Outrun 2

Need a good no-brainer racer? Look no further.

I love classic games and bringing them back to the mainstrem of technology--- it makes me very happy. Outrun was one of Sega's biggest games in the 80's. How many quarters did people spend to play this game? I don't know, but it makes me sick to think about it. Outrun was certainly way before its time and was one of the greatest driving games ever in its hay day. Outrun 2 keeps the feeling and faith of the original by giving us the same crazy arcade gameplay with the classic music. The gameplay is nutty, you can drift and powerslide on a corner like there is no tomorrow. It's defintely the immortal feeling of the General Lee, these Ferrari's can do it all. The arcade mode takes after the original and the likes of the classic Pole Position. It's a race to get to the checkpoint, nothing more, you and the clock. Although the arcade mode is a bit limited, as you can finish one race in about 10 minutes, and that's it. But the fun is within the mission mode that gives you more variety and the ability to open new prizes. You can knock over cones, race against other drivers, perfect the powerslide and earn new cars and a even a few new modes. Even better you can take this baby on XBOX Live and duke it out with 8 other racers. Don't worry about this game looking nostalgic, it's a very good looking racer and is every bit as good as Burnout 3 and Rallisport Challenge 2 which are considered tops in the graphics department for racers.

My friends and I had been playing Burnout 3 a lot recently before I decided to get OUTRUN 2. I though I could never find any other game as good as Burnout 3. But guess what! OUTRUN 2 is an awesome game. In this game you do not have to take the other drivers down but instead you will be amazed by the missions you have to accomplish to get to the extra stuff. OUTRUN 2 is visually simply great. I really missed to see how much damage each accident causes to my car or when you crash your car looks like a ball bouncing around. The music could have been much better. God who is going to show these developers what kind of songs they should pick for their games. It is a blast to drift with your powerful Ferrari on the open road. The interface is great as well. All you need to know is how to accelarate and how to brake. And that's it! The rest is a pure fun. It is a kind of game that you have very good chances to get addicted to it. Sega has done a great job to transfer the old version of OUTRUN into the 21st century version for XBOX. I bought this game first used and then after ten minutes I decided to go and return the used one and buy a new one. If you are a fan of racing cars you should not hesitate to get your hands on this hot item.

Pros... great graphics, good sense of speed, larger variety of track environments than you'll find in most race games, Ferrari licence, many types of mini games in the challenge mode to increase longetivity, future downloadable content means potential for more cars and tracks (there is already a new version called Outrun 2 SP out in the arcades in Japan)

Cons... each individual track segment is only about 45 seconds long, music leaves plenty to be desired (unless you loved the original tracks from the original Outrun back in the 80s), unrealistic physics (this is only a bad thing for those who only like sim type racers

Overall, I give it a 9 out of 10.