WRC II Extreme

Overview

This game is the second in the official World Rally Championship series, and by many consider the best. It was developed by Evolution Studios, now owned by Sony. Evolution is also the developer behind Motorstorm and soon to be Motorstorm 2 Pacific Rift.  

The greatness of this game comes from playing it with a friend (or three) on your sofa taking turns racing the tracks. Yes that seems old fashion in this interweb times, but the not to arcade, and yet not to much of a racing simulator means that your total finishing time on a single rally could well be within a couple of seconds of each other. That makes for a pretty compelling and exiting racing experience. Having raced for a total of 45 minutes in a rally, only to have your left wheel set on the grass for about two seconds in the last left turn, knowing that's exactly where you lost those two third of second on your racing time, is a sensational feeling. Or after just having watched your buddy, you know you have to race through a particular section of a rally without letting go of the speed button, to shave a few seconds of your time. Doing this fully aware of that if you miss the turn by a millisecond you will hit that church, instead of speeding by it church bell ringing and all, is a great feeling.

The game also let you tinker with the cars setup. Not to many options, just enough to give you some risk-reward decision on the cars gears ratio, choice of tires and whatnot. But it will have the desired effect on your car, once you played the game long enough to become familiar with that stuff. And it will also help you replacing your friends name on that best time list.