V8 Supercars 3 Shootout Aussie Hands-on (ign.com)

- ign.com -

Australia, November 22, 2006 - It's one of the most popular racing games of recent times in Australia, and V8 Supercars 3 Shootout (released as TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge in the United States) on PSP looks set to continue the high quality of past titles. As a matter of opinion, we think it's definitely one of the best looking racers on the system, and in the prolonged absence of a portable Gran Turismo, it has an excellent and accurately modelled feel to the handling that said series might be a little envious of.

For Australian racing enthusiasts, it's always nice to see local cars, tracks and drivers take centre stage. This has always been a major point of attraction for fans of the V8 Supercars series. The PSP iteration is no different in this respect. In the Quick Start mode, players can initially choose from either a Holden Commodore VZ or a V8 Ford Falcon BA. From here, you can select from the default racing team and driver for each make.

Featured in this version is a comprehensive list of the biggest in Australian and international racing. Ricky Cole, Steven Brady, John Hartshorne, Piers Johnson, Matt Griffin and dozens more fill out the ranks.

Quick Start, as the name implies, takes you straight into the action - a continuous championship that pits you against 20 other drivers on a world tour of tracks. It's a continuous championship, too - bowing out of a race will affect your overall standing and you'll start the next track at a serious disadvantage. However, if you're new to the series, we'd heartily recommend working your way through the early stages of the World Challenge mode before jumping straight into the races - if not, you're liable to end up pressed against the cement embankments more often than you'd like.

The aptly-titled World Challenge mode is where the meat of the single-player gameplay lies. The game is divided into five levels of difficulty - Novice - set in the UK, Easy - based in the US of A, Normal - the Australasian circuit, Hard - a broad European selection, and Master - a worldwide GP.

Obviously of most relevance (and arguably, interest) to Australians is the Australasian circuit. Interestingly, there is also a single course from New Zealand for our misunderstood friends from across the seas. The rest of the tracks are based in Australia, and the partial list is sure to impress - Sandown, Phillip Island, Eastern Creek, Oran Park, The Indy 3000, Mount Panorama and several other courses feature in the Australasian Gran Prix.

However, before you can get stuck into the higher difficulty levels, you first need to earn your racing stripes - that is, you need to complete a series of skill tests, ala the licence tests in Gran Turismo. This isn't a big ask; though, it's sure to cause a little frustration for gamers hoping to launch into the locally-themed content straight away.

The initial challenges are fairly lightweight - a basic steering control test, a braking accuracy test, a good 'driving line' trial, maintaining an average speed, and racing without sustaining damage. With the exception of the no-damage trial, these are a good way to cut your teeth on the mechanics of steering, acceleration and deceleration, and accurate gear shifting (which is set to automatic by default). We have some gripes with the damage effects, which are discussed later on.

After progressing through these tests, you'll unlock the qualifier-round race. For the racing illiterate, this round is where you compete for a best time on the track in order to secure a decent starting position in the line-up.

Finally, after progressing through that formality, you can tackle the main event. By this stage, after working your way through the skills-builder tests you'll hopefully have enough skills to last the distance of the race - let alone placing in the top 3.

This is a challenging game that makes no apologies for the amount of time and skill required to get the most out of it. Fans of power-sliding and ramming into your competitors at high speeds will learn a harsh lesson. Smacking into another car is tantamount to forfeiting the race. Your car will sustain damage to one of several different key areas, including engine, body, steering and wheels - this might lead to loss of power, severely crippled ability to steer, slower gear shifting and more. A worst case scenario leaves your car a crumpled heap, unable to continue the race.

Pitting in during a longer race can ease the pain - predictably at the cost of precious time off the track. A sliding scale allows you to adjust the amount of time spent in the pit lane and shows you the relative improvements that can be made in that time. Hence, a lot of strategy goes into managing the condition of your car. Is it better to sacrifice 30 seconds and drop 15 places in order to outlast your opponents in the long run? Or can you make your fuel last the distance and hope that you don't trade paint with any other drivers? These are the questions that you'll be faced with - and in this way, V8 Supercars 3 succeeds in emulating the realism of racing and the management and racing ability required.

Impressively, minute details usually only found on the major console versions of the series have made their way to the PSP version in fine form. In particular, we love how the car's suspension is accurately depicted, and the physics of inertia affect the way in which a vehicle takes corners at speed.

When you accelerate around a tight bend, hitting the grassy banks or loose gravel, don't expect to regain your racing line easily. The engine models the differences in surface beautifully, causing a dynamic change in the car's handling and throwing up some cool dust and grass effects for good measure.

Speaking of effects, the trackside details are unusually prolific - crowds of sprites waving nicely animated flags populate grassy knolls and stands; the sun reflects off of the tarmac, highlighting subtle texturing on the track surface itself. With the formula-one vehicles, the car detail is accentuated with some lovely shadows and realistic movement of the axels and suspension. Watching a V8 Commodore get the slightest bit of air over a bump in the track, and watching as it comes back to earth with a suspension-jiggling thud is a delight.

Get used to seeing dents in your car's rear-end.

However, in its unfinished state, there are still a few issues that need to be cleared up before launch. Firstly, while we mentioned that V8 Supercars 3 is a beautiful game, there are definitely some framerate issues when the screen is filled with 20 other cars vying for position. This is understandable, since the PSP can only take so much, but at the same time, it would be nice to see this get ironed out by release.

The damage modelling is definitely over-the-top. Ten seconds into a race, expect to see the car's HUD damage indicator lighting up with the slightest collision. It's clearly a design choice put forward to accurately simulate the limited amount of damage a real car can sustain. But it's kind of annoying to watch the back end of your racer get severely dented in the opening moments of a race while falling into a line of cars. What this means in a practical sense is, you really need to master the art of steering in order to succeed. Gamers raised on a diet of arcade racers will find themselves floating in unfriendly waters.

This also brings up one final point of note - the difficulty. Ordinarily, we're pretty confident of our gaming, and indeed our racing, prowess. But this time, we have been getting royally caned by the racing AI. Even on the lowest difficulty races, the competitor's cars are utterly merciless and very rarely make mistakes.

Maybe we're losing our touch. Then again, maybe the AI needs to be rescaled because, at this stage, we're getting kind of frustrated with not taking a turn tight enough and watching a dozen cars, bumper-to-bumper, speed around the bend like a gathering of stunt-car drivers. They rarely seem to take damage, too, which seems just a bit suspect.

All told, we're confident that the final game will sit amongst the finest portable racing games available. The series has been treasured by Australian gamers keen for local content - and the third game in the series will definitely satisfy in this respect. Visually, apart from the mentioned framerate issues, V8 Supercars 3 Shootout is nearly peerless in the PSP racing genre. The detail that Codemasters has been able to wring out of the PSP will make you grin. Roll on, release code!