History of Racing games

1999:

While PSX owners rave about Driver, PC owners shrug when it fails to measure up to Microsoft's Midtown Madness. Both feature a fully working city, but Midtown's lack of a clichéd 70s gangster plot keeps the emphasis on racing, allowing for more freedom and more fun. Codemasters' TOCA 2 improves the original immeasurably, dispensing with the arcade-style 'unlocking' of tracks found in the first game, and sitting the title firmly at the top of the 'simulation' tree (on PC at least). The Dreamcast appears and gives the world Sega Rally 2, which is largely ignored.

EA apply their FIFA mentality to the Need For Speed series, with Road Challenge being almost inseparable from last year's Hot Pursuit.

Pictured: TOCA 2 (above)
NFS Road Challenge (right)

2000:

Gran Turismo 2 and Colin McRae Rally 2.0 squeeze a bit more life out of the PSX. The latter is converted to PC and, despite competition in the form of Rally Masters and Rally Championship, easily beats them to remain at the top of the rallying tree. We also get various other sequels - Midtown Madness 2, Grand Prix 3 and Need For Speed: Porsche 2000, all worthy games although in truth not offering much more than their predecessors.

EA buy an F1 license and put it to good use, releasing the not-bad F1 2000 and the slightly better F1 Championship Season 2000. Le Mans 24 Hours is an underrated gem, and towards the end of the year Insane offers a few off-road laughs online. Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast is also mighty impressive.

Pictured: Midtown Madness 2 (above)
F1 2000 (left)

2001
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is released on PS2 and the world applauds, although not as loudly as it thought it would. Essentially a flashier version of GT2 (with not as many cars) it is nevertheless the ultimate racing game. On the PC, EA's F1 2001 surpasses Grand Prix 3 as the top F1 game and Colin McRae 2.0's hegemony is belatedly challenged by Rally Championship Xtreme from Actualize.
	Pictured: Gran Turismo 3

SUMMARY

Decent	Half-Decent	Forget About
Gran Turismo (PSX/PS2) Mario Kart 64 (N64) Colin McRae 2.0 Midtown Madness F1 2001	Motocross Madness Le Mans 24 Hours Ultim@te Race Pro Motorhead	Anything pre-1997, except 4D Sports: Driving (see review).

BACK