Game Details

• Title: Race Pro
• Developer: SIMBIN (Atari)
• Released (UK): 20/02/2009
• Age Rating: 3+
• Game Type: Car Racing (Simulation)
• Multi-player: Online up to 12 players

Race Pro is what I class as a serious racing simulation and in terms of games already available is very similar to Forza 2 in terms of game play. In some respects it is even less forgiving that Forza 2 in terms of car control as I have found myself going off track more frequently than in Forza 2. There are a good range of real world tracks provided including several that have been rarely simulated. They also avoided the racing sim cliche of doing yet another version of the Nurburgring though  it does contain Mazda Laguna Seca which is nearly as bad in terms of being in most racing games. There are also plenty of tuning options if you want to try that out on your cars but it is entirely optional, however in all other respects there is nowhere near the wealth of customization options that Forza 2 provides.

Good Points

Graphics wise the tracks look really good and blow away those in Forza 2, the single player modes are also not too tedious like the Forza 2 single player becomes as it is fairly limited in length and there is a natural progression in unlocking further stages. It is also possible to get penalties including being disqualified if you cut too many corners.

Bad Points

While the tracks look good the cars are too shiny and are only at a par with those in Forza 2, there are also far fewer cars than the box suggests as 350 models means 30 cars with lots of skins, there is also no options to customise your paintjob.  The main problem is that the multiplayer while fine once you get into it, is really unintuitive as in player mode you have to use the Guide button to invite friends, and it is very easy to quit out of Ranked games by mistake (I wasted over half an hour until I realised what I was doing wrong).

My Recommendation

Consider – 7/10

While Race Pro is not a bad game and should appeal to Forza fans there are just too many little things wrong with it for it to be ranked any higher than a 7/10. While my initial impressions of the single player were good and I thought it would probably be 8/10 after experiencing the multiplayer and noticing little flaws in the game it is lucky to get a 7 and only does so as I no longer give out .5 ratings. Personally I recommend renting or waiting for it to come down in price, and would only recommend buying at full price to people who enjoy playing hardcore racing simulations. It is not because there is anything seriously wrong with the game rather than it is lacking in the little details that you find in Forza 2 like being able to customise your own car and uploaingd photos to the Forza website, so while in graphics and game play terms it is Forza 2′s equal, in almost all other respects it is inferior leaving Forza 2 as the king of (serious) racing simulations on the Xbox 360.

Race Pro is Shamertag Worthy on two counts. The first is that on the box it states there are over 350 car models this is technically accurate but very misleading as what they actually have is a much smaller number of cars which have multiple skins. The second count is the sheer unintuitiveness of getting into multiplayer, while it is a good idea there is a need in player matched for an invite screen rather than leaving it for you to use the guide button, and also in the ranked match phase transition it is too easy to quit by accident, especially since when pressing A to continue you come to a screen where the only viable option to continue to the next stage appears to be pressing Quit.