Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6858 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Mastertronic Ltd
• Released on: 2007-06-28
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Windows XP
• Dimensions: .56 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Complete with explosive damage effects, head-to-head online multiplayer racing and a game engine supercharged for a greater degree of simulation, the game offers two main game modes. If you like your racing for real, Pro Career mode puts you at the centre of the motorsport world, ready to embark on careers across six specialist motorsport disciplines â€" Open-Wheel, GT, Touring Car, Oval, Off-Road & Rally and Classics. Alternatively race gamers can embark on a World Tour, which puts you straight in the driving seat as you leap disciplines and blaze your own trail through the game.

Customer Reviews

Toca Race Driver 3
This game has a wide range of cars and a few other vehicles, and a good selection of tracks. It can be very hard to open up all of these by winning races however. It seems to run very smoothly on a fairly low spec machine e.g. 1.6 ghz c.p.u. Gforce 6600GT,the feeling of speed,pace, and cornering drift is very well captured. It represents very good value for money.

A good game destroyed by AI drivers & flag decisions
My initial impressions of TOCA RD3 was very good, the game runs smoothly with good graphical detail levels at high resolution on a machine which was high end 4 years ago. The game its self is large, a wide selection of cars and tracks, though I am disappointed to find that you can only drive cars on tracks that they are used on in the 2 progression modes in free race & time trial modes.

The game clearly isn't an all out simulation game and with this in mind provides a nice compromise between control skill levels & a more arcade style of car dynamics. It's involving & fun to toy with each cars abilities but also to get the best lap times requires more than a pin the peddle to the floor approach. Car setup isn't the most complex or realistic system but does let you change the way the car responds to driver input and track conditions. With that said the upgrade system used on some classes of racing leaves doesn't alter the cars performance enough to be strategic.

The game provides you with 2 career progression modes & you have to complete both to fully unlock the game. One of the two provides you with very little in the way of pre-race practice with qualifying being your practice and often limited to 3 laps. The game then follows this up with equally short races leading to a very sprint or hill climbing feel to the racing. The other progression mode is better and gives you at least the option to chose a race length & a practice session is also available, though of a very limited length, qualifying with typically 3 laps feels 'right'. This however just confirms to me its pitch isn't at the out-and-out simulator level of Atari's GTR, the driving dynamics has a synergy with this & as such is more than acceptable and expected.

But the problem starts with AI drivers. I tend to find that they're either no where near my lap times leading to boring racing or they give absolutely no racing room if you have car overlap. They'll drive straight into the apex or drift wide on exit seemingly completely oblivious of the fact that you're there. Most of the time if you've got an overlap on the AIs rear quarter you'll end up with a caution or black flag for careless driving. If they have an overlap with your rear quarter most of the time you'll end up being pushed wide and picking up caution for gaining an advantage by driving off track or a being spun 90 degrees and picking up a black flag for careless driving. This leads you purely frustrated & wondering what you need to do to drive cleanly, what is worse is as you progress it gets to the point where it can feel impossible to complete the 1st lap without having your car half destroyed. For me this totally wrecks all that codemasters have managed to achieve with this game in terms of car feel, entertainment & involvement.

With that all said I find this game very enjoyable in time trial mode & also in free race mode where I can adjust practice, qualifying & race lengths to make it feel demanding, however the AI issues still exists & no game progress can be made in those modes.

Great entertainment, excellent multiplayer, infuriating AI (at times!)
I'ven ever had a great deal of patience with racing games, normally playing for a period and then the novelty wears off.
TOCA Race Driver 3 broke that pattern. Its a racing game with a new level to it, the sheer variety of cars and driving styles you need to adopt keep the racing alive and dynamic. It is also has alot of depth (and length) to the game. Through out the game you move through stages, as you progress the cars you drive will slowly become more powerful but harder to control. You start with the frequently seen city street car the Renault Clio and end with the awesome 1990s Williams F1. If you're aiming to win every competition at every level or stage then this game will keep you occupied for plenty of time to come. But this doesn't make it become arduous, just challenging, improved by the bonus of unlocking new events for competing in at multiplayer including quad bikes and even lawn mowers!
Which brings me on to the matter of the multiplayer aspect, though we were only able to get it to work over an ad hoc wireless network, someone with computer knowledge would have no trouble setting up a networked, or otherwise, game.
Once in game the multiplayer provides fantastic entertainment, racing against friends, unknown online players and AI takes the challenge and excitement to a new level!

The games does however have drawbacks, foremost among them is the frustrating, and sometimes infuriating AI drivers, who, unless (and sometimes even when) you're very careful will send you headlong into the nearest tyre wall or boundary fence if you take their racing line in overtaking manoevres, this is worst at corners and especially the opening corner of any race. The second observable problem is the tendency in multiplayer for other human controlled cars to lag and appear jumping around the circuit, causing you to phase through each other and frequently collide. As of yet this problem has occured for me at seemingly random intervals and with varying intensity, and though mostly annoying, it can sometimes results in spectacular collisions and the occasional flying Clio!
Overall, a game well worth investing in and will provide a terrific amount of fun, just remeber its only a game and don't get too annoyed with the AI (or your friend whose a little too good/aggressive)!