Xbox drivers have never had it so good; Midnight Club 2, Colin McRae 04 and Project Gotham Racing 2 have left a lasting impression on Gamecell, and now TOCA Race Driver 2 roars onto the grid with 30+ diverse vehicles and 52 circuits from around the world… A huge and ambitious undertaking alright…

The TOCA games are racing game "Royalty" as far as I'm concerned (this is the fifth in the series), and despite the awful Ryan McKane character a sequel to TOCA Race Driver was assured due to the excellent racing it supplied.

Codemasters obviously listened to criticism of their "hero" and so thankfully there's no sign of him here, the game still has a career mode with cut scenes, but the camera and dialogue is always aimed at you (a completely speechless "you".) Unfortunately as neat as this idea seems at first, after a few scenes where you'd like to reply but obviously can't, you feel like you're being REALLY shy, or are vocally challenged or something.

But getting down to racing is still thankfully what Race Driver 2 is mostly about, and with the forking career mode (yes, I said "FORKING") you're soon flitting around the planet racing all kinds of beautifully detailed vehicles. The back-story chugs along (kind of a less interesting version of TRD's), cataloguing your personal rivalries and your rise to stardom in TRD2's crazily mixed-up racing world. It's crazy because you'll be racing in up to 4 mini championships per season, and the racing could be as diverse as Formula Fords and Super Trucks…

   

You naturally get a selection of views; a chase cam (that's a bit too close for our liking), bumper cam, a super in-car view (although often rendered too difficult to use by a shattered windscreen), and a bonnet cam, which is excellent. When you hit the track the handling of the vehicles feels light and responsive, and compared to PGR2's the physics could even be described as 'floaty'. Although I know a lot of racers turn it off, we're huge fans of the vibration effect in PGR2, and sadly TRD2's is never as constant, as subtle or as informative; with just few rumbles when you ride a curb or collide with something, but it rarely lets you know what the car is doing in the same way as PGR2 did. Once used to the feel though, things improve, and the number of competitors (up to 20) and the believable AI (a ToCA trademark) keeps the racing interesting (at least initially).

The handling in the numerous vehicles obviously varies HUGELY, and the impressive vehicle list consists of a mixture of real licensed ones and a few fictitious hybrids - cop this lot: Ford GT, Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Volante, Jaguar XKR Convertible, Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, AC 289 CRS, 1968 Ford Mustang, Formula Ford, Mitsubishi 3000 GT, Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34), SEAT Leone Supercopa, Ford SVT F-150 Lightning, Ford 9000 Supertruck, Jaguar E-Type Series II (1968), Aston Martin DB5, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, Subaru Impreza WRX, Land Rover Bowler Wildcat, Championship Stockcar (NASCAR look-alike), Global GT Lights, Ford GT90, Ford 2000 Mustang Cobra R, ABT-Audi TT-R, AMG-Mercedes CLK, Opel Astra V8 Coupe, Koenig Competition 2002, Aston Martin DB9 Coupe, Jaguar XKR Race Car, Holden Commodore VY V8 Supercar, Holden Commodore VX V8 Supercar, Ford Falcon BA V8 Supercar, Ford Falcon AU V8 Supercar, Single seater 1000 race car (Indycar look-alike), Jaguar XJ 220, Koenig C62, 1934 Ford Hot Rod Coupe, Masters Grand Prix (F1 look-alike), and... (deep breath) the AC Mamba.

   

Everything looks nice with beautifully modelled cars, solid with detailed tracks and surroundings and a much smoother frame rate than PGR2's. The scenery gives a real feeling of depth and scale with rolling hills, nice skies and sun flares, and many circuits give you views of the track winding off into the distance - it's impressive stuff. Less pretty are the cardboard cut-out spectators (the ugliness of which slap you in the face due to daft placement), low-detail 2D trees and many of the buildings, which kind of degrade the game's visual impact a bit, but most of the time you'll be far too busy driving to find its ugly spots too distracting. The tracks look suitably tarmac-y with detailed textures that show cracks, lines and joints, and wet races throw up plenty of spray and make the surface look and feel amazingly slippery. The reflections in the cars' paintwork, and clever visual effects like self-shadowing and hazing make the replays look really nice.

Damageable bodywork has always been a feature of Codies' games, and TRD2 is no exception with some of the best, localised damage yet seen. You can literally prang one corner of a car and it'll look just like it should, glass smashes (a shattered windscreen is very annoying if you use the in-car view), light clusters crack and bodywork deforms progressively. Wings and spoilers can get knocked off (a little too easily sometimes) and will litter the track for the remaining laps of the race. The heaviest impacts will flatten the ends of a vehicle like it was put in a vice, and you can even lose tyres and wheels. All this damage also results in progressive degrading of the car's performance; you'll lose horsepower, gears and handling depending on what you've whacked and how hard.

   

On Xbox Live the game plays acceptably well - get in with a good crowd and the hours will fly by. The game recommends not hosting more than nine on a 500k connection but we've had perfectly acceptable races with twelve. However, it's instantly noticeable that the game's net code isn't quite as tight as PGR2's even with just a few cars, and doesn't allow for as close and fair racing, this is a real shame especially as you get so used to it in the offline game. When lag does occur it can totally spoil races, and the nature of most of the circuits (proper race venues as opposed to Gotham's walled-in street circuits) means that being punted off can be an incredibly frustrating occurrence. In a few days of Race Driver 2 racing you'll hear more arguments and complaints than in a month on PGR2, and a lot of this is due to lag and the subsequent unintentional collisions it causes (as well as the fact that a collision can totally wreck your car's performance).

Another cause for much complaint seems to be TRD2's weird online scoring system; everyone starts with 1500 points; nobody seems quite sure how it works but you earn points if you win (or finish 2nd or 3rd), and lose them you're 4th or lower. You earn more for beating players ranked higher than you, so can win more for third than a higher ranked played who wins the race. This means that a lot of players have already been put off playing in point scoring sessions because obviously no one wants a low ranking next to their name. Quite why they didn't just use the same formula as an online championship (10 points for a win etc.) I don't know - everyone would have understood it, everyone would be constantly adding to their career total and you'd have known who the keenest and best drivers were. You can set up most of the same championships as in the solo game (some up to 10 races long, up to 100 laps per race should you be mad enough!), although sadly at the moment you can only race on the tracks selected for that series. A smart lobby system allows you to talk to new arrivals as you race, and should any idiots arrive (or be present in the race) the AI will control the hosts car while he kicks them.

   

Offline again, as well as the career mode you can set up single races or championships in 33 different series, alone or with a second player - sadly there's no 4-player option although the system link option offers just about everything Xbox Live does without any lag.

Whilst not being terribly disappointing, TRD2 isn't quite the "killer app." I'd hoped for, and it's easy to find flaws. And let's face it, when a game subtitles itself "The Ultimate Racing Simulator" it'd be plain wrong of me not to mention a few: The lack of a rear view mirror in a game of this kind is a real bummer, and the arrow system that informs you when and where a car is coming up behind just ain't the same (it was omitted to ensure the frame rate stayed constant). The career mode is rather easy and only gives you a choice of two paths at every fork, and no choice of which team to race for helmet colour etc. - strange when the game's predecessors gave you more choice. The rambling, pointless and predictable story gets in the way, adds nothing and fizzles out to nothingness at the game's end (at least TRD's had a satisfying conclusion when the baddie gets his comeuppance). The cars are beautifully modelled and the damage is highly impressive, but the physics feel too light, and yet allow for too much suspension travel to be realistic (resulting in wheels popping through bodywork - something that PGR2 almost completely cured). There are also no set up options in the career mode (although there are for single races, championships or even on Xbox live) - it's a bizarre thing to exclude - and where have the practice and/or qualifying laps gone? - In fact, in a game called TOCA Race Driver 2 (it's called DTM race driver in Germany and V8 Supercars in Australia) where are the British Touring cars? - Did Codies just use an old, defunct license for the sake of it? And a thing that will feel most strange to veterans of the unforgivingly tough ToCa 1 and 2, you can also restart any race in a championship at any time - another sign that the game may have been dumbed down a bit too much…

          

I was also amazed to find in a game of this kind, that there's also no slipstream effect! - In fact on Xbox Live if you get too close too the car in front your car's invisible collision "buffer" will actually push the car in front and give it a boost! (And anyone will tell you that "draughting" is one of the most enjoyable aspects of TRD2's nemesis, PGR2). The game's numerous real circuits have several short cuts (usually by straight-lining chicanes), no problem, because in TRD2 driving on grass is usually penalised with a wheel-snatching "auto spin" - except, they managed to miss this feature out on a couple of these shortcuts - shortcuts that sadly you're going to have to learn if you want to win on Xbox Live. The needless rallying sections are a real let down, as are the GP cars that just don't feel right. With their poorly designed stages and annoyingly light handling you wonder how they came from the same stable as Colin McRae 04 and Indy Car racing … I'm not even going to mention the bizarre mix-up that sees a Rockingham circuit promo video included on the disk, and yet Rockingham is strangely 'missing' from the game…

   

I'm going to quit my list of gripes now as I've prattled on way too long. Reading back through it sounds like I don't rate TRD2 very highly - which is not the case - the game's problem is that although it attempts to supply racers with an incredible amount of variation, it really doesn't feel like it due to the floatyness of the handling and the lack of feedback from the joypad. The career mode lacks any believability or long term appeal, and online despite bigger races and better circuits than PGR2's, its racing just isn't as much fun, or as rewarding due to the strangely penal ranking system - and therefore nowhere near as addictive. In fact, TRD2's big problem IS PGR2 - if it had arrived before Bizarre Creations' benchmark game we'd have all been considerably more impressed than we are now. TRD2 is undoubtedly good, and gives probably the best solo racing on Xbox, but is far from the truly great all-round racer we were hoping for; maybe it's just too ambitious for its own good - I for one would have been much happier with a more accurate simulation of the DTM, V8 Supercar series or maybe a GT championship than this huge muddle of vehicles and forms of racing. So TOCA Race Driver 2 is a bit of a 'jack of all trades', but if you're fed up with Gotham then this is undoubtedly your next pit stop.