Final Thoughts
Finally, a word on the AI, which in the past, in many, many racers, has been pretty poor. Now I’ve had some chats with the Codemasters and the AI is one of the things that they’re tweaking as I write, but already it’s not looking too shabby. For a start, we haven’t got that ‘hog the racing line’ procession that we often see in a racer. Nor do we have the ‘AI cars are solid and immovable’ if you have a bit of a rub against them in a corner. Even at this still early stage, the AI is a fallible as any human driver. They back off if you shut the door on them after a bit of late breaking. They try and draught you to slingshot by on the straights. The get it wrong and head off cross-country if they run out of room on a corner… Whilst still not perfect, the AI is definitely shaping up to be far more realistic.
Click for larger imageOne thing I did notice through its absence was the ‘grudge system’, but this is still being worked on so no-one should make any early judgements on it. What will happen in the finished game is that if you run a driver off the road or slam into him through reckless, aggressive or careless driving, that driver will be rather anxious to reap some revenge next time you meet on the track. So if you late brake into a hairpin and end up implanting your front spoiler up his exhaust, be prepared for him to give you some rough treatment from then on. Once implemented, the grudge system, coupled with the damage modelling, should make TOAC Race Driver 3 one of the most realistic and accessible racers on the market with something for everyone to enjoy. Provided the Codemasters do all the tweaking they’ve promised, I reckon we could be looking at true ‘must have’ racer for 2006.
TOCA Race Driver 3 was previewed on the HEXUS.gaming Test Rig and will be available in February 2006
