Ford Racing 2

"A fun little racing game"

As a disclaimer, let me state that I like Fords a lot. I own a 1973 Mustang Convertible, and the main reason I was strongly interested in this game is that it has a 1973 Mustang in it, which I think is a first for video games. It's a Mach 1 Fastback, not a convertible, but close enough. If you've seen Diamonds Are Forever, the James Bond movie, the '73 Mach was in the chase scene in that.

I've also owned 2 1971 Mustangs, which are also in this game. (They pretty much look like 1973s, actually). I also have a 1969 F-100 Truck, which is pretty close to the '65 F-100 in this game. So I can related to how they drive in real life to how they drive in this game.

Basically, there are two modes. One mode in which you unlock cars and tracks, and one in which you create your own races using the cars and tracks and race types you've unlocked.

The unlocking mode is pretty simple. There are a variety of cars that are locked. You simply pick one, and do the specified race to unlock it. A few cars cannot be selected at first, but not that many, actually.

There are 8 different types of races, but basically they boil down to races against other cars or time attacks, in which you have to finish a lap under a certain amount of time. But there are variations, like the elimination race - every lap, the last two cars are eliminated. And time attack's variations generally reduce your time if you fulfill a certain criteria, like driving through two cones, following the racing line, or hitting an hourglass. Still, it's refreshingly original.

Probably the most fun is the Drafting mode. Basically, you have to get behind a car and stay there for a certain amount of time. When you do, a Star Trek like effect is displayed on the screen, apparently showing the airflow. Kinda neat. It's tricky because you have to stay behind them, not run into them (if you hit them hard, you're penalized a bit).

Control is pretty good, that is, cars drive more or less like they should. The 1971/1973 Mustangs seem spot on - not bad, but a bit boatlike. While some things aren't accurate, like the number of gears some of the cars have, the top speeds and general performance seem about right.

The graphics are decent. Slightly better than Sega GT. If Apex were a 10 (it does have the best graphics I've seen on the Xbox), then this is probably about a 5(Sega GT being about a 4). On the bright side, there is no pop-up or drawn in in the main view, just a little bit in the rear view mirror. (Apex did have some pop-up in the city levels). Actually, there is popup on one track, one of the race tracks. But most don't.

The car models look okay, but could have used more polygons, they look a bit more like plastic models of cars than actual cars themselves (kind of like the Midnight Club series). The tracks look nice. There is some movement in the background in them, mostly gimmicky. Lava spurting on one track. An F15 flying over you on another. One race track has a ferris wheel and fireworks shooting. Another has bats. There's also the obligatory waterfall, which looks okay, but I've seen better.

Your Heads Up Display (HUD) changes depending on the era of the car. Though ironically, it gets it wrong for both the '71/'73 Mustang and the '60s F-100. The 71 Mustangs had a circular speedometer, while the F-100s had a rectangular one.

The sound is varied. On some cars, like 1973 and 1971, it's spot on. It sounds like a V8. Similarly, the racing tuned Focus sounds like a lawnmower from hell. But on some it fails, the '68 Mustangs sound pretty lame. They had V8s, and should sound like the '70s ones.

Load times are very quick, about 4 seconds to go from the main menu to a race once you select it, and a bit less to get back after the menu after a race.

The AI is okay, and seems to be honest. Not rubber band like. That is, it doesn't perform like you're performing, only slightly better or worse, so the competition is always around you (like in Apex or PGR), nor does it try to crash you (like in PGR or Gran Turismo). I'm not sure if you get a catch up boost or not. Once I did crash and catch up, but most of the time I wasn't able to.

Cars don't take damage. You can even drive on red hot lava on one track, and it doesn't hurt the car (there is a somewhat cool effect in the replay when you do, though, somewhat like Back to the Future, leaving a trail of fire). When you hit something, it's generally like Gran Turismo in that you bounce off of it, elastically, so that does affect how you race.

It comes with 3 types of music, ''House'', ''Rock'' and ''Funk''. The ''House'' selection doesn't sound like house to me, more like generic electronica (House is basically the literal descendant of Disco, a bit faster, mostly done with synthesizers, but recognizable.). The ''Rock'' is mostly forgettable. The ''Funk'' is probably the best of the three, decent enough to have been used on a '70s TV show, but even it gets a bit old after a while.

It does support custom soundtracks. You have little control over which song, it picks one at random from the soundtrack on your hard drive that you pick. Thankfully, if it finishes, it picks another at random, not just repeat it.

The real downside is longevity. A lap on most tracks takes about 90 seconds, and most races are 3 laps. So a race will probably take you around 5 minutes. You can win most races on easy on the first try, so you can unlock all 35 cars in only a few hours.

If you're the sort that only plays a game to unlock things, then you'll get bored with this quick. On the other hand, once you unlock everything, there are a ton of possible race combinations. So if you just like racing for racing's sake, then it's got a fair amount of gameplay.

Still, while there are 16 tracks in the game, not all are available for all cars. 6 tracks are for off-road vehicles only, leaving only 10 tracks for most cars. And of those 10 tracks, 2 are ovals.

It would also have been nice to be able to save replays.

But, all in all, a fun little game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/24/03