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+.