ToCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator

Discount Price: $11.95

Features:

• Race in 31 championships covering 15 different motor racing styles -- all with fantastic graphics, sharp AI and great racing physics
• All the standard racing modes are here - go to any open track for Free Race, race the clock in Time Trial, or take on friends in split-screen multiplayer mode
• Give the wildest new racing styles a try - Ice-racing, street races, oval racing, Rallycross, even Super Truck Racing
• Test yourself against 35 champions, each with their own cars & racing styles
• Experience 50 of the world's toughest tracks, across Europe, Australia and North America

Customer Reviews:

Not the "Ultimate Racing Simulator" [Posted on 2004-12-01]
Avoid this game like the plaque. For racing simulators stick with EA products like the "Need For Speed" series.

Where this game succeeds in terrain and car damage modelling it utterly fails in racing physics (and this is supposed to be greatly improved over the first game). Get to the first Cart racing track and you'll know what I mean. 180 degree spinouts are common place evenwhen you should be going way too fast to get into this sort of wipe out. How do you advance in position while racing? Simple you crash your way through. The rewards far outway any consequences (even at the risk of totalling your car). This is only fair though because eventhough you've placed a good standing in a previous race (a requirement to advance in the game) you're put into the dead last position at the start of every new race. So to get anywhere in the game you now have to pass almost all other racers and maintain a good position. This has to be done in a relatively short time. Opportunities to pass cars correctly are few. There is no room for finese here. Basically if you can catch up to other racers you plow through them to hopefully gain position. Hopefully after that you can avoid any wipeouts to stay ahead to advance in level.

My 2 brothers also tried this game free of any bias and concluded basically the same thing about the physics. This title was promptly sold back to the vender at a reduced cost of coarse.

great driving model [Posted on 2004-12-16]
This is one of THE BEST, most accurate driving models on consoles today.

It's not easy, and the interface isn't the greatest, but the driving on the track is top shelf. Lack of replays, locked cars, and all that is annoying enough, but; if you are a driving enthusiast and find console games lacking in realism - GET THIS TITLE! The on track racing is the best on any console I have seen so far, which is most of them.

Fine racer, not for wimps [Posted on 2005-02-01]
I own both versions of this game. I find the handling physics reasonably realistic (With two choices, Pro-sim and regular)
Great graphics, very clean off-line play. Online in my experience is better on the playstation possibly because my computer isn't quite up to the task, (more lag on the computer, very little on the ps2)
also PS2 is more fun because of USB headset for chat.
The fist version had better interface and many of the cars are gone in the second, although they have been replaced by some pretty awsome substitues. All in All, good, challenging, fun racing.

Brill [Posted on 2005-12-27]
I own both Toca Race Driver 1 and 2 and while both are great games, I have to say that TRD2 is that little bit better. What I particularly like is the fact that it's a mixture of Arcade and Sim, so you get to experience the best of both worlds. There are far more tracks and championships then there were in the original and the graphics and FMV have had a noticeable improvement.

However, there are some things which I found to be inferior to TRD1. Firstly, while the range of different driving championships has improved (e.g. off-road and supertruck racing) there are in fact fewer vehicles in the game (35 compared to 42 in the first one) Also, with the fine exception of Seat, European manufacturers such as Alfa Romeo, MG, Vauxhall and Saab have been replaced with mainly Ford and Ford owned companies, such as Jaguar and Aston Martin, although you do also have Mercedes and Audi.

While I do like these manufactuers, there isn't such a broad range of manufacturers as there was in the first game. Another drawback is the fact that in any one championship, there are only a maximum of 3 different types of cars. For example, in the Vintage Classic chamionship, you have the Ford Mustang '68, the Jaguar E-Type and the Aston Martin DB5. In TRD1, there were chamionships which had 6 different types of cars on the track at the same time.

However, all of these are relatively minor criticisms that can be easily overlooked once you start playing the game and having lots of fun. Just be aware that full installation is almost 4gigs.

this is not the one, I've had better [Posted on 2006-01-20]
1, if you start on full throttle, your speed will remain at around 18 MPH for about 5 seconds. the RPM is on red line and the car's going straightly but you gain no speed. this happens sometimes even when you start up with 2nd gear. how real huh?

2, if you crash into a spinning opponent at a high speed, your car will be totalled while that opponent can keep going like nothing happened. how fair!!

3, you are always placed waaaay behind your key opponents at the beginning of every race even if you came in first place at the previous one.

btw, i just finished 91% of the career mode using a computer keyboard. and I was really bothered by the facts i listed above.

and my suggestion is to buy Project Gotham Racing 2 on Xbox instead. PGR 2 is a far better game than this one. more tracks, more cars, better graphics and the most important thing is the game has no stupid flaws like this one.

for PGR 2, you don't have all the cars in the beginning, but you can have at least 2 in each class. It took me a lot of time to unlock ALL the cars in PGR 2, but unlike this one, I don't regret my time and my effort and my money.

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