car

Well, this definitely comes bottom of my launch title purchases. Get SSX. Get Smugglers' Run. Wait for Gran Tourismo 3. Get a Dreamcast and play F355. Don't buy this.

Good things about the game: * The cities. Having lived in both New York and London, I'm very impressed at the detailed reproduction of both cities. Its so good that driving around London I could find my way around based on how I knew the real place. * The speed. It doesn't slow down. At all. Ever. Zooming the wrong way down a highway at top speed is plain scary. * The graphics are pretty good. Especially when the road is wet it looks fine indeed. If you look closely you'll see repeated textures a lot, and some areas of town are very sparsley textured indeed though. The car models are relatively detailed and very very shiny. Perhaps too shiny sometimes.

Bad things about the game: * The *huge* load times. It grinds for what feels like forever loading the city map before *each* race - even if you haven't changed cities. I don't know why it couldn't keep most of the city data and just load course waypoints or traffic.. It feels like its reading data off vinyl, not DVD-ROM. * Its not like driving. Not at all. I guess it has what you would call a very "arcady" feel to it, but its not at all convincing. * Frustrating difficulty. Now I'm no loser when it comes to racing games. I worked my way through the whole of Gran Tourismo on the 'ol PSX. The annoying thing about the way this game plays is that at some steps you can only just beat the other guy - and I do mean only just. You can maybe go 1 mph faster, or corner marginally better, and its just a case of making a perfect performance, or retrying again and again until the other guy hits traffic. * Short 1-player game. I'm half way through after 1 evening. Now we're at the frustratingly difficult stage of beating a city boss, and then its rinse and repeat and its all over. * The sound. A minor gripe, but the cars all sound like lawnmowers, not beastly souped up cars. It doesn't do anything to add to the atmosphere.

I don't think this is a next generation title. There are definitely better PS2 games out there. If you have to have a racing title now, I'd probably plump for Ridge Racer V which at least is outstandingly pretty, but to be honest, the PS2 doesn't have its killer racer yet. If you're carefully choosing your 3 launch titles and minding your dollars, I suggest you don't include this one.

This game is truly a PS2 treasure. Race through either New York City or London (they should have more city/location selections though) and do whatever you want. Ram into cars, push them into lakes and rivers, get chased by the police, etc. This game rocks.

In story mode, I guess that's what you call it (I forgot), you must cruise through New York City and chase yellow dots (special cars) enough times until they're convinced you're material for a race. Once you race them you must follow them and get through their "homies" until you beat the starting race. You win the car they race with after you beat them in each race. Each race contains 3 races within it, and within each, if you win, you win the person's car. Police chase you, as it's an illegal activity to race through the streets of N.Y.C., ram cars inadvertently or intentionally as you roar after the man/woman you're chasing or just speed ahead of him/her. Colorful characters populate the game, such as the funny Emilio, who taunts you as you race him in an accent.As you get higher in N.Y.C.'s Midnight Club rankings you eventually go to London where you continue cruising for some action and racing people.

In 2-player mode I have had a lot of fun. In N.Y., you can visit the U.S.S. Intrepid naval ship docked, and there's a ramp you must cross to get there. Except it's cut off from the ship to the harbor, and you must build up speed and drive off the ramp to the ship. What my friend and I do is build up traffic, take the cars and shove them off the ramp. Buses, garbage trucks, oil tankers, police meter maids, taxis, vans, firetrucks, even Mr. Softee the ice cream man.....they are all victims. In London, there's a building with 3 entrances and my friend and I call it the Wall of Cars and place cars in the 3 entrances and pile them up and eventually they are stuck.

The cities are very accurate, not 100%, but I'd say 89%. The graphics are great, and the soundtrack is pretty good. A very fun game.

i am ashamed i bought this game. the graphics are horrible, the plot is horrible, the voice acting stanks. Buy anything else and save some money.