Take A Lesson In Touring Car Racing.

Overall:
Touring Car Challenge is the sequel to TOCA Touring Car Championship 1. A game that was well known for its realistic car control, and damage to cars. Touring Car Challenge, keeps true to its predecessor, and maintains car damage and a similar level of play control.

Similar Car Control:
There are a vast number of improvements to Touring Car Challenge over TOCA 1. The car control for Touring Car Challenge is very similar to TOCA 1. The cars are somewhat difficult to drive, and you need to get the general feel of the car to drive it. Drive too hard into a corner, and your car will spin out. You can control the brake bias and the amount of downforce in TOCA 2, making your car more stable but slower, or faster but looser.

Configurable Options:
Other items you can change on your car include, the gear ratios and the tire types. Select from Slicks, Intermediates, and Wets based on the weather you expect for each race. Wet tires perform best in a storm, as they give you more traction on the slippery course. Slick tires perform best on dry tracks as they can not channel away water. Get caught out with the wrong tires, and you will be in bad shape!

Changing Weather:
TOCA 2 maintains the different weather conditions as TOCA 1 does, but the weather can change throughout the race. You can start out cloudy and dry, and then in the middle of a lap it can start raining. This is an excellent game feature, as it adds a whole new level of strategy to each game.

More Tracks:
There are many more tracks in TOCA 2 than TOCA 1. Activision has added a lot of neat new courses for you to race on. The new tracks are not part of the Championship series, but they can be raced in the time trial, and single race challenges. There are some really neat tracks with shortcuts, elevation changes, and gravel/pavement road changes too!

Bonus Cars:
There are additional cars that you can unlock and race on all the different tracks. New cars include an open wheeled racecar, a Jaguar, an open cockpit BMW type car, a ford festiva, and even a 3 wheeled car. These cars are unlocked by finishing a "support" car championship. Just another neat feature of TOCA 2 and an excellent improvement.

New Championship Format:
The Championship layout is slightly different (and better). Each venue now has a sprint race 4 laps, and a feature race 8 laps (with a mandatory put stop). You now only get one lap to qualify with, so get your car set up right the first time! The mandatory pit stop is a neat feature, as you must use pit strategy now to beat the rest of the field. Change 4 tires, 2 tires, left sides, or rights, and fix the damage to your car during each pit stop!
Also, you can play a 2 player cooperative or competitive championship.

New Artificial Intelligence:
Lastly, he Artificial Intelligence for TOCA 2 is much improved over TOCA 1. Cars no longer drive mindlessly around the track in one line around the grove. Now cars are intelligent and race with you. They will give you room to make a pass on a corner, instead of just driving into you. Also, if you crash a competitor, sometimes they remember, and hit you back. A great feature!

Cons:
Now the Cons about this game. One drawback is that in order to finish the championship, you have to win almost every single race. This is the same as TOCA 1, and a major drawback to the game. I would love it if you could simply play out a season, win or lose, and see where you end up at the end of it. TOCA 2 requires you to get a certain number of points each race, and if you haven't reached that level, then your team drops you. I have finished in first place in 18/22 races, but since I lost the last 4, my team dropped me. Ridiculous, and not what a real Touring Car Team would have done.

Summary:
TOCA 2 maintains the excellent graphic quality of TOCA 1. The play control is just as challenging. There are a wide variety of new courses, new cars, and features to change on your car (downforce level, shocks and tires). There is changing weather conditions, and a new race format. TOCA 2 is a great improvement over TOCA 1, and I highly recommend it to a Car racing enthusiast!

It will not take you long to figure out how to drive the cars, but it will take you a while to learn to control the cars well. So there is definite replay value here. TOCA 2 is a one or two player game, and has many different play modes for each.

For PS2 - Works with dual shock controller, and great with a surround sound system. Requires only 1 memory block.