Toca 3...

[RacerPaul]

Apologies if this game is too old for this sub-forum, but it's related in a way

I just picked up Toca 3 for my PC, from Amazon. A bargain at £5

Ahhh, what a blast. Took me back 10 years to the days when it was state of
the art on PS2

Of course, the gfx are a bit ropey by todays standards. But the fun factor is
high and there's so much variety in the game

I just had to tell what fun I've been having the last couple of days. Anyone
else still play Toca 3?

 

[JR98]

I first played it a few months ago on PC, but don't play it that much anymore. Really fun game and a suprisingly high variety in the car list, with some really out there stuff like the Semi trucks and even monster trucks.

 

[ted209]

I still play it on my PS2 with my Logitech DFGT. It's a brilliant game. The physics are good enough, but where it excels is: large grids, great range of UK tracks, customisable AI, damage model and tyre wear/fuel/pitstop strategy.

The physics are fine on 'Pro Sim' handling, but there is a bug where this setting reverts back to arcade handling each time you start the game (this was later fixed by a patch on the PC version).

 

[Com Fox]

I would still play it if my PS2 wasn't in the 🤬 .

It feels very advanced at its time, with up to 21 Cars on the Grid, Customize the Grid anyway you like. Lots of environments to dive into.

Though at the same, I felt sorry for anyone who grew up with this game (including myself) this along with Toca 2 set a really high expectation for future racing games that no racing game during the PS3/Xbox/Wii era was able to top, with less grids and less replay value only to focus on the Online modes. It is only now that we are able to top its 21 Grid on a normal basis but replay value is still a massive issue, I can't play a game through without stopping at the end unlike in Toca 3 where even when I beat the game, I still experimented with all its options it presented to me. Some came realy close like GT5, Forza 6 and GRID: Autosport and I seriously love those games to death but they don't hold enough to Toca 3 IMO.

So unless, you are a fan of Online play and/or just like driving with the best Physics. Toca 3 is still a masterpiece IMO (though I heard you can still play online on PC by downloading something which I forgot what it was called).

 

[ted209]

... no racing game during the PS3/Xbox/Wii era was able to top, with less grids and less replay value only to focus on the Online modes.

This is very true - it seems every time we get a new generation of consoles, we get a big improvement in graphics and we go back to square one for the rest of the game. By the time these games add weather and pitstops, it's time for another new generation. I guess it's the flashy graphics that sell games!

I made a couple of hacks to the PS2 version: one to force the Pro Sim handling on, and another to prevent the timer resetting when you get a warning flag (I'm not really into cheating, but the penalty system is too harsh here, especially when you've already lost time by going onto the grass!).