TOCA 2: Touring Car Challenge

The Good
TOCA 2 is an intermediate-level sim, with a fairly shallow learning curve...while pretty much a blind monkey could win a Novice Race, and Standard Races aren't all that challenging either, Expert may provide a challange to a part-time sim racer. Physics modeling is fairly good. Damage modeling is very lenient. The cars represented have different layouts and 'feels' to their performance, they're not all equal! A wide variety of cars to chose from, as well as a good selection of tracks. Excellent voice commentary pre-and post-race gives a TV-like feel. Graphics are quite acceptable. Realistic (and consistant!) opponent driving behavior...get rough with them too much, and they'll remember it!

The Bad
The crap points-required system to advance in the championship, meaning the game can be too frustrating at points (15 is a VERY high marker). This can be defeated with a cheat code, but then you feel cheap. The Support Car Series are surprisingly harder than the actual game, despite driving (supposedly) lower-class cars and opponents. Questionable physics there (a 129mph Fiesta?). Finicky with recognizing the wheel. Force-feedback primitive at best.

The Bottom Line
Currently available for 20$ or thereabouts, you really can't consider this a waste of money. Driving sim fans should get it if only because it represents a rather underdeveloped market for sims. Purists will be disappointed, but race fans should love it.

The Good
I loved the way the Renault handled, they had done that perfectly. I also like the graphics : very advanced for it's release date.

The Bad
The difficulty settings are really annoying. I set myself a challenge by going on hard, and it becomes damn near impossible.

The Bottom Line
Very good and long lasting game that will entertain even my parents, and they watch coronation street for laughs.

The Good
It's a great Touring Car sim. The graphics and sound are great, and with a wheel it drives really well. A little easier to get to grips with than Grand Prix sims, and quite fun to play. However...

The Bad
What really annoyus me is this stupid rule that says you must score a certain number of points in each race session to progress to the next race. I hate this. It's supposed to be a simulation, so if I have a bad race and don't score any points, I should be able to continue anyway with a need to do better next time.

Also, there's this pitstop rule where you have to stop twice in a feature race, even if you don't want to. If you don't pit, you get disqualified. Fine. But it's very easy to drive into the pits, and for it not to count. There's nothing worse than driving a stunning race, then finding out you're disqualified because the computer forgot to count one of your pitstops.

This game annoyed me so much, I took it back to the store and asked for my money back.

The Bottom Line
If your looking for a real Touring Car sim, forget it.