Genre: Racing
Developer: Empire Interactive
Publisher: Gotham Games
# of Players: 2
ERSB: Everyone
Released On: November 2, 2003
Features: Custom Soundtracks, In-game Dolby Digital, Online Scoreboards
MSRP: $19.99
Also On: PlayStation 2, PC
Website: here
The anticipated sequel to Ford Racing has finally been created. To sustain its reputation, Ford Racing 2 has new and improved cars, added tracks and challenges, and more thrills than ever. With such a big selection of Ford vehicles - ranging from the ’49 Ford to the latest Mustang GT Concept - picking out a car will be a lot harder than you might expect. Ford Racing 2 is ready to put you in the driver’s seat and bring you for a ride you’ll never want to forget. Are you daring enough to put yourself in that seat?
Features:
» Select from over 30 different Ford vehicles including stock cars, trucks, concept cars, and all-American muscle cars, something for every style.
» Choose from a diverse set of tracks including Road Tracks, City Limits, Ovals, Spring Break and Lost World.
» Race head-to-head against your friends in split-screen action.
» Complete over 30 exciting challenges to unlock new cars, tracks and game modes while at the same time testing your skills to the limit.
» Experience a wide variety of racing themes including Concepts, Movie Stars, Living Legends and many more.
Presentation:
Simple. That’s the easiest way to describe the menu system in Ford Racing 2. It’s so simple that even a 6 year old can navigate it with ease. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s not even close to being a bad thing. That just means that Empire Interactive spent more of its time on this game working on the actual game itself, not trying to make the menu system the best looking ever created.
The in-game designs are pretty simple as well. Nothing real flashy, which helps you to keep your eyes on the road. But even if the in-game designs were real flashy, you’re still supposed to keep your eyes on the road; it’s one of the first rules to driving. For those racers out there who are always concerned about what place they’re currently in, you’ll probably have your eyes glancing up to the upper left hand corner a lot, since that’s where your current place is shown. Opposite that on the upper right hand corner, you have how many laps you’ve completed and how many laps total you have shown, so you can prepare for your victory dance around your friends after you kick their asses in a 3 lap race. But if I were you, I’d make sure you have another ride around town, because they may just cut you off.
On the bottom of the screen, you have your speedometer and a little map of the current stretch of the course. So you can prepare for the turns, and know how fast you’re going as you start to make a run for the checkered flag, by passing everyone in the field to claim your first place prize, instead of finishing in dead last. Overall, the in-game designs for Ford Racing 2 is decent…and I’m not even sure that’s the word to use, but I’ll use it anyway in this situation. I guess the good thing about the in-game designs is that they get the job done, for now.
Graphics:
"Now, if you’re looking for ground breaking graphics then Ford Racing 2 isn’t a game that you should look at"
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Now, if you’re looking for ground breaking graphics, or even graphics that look like Project Gotham Racing 2, RalliSport Challenge 2, or even SegaGT Online (all of which are due out between Q4 2003 and Q3-2004), then Ford Racing 2 isn’t a game that you should look at. The graphics look as if they didn’t really spend too much time on them. But if you want to complain about the graphics, you really can’t complain about the graphics in Ford Racing 2 when you compare them to the other game that Gotham Games recently published, which is Celebrity Deathmatch.
Now, if Empire Interactive would have just taken more time than it appears they did on the graphics, then maybe…just maybe, they could have made the game look as if it could have competed with the upcoming racers from Microsoft and Sega. But they failed to do so, which automatically puts them out of the running for having the best racer on the Xbox this round.
Sound:
One thing that Empire Int. did well was the sound. Especially since they included custom soundtrack integration. So even if you enjoy the music that they have included in the game, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy listening to your own music even more. Now, I’m not a car person, so I don’t know how the Ford cars and trucks shown in the game are supposed to sound, but from a gamer’s aspect, they sound superb!
What else is there to talk about when it comes to sound? Empire Interactive did a good job on the sound in Ford Racing 2. While the sound may not be top of the line, you can’t expect the sound to be top of the line every time…or can you?
Controls:
One aspect of games that everyone wants to be damn near perfect is the controls. Well, there’s no doubt in my mind that the controls in Ford Racing 2 is far, and I mean far from being perfect. While most racing games use the left thumb stick to steer, the right trigger as the gas, and the left trigger as the brake, Ford Racing 2 isn’t any different. It uses the same button configuration as most other racing games. Most of the buttons on the Xbox controller go unused. Which makes you think that you could have used the Super Nintendo controller, so you don’t have any unused buttons, but, there’s no way to do that. So we have to suffer with buttons being unused.
Gameplay:
Now to the big part of the review, this is the gameplay. What Ford Racing 2 lacks in sound and graphics, it definitely makes up for in gameplay. While the game isn’t as addicting as games like Project Gotham Racing or even SegaGT 2002, it does have the ability to keep you coming back for more racing action. The key feature in this game is the ability to unlock cars, tracks, and race modes for multiplayer, by completing those race modes, on those tracks, with those cars, in the Ford race mode.
For those wondering if there’s anything else to do after you have unlocked all the extras, well, yeah, of course there is. Why not race against one of your friends in some split-screen racing action, or even do single races against the computer to try and increase your track times? Which brings us to the best feature in Ford Racing 2, the ability to post your track times on Xbox Live.
Conclusion:
Other than unlocking new cars, tracks, and race types, and the ability to post your best track times on Xbox Live, there’s obviously nothing else to do in Ford Racing 2. But it’s apparent that the game does serve one purpose. It’ll hold you off until better racers are released. Ford Racing 2 isn’t necessarily the worst racer ever put out, but if it wants to become a game that sets standards, it has a lot of work to do before that’ll happen.
