GTR - FIA GT Racing Game Review

Overall Rating

Lots of options
Very deep (so I'm told)

Buggy
Constantly freezes your system (even with downloads)
Will not recognise joy pads
Awful keyboard controls
Jittery frame rate (even on a beast of a PC)

GTR has received widespread acclaim in the gaming press, with PC Gamer awarding it 92% and quoting that it is "Astonishing, Accurate... Incredible", and PC Zone praising it as "The most realistic driving simulation that we've ever burnt rubber in" (sic).

These accolades are certainly high, and when I see compliments like those plastered all over a game's box, it often means that it is indeed a rather special piece of software. With this in mind, I happily handed over cash for what I expected to be the greatest driving experience possible - save for actually getting behind the wheel of a real car.

It certainly looks promising upon start up. The intro is impressive enough, and the wealth of game options is truly staggering. There are 3 different types of game available - Arcade (for fast and furious pick up and play racing action); Semi-Pro (a gradual increase in difficulty and damage options); and the full blown simulation mode (that offers true to life car behaviour, AI, and even a clutch to change gears with).

Within each of the different game styles there are a wealth of options that further expand the game, including various championships, a multitude of real life GT cars, and 10 'legendary' tracks to race on (with more available to download via the official website).

If you've read up to this point, you may be thinking that I loved this game. You'd be wrong - and here's why.

For all the options and professional presentation, GTR suffers from some horrendous bugs. For instance, I have never played a game that crashed so often. You may notice that I have not written much about the actual on track game play - that's because in the 10 or so attempts I made at actually trying to set a race up, the game crashed on 8 occasions!! I downloaded the patches and updates from the website, but they had no apparent effect. Never has the innocent action of pressing 'back' to quit a menu had such foreboding implications. In GTR it normally means total system lock-down and a swift press of the reset button.

Next, the game only recognised my joy pad on one occasion, meaning that on the two occasions I actually got into a race, I had to use the keyboard. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible to play, as the car careers across the track and onto the grass, or spins out at every press of the left or right keys. There are also about 700 different control options, so GTR is actually more like a flight sim than a driving game.

The game is visually pretty good, but not quite what you'd expect from one that requires such high system requirements. For example, my PC is a P4 2.8 GHz; with 1GB Ram, and a Radeon 9600 128Mb card. The game suffered from pretty bad slowdown when more than a few cars were on track (and I wasn't even running it at that high a resolution (800x600!!!!)). My PC will play DOOM 3, Half Life 2 and Painkiller, all at maximum resolution, with all graphics options on high, with hardly a hint of slowdown. Why the hell does GTR need such a ridiculously high spec to run?

I had high hopes for GTR, but it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It is buggy, and isn't actually any fun when it does work properly. PC owners - forget about this mess of a game and play something that does the PC justice. Like Solitaire.