The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
The gameplay of Driving Emotion Type-S follows general conventions of racing games. The game's physics and controls intend to be realistic and are based on vehicular weight. The player competes in races with other computer-controlled cars in order to unlock new cars and tracks. Car settings can be customized, as well as their colors, before each course.
Driving Emotion Type-S includes 43 officially licensed cars with a variety range from Import scene cars, Luxury Cars and Exotic Car from Eight Japanese and Five European manufacturers, including BMW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Porsche, Subaru, Mitsubishi, TVR, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Lexus which was exclusive to the Western versions of the game. Fourteen courses are available in total, including two fictional circuit and three real circuit including Suzuka Circuit, and Tsukuba Circuit, and one exclusive to the Western versions of the game called West Coast.
Development
Announced in January 2000 under the working title of Type-S, Driving Emotion Type-S was developed by Escape, a subsidiary of Square. Its development team had previously worked with DreamFactory on Ehrgeiz and the Tobal series for the PlayStation. The announcement was later followed by a four-page advertisement in the Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu, which stated that the game would be Square's first release for the PlayStation 2.
In Japan, a playable demo was showcased at Square's "Millennium Event", a show held in January 2000 at Yokohama Arena. 1) and Ferrari 360 Modena). The game was also showcased in the United States at the Electronic Entertainment Expo at Los Angeles Convention Center, from May 11–13 of the same year. This demonstration was not playable however, as focus groups were revising the game to improve upon the Japanese version.
Reception
The game received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Weekly Famitsu gave the title a score of 28 out of 40, praising its graphics, usage of real cars and innovative driver's view perspective. Game Informer and GameZone also lauded the game's realistic car interiors and highly detailed environments, putting them on par with those of Ridge Racer V and Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. Still, AllGame noted the presence of a subtle shimmering effect in the graphics, an effect typically seen on early PlayStation 2 titles, while GameRevolution found the graphics "severely jagged". The shimmering and jaggedness were also noted by GameSpot and IGN, which did not feel they were that irritating.
Concerning the game's playability, the Japanese release was judged "impossible to play" by GameSpot and IGN; both found the international release an improvement, even though it was still "far more sensitive than it ought to be". Still, GameRevolution found the car default settings unbalanced and hard to re-adjust properly, and criticized the game's inconsistent AI, like AllGame and IGN. Famitsu reported long load times and a high difficulty level, noting that the game was aimed more toward fans of sim racing than fans of arcade-style gameplay, due to the difficulty of steering. Game Informer and GameZone echoed Famitsu's review, stating that the load times quickly become a "game-ending nightmare", and calling the game's handling "touchy", "intense" and "revolutionary", but acknowledging that most players would simply find it too challenging and frustrating to be fun. While Game Informer alleged that "there is a masterpiece for driving simulator buffs buried in here", AllGame was much more negative, stating that the cars "seem overly light on their tires" and that it "feels like you're driving on ice".
