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Ford Racing 2 is full of fun. It has tons of cars and trucks. The game also features many new concepts Ford has ideas about. I will say that this game is the best racing game I have played.

I couldn't help but shake the feeling that Ford Racing 2 is build Ford tough. Much like the line of cars and trucks the game focuses on, the game is nicely priced and an acceptable means of gaming. It's not going to impress anyone but it's not going to kill anyone either.

The game looks surprisingly good and despite claims to the contrary on the box, it supports 480p. The cars also look solid, but no matter how hard you smash 'em you can't get a dent anywhere. The real problem with this game is in the control, structure, and depth. The control feels like driving a boat down a channel and never manages to have the powerful feeling that every great racer has. The structure isn't terrible, it's just not very good...same goes for depth and the game as a whole.

Expecting a budget title for a budget price I picked this one up along with a few other XBOX racers. What a pleasant surprise!

Developer Razorworks is the English studioe behind the excellent Total Immersion Racing of a couple years back and they have obviously got some skills when it comes to racing games. This title starts of with a weak subject and gives it the deluxe treatment.

Virtually every car Ford has ever made that didn't suck is here, along with a great many concept cars. Classics are in abundance all modelled very, very well. They look fabulous thanks to a state-of-the-art graphics engine on the NVidia hardware and the bright, over saturated colors fit the feel perfectly.

The sound is spot on too. The Mustang's 289 V-8 sounds exactly as I remember mine, only without the banging sound when mine blew up. The soundTRACK is all original and also surprisingly good. It's as though someone gave Weezer and Green Day testosterone shots.

The world is filled with abient animations that add to but don't distract from the immersion very much like TDK Mediactive's Mercedes World Racing. A huge variety of tracks is here with every type of racing from scenic rural highway to city streets and dirt tracks. Stock car ovals and rally type runs round out a staggering variety.

Every type of racing is included as well. The standard duel, time attack and such is here but also challenges such as cone gates, elimination, second off, and such add more of that thing this game has in spades... VARIETY.

The total quality of this game and depth of play value make it very much worth your hard earned ducats and I would recommend it ahead of the disappointing Midnight Club II, and execrable Need For Speed Underground.

No XBOX Live online play but there is support for posting your times and scores. Minimal but welcome nonetheless. No game which doesn't support Live is getting purchased in the new year (take note EA!) by this gamer. Head to head racing is split screen for 2 players only with no support for system link. Also HDTV 480p is NOT supported. Having said that it still looks very, very nice on an HDTV LCD display. Some titles have ugly artifacting when rendered on a fixed resoultion display, such as Sega GT 2002. Custom soundtracks are supported but the original music is such a good fit I haven't felt the urge to play my usual driving tune mix of Satriani and Meshuggeh. Nothing like the annoying gangsta rap crud that fills some other recent racing games.

Despite the missing features I am very pleased by this game and have spent many, many hours in enjoyable tension racing Mustangs, Gran Torino's and T-Birds by the sea. The driving physics engine is a credit to good design. Both a simple, fun 'Normal' mode and a meatier 'Advanced' model are available. The 'Advanced' is simulation style like say, Apex or Rallisport Challenge. The Normal mode is very forgiving and plays a lot like the excellent arcade racer Burnout 2.

You just can't go wrong with this level of play value, depth and quality for this price point. I'm buying a couple more copies to give for Chritmas presents. And no, I am not an Empire Interactive stockholder. :} From now on anything developer Razorworks makes is getting bought even if it is Mary-Kate and Ashley Practice Parking. These boys just have gotten it all right.