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Yes, you've made it to Le mans!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

As a sportscar fanatic as I was overwhelmed on discovering this game. I had just seen the Le Mans 24 Hours and was lamenting that I'd probably never get to race or even drive on the awesome "La Sarthe". I'm very pleased to report that this is one of the best racing games out there. Only "Colin McRae Rally" and "Touring Car Challange" provide a more realistic driving experience,(not ironically both by Codemasters). The game is broken down into arcade or championship sections. I prefered the freedom of the arcade where you could race/practice on all the tracks - around 8 or so plus Le Mans. The cars, of which there were many, reflected the classes that run at Le Mans 24 Hours - Prototype, GT-1 and GT-2. Most of the cars on the game were from the 1997 and 1998 race. I especially liked the 98' BMW V12 LMP open top roadster as well as the awesome Toyota GT-One. I was fascinated to see that the team who created this game must have paid a lot of attention to the technical parameters/performance of each actual car - as each one is different in terms of how they handle, brake and how fast they are. The graphics are very, very good with good color and proportion - my only criticism is that I thought the tracks were a little narrow at times - especially at Le Mans - down the front pit straight and up through the first chicane and under the Dunlap Bridge. The game takes some time to master, but I found the driving experience to be very strong - with excellent steering feel, manual shifting and accurate breaking and handling. The Le Mans section features allows you to do car setup and actual pit stops like the actual race. The race itself can be performed in either 12 minutes, 24 minutes, 2 hours or 24 hours!. Nightime driving is difficult at first, but you get the hang of it soon enough. My only real fault with the game is that one does not have the ability to experience racing from a driving position - looking out from within the car. Oh, there is a front or outward view, but there are no 'reference' points and I felt it was an undesirable way to experience the action. A great feature was being able to watch your race afterwards. All in all this is a great game. If you've ever had a day dream about blasting over the kink at 200mph then this is your game - it will give you hours and hours of fun!.

Now I think know how Mario Andretti feels...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Like Mario Andretti, I've been obsessed with the 24 hours of LeMans for many years. It is truly the quintessential motor race, encompassing close endurance racing on a challenging circuit through day and night , rain or shine. I eagerly awaited the release of Test Drive LeMans for Playstation and snapped up the first local copy on its release date.

Having spent some gaming time with Gran Turismo and Gran Turismo2, and coupled with my enthusiasm for the real race, my expectations were high. I found the overall graphics acceptable, the track , cars and scenery are realistically depicted. Visually, there are some quirks. The designers haven't quite grasped depicting a wheel's rotation properly. In the game, the car's wheels have a rather primitive wobbly appearance seen in the TOCA games, unlike the realistic depiction in GT-2. Perhaps there was a batch of bad wheel bearings? The race cars are faithfully depicted and look great. Where else can you find such esoteric race cars as the Ferrari 333SP, Marcos 600LM, Lister Jaguar, Courage & McLaren GTR , not to mention the usual Porsches? The game's strongest visual feature is the night racing mode. Sliding around a corner at 2AM with a competitor's headlights in your mirrors, your lights occasionally pick up a burning Porsche 911 by the side of the track or the aftermath of a multi-car collision . Pretty exciting stuff. The sound is mediocre. The cars don't sound like the real thing at all. Generally speaking, they sound a lot like a Dremel tool at 12,000 RPM. Perhaps the Porsche is the closest to its real life counterpart in the sound department. The game offers an arcade mode and a championship in several different car classes conducted over a variety of tracks. You start out in the slower cars & work your way up to quicker rides as driving offers come in from other teams. The choice of cars & teams is quite good, with most cars coming from the 1997 & 1998 race, although there are a few from 1999 .

The games physics are a mixed bag. There are some nice touches like degradation of tire performance and accident damage. In my first try at the 24 hour version, I was actually able to put the Lister on its roof just under the Dunlop bridge. After a short wait, I was alloted another car to continue the race. Although Ive tried, I haven't been able to replicate the infamous " flying Lufthansa Mercedes " incident of the 1999 race. Trying to go ten/tenths on cold tires just out of the pits will guarantee you a spin. Features like these are a plus.

On the negative side, one of the game's drawbacks is the handling feedback of the cars. There is a detached feeling similar to skating on ice. As you go into the turn there is no feeling of grip with degrees of slip like one experiences in actual competion driving. This is a difficult feature to design in , but was done much better in Gran Turismo 2. There, you feel connected to the road, get feedback and can steer to better effect using the throttle & brake like the real guys do! Finally, the game reproduces a track that is approximately an 8-mile circuit with speeds up to 200MPH in the fast stretches and speeds as low as 50 MPH in the slowest corner. In the game, lap times average around one minute 15 seconds . In the real race, a hot lap by the fastest cars is in the 3 minute 40 second range. Is this a nit-picking issue? I dont think so! It clearly demonstrates that this is not a driving simulation at all and is not an accurate depiction of LeMans. The feeling is akin to racing through the circuit at warp factor speeds in a speeded up Keystone Cops film. This is okay if you dont care about realism & like arcade racing. For those into the real race and serious driving simulations, this will be like kissing your sister. The real race deserves a better simulation. Like Mario I'm still waiting for a win at Lemans....

Good game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I saw this game, and since I am a fan of Le Mans racing, I took the plunge. I had played test drive 6 for Game Boy color and it [stunk], but I had hope for this version of the test drive series. For the most part, this is a great game. I like the realism of the racing, It feels a little more real as far as speed than GT2. The steering is good and the tracks are fast and challenging. I also like the 24 hour mode. The cars are cool and I like the brake assist and traction control options. Overall, if you like racing games, you need this one in your collection. For a relatively low key game, Test Drive Le Mans stands up well to Grand Turismo 2.

still waiting for a good Le Mans sim

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Anyone who has played the GT/GT2/GT3 will think the animation/AI is horrible on this game. The cars are fairly well modeled (for a PS1 game), but the steering, braking, and handling leaves much to be desired. It would have been nice to see more real manufacturer's cars. The lack of an in-car view is really unforgiveable. And I agree with the reviewer who disliked the size of the Le Mans circuit. It really is a joke - Le Mans is a huge course. Part of the challenge is driving for a long time. You don't get this feeling of distance, even if you play for hours and hours. You just get sick going 'round and 'round the tiny track. This is really just a glorified arcade game, not something that truly reflects endurance racing. Frankly I expected more from Infogrames, considering their rally sims. GT or the Jarrett/Labonte stock car game are better sports car sims than this game. But there are a lot of fans of LMP type cars that are still waiting for a decent PSX title to buy.

Great game 1 default

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is an awesome game. I was very impressed by how much of a like ness there was between the real thing and the game. having been a long time le mans fan i never knew this game was out. I was walking through the local electronics store and saw it and i just HAD to get it . so i took it home popped it in the psx and right away i knew just what to do. it took a little longer to get used to than other games but i had never played a game where you can go 0-150 in the matter of 4 seconds. The graphics are great the color and everything else is great. the only default is as another review said there is no cockpit veiw. that would have been really nice to see the inside of the cars and race looking from out the windshield. but other than that it is still a great game and i enjoy playing it alot. -Kyle(future race driver)

Good, but Not Worth Stepping Back from Le Mans 24 Hours

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

...

Stepping backward from the PS2 Le Mans 24 Hours to the PSX Test Drive Le Mans is very a eye-opening experience. In Quick Race mode, where car adjustments such as fuel and aerodynamics are not available, car handling is VERY twitchy, to the extent that even the cars with the best handling characteristics are simply not driveable. Some of the other game modes, however, DO allow for car adjustments; if the right combination can be found, the cars can be driven fairly well... although the cars will still be somewhat twitchy in terms of handling. Le Mans 24 Hours is also more of a simulation-style game, whereas Test Drive Le Mans is much more of an arcade-style game with a (very) few tuning and adjustment options available.

What disappointed me most, however, is the 'lack of faithfulness' to the real-world Le Mans circuit... This is most likely due to the limitations of the PlayStation itself (the console for which the game was designed), but this also means that there is no true sense of the immense length of the world-famous Mulsanne/Hunaudieres straight; also, there are also virtually NO elevation changes in Test Drive Le Mans. For those with any level of familiarity with Le Mans 24 Hours, the Le Mans circuit in Test Drive Le Mans is definitely recognizable, but also very much an abomination :-(

Just to clarify, Test Drive Le Mans is definitely NOT a bad game! However, despite being an arcade-style game, Test Drive Le Mans definitely does require better-than-average driving skills. As such, it is NOT a good game for young children, as they will quickly become frustrated at their lack of success (especially in Quick Race mode). Some measure of patience is certainly required in any driving game, but Test Drive Le Mans requires a lot more patience than any other driving/racing game I have ever played - either on PlayStation OR PlayStation2.

Not very good

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Not very good compared to the Test Drive Le mans from Infogrames. This "Goodtimes Interactive" needs to learn how to make a decent Le mans sim. If yo want a VERY VERY VERY GOOD Le mans sim, check out the Dreamcast verion, which is frankly the only good le mans sime out there. Infogrames did a horrid job porting it to ps2. Blech! The one fer DC is perfect, and one of the best racers ever made. You should checo out my review for it. :)

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