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First Screens and Info: Le Mans 24 HoursInfogrames\' Melbourne House promises screaming-fast racing fun for PS2. Check out our first movie!February 9, 2001It may not have been the case two years ago, but these days, Infogrames knows a good thing when it sees it. That\'s why the giant French publisher is tasking its kick-ass development team, Melbourne Studios, which orchestrated Test Drive Le Mans on Dreamcast, to code it for PlayStation 2. What makes this version so likeable is the addition of new features. Le Mans 24 Hours, no longer grouped with the Test Drive franchise, features a small gold mine of extras unique to the PlayStation 2 version. These goodies include updated car rosters, new cars and tracks, including Road Atlanta from the US Le Mans racing series, and fully animated pit crews. The screenshots from this game are taken from a version that\'s about 50% complete, and the development team is confident that it\'ll look stunning when it comes out this summer. As Infogrames grows and diversifies, it\'s clarified the use of the Test Drive name a little more than in the past. Le Mans 24 Hours won\'t use the Test Drive license, because those games feature "fast-paced Hollywood-style racing action in real-world locations in some of the world\'s most sought after licensed vehicles." Le Mans is very much its own game, and although the former Le Mans titles used the license, it looks like the company will be more choosy from here on out. For fans of this style of racing, the newly added animated pit crew will deliver the necessary break from the course, change tires, refuel you, and crank you out in record times. The added courses and the updated teams, which deepen the racing variety, are quite impressive, too. Le Mans 24 Hours packs more than 70 fully detailed licensed, high-performance cars, with 30 new vehicles from the Le Mans 2000 race itself. A smattering of the new roster includes Viper Team Oreca, Corvette Racing, and Team Cadillac. It\'s fascinating to think that Le Mans is loading its game with so many vehicles. Racing fans that love Gran Turismo aren\'t only going to think of Sony\'s game these days when they want dozens and dozens of cars. The 24-hour race, based on the namesake of the popular racing sport, which racers can simulate in realtime, with day-to-night lighting transformations, is just like in the PlayStation and Dreamcast versions. If you can handle the 24-hour race, it\'s ready. It\'s quite a daunting thing to complete a full day and night\'s worth of racing, and it certainly puts you in the hard-core group. But for those who live regular lives, they also can play the game in time-compressed 10-minute, 30-minute, one-hour, or six-hour modes, too. Le Mans 24 Hours delivers five game modes including the Le Mans mode, and a two-player multiplayer mode via split-screen. "If you loved Melbourne House’s Test Drive Le Mans for the Dreamcast, then Le Mans 24 Hours for the PlayStation2 will blow you away," said Laddie Ervin, director of marketing for sports and racing at the Infogrames San Jose Label. "As stellar as Test Drive Le Mans was, people told us what would make it absolutely perfect and we listened. Rear view mirrors, real-time headlights, animated drivers and an animated pit crew are just a few of the new features that will accompany the awesome gameplay of Le Mans 24 Hours." Le Mans tracks are quite exhilarating unto themselves. The winding courses and slick surfaces enable drivers to reach extreme speeds, but also it enables them to test their driving skills in snaking curves and 180-degree turns as well. Players can get to grips with 12 real-world tracks, including the new course, the US Road Atlanta from the 2000 Le Mans series. For those new to Le Mans, racer vie against as many as 24 cars in each race simultaneously, and they can expect all of the same kinds of racing experiences found in the real courses, too -- spin outs, tire traction loss, loss of fuel, loss of oil, and necessary alterations. Just like the Dreamcast version, there will be no vehicular damage. But it was the wide set of killer special effects that helped push Test Drive Le Mans into the limelight. The game\'s realistic physics and graphic effects were superb. Special effects, such as clouds of dust, smoke, and sparks, make up a huge sector of the experience. Players will experience exquisite realtime shadows, lighting, and hopefully more sophisticated realtime reflections than found in the Dreamcast version. Other extras special to the game include animated drivers, advanced AI drivers, all-new car settings, and realtime headlights and brake lights. Infogrames\' Melbourne House studio previously developed Looney Tunes Space Race and Test Drive Le Mans for Dreamcast. We\'ll definitely have more on Le Mans 24 Hours in the near future. --Douglass C. Perry
Originally posted by Bossieman your funny man..... Just load your brain with coffein and leave the real world for 24 hours, that is just like FFVII syndrome, U wont leave your home for a week. everything comes in second place, sleep , hunger and friends. damn i love games....
Originally posted by Dreamstationboxcube In the DC version you can save the race during a pit stop. I hope they leave it in because it may come in handy.
