magic the gathering battlegrounds - x box games

The original PGR had fewer than 30 cars whereas the sequel has over 100. This is an amazing improvement and the range of vehicles available is superbly representative of every top-end production car that is or has been available over the last thirty years. It is in no way as comprehensive a list as any shown in the likes of Gran Turismo, but the range of cars suits high performance and most importantly, FUN.

The cars have been grouped into 17 different classes, ranging from Compact Sports (Mini Cooper S, Honda Civic Type-R etc) to Ultimate (Ferrari Enzo, Pagoni Zonda etc) via such other groups as SUV (Porsche Cayenne Turbo, BMW X5 etc) and American Muscle (Trans Am, Mustang Fastback etc). The cars look stunning, being very accurately modelled and they do suffer damage when hit (albeit only to a cosmetic degree).

The handling in the game has been rebuilt, meaning that the cars have considerably more weight to them than in the previous outings. They do handle a little on the arcadey side, BUT (and its a big but) this is NOT an arcade racer. You cant expect to just pick up a Zonda and thrash around the Nürburgring, outperforming everything in sight. The cars in PGR2 require delicate handling and you will come a cropper if you dont put the hours in building up your experience from the lower groups.

The sheer volume of this game is overwhelming, you have 102 cars in the game, 172 Races in the World Series and an infinite amount online. As soon as you pick up the game and start the first World Series race, you realise the jaw-dropping graphics of the game, There is no 30 FPS like you find on NFSU, it runs perfectly smoothe.

The beauty of this game is that it doesnt matter if your a racing game fanatic petrol-head, or a novice to racing games, you wont be missing out. The difficaulty settings playable for every race range from the very easiest bronze medals (novice), right through to platinum medals in expert mode. And there will always be a game to suit your standard online.

Let me talk about the cars for a second. Each one is rendered beautifully to look almost identical to its real life replica. Choose to race anything from a Mini Cooper, a Honda Civic, SUVs, Pick-up trucks, Porche 911s, the 600+ hp Enzo Ferrari, or even the insanely fast TVR Cerbera Speed 12.

Each one actually handles different, it is no longer a case of the fastest car wins as most car games are, each car suits a particular driving style, and there isnt a car that is put in just for show.

Then you get onto the actual driving, I have NEVER played a racing game that drives as realistically as this. I may have to retract that statement when GT4 comes out, but there is no more crashing into corners and keep on going, no more hurtle through bins, lamp posts and postboxes and keep going like you get with NFSU,this game requires BRAKING. The smallest nick on the side can mean the difference between first place and second, the decision is yours whether you can risk powersliding a turn or just taking it normally and not getting the kudos.

The details are beautiful, you can see birds in the sky, water on the road, reflections in the cars paintwork, there isnt a badly rendered pixel in the whole game.

The single player mode is addictive, but its when you get online that the real fun starts... There are hundreds of games open right now, pick a course and start racing against people your own standard, trash talk them when you beat them, suffer the humilliation if you lose.

But it doesnt stop there, you can play Cat and Mouse games online which when played with your friends are absoloutley hillarious. And of course, the person who lurks behind you the whole race only to slam you into the wall on the final bend and take pole position doesnt neccessarily come off any bettet, as you get Kudos for driving well, and Kudos is what you need to level up.

I gave this a 5 star on its driving alone. Perfect physics, incredible choice of cars, and the brilliant online mode makes it even more so. The only way this game is not perfect is on the sinlge player mode, which is fine, but would be enthralling if it had a garage to buy upgrades to your ride.

If anybody still isnt convinced that this is the most detailed racing game ever, drive Endinburgh very, very slowly and look at the shops you pass on the left, it has the EXACT SHOPS logo and all, in the exact order that are really there, it is pure class to go into the shop the day before, then race past it in an Enzo Ferrari the next day.