PSX Longplay [569] Test Drive: Le Mans (Part 1 of 3)

Played by: Mad-Matt 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. 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 need 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. 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 - Disclaimer: Most videos by World of Longplays use SaveStates!