One of the simplest joys of racing games is that they let you get away with things you can't do in real life. Assuming you're not a race car driver or the latest guest star on World's Scariest Police Chases, driving mainly means dutifully obeying signs and driving within the lines. If you'd like more adventure than just merging onto a busy highway or dodging stray shopping carts at the grocery store, 4x4 EVO 2 may be what you're looking for. Here's a racing game that not only ignores speed limits, but often also ignores roads. Like its predecessor, 4x4 Evolution, 4x4 EVO 2 puts you behind the wheel of real-world trucks and SUVs and lets you barrel over dirt roads and across the open countryside. Deviating from the racecourses isn't just possible, but actively encouraged. If you can put up with some frustrating inconsistencies and technical problems, 4x4 EVO 2 offers some thrilling off-road racing.

4x4 EVO 2 lets you get behind the wheel of 120 different trucks and SUVs.

4x4 EVO 2 features a healthy selection of game modes and a greater emphasis on the single-player experience than its predecessor. First, there's time attack mode, where you try to set record laps. Then, there's the obligatory quick race, which lets you jump right into the action without any fuss (other than awkward, ugly menus). You can choose from 30 courses, and you can race at midday or dusk and drive under clear conditions or various levels of fog and rain. After each race, you can watch replays with a VCR-style control panel. Surprisingly, there aren't any difficulty levels or options, and the default settings might be pretty tough for racing novices.

You can race between one and 20 laps against up to seven computer-controlled opponents or compete online via a somewhat convoluted and buggy server browser. 4x4 Evolution's ability to let you race against those with console versions of the game is gone in the sequel. The manual touts a two-player versus mode, though this was inaccessible, despite having the required two controllers installed. If you play against the computer, prepare for both excitement and frustration. Your AI opponents race hard but seem to think this is a game of bumper cars--they drive with reckless abandon and constantly knock you into boulders or off the road. Leaving the road by your own devices, on the other hand, can be useful, since taking shortcuts is encouraged.

To find those shortcuts, you can play in the free roam mode, where there's no pressure and no competition. You just drive to your heart's content, enjoying the scenery or smashing into it as you see fit. As with the quick race mode, free roam lets you choose any course, the time of day, and the weather conditions. As Rainbow Studios' Motocross Madness 2 proved so well, the ability to just ride around and follow your every whim can be at least as enjoyable as structured competition. Of course, you can't do death-defying, acrobatic stunts in a 4x4 EVO 2, so once the novelty of the environments wears off, the free roam mode can get pretty dull in a hurry.

The quick race, time attack, and free roam modes let you choose vehicles from three classes, beginning with stock vehicles and progressing to ones heavily modified for off-road racing. All three classes feature real-world trucks and SUVs from GMC, Mitsubishi, Chevrolet, Lexus, Toyota, Dodge, Jeep, Nissan, and Infiniti. The game boasts 120 models in all, including variants of the Dodge Durango, Mitsubishi Montero, Nissan Xterra, Toyota Tacoma, and other well-known models. In practical game terms, many of the different models perform quite similarly, so while the game technically has 120 vehicles, in practice it feels like far fewer.

The 30 different courses are big and impressive.

If you don't like the standard vehicles, you're free to use vehicles you've bought and modified in the game's career mode. Fleshed out from the original 4x4 EVO, the career mode in 4x4 EVO 2 starts you out with $30,000 with which to purchase the vehicle of your choice. With money that you win in various racing series, you can purchase new vehicles, as well as licensed parts from Goodridge, K&N, IPF, Rancho, and others. These range from high-performance air filters and snorkels for river fording to things as mundane (and useless in game terms) as a sun visor. As you win more series and build a reputation, you'll get to try out for racing teams. If you're accepted by one, you can unlock more parts and vehicles.

New to the EVO series is the ability to undertake special missions in career mode. To earn cash, you can search the desert for a mysterious Spanish mission church, deliver relief supplies to a remote Alaskan village cut off by an earthquake, and perform other FedEx or needle-in-a-haystack tasks. The goals themselves are boring, and the lame map/compass is of little use. Get ready to drive in circles. The environments are huge, though, helping to really capture the feel of off-roading in remote, beautiful areas.