Darkfader is not too impressed with Rockstar's attempt at cracking the arcade driving formula - Midnight Club 2 gets the treatment.

All you petrol heads take note - Rockstar return with their arcade-style driving game - the originally titled Midnight Club II.

Let's start by checking out the competition: - On the driving simulation side Gran Turismo is the obvious choice. For pure high-speed arcade thrills, Burnout 2 does really well and MC2 reaffirms the series' position as a solid open city street racing game.

As in the previous game MC2 is all about giving the player access to gigantic city-like environments (you get to race in LA, Paris and Tokyo) complete with plenty of intricate shortcuts.

The game's main mode is career mode in which you compete with other street racers by rolling up behind them and flashing your lights at them. You then have to stay on their tail until you've proven your driving skills to them.

Once you have done this it's time to race - challenging various colourful characters and winning their cars as you defeat them.

Arcade mode lets you cruise around the cities, race a number of laps on a variety of predetermined circuits, replay any of the checkpoint races you've completed in the career mode and enter two player battle mode races.

The game also has a race editor mode which allows you to place your own checkpoints and configure your own races. These custom races can then be saved and taken online.

This is a nice addition but it would have been better if you had been able to place your checkpoints anywhere on the map instead of being limited to specific points on the map.

The gameplay in MC2 is similar to the originals. When you start the career mode, you'll be driving a standard car but later on you'll unlock various abilities that help you race and manoeuvre more effectively.

You'll be able to control your car in midair, earn nitrous boosts, earn extra turbo boosts and pop up onto two wheels. The car handling in the game isn't very cool and you'll never have to deal with simulation concepts like over or understeer.

For the most part you'll just be keeping the pedal to the metal and braking occasionally to make some of the sharper turns.

The physics in the game are also pretty crazy. The cars never really feel like they have any weight and sometimes taking a turn too fast will cause your car to roll!!!

All in all it didn't feel like a game about the exclusive world of underground racing - check out Need For Speed Underground for a more faithful simulation of this popular genre.

5/10

Darkfader