Game: Stock Car Crash
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Brain In a Jar
Release Date: 28th April 2006
It might appear that I'm rather picking on Midas Interactive for my Worst of PS2 review series, but it's important to remember that between their own awful games and publishing the Simple Series, there's got to be at least 100 poorly developed games by the company. Oddly they're not to blame for Stock Car Crash as much as Brain In a Jar, the developers who were also behind Golden Age of Racing, another terrible racing game.
It'd odd though that where Golden Age of Racing suffered from a complete lack of the ability to turn cars around corners, Stock Car Crash suffers the complete opposite, cars will drift quite easily and for the most part hold the road fairly well. This isn't to say that the handling is anything to shout about though, as it's a strange mix of not being able to take corners without slowing down quite a lot and having absolutely no sense of speed, leading to the AI overtaking you as if you're a pensioner who's found their way onto an F1 track.
Annoyingly crashing is also part of the game mechanic as it fills the boost bar at the bottom of the screen. Particularly large smashes fill the boost bar completely, giving players a completely inconsequential 3 second accelerator tap before emptying. The sound effect for this boost sound like a car failing to start on a cold morning, and overall the entire mechanic is best avoided, as is crashing at all.
Unfortunately almost every circuit is set up in order to encourage large pile-ups and vehicular crashes, with many crossroads and sections featuring oncoming opponents. The AI is pretty stupid as well, taking every opportunity to crash into walls, and eachother, sometimes literally blocking the road. To progress through the game, players must win trophies for winning on each circuit with every Class of car, winning tournaments which consist of 5 races, weekenders which are locked so I'm not sure what the idea is there, and Destruction events.
Graphically the game looks awfully basic for 2006; it could have easily been on the original Playstation (it's even on a CD-ROM rather than a DVD). The physics are incredibly wonky, with the smallest hit against a barrier sometimes flipping cars completely, and the driving is particularly frustrating too. The engine sounds are basic and there's no music (as far as I can tell) playing behind the race.
Overall Stock Car Crash just about fits the criteria for being a video game; players can almost control their cars, and compete in tournaments and race weekends, but it's the bare minimum that can be expected from a racing game. There's no fun or unique selling point to the game, just bland and generic stock cars racing around bland and generic circuits until someone wins. I don't think they could have put less effort into this one.
Rating: 35/100
Grade: E
Game: Wild Wild Racing
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Rage Software
Release Date: 25th October 2000
Although it was admittedly an early PS2 game, Wild Wild Racing doesn't deserve to escape my sights. Players control what appear to be miniature dune buggies and race them across some indiscernible real world locations including the USA, India and Iceland. The main game modes are Challenge mode, which unlocks new vehicles after the player has beaten 3 short and fairly boring challenges, and Championship mode which unlocks new challenge mode levels.
The driving in the game is terrible with massive amounts of understeer and the cars feeling nothing like the 4 wheel drive machines they're supposed to be. The handbrake can be used to turn corners, but it also has the undesirable effect of almost completely stopping your buggy. There's no real way to corner properly save for slowing down to a crawl and gently turning around the corner whilst the AI cars zoom past, apparently possessing a far greater level of grip somehow.
The AI cars are also so incredibly incompetent at driving that if you do manage to pass them on a straight, they'll run you into any hard objects they can find when they catch up, and catch up they will because the rubber banding is intense; there's really no getting away from them. Track layouts are incredibly uninspired and usually consist of several hairpin turns one after the other in a grey or brown wasteland. There's tons of checkpoints on each track for no particular reason, and these only serve to remind you how badly designed the game is.
Graphically it doesn't look bad for having been released in 2000, there's some definite shape to the dune buggies and the tires even get a little muddy after a while, but I could have done without the tyre smoke effects; it'd have been more likely to be dusty in the racing conditions featured. Musically the game features some electronic music behind the racing, but all that can really be heard is the drumbeat.
Overall Wild Wild Racing isn't wild at all. It's an incredibly mediocre and frustrating experience with boring tracks, idiotic AI, poor handling, no real sense of progression through the Championship mode, no sense of speed and decidedly average presentation. This is definitely one to stay away from unless you're looking to award a title for world's most forgettably average PS2 game.
Rating: 36/100
Grade: E
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