Ford: First On Race Day or Found On Road Dead? Whatever your acronymic take on the American automotive giant, its products are the only vehicles you'll find in Empire Interactive's long-overdue sequel to its 2001 arcade racing game Ford Racing. Sadly, Ford Racing 2 is most definitely not first on PC race day. Although it delivers a number of unique challenges that go beyond the basic racing routine and more Ford cars and trucks are offered than you can shake a Fiesta at, the game is plagued by dated physics and a sense that you've already seen the same thing--only better. If it were released a few years prior, just as Electronic Arts' Need for Speed was finding its footing, Ford Racing 2 would have fared a lot better. As it is, Empire's latest racer unfortunately does not offer enough excitement for the arcade crowd or nearly enough complexity for simulation hounds.

Ford Racing 2 showcases a seriously diverse assortment of past, present, and future Ford vehicles in a wide range of settings.

Ford Racing 2 veers somewhat from the path taken by its forgotten predecessor. Whereas the original featured a barely adequate dozen drivable Ford automobiles, the new game sports more than 30 vintage, current, and concept models. Whereas the original zeroed in almost exclusively on a "career," the new game steers clear of such intricacies in favor of a wide variety of "challenges" that range from traditional head-to-head racing to solo slalom and time-limited affairs.

Aside from these key distinctions, both games share similar key design traits. For starters, Ford Racing 2 is once again an exclusive Ford club, so you won't find any Lamborghinis or BMWs in here. This exclusivity wouldn't matter so much if each of the 30-plus vehicles delivered a unique and plausible ride, but designer Razorworks simply hasn't implemented this. Granted, a circa-1940s pickup truck does behave slightly differently from a Ford Focus rally car and a Jetsons-inspired Ford concept car, but none of these three are truly believable or truly distinct.

The problem would seem to lie in the game's basic, underlying physics modeling, which unfortunately hasn't evolved sufficiently in the three years since Ford Racing first hit the retail market. It remains an apparently simple bit of programming, bereft of the deep, complex actions and reactions found in many competing titles. In essence, you'll generally feel like you're floating over the track rather than driving upon it. Wheelspin is perceptible but not accurately so. Acceleration and braking scarcely take into account the four contact points of each vehicle or the dynamics of rubber meeting ground. And certainly there will be times when you'll forget whether you're driving a big truck or a supposedly nimble compact. Can 30-plus impressively unique driving experiences be created when the fundamental physics model is so vague and arcade-thin? The answer is no.

Razorworks attempts to mask the simplicity and the similarities of its vehicular behavior by instilling a range of variables. Because of these variables, the game is more tolerable than it would be without them. For instance, Ford Racing 2 doesn't restrict you to mere pavement. In fact, the game allows you to experience virtually any driving surface that exists in the real world, including pavement, concrete, hard-packed dirt, and sand. It even lets you blast through hot flowing lava at one point, though the effects and impact of said lava is negligible. Otherwise, you'll find your chosen vehicles spinning their tires impressively and overdriving turns in the sand, gripping occasionally in the dirt, and occasionally grabbing a little air time. In this way, the game does keep moderately fresh.

Some of the only real thrills of Ford Racing 2's early rounds are the many instances of energetic contact.

Furthermore, Ford Racing 2 doesn't stick to common "pack" racing. Variants include time trials, slalom time trials (through a series of cones), elimination events (where the two trailing cars magically evaporate at the end of each lap), and timed solo events where you are either rewarded with floating time bonus power-ups or penalized for not properly adhering to an overlaid image of the ideal driving line. Other possibilities include "duel," where you are presented with a new opponent at the opening of each lap, and the intriguing "drafting," which asks you to eliminate each of your opponents by following closely in their slipstream for a given number of seconds. This particular event is more interesting than most if only because you must predict when the car in front of you will make a move to the right or left. Then you must react accordingly and shadow the car as best you can.

Ford Racing 2 is divided into two general elements--the Ford Challenge and the Ford Collection. The former consists of approximately 30 preset challenges comprising the events listed above and is considered the game's central feature. The latter allows you to create and customize your own events. To advance in the Challenge and add more items and locations to the Collection, you must unlock vehicles, tracks, and much more by winning the game's few unlocked races.