Retro Car Game

It’s a bit old now, but it’s still a sweet little game.  I got home the other night and was bored as all hell.  Rather than do anything constructive I thought I would see what I had on my HDD to play.  I ended up cranking up GT Legends.

Game Cover, so you know what to look for

If you’ve no idea what GT Legends is, then gather around children whilst I tell you a tale of magic and wonder.  Or rather of simulation and classics.  GT Legends is made by SimBin, a German software developer.  The level of physics and detail is, for it’s time, quite astounding.  The only thing I find lacking in it, is the lack of Japanese classics.  Having said that, it’s still fun as all hell to fang about in Mini Cooper’s, Lotus Elan’s, RS3100 Capri’s, Alfa Romeo GTA’s and many others.

Tracks are fairly limited, there’s only 11, several of which having different variations however so it doesn’t get too tedious.

As with most games you start off with something fairly inoffensive and almost incapable, in this instance, the Mini Cooper.  Play around with the settings and up the difficulty and you can have yourself a ball, biffing the car sideways, stomping on the brakes in the last 30metres from a long straight, lifting off, kicking the rear out, nailing it again and blasting through the corner faster than your more refined AI competitors.  It really is quite a good game, despite getting on a bit in years now (2005).

The good part about it being that old though is that chances are, unless you have an average system, you can crank the graphics right up and enjoy the wonder without fear of your machine grinding to a halt when you encounter the starting grid or lap traffic.

…and just to give you a taste of what the game itself is like, here’s a few screen-shots stolen from the world wide web (mostly gamershell.com);

Grid consisting of Awesome.

Cockpit Shot

Cockpit Shot #2

Night racing.

With everything including damage, mechanical failures, night racing and full grids of classic cars, what’s not to love?  Buy it, install it, race it.  It’s a good killer of time and takes your mind of the reality of spending money on your own car, even if it’s for just a moment.

-Michael