is it just another port? only one way to find out
To start with this game is loads of fun, don't get me wrong on that one, yet it leaves you feeling that more polish could of been added and some extra elbow grease applied.
The graphics for this game are nice yet you do tend to get that "low rez" feeling that all psp games suffer, but once you get into it, you hardly notice.
The cars them selves, handle very differently, so learning them is key, yet this is also where it fails slightly. As you never spend more than at least 2 to 3 races per car per event, Every new car is a whole lot of learning again, which can get rather annoying when all you want to do is get out there and race on a level-ish playing field.
The AI for your opponents, although good, can be questionable, many a time did I clear a turn correctly, only to be overtaken by a car that seems to have better acceleration than me, even though we are both driving the same type of vehicle, made even more annoying by the fact you can not edit the cars set up, before or during the race.
The sound in the game is also worthy of note, the constant chatter from your manager through out the race can be of some assistance in places, though can get repetitive with comments concerning who the lead driver is (always seems to be the same driver), i found my self turning the speech off. yet this leaves you with no knowledge of the race having a mandatory pit stop, until you drive past on the second lap and realise you just jumped 4 spaces without over taking anyone. One draw back with the sound, was that most of the vehicles sounded very similar, with hardly any variation between them, regardless of what car you drive. and anyone who has ever played Colin mcrae 05 will instantly notice that the rally stages of TOCA share the same co-pilot voice over.
Yet with the small problems out of the way, this is a very good racer, the cars are detailed enough to know what your driving (even if most of them seem to be fords at the beginning), the videos in between races draw you into the storyline, there is a extra mode that lets you race the cars you have unlocked in separate tournaments suited to the cars, and the controls can be remapped if your not satisfied with the set up, you also get 4 views to chose from, the standard chase cam, 1 in car (only windscreen, none of this, "no handed steering wheel" to put you off) then a bonnet cam and finally a bumper cam the handling is good and responsive, and has a slight Gran Turismo feel to it.
Over all, if your after a racer while you await GT4 mobile, get this, even though it does have its draw backs (though what game doesn't), it is a very good racer and gets the job done, don't let the little annoyances i found put you off, its definitely worth having if you need a race fix and you never know, what i found annoying might be your bread and butter
PLEASE NOTE, Although my score states that the difficulty is hard, it is a progressive scaling of difficulty (IE: it starts off easy and them gets a little more harder with each new event.