Toca Race Driver 2 Ultimate Racing Simulator - Xbox

Product Description ToCA Race Driver 2 is the ultimate racing simulator! Experience 31 championships and 48 tracks spanning 15 different racing styles?Ice Racing to Super Truck racing and everything in between! ToCA 2 features an incredibly accurate physics engine that accurately models each car and road surface. Keep your car on the road though...a devastating crash engine will send body panels flying and axles snapping! Review Codemasters struck gold when it merged story elements with racing in the first Pro Race Driver. Between now and then, however, the series has gone through much more than a name change, and I'm very disappointed by the transformation. The racing, in fact, has gotten better on several fronts, but TOCA has changed up its story structure and lost all the magic and appeal that once made the franchise stand out. The story cutscenes are now seen through your eyes instead of Ryan McKane's (the protagonist of the original). That's fine, but the developer has also done away with the hub world with its separate email and garage areas. Sounds like a small thing, but it's better than the simple and boring menu interface now in its place. Worst of all, there is little choice because the original's tier structure (and its pool of races) is gone. At times in TOCA you'll be asked to pick from different circuits. You can go race pick-up trucks at an oval or semis on a road course, for example. I'm glad that the franchise has retained its variety and racing versatility, but without a good story context, the magic of the first Race Driver is lost. Also, because the tier structure and email challenges are gone, the game is more linear. In the end, I felt like the cutscenes were driving the story, and not my choices. Codemasters has dialed down the difficulty, which is welcome, but has not sacrificed the intricacy of cars' handling. The more high performance cars and rally races are good cases in point. You have to know both when and how to slam on the throttle in order to get the most out of a car. Visually, the details abound and the sensation of speed is good. If you've got a high-def TV, you have to take advantage of the game's support of 480p, as it adds an extra dimension that must be experienced. You can make your car a sight to see by beating the living hell out of it, but I was hoping that TOCA would make vehicle damage a more meaningful as