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GAME REVIEWED: Toca 2: Touring Cars

RELEASED BY: Codemasters

PRICE: £44.99

REVIEWED BY: Kelly

REVIEW: -

Last Christmas Toca: Touring Car Championship was one of the three best selling games and this Christmas, it's sequel, Toca 2: Touring Cars was again up their with the best of Playstation games at the moment. And it deserved to be. The amount of improvements to the game is outstanding and the difference between the two games is for the better.

For a start, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been improved so that the other cars that you race against are unsportsmanlike and intimidating and try to shunt you off into the nearest gravel trap. You now get your own name splashed across the back windscreen and on the side windows also. There are pit-stops included but the pit crew don't seem to move but you can hear them taking the tyres off and putting them back on. The pit crew contact you during the race if you need to change tyres or if you have damage that you don't know about. You should be able to notice the damage though. The particle explosions, smashing glass and wings, bonnets and bumpers flying off when you make contact with another car or tyre wall. Damage now affects the performance of the cars also, handling becomes difficult, the top speed is reduced and acceleration takes ages. Superb! The handling of the cars has improved compared to the first game, it's a lot harder now to keep the car on the track and to try and not get nudged into a tyre wall by the other cars.

The game includes the official 1998 BTCC teams, cars and tracks. It also includes the new rules which are that there is a short sprint race then a longer feature race in which each driver has to pit once. There's one point if you land yourself on pole position from qualification, 15 points for a race win and all the other places down to 10th get points for the race. The game also includes bonus tracks which you get to race on when you reach a certain number of points on each difficulty level. There are also seven extra cars which are the Ford Fiesta, Jaguar XJ220, TVR Speed 12, Listerstorm, Van Diemen Formula Ford, AL Superblower and the Grinnal Scorpion. But you have to start with the Ford Fiesta in the support car championship and to unlock more support championships you need to gain a certain amount of points in the previous support championship. The support car championship allows the player to race in many of the support events held on Toca weekends as well as some which were specially created.

One of the best improvements to the game is the transparent windows through which you can see the driver getting shaken about, shaking his fist at drivers who try to run him off the road and struggling to turn the steering wheel so the car manages to get round tight bends. The replay sequences are Gran Turismo style wen you get to view the replay from many different angles which is also absolutely brilliant and it looks very realistic. Tiff Needel, the boy off Top Gear with the annoying voice, now gives 'intelligent' pre and post race commentary, through there is no commentator during the race which in a way is good because if there was you'd be cursing at him for putting you off.

Toca 2 is analogue compatible which gives you a better feel of the car that an ordinary controller, 2-player horizontal split-screen so you can still see as far as you normally would on championship mode, 4-player with link cable and 2 consoles so you can beat three of your friends at once.

The game includes multiple difficulty levels to give accessibility to newcomers and to challenge experts. If you are a newcomer and are not used to the controllers or you're one of the experts who's bored, there is numerous test tracks you can go on to improve your driving skills, test tracks included are Skidpan, Runway (for straight-line speed) an oval track and lots more.

Codemasters seem to have the knack of creating great racing games, for example Colin McRae Rally, Micro Machines V3, and Toca, but Toca 2 has to be the best of Codemasters' creations. With the game being hi-res graphics (512 x 256) and being at 60fps (frames per second) to 10fps, Toca 2 looks a lot better than Toca. The better and brilliant re-draw distance lets the player see things happening in the distance, like a crash so the player knows to avoid it. Real-time lighting was used to give maximum authenticity and so reflections can be seen on windows. To add even more realism to the game the weather changes in-game so you may need to pit to change tyres or risk slipping off the tract and seriously damaging your car.

Toca 2 is the ultimate test of true driving skill and concentration, combined with a no holds barred, high-speed destruction derby, (well at least until the summer when Ridge Race Type 4 and Gran Turismo are released). The best driving game at the moment - every racing fan should have a copy. Stroke of genius from Codemasters. Well done!

 

SCORE:

93%

LINKS: www.codemasters.com


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Last updated: March 12, 1999.