Yikes.
Now, I get it, old racing games have it stacked against them, but this game is violently bad. There's little to no content here to enjoy, the driving is bearable but twitchy, the cars and tracks are pretty boring, and the entire crashing mechanic almost renders the game unplayable.
Criterion had no idea what they wanted to make here - crashing is glorified, to the point that your car making any kind of physical contact immediately takes you out of the race, never to catch up to first place again. Limited continues pour salt in the wound of the inability to actually win any races thanks to how violently the AI rubberbands, always breathing down your back and ready to end your entire run at a moments notice.
For the time, the game looks and drives fine, but everything else stops this game from being any fun at all. The boost mechanic is completely useless, for instance - it just causes you to crash instantly, and the AI just rubberbands to remove any distance covered by your boost anyway.
I couldn't stomach this game even when it was all I had for my PS2 as a kid, and even today, actually understanding the mechanics, I find it to be an abysmal first draft that will hopefully at least become playable in future iterations - I've heard good things about 3, and I'm interested to see if it's actually any good, or just rose-tinted glasses once again.
Now, I get it, old racing games have it stacked against them, but this game is violently bad. There's little to no content here to enjoy, the driving is bearable but twitchy, the cars and tracks are pretty boring, and the entire crashing mechanic almost renders the game unplayable.
Criterion had no idea what they wanted to make here - crashing is glorified, to the point that your car making any kind of physical contact immediately takes you out of the race, never to catch up to first place again. Limited continues pour salt in the wound of the inability to actually win any races thanks to how violently the AI rubberbands, always breathing down your back and ready to end your entire run at a moments notice.
For the time, the game looks and drives fine, but everything else stops this game from being any fun at all. The boost mechanic is completely useless, for instance - it just causes you to crash instantly, and the AI just rubberbands to remove any distance covered by your boost anyway.
I couldn't stomach this game even when it was all I had for my PS2 as a kid, and even today, actually understanding the mechanics, I find it to be an abysmal first draft that will hopefully at least become playable in future iterations - I've heard good things about 3, and I'm interested to see if it's actually any good, or just rose-tinted glasses once again.