Test Drive Le Mans for Dreamcast

I love racing games. I've been a fan of them since I installed the first NASCAR Racing game on my 486 about 7 years ago. Since then, I've fallen in love with games like the Need For Speed games, NASCAR Racing 1, 2, 3, and 4, Daytona USA on both Saturn and Dreamcast, F355 Challenge, Gran Turismo 1 & 2, and many many others. So, after reading some rather impressive reviews on Test Drive Le Mans, I was excited to get my hands on a copy.

As soon as I popped the game into my DC I went straight to "quick race" to get a glimps of the game before I really started to tear it apart and really get into it. first off I noticed the graphics.

The graphics are pretty good. Not as polished as Daytona or F355 Challenge, but still very detailed and at a solid framerate. Next I noticed the sound

The sound was alright until I sideswiped somebody as I was passing them. It sounded more like someone breaking a glass window than the sound of metal grinding. However, to be fair to the sound, the collision sounds seemed to be the worst in my opinion. Overall, the sound was just kinda weak, and didn't have the umph that I expected.

The controls were alright. Not as responsive as, say, F355 Challenge, but the people who thought F355 Challenge had touchy controls may like that.

So, after finishing my "quick race" I had established that the game had good graphics, below average sound, and decent control. Next I decided to try out the "Championship Mode."

I was overjoyed when I found out that you could qualify for position before actually racing the races in championship mode. I've always felt that console racers needed a qualitying session such as the ones found in most PC sims. I was saddened, however, to find that in the first couple of championship, even if I placed dead last in qualifying, it was rather easy to force my way to the front to win...even on the "expert" setting. I was also a bit dismayed when I went to the "workshop" to do some customizing of my car settings.

When I went to the "workshop" area, I really wanted to get under the hood of my car to mess with the suspension, gear ratios, and things of that nature. What I got was a screen with 4 very limited options...fuel, downforce, gearbox, and tires. Each option had about 4 choices, with the exception of fuel, which gave you a bit more freedom to put less gas in your car. The workshop, in my mind was very limiting.

So, after finishing my first two championships, I got to race two endurance races. "Cool" I thought..."this is what this game is supposed to be good at!!!" It WAS cool...'til I had to pit after the 7th lap out of 10 to refuel, which, in itself, was not a bad thing. The bad thing was that the top five computer cars DIDN'T pit. I'm sorry, but I've really got issues with any game where the player has to pit to refuel but the computer cars don't! ESSPECIALY when the top two drivers are using the exact same car as me!! After a bit of frustration over that issue, I won the two races and decided to go on to the actual Le Mans 24 hour race. This option was just like the championship mode...only you raced according to the number of laps you completed before the time limit expired. I only had the chance to race a 10 minute race, which was pretty cool...esspecially since it turned from day to night and back into day again. So, after my 10 minute 24 hour race, me and 3 of my other friends plugged in for some multiplayer action.

I am happy to say that playing 4 players did not hinder the perfomance of the game any, and overall, the multiplayer experience was rather enjoyable.

So, from what I've noticed about TDLM, this game is caught somewhere between the world of sim and the world or arcade racers. It takes a bit more effort to learn than your typical arcade racer, but it's a lot more forgiving than your typical sim racer. So, if you like arcade racers, check it out, but if you're a hardcore sim racer, you'll probably find it a bit oversimplified and shallow.