually raced a GT car on a real circuit. If you haven't, stating that it is an accurate simulation is conjecture.

  • KiLlerKnight #14 7 years ago

    'HAAAA HAAAA, ok i have finally calmed down after laughing for the last ten minutes. If it wasnt for the DS Id have lost all faith in gaming with people like that buying crap like that.....'

    Yeah, you certainly need to calm down, and grow up. Not everyone has to like the same games. And those crap games are selling millions and are IMO quite entertaining.

  • Scientist #15 7 years ago

    I don't doubt the developer's pedigree; I am merely sceptical of gamers and forum posters talking abotu realism when they have probably never driven a real GT car.

  • lemonfist #16 7 years ago

    Yeah, and it's time for people to stop bitching about other people's preferences in games and gaming platforms.

  • #17 7 years ago

    "This game is NOT for the arcade gamer. And I can finally say "IT'S ABOUT TIME!!". I've been waiting for a game like this to surface for a long time. I was beginning to think that a truely authentic simulation that would itch my every scratch for realism would never come, but it's finally here."

    Agreed.... dying to get my mits on this. Remember a mate slowly getting me into the PC version of TOCA 2 which for the time was hard as nails. His style is a very clean line whereas I'm always edging over and back. Remember when I got a FF wheel and finally could beat him :)

    Looks like it's finally time to get another wheel.

    Love my arcade racing games, but will be nice to be fluttering the accelator peddle whilst mixing in some counter steer agin.

    BTW where's harry.

    seeing as this thread might bring some sim fans is there a decent modern combat flight sim for the PC at the moment? AFAICT Falcon was the last one :(

  • krudster #18 7 years ago

    I find it utterly misleading, personally, to imagine why getting a fanboy in to review something is in some way a useful exercise for the reader. We're not pretending to be sim experts, we're just a bunch of gamers giving our own perspective. The whole concept of only giving certain type of games to only the people who appreciate them is a nonsense argument.

    It reminds me of the argument publishers come up with when we review something that's maybe a exceptionally kiddified, and they have a go at us for basically not being young enough and not being able to appreciate it!

    Imagine how boring and pointless the site would be if every single thing we covered was written by its biggest fan? I don't see and objective analysis really coming out of that, and for most people reading it it would be fairly useless information.

  • GUSGT #19 7 years ago

    I tried the demo version and i have to tell that the game was not so good as i expected. And it was much more easy to play than for example F1 2002 (in this one the track details are better and itīs two years older).
    I want to prove the Full Version because of the great number and variety of cars, but the demo left me a little bit dissapointed...