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By Brad Cook

Sometimes you need more of a challenge than simply crossing the finish line first. That’s where Ford Racing 2 zooms into view. With seven game types beyond the traditional race to the checkered flag, the title offers enough skills-based competition to keep you engaged for a long time.

The new game features 35 vehicles that run the gamut from muscle cars to high-performance prototypes and 16 tracks that cover such racing environments as city streets, exotic jungles and traditional raceways. You start the game as a rookie tackling 34 different challenges, each of which unlocks more cars and tracks; once you’ve unlocked all of them, you can mix and match cars, tracks and game types to create a unique experience every time you play. If you’re good enough, you’ll even uncover a few hidden goodies.

Drive the Classics

The Ford Challenge section contains those 34 tests of your skills, broken into different categories that reflect the types of cars they offer. For example, you’ll find such Ford classics as the ’68 Mustang and the ’55 Thunderbird in the Living Legends category, while Movie Stars offers the Ford ’49 Coupe, the ’76 Gran Torino and other cars that look like they could have recently rolled off a film set. Each challenge uses a specific game type and doesn’t allow you to modify any variables, save the difficulty setting (easy, medium or hard).

As you unlock more cars and tracks, they become available in the Ford Collection section, where your options break down by game type: Standard, Elimination, Duel, Drafting, Driving Skills, Seconds Out, Racing Line and Time Attack. There you can select a game type, a car and a track and then modify the pertinent variables, such as the number of laps and opponents.

Standard races are traditional contests that require you to cross the finish line first. In an Elimination race, the cars in the last two spots drop out after each lap, culminating in a final lap between you and just one opponent. A Duel pits you against a different challenger each lap, requiring you to beat each one. When you select Drafting, however, you must catch up to — but not pass — a series of four opponents and drive in their slipstreams for a certain period of time.

In Driving Skills, it’s just you and the road as you try to complete one lap of a track before time runs out; each clean pass through a gate of cones earns you a few more precious seconds. In Seconds Out, you also earn extra time with each hourglass you collect, but you need them to reduce your overall time and beat the target. Racing Line requires you to stay on a line as you zip around the track, incurring a penalty every time you stray off it. Finally, Time Attack offers you three laps around the track as you try to beat the target time; a “ghost” car representing your best time appears if you lag behind its pace during subsequent laps.

Tracking Your Legacy

After every race, you can watch a replay and see where you experienced problems or where you smoked the competition. The Driver Details section keeps track of the game types you’ve mastered as well as the cars and tracks you’ve unlocked and the number of trophies you’ve won, including cups collected for beating each game type on every course. It also displays your rating, which starts at Rookie and moves up to Ford Legend.

When you’ve had enough practice, invite a friend over for some split-screen multi-player racing. You can engage in Standard or Elimination races and use any of the tracks and cars you’ve unlocked, although you must win one Elimination challenge before you can choose that game type. Race between one and nine laps against up to four computer-controlled opponents whose cars can either match yours or be drawn from other vehicle types.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to get behind the wheel of our Indigo Concept prototype racer and see if we can do three times the speed limit on the Bay Bridge.

If you liked this game, check out:

Have Your Commuter Pass Handy? Luckily you won’t need it while crossing this bridge, so floor it and pass your opponents.

Site: Ford Racing 2
Publisher: Feral Interactive
Developer: Razorworks
Genre: Sports

Game Media

Out-Muscle the Competition. Drive vintage Ford cars without paying exorbitant collector costs.

Vacation Race. Don’t stop to admire the exotic scenery or that guy on your right will zoom by.

System Requirements:

Mac OS X version 10.2 (10.3 or higher recommended)
800MHz PowerPC G3 processor (1GHz G4 or higher recommended)
256MB of RAM (512MB recommended)
32MB video card (64MB or higher recommended)
250MB free hard disk space (500MB recommended)
DVD drive
Steering wheel recommended

The Tracks

Broken into six categories, the 16 tracks found in Ford Racing 2 cover everything from street racing to off-road adventure to traditional stock car courses. Here’s an overview of each category, complete with tips for success on each of its tracks.

City Limits: These three tracks take you through the outskirts of several urban areas, where you may recognize such landmarks as the Bay Bridge, which connects Oakland with San Francisco in real life but leads from a tunnel to a mountain region in the game.
In Route 50, watch the first curve right after the covered bridge, which lies just beyond the starting line; start to brake before you leave the bridge. You also need to watch those sharp curves coming up before the finish line — it’s easy to lose first place because you got sloppy right at the end. Bay Bridge has a deceptive curve right after you come off the bridge — it seems sharp, but you can actually zoom into it in fourth or fifth gear and navigate it. Finally, Port Side has some very sharp curves in the industrial area right before the finish line; take it easy through them or you could easily become a late-race casualty.
Big Country: These three tracks, which accept off-road vehicles only, wind through the kind of desert terrain you would find in Arizona or New Mexico. Sand and gravel are much less forgiving than pavement, so watch those turns in these courses or you can easily lose control. And make sure you’re in first place as much as possible because the dust kicked up by the cars in front of you can really cut down on visibility.
In Military Base, you get a brief respite from the sand when you wind through the base itself, so take advantage of the opportunity to put some space between you and your opponents. Ghost Town offers the same when you hit the paved tunnel that pops up in the middle of nowhere; when you hit the jump right after it, make sure you’re driving straight so that you fly as far as possible. In contrast, Old Rail Road offers no such opportunities, so be prepared to watch your driving at all times.
Spring Break: These three tracks are set in urban areas, which means better traction for your tires but more sharp curves and other hazards, such as narrow tunnels that can force an unlucky driver into a wall and out of control.
Deer Creek is probably the biggest offender when it comes to the largest number of sharp curves, especially right after the starting line. In contrast, Palm View features a nice, relatively straight line at the beginning, so use that to take the lead and don’t look back; when you enter the freeway, don’t bother to slow down because that curve isn’t very sharp, even if it looks like it is. You have a series of right angles to navigate before the finish line, though, so don’t blow your big lead at the end. Finally, Ocean Drive throws those right angles at you at the start, including one turn that’s deceptively longer than you might think. It also has a little hop right before the final curve that can easily throw you out of control if you aren’t ready for it.
Lost World: These three tracks feature Mayan ruins, jungles and even a volcano among their scenery. For off-road vehicles only, they all feature jumps that can easily push you past a car or two if you’re driving a light truck or 4x4. Of course, those jumps can also spin you hopelessly out of control if you hit them at an angle and careen off the track. We should also point out that while the Lost World tracks are dirt, they’re not as loose as the Big Country ones, so you can tear through those turns a little faster, although dust clouds are still an issue.
Temple Ruins features one long and two short jumps right off the starting line, so be prepared to leap ahead of your opponents early. Volcano’s lava flows look neat and produce billows of black smoke from your tires if you drive through them (thus obscuring other drivers’ vision), but they will slow you down. Watch those two little hops and the one long jump right before the finish line; the latter comes last and can propel you to victory in a tight race. Great Falls has the prettiest scenery, but don’t be distracted by those hang-gliders or you’ll be unprepared for the two jumps that come right after them.
Ovals: These two tracks are modeled after the ones you’ll see during Sunday afternoon NASCAR races. Their curves are banked, so keep as low as possible through them (without rolling into the center area, of course) to keep your driving distance short and pass your opponents. If you can get a lead on either of these tracks, you should be able to maintain it the rest of the way, unless you get sloppy. The major difference between these two tracks lies in the sharper curves found at Black Ridge Speedway, where heavier braking is required.
Race Tracks: These two tracks are patterned after typical Formula 1 racing courses, which means they have plenty of sharp turns to watch out for. In particular, International Raceway features enough of them that you’ll find yourself breaking more often than accelerating. You need to master them, though, if you want to finish the Ford Challenge.