Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Been there, done that"

Again! I find myself at the breaking point with yet another game of the same series, this time it's TOCA Race Driver 2, and from the start I should have know I was headed down the wrong path when it states "Gamespot 8.8" when you can clearly see Gamespot has given it an 8.2! Now I'm not one who sits and plays racing games all day until I can get every corner of every track down perfect, my A.D.D. prevents that!

I do love racing games and most times I find the challenge fun and find new ways to try each attempt, which I usually follow through with the race no matter how poorly I performed to get more of a feel for the track. With TOCA 2 the graphics are brighter than the first, the handling is marginally better than the first and the stupidity isn't as bad as the first. With all that being said, there are more racing facets to choose from but they all get unlocked through the career mode. In TOCA 2 it's not so much focusing on you as a driver but your career already making it better than the first!

You get some humorous bits of video between some races and along the way you need to beat certain racers to progress in the season, ect and so on. Now here is where the trouble truly starts. In my Pro Race Driver review I said the AI cheats, in this game though it's not that cut and dry. The AI is a bit more aggressive than in Pro Race Driver, but the fact that by some miracle they can take corners you can't amazes me yet again.

It seems they've spent more time figuring out how each different racing style should work, drafting seems to be a tiny fraction of a bit better, handling for the most part is OK at best, speed is WAY over exaggerated as you can be barely crawling and the speedometer reads 45. The slower you are the harder these cars are to handle oddly enough for instance; turning is a task at anything slower than 45 because your tires are pointing that way but your car wants to push forward. Getting out of the slightest spin is a daunting task that I've failed at many, many times.

Overall it seems like they've taken the game and made it a bit better. Hopefully TOCA 3 is even better and someday I'll have a review written for it. It's simple this game is frustration personified but even with what I said about the first both games are worth a pickup from the bargain bin -- yes I said it!