Race Driver 2006
It's finally here: the first must-play racing sim on the PSP.
Published: June 21, 2006
The end result is a game that feels smooth and controls beautifully, allowing you to concentrate on the fun stuff: tooling around in a bunch of high-end cars that you'll probably never drive in real life. And this is what RD 2006 does best, replicated without the need to strip anything out just because this is "only" a portable offering. It's starting to feel more and more like the PSP will indeed be the kind of console-level experience on the go that it was played up to be, thanks in no small part to the work Sumo Digital has done here.
The TOCA series has always been very, very good at a few things, most notably the ability to throw a ton of cars on the screen at once and plenty of ways to damage them. Even as far back as the original PS one days, they were able to do dozens of vehicles that crumpled, deformed and busted in delicious ways. It wasn't quite Demolition Derby, but when the excuse of "our license doesn't afford it" was being used ad nauseum, TOCA was doing it with plenty of cars.
That said, the PSP version isn't exactly chock full o' destruction. Sure, you'll notice parts of the body getting some minor damage (usually the back), and at times chunks like the spoiler will pop off, but that's about it. It's not a huge deal, because the game manages to cram a ton of cars on screen at times without choking too much, but I do miss the days of seeing more panels flying off.
The rest of the game runs at a decent clip (understandable given that the visuals are dithered), but the framerate is sluggish and at times it makes for a bit of difficulty at judging speed -- especially since the LOD updates are fairly close so brake lights don't update until you're right up on a car. Much of the game is spent using other drivers' braking to learn when to make passing moves, so this is an annoyance.
The audio, thankfully, is far more solid. There are no licensed tracks to shuffle through or get tired off (in fact, aside from the menus, there's really no music to speak of), just sweet, sweet engine sounds, and they do sound lovely indeed. Though you'll notice just about all vehicles sound the same when they collide, there's a nice bit of variety in the radio chatter, enough that the races actually feel different.
The bottom line is that this is a very, very good racing sim, not just in terms of a portable, but on consoles. Fans of Race Driver 2 actually have more to enjoy in the way of the Trans-World Cup, and anyone new to the series is going to find many an hour of stuff to plug through before they're finished with everything. Though we may have to wait a while for Gran Turismo, this is certainly enough to hold everyone over, and is yet another notch on a growing list of PSP titles that very easily justify that sticker price.
