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Atari is one of gaming’s oldest and most recognizable names.  Unfortunately, they have fallen on hard times in recent years with financial disarray and a slew of bad titles.  Their exhibit at E3 this year showed that they are still chugging along, though, as they presented a wide array of games, ranging from MMO expansions to kids’ sports games.  They also showed RACE Pro, a racing simulator for the Xbox 360, and we got a chance to sit down with the game and kick the tires a bit.

The first thing that the Atari team stressed to us is that RACE Pro is a driving simulator, in the vein of Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo.  We all know that driving simulators are supposed to be challenging, not letting you lay on the gas through turns and forcing you to learn the nuances of your vehicle in order to race successfully, but the controls for RACE Pro felt floaty and unresponsive in comparison with other sims.  This might be excusable if the game looked as good or better than Forza, but sadly, that’s not the case.  The cars look ok, but the environments just don’t have the level of detail found in most other racing games.  The game’s sense of speed is also lacking, and lighting and reflective effects are minimal.  

We didn’t get a chance to try out the “Hot Seat” mode, which has two racers handing off the controller every 30 seconds, but the concept sounds…interesting, I guess.  Other than that, there’s really not much to set RACE Pro apart from the crowd.  There’s around 80 licensed cars, ranging from Chevies to Cooper Minis to Aston Martins, and 16 real tracks, but even those numbers aren’t that impressive.  There's also going to be full-featured car customization, but we didn't get a chance to see that either.

RACE Pro is the first console release from developer SimBin, but racing is not new territory for them, and this offering looks to be a major disappointment.  It’s set for a November release, so we’ll see if they can polish it up before that.

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