Test Drive - Le Mans

Test Drive Le Mans (known as Le Mans 24 Hours in Europe, and for the PlayStation 2 and the second PC release) is a video game released for the PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Windows (in two versions of the latter). The Playstation version played here was released in the year 2000 by Infograms.

Based on the famous 24 hours of Le Mans race in France, the player is invited to race the entire 24-hour endurance course or take part in a simpler arcade mode. The game also featured tracks such as Suzuka Circuit, Donington Park and Circuit de Catalunya, as well as a weather and night system. The intro of the Playstation version features "Bohemian Like You", by The Dandy Warhols.

The game is using a low res mode and employing horizontal overscan at the expense of some vertical resolution (306x220). It looks ok, but also quite pixilated at times. This produces a fake widescreen presentation with the negative effect of looking sevearly more squished on an actual widescreen tv. You could aspect correct to 5:4 for a more tv like aspect. The framerate is quite good in the normal daytime races, but can slowdown during sunrise with added reflection effects before tanking to almost half framerate when night time racing. Tiff Needel adds his voice as commentary for the game. The game features a Le Mans mods as well as arcade and challenge modes. The game seems to suffer from poor development and gameplay testing as the game is a real chore to complete for no reward. let me go on...

The Le Mans mode lets you play the full 24hour race or as low as 12 mins which I show here. This mode works quite well and the most enjoyable part of the game however, The game features a Progress Card and requires that you finish this mode with all 3 available car classes and in both Amature and Pro difficulty modes. For this mode, it is not a big ask at 12 mins a run. The difference between the difficulty modes is that you have to take care of car and tire damage in pro mode as well as watch the car temperature so you can always run at max revs in Pro mode. What does suck is that there is only one win video so it is the same each time you complete the race. Nothing is unlocked for completing this mode and no extra cars to make it worth going around again. If this was the only mode in the game then I would say its an ok but slightly flawed racer.

Then there is Challenge Mode. 10 races with 10 laps each (2 of the tracks are 15 laps) and again needs to be completed in both difficulty modes with all 3 classes. It takes you through five shorter tracks in both forward and reverse. Same boring old win video from le mans mode and a massive chore to play and again at the end of it, no reward, no special win screen and no unlocked cars to make this mode worth playing again. A huge waste of time and Part 2 of this video just shows three runs in Amateur mode. Nothing new to see showing the whole thing again in Pro mode (mode is completed for the report card). This mode is perhaps what makes me start to hate this game. One thing to note when playing in this mode. Do not accept any team/Car offers until the end of the championship! I made this mistake and had to work around it as once you accept an offer, you get no more offers until you complete another season. You ned a lot of points to unlock the next class of car. Maximum points to get offers for two cars of the next class. A costly mistake to make.

Finaly, Arcade mode. Here you need to play through all 3 classes in both difficulty modes. Each cup is made of 5 races with 3 laps each. Each time you win a race you unlock a faster car. A second arcade mode requires you to also race against the clock and you only unlock the next car if you claim 1st. if you beat the clock you progress to next track. Again with all 3 classes in both difficulty modes. These two modes do drag on, but its not a bad part of the game. The only issue is the ultimate cars (Toyota GT1, BMWE Prototype and Audi RSR) unlocked by beating all 3 classes are only available in Quick Race Mode... During arcade races the cars are fixed at max revs in both difficulty modes. After each race a replay is shown. I show just the first lap after each race and only in Amateur mode. I only show Amateur difficulty as nothing new to see in Pro.

With Arcade and challenge mode complete, Reverse Arcade modes are unlocked in Pro mode only which I show in Part3. The difficulty is higher in this mode and yet again I need to complete the two arcade modes 6 times. I had to cheat on the Amateur GT1 reverse Final as that race was unwinable. It was impossible to get a glimpse of the front runner. It was infuriating to say the least.

Finaly withthe Progression card complete what do we get! .........Nothing., Nadda, Zilch. The Lazy assed developers couldn't even put in a final win screen or video for completing the progression card which has taken up so much time. Still no cars unlocked for the three modes (apart from what is available in quick play). Not even a credits run. If you ever play this game, do it only for Le mans mode, the rest is just fluff and offeres nothing over any other racing game and ultimatly a waste of time. (angry rant mode ...you bet!) Even all the trophy gfx are recycled between the modes making each one not unique. After all this effort I may actually be put off putting the time in to complete other racing games with wacky progression requirements.

At the end of Part 3 I have shown some secret tracks/cars by entering some name codes. They look more interesting than they actually are as the races are unwinable. The credits I show at the end are normaly shown after the game demo/title sequence. Even if you just download part 1, you will have seen all that the game has to offer.

Part 1:
00:00:00 Intro and Amateur Le Mans Mode GT2
00:23:15 Amateur Le Mans Mode Prototype
00:39:40 Amateur Le Mans Mode GT1
00:55:35 Amateur Arcade Challenge Mode GT2
01:13:20 Amateur Arcade Challenge Mode Prototype
01:30:20 Amateur Arcade Challenge Mode GT1
01:47:25 Amateur Arcade Time Attack Mode GT2
02:03:55 Amateur Arcade Time Attack Mode Prototype
02:20:20 Amateur Arcade Time Attack Mode GT1

Part 2:
00:00:00 Amateur Challenge Mode GT2
02:11:50 Amateur Challenge Mode Prototype
04:13:15 Amateur Challenge Mode GT1

Part 3:
00:00:00 Quick progression through Pro Arcade and Championship modes for Report Card. Approx 8 hours of racing cut.
00:03:00 PRO Le Mans Mode GT2
00:20:50 PRO Le Mans Mode Prototype
00:37:58 PRO Le Mans Mode GT1
00:55:45 PRO Arcade Reverse Challenge Mode GT2
01:17:08 PRO Arcade Reverse Challenge Mode Prototype
01:37:10 PRO Arcade Reverse Challenge Mode GT1
01:56:20 PRO Arcade Reverse Time Attack Mode GT2
02:18:05 PRO Arcade Reverse Time Attack Mode Prototype
02:39:30 PRO Arcade Reverse Time Attack Mode GT1
03:00:30 Space Race
03:07:00 Food Race
03:11:20 Mini Moto Race
03:15:50 Buggy Race