In discussions involving driving game, I was told that SimBin is king of driving simulators.  Someone was pumped about RacePro coming out for the 360 and posted a thread on it.  There was hype talk, how this was a REAL driving sim, and would be top of sims on consoles.  Well.... the reviews have come in, and people have said the game is poor, disappointing, and I heard someone say Live for Speed blows away everything SimBin has done.

Anyhow, any word what happened with the game?  Why the ratings and so on for it?  I am also assuming poor sales to.

Ok, this might blow your mind so make sure you're prepared to read what I type next.

If you want to find what happened to the game and why the ratings are where they are, why don't you read the reviews?

Selnor's recon plane will find it.

73 @ meta and weak sales, like, very weak sales... 70k WW. So you could surely say it didn't turn out well.

I did, which is why I posted.  Curious why, if SimBin is all that, and their racing simulators are supposed to be top notch, that Race Pro didn't get too many good reviews, and now people are bashing it.  Now, say Gran Turismo or Forza hits this year.  They are nearly a lock to get real good reviews.

Just curious if the game is that bad, or if console people don't want to play realistic driving sims.  That goes for sales numbers also.

What happened is that it needs another year or two of work from developers with more talent. The engine is inefficient and the game runs like molasses, which is a real problem in a driving sim.

A lot of the people that made games like GT-R on the PC that used Simbin's physics tech are actually part of EA now and they're working on Need For Speed Shift, which will take the series much further into realism than it's gone before, though with things still firendly to the noobs and casuals with a bit of an arcade feel. It should be better than any previous NFS game as these guys (the folks at Slightly Mad Studios, not the guys who made Race Pro) have some real talent.

I bought it...

It isn't the greatest racer out there... Not bad... But definately, no PGR, Forza, or GT...

If you read the reviews, then why are you asking about what went wrong? The reviews will tell you why they gave the low scores, so that you don't have to come here and ask us why the ratings are low when you've already gathered the answer by reading the content of the reviews that explain precisely what you asked in your OP. Can you comprehend that?

Regarding sales, it's rather simple. Absolutely no advertising and low purchasing levels by retailers sealed this game's fate regardless of quality. You do realize Atari published it right?

It shouldn't be suprising that a game with brutal driving physics and fairly mediocre visuals isn't a big seller. It's a great sim, but it's also a fairly pure sim. That means you mess up and you're done. Lots of players don't want that. I think Forza is as sim-like as a game can get while retaining the ability to just jump in and enjoy the game.

Is the soundtrack really as bad as Gametrailers said it was?