TOCA World Touring Cars - PlayStation

With over 2.5 million copies of the first two TOCA titles sold up until the release of this new version, Codemasters are sure to have another massive hit on their hands with World Touring Cars. Familiarity with its predecessors will hardly prepare you for this, a veritable feast of speed, spoilers and sparks. Yeah, the first two TOCA titles are still great driving games, but World Touring Cars is such an immersive and involving experience, if it was a book, you could file under ‘unputdownable.’

TOCA World Touring delivers close contact racing with impact physics damage, on real tracks and in real cars, on a global scale. The handling of these accurately-modelled cars is as good as it gets and the huge selection of tracks have been faithfully reproduced. Beyond the UK only races of the previous TOCA titles, World Touring Cars offers a full career mode where, after your initial championship season, you’ll hopefully be inundated with offers from other racing teams. It all depends on your performances, and there can be no excuses offered for dismal failure, because all the pre-race preparation is down to you. If you’re not ready to spend the rest of your days as a sofa-bound Jochen Rindt, then there’s always the Quick Race or Free Race option, for that essential pre-bedtime fix.

With up to 14 cars on track at a time, collision is certain, collision which you will see and feel, thanks to the polygon deformation engine and the fact that if the computer cars get a chance to bully you off the track, they will. When you’re ploughing into a corner, three or four cars abreast, things really do get a bit hairy, especially on the Vancouver circuit with its walls and fences. Indeed, sometimes the game can resemble a demolition derby, with broken windscreens and stray bumpers making regular appearances.

TOCA World Touring Cars is a truly pan-continental experience and will surely be another huge success for Codemasters. They thoroughly deserve it.
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