SimBin throttles onward with a very realistic GTR Evolution

by Eric Silva

Fun factor: Boring

Worth to: Rent

In some aspects this WTCC simulator is as stiff as the plastic crowds overlooking the races, but it has its moments

Great presentation and nifty menus don’t make a good racing simulator - an overabundance of options do. Despite the game’s lack of the aforementioned it offers enough realism to make it a worthwhile title for all fervent racing simulator enthusiasts. We will probably get nasty letters from those enthusiasts telling us we gave GTR Evolution a low score because we didn’t “understand” it. And though this reviewer agrees that some gamers have to abandon their cartoonish notions of racing when playing a racing simulator, it’s hard to take a game seriously when some aspects feel like a rush-job wrapped in a professional package. GTR Evolution wants to be taken seriously but it unfortunately skids off track on some curves. It’s a solid simulator marred with annoying quirks.

Who are those foreign drivers tagging along on my ride?

The game starts off rather nicely. Slick menus in a mix of modern-classical music convey a refined sense of professionalism. This professionalism is quickly put to the test. Like in all race games you have a career mode, here called Championship, and the standard quick-race mode trademarked as R-Cade Extreme. What exactly was trademarked is dubious; it’s the same game as in Championship and Race Event (a trimmed version of Championship) minus some options. It does, however, only offer 5 cars to select from. All race modes except R-Cade Extreme let players select various racing classes (SR3 205, GT Sport, GT Club, Formula BMW, etc.) that include licensed cars and plenty of WTCC fidelity. The meat of GTR Evolution are the Race Event and Championship modes. Both ask players to choose a constructor nationality and a driver before starting a series of racing events. It all presents a very “International” theme.

So far so good.

Things get a little muddled when selecting a car. You must first choose a manufacturer – a rather pointless step since each one only offers one car to select from, sometimes two. Next comes selecting a driver - another pointless feature since drivers do not affect your car’s performance. You can check each driver’s info but it only restates his name and nationality (and clues you in on his age and city of birth). Before you start the competition you can customize the usual settings (number of opponents, their skill, the weather, automatic or standard, etc.), as well as some less common things like mechanical failures, damage sensitivity and stability help.

On to the pre-race.

Like in the real WTCC, you are allowed to have a practice run and you must set your qualifying time. Qualifying times are not mandatory but if you decide to skip them you will be placed last in the starting position. Qualifying times are just like in the real thing: you have a set amount of minutes to get the best lap time. Once you feel you’ve done your best you can hightail it and watch the other drivers at work using a decent camera feature. You can also customize your car by tweaking various parts like breaks, suspension, anti-roll bar or tire compound before the actual race. Nothing special here. You can’t purchase new gear; you can’t win new parts; you can only move the numbers around to give you a custom feel. You may also setup your pit stop presets to make stops more effective. It’s in this pre-race section you notice SimBin did a great job recreating the authentic sounds of a WTCC event. Engines roar, power wrenches buzz and megaphones blaze with typical prattle.

Ok, time for the actual race!

You have now entered… the GTR Zone

You start out in first perspective with a view of the steering wheel and dashboard. Again, the sound effects here are amazing. Switching between perspective views greatly varies the sound of the engine. The acoustics and claustrophobic feel of closed vehicles are topnotch. After a few laps you quickly realize this game isn’t about sound effects, it’s about driving, and first-perspective only makes an already hard game harder. So it’s off to the standard “action” (rear) view, only things don’t get any easier.

GTR Evolution, despite trying to be realistic, feels very unintuitive and unrealistic on the road at first, at least in the case of WTCC classes. Cars have an absurdly hard time with turns even when easing off the gas pedal or while breaking. In GTR Evolution’s defense, WTCC cars might perform that way – I wouldn’t know, I never drove in the Formula BMW or the GTP (ok, the closest I’ve ever come to a sports car was at a showroom). But as a gamer I would expect a certain amount of familiarity. Only the F3000 series “feel right”. And here is why: speedometer info and the actual perception of movement are unbalanced. While approaching a sharp corner a driver must take the outside edge of the curve at around 60 km/h (varies depending on the car’s grip, traction, weight, height and so on). Unfortunately, in GTR Evolution 60 km/h feels like 5 km/h. This prompts the player to take corners at a far greater pace than the car can handle. F3000 vehicles feel natural in this environment because of their high speeds. An F-series vehicle always feels slow at 60 km/h but all other series feel unintuitive. The result is either the driver ending up in the gravel or taking turns at a pace a snail would fall asleep on. You always have to watch your speedometer for the first few hours of gameplay. It is a perception issue and players eventually get used to it but this effect never really feels right.

The erratic physics, on the other hand, are not as easy to get used to. Nudging a wall of tires can produce infuriating results, like the car spinning out of control in bumper-car fashion or stopping dead in its track and flipping over like a turtle in zero gravity. Don’t get me wrong, the game isn’t slow (only on turns), but high speeds can produce some strange results. The problem could lie in the fact that GTR Evolution is better played with a steering wheel. A joystick will leave you losing control while trying to reposition in straight lines, at least at high speeds. The game simply demands a lot of precision from the driver.

Furthermore, the game’s realism gives the impression gravity is reduced by half. This is particularly noticeable while spinning out at 100 km/h and skidding the length of a football field through gravel and grass. Catching a patch of grass, even with a single tire, will often leave you in the dirt. No, my friends, GTR Evolution is not EA’s Burnout. After constantly losing control players begin to question whether cars actually behave that way in real life. We’ll give SimBin the benefit of the doubt because precise driving does give results. The game is only hard for those with an inflexible “action movie” driving mentality.

It’s all about realism… and mannequins watching the races

Like in real races coming in contact with other drivers will produce unwanted consequences, so pushing your way through crowds is out of the question. Admittedly this takes some getting used to but at least the other drivers are aware of that fact. You will rarely get bumped by a computer controlled player. Avoiding contact and taking it easy around corners is the key to success. SimBin seems to be aware that its realistic quirks might be difficult for some because players are warned of incoming curves with a small arrow icon appearing in the HUD. The icon shows what kind of turn to expect (green arrows mean turns are mild, blue ones are moderate and red ones mean you’re about to enter the suck…)

Graphically the game is slightly below par compared to other mid-card racing games. Car designs are well rendered and dashboards could have used more details but they get the job done. The insides of cars are convincing and claustrophobic. More realistic tracks would have been nice, though. As much as I don’t like product placement in games, racing titles are one of the few genres that look better with them. GTR Evolution seriously lacks this. SimBin, AMD and other non-threatening logos are what you will ever see during races (though I do recall seeing Canon ads on occasion). The surroundings are also noticeably stiff. Spectators stand around immobile like plastic props - a fact that is accentuated by the slow turns that give you ample time to gaze at the surroundings. Their sight is unwittingly comical.

The races themselves are true to WTCC rules. Collisions will produce yellow flags and taking shortcuts will get you warnings. Breaking the rules during qualifications will nullify your laps. Passing a car in a yellow zone will get you a penalty. Nevertheless, GTR Evolution screams for more realism. There is some communication between the player and the pit but more radio chatter would have been appreciated. A yellow flag should, for instance, also prompt your team to give you advice and warn you of debris on the track. Besides the sound of roaring engines and the occasional text message there are no signs that you have a team on your side. This is especially true when making a pit stop. The pit stop area is virtually barren. As you enter it, the computer takes control of your car. While getting worked on you don’t get to see your crew. The camera simply moves to the first perspective. It’s all done with sound effects. It would have been nice to at least see some heads bobbing around you.

GTR Evolution also seriously lacks car customization options. Constructors are there to… you know, build the car, not to simply move numbers around. All vehicles seem cloned from the same source. The result is a hurried product that omits a lot of stuff that would have made the game better, like getting sponsors, investing in R&D, etc. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this is GTR Evolution. Points are the only thing pushing you from one race to the next, as well as a rather lackluster “congratulations” from your garage. The game lacks a feeling of progression.

A few nuisances hamper the actual racing experience. While racing, players can’t access their options menu. You can’t, for instance, restart your race or change the buttons layout. This wouldn’t be much of a problem had GTR Evolution not also come with a rather disappoint bug at the pit stop. In one of my races I had my car in automatic with a separate button assigned for reverse. Pressing the gas button a couple of times switches from reverse gear to first gear. In the pit, however, pressing reverse jams the computer AI in reverse. As stated above, the computer controls your car while entering the pit zone. Control of your car is given back to you once the computer exits the zone, unfortunately it can’t do that by going in reverse, and for some reason the AI wasn’t programmed to get out of reverse while in control of your car. The result was the computer reversing like an idiot until it got stuck somewhere, forcing me to abandon the race (get disqualified) because I couldn’t change my button layout and couldn’t restart.

Speaking of realism, SimBin did a great job adding wear to the vehicles. Tires, suspension, breaks and other items wear out depending on your driving style. This wear changes your car’s performance as things progress and adds a level of depth few racing simulators ever bother with. Stains on the windshield also accumulate over the course of time. Cosmetic damage done to the vehicle, on the other hand, could have used more detail.

Summary

In all, SimBin gives us a mixed bag. On one hand you have hyper realism; on the other you have some strange physics and perception issues. On one end you have realistic rules, licensed cars, real tracks, qualifying laps, realistic wear to your parts; on the other you have limited customization, no progression and unrealistically looking pit zones. And let’s not forget the plastic crowds and stupid autopilots. GTR Evolution has potential but the game definitely needs an injection of creativity and production to make it stand out from the crowd. We will definitely keep an eye on this franchise. It’s on the right track to becoming a great series. Unfortunately, SimBin seems to have run out of gas before reaching the checkered flag. But there’s always the next race…