You Too Can Wobble Down The Road In a Civic with Driving Emotion Type-S
Written: May 14 '01 (Updated Aug 28 '01)
Product Rating:
Pros: Nicely done cars with above average graphics
Cons: Control is just too, too hard
The Bottom Line: This game should have never left the borders of Japan. I took the fall for you. There is much better out there to enjoy. Try ATV Off Road Fury.
Yarborough's Full Review: Driving Emotion Type-S for PlayStation 2
This is a re-posting of "Driving Emotion - So Bad Epinions Won't Put It On Their Site", which was posted on May 8, 2001 under "What you should know about racing games". Epinions somehow skipped over this game. Driving Emotion Type-S, by SquareSoft, the Final Fantasy people, was released in February.
I have seen Driving Emotion Type-S (DE) marketed to be competition for the yet to be released Gran Turismo 3. It is much less involved than Gran Turismo 2 and will most likely be completed in less time. GT3 has nothing to fear from this piece of junk.
The point is to win races in order to unlock more cars and more track variations and to move into higher more powerful divisions. There is no money award.
GRAPHICS
Game play, physics and graphics, easily beat out Ridge Racer V. Less jagged edges. Cars have smooth edges and appear photographically real. Wheels and tires, although they spin correctly according to speed, do not look completely real. Unlike Ridge Racer, the cars are markups of the production versions you see daily, like the Civic, Celica and Miata. The game developers are in love with Japanese cars. I wonder who they are? The game is chock full of "Sold only in Japan" cars. US cars are unwelcome here.
Road texture is good. Lane lines have realistic scuffs rather than
being solid. The West Coast track scenery changes from city buildings and hotels to residential homes and town houses with very good details. But the actual track scenery quality varies from course to course. The headlights go on/off for 2 seconds when going under a bridge. (Yeah, I'm gonna do that!) The cars reflect light and the tail light closest to the Sun is noticeably brighter. There is very slight suspension bounce and body lean. Cars never show any damage.
CONTROL (a disaster that ruins this game)
Steering must be the left analog joystick. No choice here.
Steering is difficult to set and to master. There is lag time between controller movement and the in car view of the steering wheel turning, rendering this view useless. A real shame, since the programmers took the time to create a different in car view for each make car. In comparison, this view in Nascar 2001 becomes a precise steering aid instead of the hindrance that it is in DE.
Most other buttons can be easily reconfigured. For some ungodly reason, you CAN NOT use the right analog joystick for accelerator and brake, or for anything. What a waste of analog technology.
Steering Adjustment is done under the "Button Configuration, settings." A "Margin" or steering range default is set to 32 out of a range of 0 to +125. A second adjustment is "Response" with a default of 60 out of a range from -127 to +127. I'm still not sure what this really is. There is little help on how to use or set these numbers. The booklet is a cop out, advising you to follow the directions provided on the screen. Good luck.
After 2 hours of adjusting it, I used 15 margin 115 response but I'm still not happy with the steering. So this gives you 31,750 different steering combinations, none of which work worth a damn. This makes me appreciate how precise the steering is on Nascar 2001 with no fuss.
Because of the touchy steering, I suggest initially using the automatic transmission, until you get it conquered. When you are about to hit a wall, your normal reaction is to make a steering correction that will help you bounce off the wall in the correct direction. This seems to be ignored and you hit almost head on. Recovery usually requires wasting time using reverse or a 270 degree turn to get going again. Wonderful! By the way, you have just come in last and lost the race.
Because the game deems all of us as stupid people that know nothing about handling a real car, they have provided us with an "Assist Level" called normal. I have been describing the normal level. The other level is called simulator but I call it "Totally uncontrollable steering".
Those who try to defend the control on this game like to say it is hard because it is supposed to be real. Well, let me tell you. Driving a real car is a no brainer for all of us, right? Unlike a real car, this game is very hard to control. It's to the point of being too much work and too hard to have fun. The comment must have come from the under 16 crowd.
Since steering seems to require quick little taps, I do not suggest using a steering wheel controller on this game.
Moving around the menus can be a real pain.
Here's an example. To return to a game after adjusting the steering sensitivity for the 30th time, you would expect to do Back, Back, Back, Back.
Instead you need to:
Move the cursor to Exit then X, to get to steering
Cancel, to the Button Configuration screen
Move the cursor to Exit then X to get to Options
Cancel, to Select Mode screen
Move cursor to Game choice then X
There, wasn't that easy?
As you can see, the steering adjustments screen is miles away from the game play location.
Wouldn't it be nice if every manufacturer would add an "options" choice to the start/pause menu.
3 VIEWS
1) In car view, of hands turning the wheel out of sync with what you are doing with the controller and a working dash board that varies from car to car. The windshield is actually tinted. At first you think, wow, what detail, but later you're thinking, hey, I can't see as well. Most of the cars are driven from the right seat as in the UK and Japan. The BMW, though, was on the left.
2) No car view - Front bumper
3) Above and behind view
MODES
Arcade (bad choice of words)
It might be called Arcade but it is definitely a Simulation.
This is the main racing mode the normal racing games might call career. The other modes are line training and time attack. Although the first 4 races are considered to be for beginners, it is difficult to come in first. There is no qualifying and you always start from the 6th position. It requires a flawless performance while defending your position from the nudges of your 5 competitors. Winning on each course unlocks another car. Arcade load times stink, at approximately 34 seconds.
Training - is to learn the correct line around the course by following, of course, a line painted on the road. Worthless.
Time Attack - set a record and perhaps unlock something. If you have a record it brings up a "Name Entry" screen but your name would need to be 3 characters. So you think, well that's because they really mean for you to use your initials. OK, then if it's initials, why do they provide me with both upper and lower case letters? So I have come to the conclusion that the names they are referring to are names like Tan, Lui, Lee and Soo.
"Yarborough" isn't going to cut it in this game.
This record screen then forgets your 3 character name after doing a load. Must be just too much information for it to remember. It certainly can't be for lack of memory space.
VS Mode - Oscillate down the road against a friend. I haven't tried this. I lack friends my age that play video games or understand the current game technology.
Load and Save
Loads are not automatic when you start the game. You must remember to load before you play. This is yet another pain. After a race, auto replay and then save replay are the defaults. You must remember to save your game progress since it only reminds you to save replays. Load and Save times are quick though.
GARAGE
Initially the garage holds 4 cars in division 3, the only division you can use. As you win races, additional cars are added to the garage for your use. You may modify the cars. Modifications are color, wheels, suspension, stability, brakes and gearing. You can save up to 3 modified cars in memory.
Cars Divisions: 3, 2, 1, GT
3) like Honda Civic
2) like Boxster
1) like Ferrari 360
GT) Racing modified
Unlocked in the first 5 races along with 4 tracks
1) Integra 2) BMW 328 (where did this come from?)
3) Nissan Primera (sold only in Japan. Oh boy!)
4) Mitsubishi FTO (Japanese version, of course)
5) Lexus IS200
Others: NSX, Nissan GTO, Legacy Wagon, Silvia, Honda S2000, Fairlady Z, Alfa GTV, Lancer, Chaser, Boxster, Pajero SUV, and Impreza.
Possibly 40 cars or so in total.
TRACKS
11 Tracks plus ?
Urban, Provence, Suzuka have both long and short versions making 6. West Coast, Tsukuba, and an 2 Ovals. One track has a section of dirt and your tires make crunching sounds on it.
West Coast will remind you of GT2's Seattle
Suzuka is also available on MotoGP which gives us the opportunity to compare. The track scenery on MotoGP is more detailed with amusement rides that actually move, more spectators around the course, fireworks and flags that move in the wind. On replays, distant visuals in DE are slightly blurred. So MotoGP wins here, but Suzuka is not one of the better looking tracks on DE.
Urban Highway will remind you of GT1's Special Stage (City highway driving at night) This one has fireworks.
MISC.
During replay, when looking into the cars, you will notice that there is no driver. Pretty weird. Replays are not very exciting. Sometimes they slowdown and other times they mysteriously jump forward.
Music is so-so Jazz. You can not select audio tracks.
I sold the game to an Epinions Games Advisor who has also posted a review of this game. After seeing this review, he said he had to see how bad it is. Figure that! I think he took the difficult control as a challenge. Fortunately, he stills talks to me.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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