Reviewed: December 2, 2008
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
Viva Media

Developer
SimBin Development Team

Released: September 1, 2008
Genre: Racing Simulation
Players: 1-25

8
9
9
9
8.8

System Requirements:

While the campaign or race career section for GTR Evolution is not all it’s cracked up to be you can choose from a huge selection of cars on a wide variety of tracks and race to your heart’s content. This is racetrack heaven for anyone wanting formula, sport, touring and GT racing with real world replicas of tracks using GPS and CAD data.

You have a host of race modes from arcade to realistic races including Race Event, Championship, multiplayer and a create your own championship. The Race event is a quick jump into any racetrack and car type for a quick race while the Championship is a race series simulating a GT or WTTC season.

The multiplayer also adds a lot of fun by racing against real world players on the 20 tracks using the whole variety of cars available but each race will only allow the type of car according the race type. The multiplayer is fun and adds the additional real world racing factors that other people would bring to the game.

We have the various race types and the tracks with a wide variety of cars but you also have the car tweaking or adjusting as well. Before the race, Championship and race event, you can adjust the cars various mechanical features such as antilock brakes, traction control and stability help.

This means for each race you can adjust how much your car hugs the road or slides as well as how well the brakes grab automatically or allows you to pump them without locking up the tires. During each race you can choose from several different views like regular cockpit, enhanced with a good view outside the windows, right in front of the windshield with a little view of the hood, right on top of the hood and right on the bumper.

This variety of views gives you your choice of views so you can drive according to personal preference, personally I like the bumper view but with the choice pretty much everyone should find a suitable view. You also have a really nice rearview mirror while in a few of the views and a quick look back using a keyboard button or an assigned key while using a steering wheel.

The game comes with several current steering wheels preconfigured but there is also a setup to allow you to set up any steering wheel controls individually. I have an older wheel and had no problems setting it up for easy use in the game and it controls the game very well.

The game handles well and cars drive realistically, at least as far as a commoner who drives a minivan can tell from his limited driving experience. The cars drive like cars normally do and have the realistic handling and revving sounds as well as effects.

There are no damage pieces that fly off the car much but you do have weather like rain and sun, shadows and other effects like leaves and gravel flying up. The effects are realistic and good looking for the most part but damage without having any car parts flying around is just a shame.

When you do get into an accident you will know it by car handling or not being able to race at all, I found you can easily damage a car beyond working condition easily by slamming it into a guardrail. The game does a great job of telling you your car is no longer able to work with the simple statement onscreen and the fact that it no longer does anything when you press the gas.

From the main menu you can jump into a quick race in only a few mouse clicks so having some quick races to start in is very simple and you also get the Championship and create your own Championship for a drawn out series of races. After each race you will save the career type gaming for later play or you can just continue till you do want to quite.

The game also records your races and you can play them back till your heart’s content, but as some of us race we kind of don’t want to see what we did the first time. There really is a lot of content here for racing in the various types of cars like formula and sport racers as well as those coups my son just loves.

GTR Evolution looks very good and has very realistic weather and driving effects so there is no loss of visual appeal. You also have very realistic sounding vehicles with the skids and everything sounding great, so great it is almost amazing.

You can actually hear the rain on your car as well as gravel and dirt hitting your car when you run off the track or others do so in front of you and kick up stuff at you. The sound as well as visuals and physics are very realistic and just great for every race I tried as well as the online races.

The online races are also very good and you can quickly jump into races on various tracks and with various vehicles. You can also start your own race using a track and car of your choice for some extra fun including choosing the realism of your race.

GTR Evolution is a great racing simulator that is very realistic and a great game with all the right features and realism you could ask for. GTR Evolution has tracks made from real world sites and plenty of real cars for an overall well made game.