That’s not the kind of emotion I was thinking of. Review

That’s not the kind of emotion I was thinking of.

With meager financial prospects and hordes of responsibilities, it’s going to

be a long time before I can afford a new car. My lust for expensive automobiles

hangs in the balance and my only option besides auto theft is to drive the digital

counterparts of real-life speedsters.

This brings me to Driving Emotion Type-S, a failed attempt at bringing

those horse-powered honeys home. Even with the bevy of real European and Japanese

cars, from Bimmers to Celicas, combined with control heavily mired in simulation,

the game lacks balance and fun. And to top it all off, Driving Emotion Type-S

has been given a clear coating of severely jagged graphics and intolerable

music.

The controls of Driving Emotion are far from the pick-up-and-play variety.

The learning curve is steep and an unadjusted default car will give you nothing

but trouble. Individual adjustments in the areas of steering, suspension, gearing,

and braking are mandatory, unless you want to end up frantically jamming the

control stick back and forth in fits of anger.

Part of the problem here is that every car starts out with the same default

settings, save acceleration and appearance. Why not make each car diffrenet

from the start? Why not also add an area where you can tailor and test your

car without going back and forth between adjusting and racing?

At least you can adjust your rims. Whoopity doo.

After considerable trial and error towards creating a decent car, I was still

unhappy. Why? No matter what you do, the controls aren’t pleasing. No matter

how I’ve set it, the controls feel too strict and unforgiving. The tiniest driving

error will often leave you flailing. This game offers no mercy.

In an effort to ease you into the experience, there are Line Training exercises.

Basically, they are just racetracks with a line drawn through them. Stay on

the line for the smartest way to navigate the road. Simply put, this mode isn’t

enough. Thia game could really use a more in-depth tutorial mode that explains

the tactics and maneuvers of “real racing.” Maybe they could teach speeds at

which to take curves, how sharply to maneuver, and other useful driving skills.

That would be something to get emotional over.

The collision system touts itself as one of the most accurate around, but

this is just plain wrong. The collisions don’t feel very accurate or lifelike

at all. There are effects of dampening in speed and force, but they don’t feel

or look quite right. For example, let’s look at the interplay between computer

and player.

A computer-controlled car can easily knock into your car and pull away with

no visible loss of speed. Meanwhile, you, the simple human, will hurtle right

into the divider. Your perfect race – kaput. Oh so very frustrating.

These computer opponents are cheap and somehow seem to have discovered the

magical and impossible adjustments that allow them to race much better than

you. Difficulty is one thing, lack of balance is another.

Driving Emotion has a serious case of the jaggies. Feverish edges pop

up everywhere and will drive you nuts. Effects that would be semi-impressive

become lost in the roughness of the final images. Heat blur, distant views…

all lost in the jags. Otherwise, the graphics could have been admirable. The

environments are filled with variety and the cars look like their real life

counterparts.

The music in one word is BAD. In two words, REALLY BAD. In a world of never

ending digital synthesizers and electric guitars, people might find the music

bearable, but I sure as hell don’t. One track sounds like a flock of seagulls

being maimed and tortured.

After you finish the race, the game gives you all the records. The game locks

into the scores for some 15 seconds before allowing you to exit out of it. It’s

a minor issue, but coupled with the rest of the problems is just the icing on

the cake. There’s also a weird screen jump as you select through the different

cars. Change the car, and the screen does a momentary vertical dance. Not sure

if this is an odd glitch or if the developers are intentionally trying to give

me a seizure.

Driving Emotion Type S is an unforgiving game that demands precision

and perfection from its racers. The pure joy of racing has been lost in the

equation. The racetracks provide nothing that hasn’t been seen before, the graphics

and music are a step backwards, and like I said, I just didn’t have fun. The

only emotion that I was left with is Driving Emotion Type D+.