Race ON Review (PC)

Within moments of installing Race On, it’s easy to see what SimBin was hoping to accomplish with the title. The team was obviously faced with some production value issues, but their desire to create one of the most complete and gameplay detailed racing titles shines through consistently and makes for a very realistic racing experience. With that said, does teetering on the edge of reality cause the title to lose some of its fun?

Like any respectable racing game, the focus of the graphics is placed on the cars themselves. Considering that the game boasts races of 24 cars at a time, the models, when run on the highest settings, are quite impressive. Sadly, I had a significant amount of trouble running the game efficiently on anything but the lowest settings. While I don’t have the strongest machine, I shouldn’t have had any problem running the game on at least medium, according to the system requirements on the box, so I’d suggest that you make sure you have pretty close to the recommended system requirements before purchasing it.

While the cars themselves may look as sharp as you would expect, some of the other textures don’t quite hold up to the standards set by the cars. The crowd, well, looks like the crowd from every racing or football game since NFL Blitz 2001.The HUD, while acceptable, could have done with a few things to simplify the interface for those new to the simulation racing genre, particularly in the menus, but, overall, the game does a more than suitable job of creating a world for you to race in. Also, you’d be hard pressed to find a major flaw in the sound design. After some practice, you can tell when to shift by the sound of the car, and I instantly enjoyed the menu music even if it did get played a little too much.

As I mentioned earlier, the game boasts 24-man races and over 45 tracks. Yes, over 45. Some of the environments can cause the tracks to feel a bit recycled, but I didn’t even realize there were more than 45 tracks in the racing circuits featured. Sticking with the realistic themes, SimBin has created possibly one of the most realistic racing experiences you can enjoy. Consequently, this causes the game to have one of the steepest learning curves I’ve ever experienced but the payoff is very rewarding. After figuring out which driving style is best for you, you can easily spend hours losing yourself in the game’s numerous championship modes. That journey over the hump is a little tougher than it is in other games though.