AI and Damage Modelling
The AI in TOCA RD 3 has had a bit of an overhaul, meaning drivers act far more realistically than before. Rather than just hug the racing line and cruise round the track in a procession stylee, the AI react to each other and as well as you and they also react to what you do on the track. Drive recklessly and slam your motor into the guy in-front and you’ll find him to be more than a wee bit aggressive from then on. T-bone an opponent into the gravel and don’t be surprised to find him returning the favour at the first opportunity. Of course, if you carry on driving stupidly you’ll soon find yourself black-flagged and pulled from the race.
One feature of TOCA RD 3 that again has had an updating and overhaul is the damage modelling, and here TOCA RD 3 is practically unique in being allowed to smash up digital versions of real world cars at all, so we’ll let Sam explain this one:
The damage modelling in TOCA RD 3 is based on the actual crumple zones featured in the real cars. I think the reason that the Codemasters are allowed to show damage to the cars is because what we’re trying to achieve here is a fun but realistic racing game and we’re approaching the subject responsibly. People see F1 cars or BTM cars getting banged about on the TV and, with the level of realism we’ve achieved so far, having cars bounced unharmed off of a wall or another car would’ve have taken away a lot of that realism… Knowing you can damage your car and that this will affect the performance characteristics means that you either race properly or face the prospect of having to pit to repair the damage you’ve caused, or maybe not even finishing the race at all!
Fine words indeed, but I wouldn’t be a true games reviewer unless I tested out Sam’s claims… Loading up a BTM race, I rolled my be-skirted souped-up road monster out of the garage and on the starting grid. On the green light I made a pretty good start and then utterly neglected to brake for the first bend, slamming full force into the car in front before careering off two more and taking a trip across the gravel. I took this opportunity to see if Sam’s claims about the physics engine dictating how a car acts and sure enough, I didn’t see perfect circles whilst pulling the obligatory donuts and different track surfaces did affect car handling… with two wheels on the tarmac and two on the verge, there was a definite pull as the grass dragged at the wheels, trying to suck me in… and giving it some welly caused a big sweep in as my grass-bourn wheels spun like crazy whilst the road wheels gripped and flicked me into the wall.
Of course, if all this simulation style stuff is too much, fear not as TOCA RD 3 has a fully fledged ‘drop in and drive’ section, accessible from the start where you can take part in the World Tour and experience all the thrills and adrenaline of the high speed stuff without worrying about all those technical niggles… not that you have to worry about them anyway, unless you want to.
The sheer scope and range of what’s on offer in TOCA RD 3 is something that could take pages and pages to explain, there’s just so much on offer here it become a bit mind-boggling… In brief you’ll be able to take part in over 100 individual championships covering 35 different racing disciplines and Sam reckons that’s more than any other racing game has ever offered… phew! Not only that, you’ll be able to race some of the classic racing cars from history… the most modern BMW WilliamsF1 Team car, through to Damon Hills’ championship winning FW18 of the 1990s, Nelson Piquet’s classic FW11b of the ‘80s, the Lotus 49 of the ‘60s right back to the Mercedes-Benz W25 Silver Arrow of the ‘30s. And if THAT weren’t enough, you’ll be speeding around over 40 championship circuits, from Brands Hatch and Silverstone to Nurburgring or the Shanghai International Circuit… TOCA Race Driver 3 has plenty to offer fans of pretty much any racing style and genre.
TOCA Race Driver 3 is due for release in February 2006 on PC, PS2 and X-Box.
