Drawing on over eight years of racing game development expertise, TOCA Race Driver 3 is set to put you on the circuit for real when it launches this winter for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Utilising a new generation of the series' proprietary handling engine, a 'greater degree of simulation' is the target for TOCA Race Driver 3. Combine the advanced engine with full car damage modelling and an enhanced human AI system, the whole package will deliver the most detailed and involving motorsport experience on current generation systems.
However, the degree to which TOCA Race Driver 3 is being tuned goes further. A significant level of additional depth and realism is brought to the fore with the inclusion of detailed race rules and regulations in the game's Pro Career mode. You can choose to activate qualifying, race flags and pit stop refuelling and tyre strategies, all accurate to over 100 different motorsport championships featured. There's also optional practice sessions, car tuning, race lengths and, where championship rules allow, car part upgrades. Offering the most comprehensive and customisable championship features in both offline and online racing, it's all there if you want to get your head under the bonnet of the game.
When it comes to taking you to the starting grid itself, TOCA Race Driver 3's audio engineers have innovated with a new system that captures the sheer noise of real championship racing. The new system will deliver 40 times the audio assets on every single vehicle over TOCA 2 to provide a phenomenal depth of sound and a level of clarity never before heard on a racing game.
While other driving games have claimed to have perfectly "recorded" a car noise, it's the playback that's important to get the realistic sounds of a real race day. TOCA Race Driver 3's system actually brings out specific sounds from pushing the throttle, the engine revs, the exhaust and more, and mixes them into the game to create the thunderous noise of a racing event.
Using an enhanced rendering engine, TOCA Race Driver 3 will also be more visually rich and graphically detailed. Normal mapping adds to the detail of the cars and environments, such as rumble strips, road surface, barriers, shut lines, filler caps and vents on the cars. Multi-textured surfaces will bring spectacular effects to track objects and the circuits themselves and new postproduction effects, enhancing depth of field and motion blur, are also being integrated. Most importantly, the racing action will zip along at a super-smooth 60 frames-per-second, even with up to 21 cars in high-speed competition on screen at once!
In TOCA Race Driver 3 you'll be competing for real in more motorsports than any other racing game has offered. For the racing expert, the game's Pro Career mode features seven different career paths, each specialising in an individual motorsport discipline including GT, Off Road, Touring Cars, Historic, Open Wheel, Rally and Oval. Alternatively, jump straight into some of the world's most powerful cars in the World Tour mode and see those tyres screech under full power in this fast fix of race gaming.
Packed with fully licensed racing cars, each of them a true icon from the world of motorsport, TOCA Race Driver 3 is coming to PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC this winter. Get your engine started at the game's website at www.codemasters.com/tocaracedriver3
More articles about TOCA Race Driver 3