London Racer - Strategy Guide (Page 01)

Below are the cheat codes, hints and help for London Racer - Strategy Guide (Page 01).

LONDON RACER - PlayStation FAQ 

by J Woodrow   

Version 1.1  - 20/04/2002
_________________________________________________________________________


||\
 | ||\\
| | |\| \\\\  \                                                ///|\
 | | | |\ \\\\   \| | | | |  |||||| || | | | | | | | | /   ////  | /|||
| | | | | \ \\\\\  \ | | ||  \|||||  \| | | | | | | |  //////  /|| | | /
 | | | | ||   \\\\    \|| |   |||||\ ||| | | | | |/  ////  /| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |\   \\\\  \ | \  \||||| || | | | | | ////  /| | | | | | | |\
 | | | | | | | | \  \\\  \||  ||||||  | | | |/  ////  /| | | | | | |
| | | | ||| | | | |\ \\\\  \\ |||||/ | | | /  /////  / /| | |/        //|
         | | | ||| |  \\\\  | |||||  || |   ////  ///| | /      /||||||||
 ||||||\        \ | |\  \\\   |||||\ \|/ ////  /|          /|||||||||||
 ||||||||||||||\              ||||||               /||||||||||||||||/  |
 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||/      | |
  |        \|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||/           / | | |
 | | | |                      ||||||                 /| | | | | | | 
| | | | ||| | | | | / //// ||  \||||  |\ \\\\  \|| | | | | | | | |
 | | | ||| | | | |  ///// /||  |||||| \|\   \\\\ \| | | | | | | | |
| | | ||| | | | / /////  /| |  ||||||\ || | ||  |||\\\  \ || | | | | 
 | | | | | | /  /////  / | | |  \||||| | | | | |\  \\\\\\   \| | | |\
| | | ||| /  ////   | | | | ||  |||||| || | | | | | |\   \\\\\  \| | |/
 | | | | / ////  /|| | | | | |  ||||||  || | | | | | | ||\  \\\\\  \| |\
| | | |  ////  /||||| | | | | \  \||||| |/   \| | | | || | /  \ \\||||/\\ 
 | |/ ///// //                                                        \\|
||//

      88888888o    88   o88o  88  88 888o  o888  88  88 8888888o
      8888888888   88  88 88 888 88 88 88 88 88 888 88 88888888888
     888888888888 88  88  88 88 88 88  88 88 88 888888 888888888888
     88888  88888 8888 888  88  88 8888'   88  88  88  8888   88888
     8888   88888                                     88888   8888
    88888   8888      888888       o888888  888888888 88888  88888
    88888 o88888     8888888     888888888  88888888  88888 o8888
    8888888888      8888 888   o88888      88888     88888888888
   88888 8888      8888  8888  88888       88888888  88888 8888
   88888 8888      8888  8888 88888       888888888  88888 8888
   88888 8888     8888   8888 88888       88888     88888  8888
  88888  88888   888888888888 888888      88888     88888  8888
  88888  88888  o888888888888  888888888 888888888  88888  88888
 o88888  88888 o8888    88888    888888  888888888 o8888   88888

S P E C T A C U L A R  R A C I N G  I N  A N D  A R O U N D  L O N D O N

_________________________________________________________________________


LONDON RACER - PLAYSTATION

Released: November 1999
Developers: Davilex
Publisher: -

[This game was released in the EU only]    

_________________________________________________________________________


C O N T E N T S 
_______________
 
INTRODUCTION
PLAYING THE GAME
1 M25 SOUTH
2 LONDON CITY
3 COUNTRY ROUTE TO OXFORD
4 OXFORD 
5 COUNTRY ROUTE TO LONDON
6 PARK AND PALACE
7 M25 SOUTH
8 THAMES
CONCLUSION
      
_________________________________________________________________________


I N T R O D U C T I O N 
_______________________


Red buses. Red phone boxes. Red pillar boxes. Black cabs. Polite 
policemen. This could only be London...

London Through the Looking Glass! No people, no noise, no dirt, no 
graffiti, no tourists, no filthy pigeons, no filthy hot-dog vendors, no 
traffic lights... in fact, no traffic. No traffic? Almost! Yes indeed, 
this is some kind of Wonderland. The streets look familiar enough and all 
the famous landmarks you would expect to see in Europe's largest city are 
here - Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and The Tower of 
London, The Bank of England and Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus 
(wot, no lions?), Trafalgar Square, Regent Street and Oxford Street, 
Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral among many others. The sun is 
shining, the roads are bare and invitingly wide and you are equiped with 
a meeeeean set of wheels... So what else can you do? Burn Rubber, Baby.

The concept is certainly appealing. You have a choice of fast cars and 
the simple objective is to race around the streets of not only the 
capital, but also sections of its orbital Motorway and on out into the 
beautiful countryside via Windsor Castle and Stonehenge to and from the 
University City of Oxford. All along the way you have to battle against 
devious opponents and stay one step ahead of the law, evading speed 
cameras and patrol cars which seem to wait at every turn.

Sound like fun?

_________________________________________________________________________


P L A Y I N G  T H E  G A M E
_____________________________


It IS fun, but you have to make some pretty major allowances. 

The list of driving games on the PlayStation is a very long one, and 
direct comparisons are fairly pointless. If you have either of the Gran 
Turismo or Driver titles, just about any Formula One game or anything in 
the driving genre from Codemasters, then you will be severely 
disappointed by this game if you are looking for a pure Driving 
Experience. This ain't it.

But if you have ever dreamt of screeching through London's empty streets 
in a no-holds-barred race, with a Supercar at your disposal with the 
added bonus of giving the police the run-around, then this may be your 
best chance short of some seriously criminal activity!

So let's get down to the important thing - what is the choice of cars? 

Compared to GT, extremely limited, but still... They all have daft names, 
so use your imagination:

                  £

NIME .........   9166  Ooh, let me guess... MINI?
TRAFALGUAR ...  47000  I would think a JAG-U-ARE
OPAL ASTER ...  14000  'VEUXHELL' ASTER in the UK, surely? 
BIETL ........  19000  It's spelt fo-net-i-cally
BWM ..........  30000  UMM...
HORCH DD .....  34000  A PORTIA of corsa (but it looks like a Trabant
                       from behind)


In time-honoured fashion, you start with the cheapest car and a small 
budget, and the idea is to tune your car to win races and earn more cash 
to upgrade and eventually purchase the better motors. For some reason, 
someone seems to have put a decimal point in the wrong place, and after 
only a couple of races you can afford everything, so that concept goes 
straight out of the window.

The best thing is to forget the racing challenge and just admire the 
scenery as you swerve your way through roadblocks and roadworks, leaving 
a trail of flying cones and lamp-posts in your wake. The races are not 
difficult and you'll win as often as not with no trouble anyway.

The backgrounds are certainly remarkable, if not entirely accurate, and 
the team at Davilex have done a bang-up job in giving London a unique 
atmosphere. I love the spoof names they have for those instantly-
recognisable typical High Street stores - 'Wichwool' building society, 
'Nixons' and 'The Kink' electrical stores and 'Pizza blr' restaurant. 
Branches of 'Diana's Diner' seems to occupy half of Oxford Street! They 
have certainly captured that authentic street scene of permanent 
roadworks on main routes and not a sign of a workman anywhere near them.

The artwork is superb, if necessarily limited; as is shown by the 
repeated use of the same buildings in order to keep the memory overhead 
down. All the major landmarks are very impressively rendered and the road 
layout is fairly accurate if occasionally quite eccentric. This isn't 
supposed to be an a map of London however, and for most people the fun 
will be in just roaring down the main streets and negotiating all those 
bends at speed. For those who love racing, the scenery is incidental... 
which may be a problem, since the scenery is the best thing about this 
game in my opinion.

The handling of all the cars is unremarkable. They make impressive engine 
noises and the tyres squeal in a most gratifying way, but the speedo 
seems a little eccentric at times. Get used to being stopped by the 
police every five minutes as well, although you have only two (improbably 
courteous) warnings before you are stopped a third time and the round is 
over.

Watch out for your racing opponents - they'll flick you into a wall like 
an elastic band given half a chance, and they inflict massive amounts of 
damage with just a couple of hits. When your car is wrecked, then once 
again it is all over. There is a clever idea in the inclusion of roadside 
garages through which you simply drive at speed for an instant repair if 
your damage meter gets too high. You should spend your first prize money 
on a 'turbo' which can get you out of trouble quickly.

Forget the cars in the garage, daft names or not - show me where can I 
buy a police car! No matter what you are driving and at whatever speed, 
they catch you easily, turbo or no. If you hit anything they ALWAYS ram 
your backside. You can't ram them and it's not always easy to drive 
around them although you clearly have enough room... And just what is 
that tripe they come out with when they pull you over? Page 37 of "So You 
Want to be a Policeman" says quite clearly that there is only one 
recommended script for a Traffic PC in this situation: 

  "So this is YOUR car is it Sunshine? Well then, I suppose you won't
  have any trouble telling me the Registration Number, will you?" 

Instead you get:

  "This is your FIRST warning..." 

It sounds like your mate's Dad asking if he can explain the bottle of 
Pale Ale that seems to be missing from the cocktail cabinet.

  "This is your SECOND warning. One more and you're finished!" 

(Wooo-ooo! Get HER!)

  "This is your THIRD warning. You're coming with us." 

Back to the Videogame shop for a refund with any luck.

Well, I don't want to be too hard on this game. It's like kicking a 
puppy. I say again that it isn't fair to compare it with AAA titles. 
Those have a bigger budget and better programmers, and that is probably 
reflected in the respective price of the games. Which is not to ignore 
the fact that there are some major flaws in this one...
 
The whole game is plagued by 'seaming' and 'pop-up'. You would think 
there is an earthquake opening up the road, as trees flicker with 
lightning. Buildings spring out of nowhere and sometimes you wonder where 
you will drive next, until another piece of motorway appears beneath the 
wheels of the car floating in the distance ahead. You get used to this 
after a while and it even becomes quite endearing - seeing Buck House 
burst into view out of a clear blue sky as you belt along the Mall makes 
one quite proud to be British.

The PlayStation version of London Racer seems glitchy too - sometimes you 
get 'stuck' to the pavement and have to crawl along at microspeeds until 
a helpful Copper rams your backside to unstick you. On several occasions 
on the London City run I somehow wound up on the other side of the 
buildings, and it is like a Magic Carpet ride as your car floats along an 
invisible road with only the distant background screen for company until 
you hear sirens and paper buildings pop up to let you know you have found 
your way back to the racetrack and you can burst through another wall to 
rejoin the action. Bizarre.

The collision detection in any case is frankly ludicrous. You will hear 
crunching metal when there isn't anything within 10 feet, especially 
around trees.

A few of these phantom hits added to the rest you'll be taking, and soon 
enough black clouds emit from the bonnet like Indian Smoke Signals and 
you'll have to switch to another view as you now can't see a bloody 
thing. Try the 'far' back view as at least then you'll see the Cops 
coming. They are like the Terminator: They absolutely will not stop - 
EVER!- until they spin pathetically and harmlessly across the other side 
of the road.

You can't outrun them and you can't bash them out of the way. You can't 
even drive around them sometimes, as they seem to have an invisible 
forcefield which causes you to come smashing to a halt if you get within 
10 feet or so. If you carry just a little bit of speed then they stay on 
the 'proper' side of the road, but if you stop or slow down too much they 
take the opportunity to bash you from behind. They pull up behind you and 
start issuing a stern talking-to even as the rest of the pack are 
crashing the lot of them aside to muscle through and race off while you 
are still detained! I mean, where's the Justice?

Mind you, they don't seem to want to follow you the wrong way up a one-
way street (because that's breaking the law isn't it?) They will still 
magically appear and bash into you if you somehow crash up there though. 
Cars and buses coming the other way are not your friends - if they can 
drift into your path at the last moment they will. Expect them to head 
your way going past any roadworks, especially if you have a police car on 
your tail.

The only recommended avoiding action when you pick up the inevitable 
pursuer is to let him catch you quickly and stay just in the middle of 
the road and slightly to the right. He will overtake on the inside and 
pull across to block just that side of the road. Simple.

Although the natural instinct is to burn around each track as fast as you 
can go, in fact it is sometimes better to enter into the spirit of the 
game and pace yourself against the other racers. They will slow down on 
approaching a waiting patrol car and cruise past as though butter 
wouldn't melt; go along with them and once you are a little way past, 
just open her up and you are off again. Only a few of the tracks reward 
full speed, and it will be a lot more of a challenge if you try to set 
yourself the target of not alerting a single patrol car and still 
maintaining enough speed to beat your opponents. Trickier than you might 
think.

The masterstroke of the programmers is the inclusion of numerous Gatso 
speed cameras sneakily placed just where they'll catch you out. These are 
eminently destructible! Now, THAT is surely something we all want to do 
in real life, so load up the disc and here's your chance...

_________________________________________________________________________


1:  M 2 5   S O U T H
    _________________


You start the game with a budget of £2000. Your car is a 'NIME' which 
even the cat can see is a Mini. You had me fooled there boys. (Just how 
much DOES an official licence cost?) Like all the other cars, this is 
impressively modelled and rendered, but very dull to drive. You might as 
well blow the entire budget on an upgrade, as pretty soon you'll have 
money coming out of your ears and nothing to spend it on.

You can upgrade anything or everything but it doesn't make any difference 
- whichever car you choose it still handles like a pudding.

I can say that, having driven on just about every major motorway across 
the UK, at all times of the day and night, from Aberdeen to Brighton, 
Cardiff to Kent; the worst motorway drivers without fear of contradiction 
are those on the M25. I don't know why, but I think it is because that 
motorway doesn't actually go anywhere but around London. Most drivers 
seem to be using it for short hops of a few miles, and having faced the 
frustration of 15mph stop-start driving to get to it, they leave common 
sense on the slip road and revel in the novelty of a motorway, just like 
they've seen on telly. You can actually see the chaos build as they shoot 
across to the fast lane (that's what that outside lane is, everybody 
knows that), and then race up behind other cars and start flashing their 
lights, and then when that lane becomes too congested with other 
Thickears they switch lanes to try to make headway (and they don't know a 
Left indicator from left luggage). In some parts that motorway is four 
lanes wide, and many times for no good reason I have found all four come 
to a halt. By then of course, Brain of Britain is long gone. Road rage? 
Show me the queue.

How refreshing then, to find the M25 in this game to be about as busy as 
6a.m. on Christmas morning. Just what we have always dreamed of, and 
almost worth the purchase price for this experience alone. It looks very 
convincing - close your eyes a bit and you could almost be there - so top 
marks to the development team for scenic authenticity. 

For this first level, the police don't seem interested as you blast by... 
In fact your opponents are the biggest hazard, as they certainly get a 
bit snippy when you pull in front and they will buffet you from behind 
and try to run you off the road.

Use all that space on the opposite carriageway to cut the corners and 
stay clear of the others, and about the only things to watch for on the 
road itself are a couple of lane closures (apart from a peculiar glitch 
sometimes that seems like an invisible brick wall somewhere on the left 
at the start). Just keep an eye out for the roadsigns and pull over to 
the left in good time to clear the roadworks. You get a taste of things 
to come with that horrendous pop-up: trees march towards the horizon and 
also a police roadblock springs up out of nowhere just before the end. 
Keep your wits about you and you'll just win with probably the yellow 
Bietl a very close second.

The chap who translated the 'Menue' must have a touch of dyslexia or a 
Chinese dictionary, as you are now awarded Price money.

First place  =  £ 7500 
Second       =  £ 5000
Third        =  £ 2500
Fourth       =  £ 1500 (This is with the standard NIME)

Actually, you don't need to be too disappointed with your placing in any 
of the rounds, as you get 'bonus' money for doing something or other 
which far outweighs the Prize money. I'm not setting any challenges here 
(you don't need any tips or a proper walkthrough to finish this very 
simple game), but just to let you know what to expect, this is a typical 
Results board:


     POSITION :    1
   TOTAL TIME :    02:13
  PRICE MONEY :    £   7500
        BONUS :    £      0
        FINES :    £    000
   NEW BUDGET :    £   9500

_________________________________________________________________________


2:  L O N D O N  C I T Y
    ____________________

    Oxford Street 
    Centre Point
    Covent Garden
    Waterloo Bridge
    Westminster Bridge  
    Parliament Square (incl. Big Ben) 
    Trafalgar Square
    Piccadilly Circus
    Regent Street 
    Oxford Circus  


You start this first street race on a suspiciously bare Oxford Street. 
Where are the pavements packed with confused shoppers and tourists and 
leafleteers and beggars and pickpockets, and the man holding a sign that 
says 'Golf Sale'? Where are the tacky Souvenir shops and the dusty 
'Closing Down - Everything Must Go' signs and the rip-off 'Mock 
Auctions'? No sign of Selfridges or all those other world-famous stores 
down the Posh End either... This should alert you to the fact that we are 
not going to get the "Metropolis Street Racer" level of realism here, and 
sadly nothing like the level of handling of the cars in that remarkable 
game.

Pretty much the best fun to be had in London Racer are the full-throttle 
powerslides you can pull (just a little bit like MSR, and Gran Turismo 
too come to that) as you sweep down off Waterloo Bridge, and then again 
at the next turn onto Westminster Bridge just past the garage; ideally 
with patrol cars spinning harmlessly all about you. Now you have a nice 
long stretch unhindered by the law, so you can repeat the trick at 
Parliament Square as you turn onto Whitehall - this time with the added 
bonus of wiping out another Gatso. It is also fun to bop traffic cones 
and bollards out of the way as you meet them.

The collision detection on the run behind the National Gallery becomes 
truly bizarre. Maybe the pavement is made of rubber or something, because 
you'll ricochet off invisible obstacles like a drunk on a Saturday night.

The Gatso just before Piccadilly Circus seems to be a hologram (too often 
you'll pass straight through it), but you can knock it down if you slew 
across it at an angle. It seems a bit odd that the police don't mind if 
you knock a camera down right in front of them, or pass by trailing a 
lamp-post from your bumper, but a couple of ticks over 30mph and the 
sirens are on. Why aren't they out catching proper criminals?

It may be wise to ease off so as not to bring the pack of police cars 
with you around Oxford Circus, as there are roadworks down Oxford Street 
just before the end of the lap, and you will have buses and traffic 
coming at you head-on, forcing you into the path of any pursuers.


     POSITION :    1
   TOTAL TIME :    07:25
  PRICE MONEY :    £   7500
        BONUS :    £  10000 
        FINES :    £    100
   NEW BUDGET :    £  26900

_________________________________________________________________________


3:  C O U N T R Y  R O U T E  T O  O X F O R D
    __________________________________________

    Windsor Castle 
    Maidenhead Bridge 
    Marlow Bridge & Church
    Wallingford Castle and Church


Just past the very first arch is a red road sign that seems to be made of 
concrete - Keep Left!

The road is very narrow in parts, and you'll have your hands full 
fighting off the attentions of your opponents (the Beemer seems 
particularly aggressive), so it is best to file past the first patrol car 
sedately to leave you in peace on the open road.

Although you can knock all the cameras down, stick to the task of 
leapfrogging the other cars. It seems to make no difference whether you 
drive fast or slow; they are always on your shoulder ready to zip past. 
Make a full-speed dash past the second batch of patrol cars and you 
should be over the finish line before they catch up with you.


     POSITION :    1
   TOTAL TIME :    02:57
  PRICE MONEY :    £   7500
        BONUS :    £  10000
        FINES :    £    200
   NEW BUDGET :    £  44200

_________________________________________________________________________


4:  O X F O R D
    ___________

    Exeter College
    All Souls College
    University Church (St Mary's)
    Merton College
    Examination Schools
    Queen's College Chapel
    Bridge of Sighs 
    Radcliffe Camera (Bodleian)
    St Peter's
    Trinity College 
    Balliol College
    Ashmolean Museum 


The narrow streets of Oxford's one-way system are a nightmare to drive, 
just as in real life but for a different reason. Putting the pedal to the 
metal is not likely to bring success here.

You can easily overtake after the first bend as you weave your way 
through the traffic, and keep to the pavement on the right so you can 
demolish the Gatso. It is now wise to slam on the anchor to cruise at not 
much more than 40mph past the first patrol car (it seems better to be 
easing off than accelerating if you pass at this speed), and you can give 
it a burst of power to stay in touch with your opponents then ease off 
past the second waiting there on the grass, and repeat the trick for the 
third. This leaves you unhindered to blast along the narrow passage 
before you once again yank the handbrake (Triangle) to crawl past the 
fourth patrol car and then you can roar off again once around the corner. 
If you pick up any of these boys, then I recommend making a dash for it 
and collecting the whole lot of them. The street is very narrow, and as 
they will inevitably slide across your path somewhere, you may as well 
take the punishment and have the lot of them caution you at once rather 
than one after the other.

Pull away in an orderly fashion after this so that they don't get back on 
your case too soon. Once they leave their waiting positions, the police 
cars cruise the circuit very slowly, so watch out for those white cars on 
the next lap. You shouldn't lose too much time as you pursue the others, 
who rather improbably have just barged through the Coppers without so 
much as an "Excuse me". There are two very sharp left-hand turns with 
pointy buildings which will catch you every time if you try to carry too 
much speed through them, and this is where the police like to take the 
chance to bash you. 

There is also a tight gateway leading into the Bodleian, and if you hit 
the pillar there you'll stick like Velcro. Once you negotiate this and 
the other gate leading back to the main road, you can open her up again 
and easily avoid the rest of the police cars. A sneaky trick often played 
by the yellow Bietl when he is right behind you here is to catapult you 
through this gate so that you have no choice but to flash past the 
waiting patrol cars there and get chased. - Hey, what about HIM? Not only 
Speeding, but Dangerous Driving too! I don't know... What can you do? 
Luckily, Broad Street is - well - 'broad', so tempting the police car to 
an early spin is easy. Not so if either of the next pair follow you all 
the way back to the Starting line...

The entrance to the garage along that last straight is annoyingly 
protected by invisible forcefields around the trees and pavements, so a 
high-speed refit is not recommended. 

Slow but sure wins this race, so take a few moments to admire the 
fabulous aerial perspective of those Dreaming Spires in the morning 
light, and say goodbye to Oxford with yet more cash swelling your 
account.


     POSITION :    1
   TOTAL TIME :    05:23
  PRICE MONEY :    £   7500
        BONUS :    £  20000
        FINES :    £      0
   NEW BUDGET :    £  61910

_________________________________________________________________________


5:  C O U N T R Y  R O U T E  T O  L O N D O N
    __________________________________________

    Stonehenge 
    Avebury Stone Circle 
    Typical English country sites (i.e. pubs and garages)


Don't forget to check that damage is on zero. You have to spend that cash 
on something! (There is no garage on this route.)

It doesn't seem that you can knock the speed cameras down on this little 
run in the country, and there isn't much else to do except look at the 
scenery. This is worth it anyway, because the pop-up becomes truly 
spectacular. The canopy of trees seems to be cast by Spiderman - just 
watch as a web of branches is spun above your head. Drop the anchor 
emerging from the trees, as there are a load of police cars waiting on 
the roundabout. Perhaps they are expecting New Age Travellers to turn up 
at nearby Stonehenge? Don't let some sneaky opponent cannon you at speed 
past these guys because there is enough to cope with because of all 
traffic coming your way.

Stonehenge itself is a hoot. Maybe it was built by a Druid Tommy Cooper, 
because "Just like that!" cardboard cutout monoliths pop up from nowhere. 
Avebury is improbably nearby and there is a repeat performance. 

The map for this track clearly shows a White Horse somewhere at the 
start, which is also shown on the cover artwork for the PC version, but I 
couldn't see it here. I'm getting the feeling that this game has only 
half the features of the PC one... And come to think of it - where is the 
Lotus from the opening credits?


     POSITION :    4         (They took me on the final turn, honestly!)
   TOTAL TIME :    03:11
  PRICE MONEY :    £   1500  (For coming LAST?!)
        BONUS :    £  20000  (No, really - you shouldn't...)
        FINES :    £    100  (No problem. There you go, mate)
   NEW BUDGET :    £  77150  (A Jag please, and something for the Missus)

_________________________________________________________________________


6:  P A R K  A N D  P A L A C E
    ___________________________

    Westminster Abbey 
    Houses of Parliament
    Big Ben
    Horse Guards Parade
    Admiralty Arch 
    The Mall
    Queen Victoria Memorial
    Buckingham Palace 
    Wellington Arch (Hyde Park Corner)


The challenge here is to keep your thumb on the X for the whole 2 laps.


     POSITION :    1
   TOTAL TIME :    07:06
  PRICE MONEY :    £   7500
        BONUS :    £  22000
        FINES :    £    800
   NEW BUDGET :    £ 105850

_________________________________________________________________________


7:  M 2 5  S O U T H
    ________________


Is it just me, or is this section not exactly the same as the first, only 
with a different sky? And just where is The Dome? We were promised a Dome 
and I want one.
  

     POSITION :    1
   TOTAL TIME :    02:14
  PRICE MONEY :    £   7500
        BONUS :    £  22000
        FINES :    £      0
   NEW BUDGET :    £ 135350

_________________________________________________________________________


8:  T H A M E S
    ___________

    London Bridge station
    London Dungeon
    HMS Belfast 
    Tower Bridge 
    Tower of London
    Monument
    Bank of England 
    St Paul’s                                                              
    Cannon Street Station
    London Bridge


My favourite section, but only because I live nearby. The normal queue of 
Benetton kids outside the London Dungeon at the start seems to be 
missing, and then there is some ingenious mapping to include a drive-by 
of HMS Belfast. The Gatso there is a little tricky to line up as you are 
coming off the bend, unless you scrub off some speed first.

Tower Bridge is very narrow, and if there is a bus coming to force you to 
swerve, you'll get battered for sure if there is a police car on your 
tail, so perhaps it is best to creep past the one waiting there unless 
you like to live dangerously. You can demolish those beautiful Victorian 
cast-iron lamp-posts as you sweep the left pavement on the other side for 
the speed camera. It is nice not to have a close escort, as you may need 
to swing left into the garage around the corner for running repairs. 
Judge which side of the Monument to take very carefully, as the turn 
after it is sharper than it first appears if you are forced to the right 
by traffic and the pavement is 'sticky' too. You can give it the gun all 
the way past the next Gatso, as the street is more than wide enough to 
shake off the chasing Cop cars. The only tricky part is not to get 
snagged by the wall alongside St Paul's.

There is another ingenious mapping trick at the end of the lap, where at 
one moment you are coming the 'wrong' way past the entrance to London 
Bridge Station and the next you are blasting down a startlingly accurate 
Tooley Street. Wonderful. You should win this round easily with a decent 
car and that's it. 


     POSITION :    2          (Got me on the last bend AGAIN...)
   TOTAL TIME :    07:28
  PRICE MONEY :    £   5000
        BONUS :    £  32000
        FINES :    £      0
   NEW BUDGET :    £ 172350

  
Just look at the rubbish 'plastic' Cup you are awarded! What does it say? 
"THE WINNINNER OF ALL"? Maybe it got lost in translation from the Dutch. 

For some reason, you can't select your choice of track even after having 
completed the game, so if you want to relive any of those racing moments, 
you will be forced to battle your way through the other sections first. I 
managed the above scores in the bog-standard NIME with no upgrades at all 
(just repair bills), in under an hour without trying particularly hard. 
Value for money? You decide.

_________________________________________________________________________


C O N C L U S I O N
___________________


So how can London Racer be improved? (Sensible suggestions only - these 
things are already in the game, they just need to be implemented a little 
better):

Make the prize worth winning 
----------------------------
Award only enough money for a hard-fought third place to afford just the 
least improvement to the car that allows you to go a little faster next 
time. Then you can challenge for second place, and this in turn awards 
just enough to buy an upgrade to your car to realistically go for the win 
at last... This means that the race should really BE a race, and be 
nearly impossible to win without earning the upgrades first.


Make the prize money reflect the purchase price of a better car
---------------------------------------------------------------
After only a couple of tracks, you get showered with so much cash that 
you buy all the cars, max. them out and you still get even more money 
after the next track and nothing left to spend it on. 


Make the speeding fines really hurt
-----------------------------------
Who cares about £100 fines when you get £30000 just for finishing? Make 
the prize money only a Monkey or so and we have the incentive to knock 
those cameras down on the first lap. Perhaps add in on-the-spot fines for 
being cautioned; again, these should really hurt so that you need to 
avoid every encounter instead of breezing past the patrol cars and merely 
taunting them.


Make the police chases more interesting
---------------------------------------
As soon as you hear the sirens, you must face the inevitable. They WILL 
catch up and overtake you. Always. Why?

If you crash, they will ram you. Always. Why?

You cannot damage them. Why not?