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Le Mans 24 Hours
The
most enduring race ever is the 24 hour Le'mans challenge. Don't confuse
this with the Playstation game of the same name, as the two are not
related at all. Le'mans on Dreamcast is a showcase game. Le'mans
is an all out racing game, none of this ‘get a license malarkey’, here
you have to rely on your actual driving talents. Just pick up the pad and
race.
Le'mans has a very distinctive graphic design, all the cars are rendered
well with some very crisp angular edges. Also something which I often
dislike in racing games does not apply to Le'mans. Basically
the draw distance in Le'mans is amazing. For the first time you can
actually use the incar view and be a challenge to the other competitors.
The draw distance seems to stretch for miles just like in real life! For the real anal responsive…sorry retentive among you, Le'mans offers a real time 24 hour race, though whether anyone would use this feature is questionable. Le'mans enthusiast's or 'johny no friends' will no doubt be excited by this, but fortunately Le'mans also caters for the rest of us, giving us race options based on laps or minutes. Le'mans
also has some excellent multiplayer modes. First we have the split screen
mode. Here you can race head to head with your friends, best of all the
game is not compromised through this. However with the four-player mode the game does slow down. This is only noticeable because of the speed the game plays in single player. When I say 'slow down' I don't mean attack of the jerkies, but a constant slower game pace. Everything still moves at a good pace, it is just like…noticeable. Le'mans sound is your standard driving fare. Good engine noises and suitable in game music compliment this great game. Everyone who is anyone after a good racing game which looks good and plays well should go for Le'mans.Le'mans
falls into the 'arcade' racing game camp. Saying this though, does not
mean that you can powerslide around every corner and come in first place.
The CPU cars are exceptional, as they will always take the fastest line
when they take a corner. So many other games allow you to go speeding down
the inside and effectively carve up the opposition and take their
position, but in Le'mans dirty tactics like this do not work. If there is
negative points to be found in Le'mans then it would have to be the
tracks, as they don't look very exciting. But as they are based on the
actual tracks we could not have some exciting structures just placed on
the trackside. Le'mans
sound is your standard driving fare. Good engine noises and suitable in
game music compliment this great game. Everyone who is anyone after a good
racing game which looks good and plays well should go for Le'mans. Out
of the current Dreamcast crop of [serious] racing games; i.e. MS-R; Sega
GT; Sega Rally 2; and even Ferrari
F355. Le'mans is the game of choice. The
simple premise to drive fast and well to win works so well. Even when the
game is beaten the game will call you back to beat your high scores. Le'mans is a great game, mixing realistic car mechanics with an amazing sense of speed, and with a 4-player mode as well this game is awesome.
"Le Mans - The fastest game ever!"
24 hours, non-stop, of
cars racing round a circuit… how the heck can anyone make that into an
interesting game??? Enter Melbourne House with Le Mans 24 Hours and their
run-of-the-mill typically licensed racer…or is it? Obviously the most
striking thing about Le Mans 24 Hours is the graphics. Yup, this game is
pushing more polygons per second than Sega thought their white box was
capable of, and boy does it show! Containing the best
lighting effects I have ever seen on the Dreamcast, and only topped by
Gran Turismo 3 on the PS2, this game is one hell of a looker! But, we don’t just want graphics in a game! It’s also important that it plays well, with Le Mans 24 hours failing to disappoint in this department too! Was F355 just too realistic for you? Want more realism than the screeching power slides of Daytona? Le Mans 24 strikes the chord between the two! Offering all the expected physics, speed and the like that you’d expect from a game to make it realistic, but far more forgiving than F355 - you can make mistakes, you can ram the other cars off the track and keep going yourself - this game appeals to racing fanatics and arcade junkies alike! Although if you’re man
enough (translation: MAD enough) to do the full 24 hour race, you
wouldn’t go into either of those categories. Well I say mad…
Thankfully Infogrames have given us the options to save the progress of
the race each time you go into the pits. Sound wise, the engines
roar (and for once it can be plural as you can hear all the other cars
screaming away as well as your own car, unlike F355 and Daytona), there
are nice little effects such as the crowd cheering and um…blowing their
horns (meant in a non rude way of course!)…also, there is the announcer
as you speed faster than Sonic (well maybe not quite that fast) through
the home straight. The music is nice, and really gives the game a tranquil
feel, unless you chose the almost unbearable rock radio station (yes,
there are 2 radio stations in the game), and helps you concentrate on the
race at hand as it isn’t intrusive to the game and just plays away
gently in the background. Overall, Le Mans 24 Hours is a very polished game and now that it is retailing for less than £15 in some independent stores, I can’t think of a reason not to add this little gem into your collection. Definitely up there with MSR, F355 and Daytona, I’d even go as far as to say it was above them all! An excellent racer clearly designed to appeal to everyone. Overall: 8.5/10 Slick, polished, and stylish! Racers don’t get much better than this! -- "Lemans? I thought they were a fruit!" |
Reviewer:
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