Played V8 Supercars to death? Were you so keen for some online action that you sold it, just so you could buy the online version that came out a few months later? Well the sequel to V8 Supercars, V8 Supercars 2 is here and the racing masters at Codemasters have put together an awesome racing game that is absolutely jam packed with 35 cars, 31 tracks from a diverse number of sources as well as full online play for all us Xbox Live fans!

As with the first game, the Aussie V8’s aren’t the main focus here. Known around the world as TOCA, this series features a wide range of European and American championships, as well as V8 Supercars. Throughout the game you find yourself behind the wheel of the open wheel Formula Fords, hot rod Street Racing, American Stock Cars, Rally driving, Rally Cross, ice racing and amongst others, Super Truck racing! All the cars handle differently and there’s bound to be something for everyone. There is definitely no other Xbox racer that comes close to offering the variety that’s on offer here and V8 Supercars 2 reaffirms Codemasters position of one of the worlds top racing game makers.

Now where the first game shoved you into the shoes of the young Ryan McKane who after watching his father obliterated in a fiery crash, takes up his mantle and seeks to become the world’s best driver, V8 Supercars 2 puts all the attention on you. It works heaps better as you don’t have to put up with Ryan’s permanently stunned appearance in the cut scenes, instead they are all from a first person perspective and feature some excellent graphics, animation and generally great voice acting. During the cut scenes you simply watch as your pit manager (who babies the hell out of you!) provides feedback on how you’re going and tries to shield you from all the distractions such as film crews that want to make a documentary on you and a pushy blonde manager that wants to make you the ‘next big thing’. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but the options to make a few more career decisions along the way would have opened up the non-interactive side of the game a whole lot more.

You do get to choose what championships you want to take part in though and you will be given two options from time to time, such as do you want to take part in some stock racing, or some open wheeler action. The choice is yours and just a tip, avoid the truck racing unless you have plenty of time. They handle just like a truck, have plenty of grunt but it takes absolutely ages to win races with them and while including them is a great idea, I didn’t find them terribly exciting. My only complaint is that in the Career mode there are no warm up or qualifying laps. At each event you are thrown head first into the main race and if you haven’t raced that track before it can get pretty scary as for the first lap or two you are never totally clued into the track layout. Furthermore, even if you finish first in one race, at the start of the next one you end up 10 places back again. What happened to pole position and why is one of the other racers handed it for free even if I’m on top of the points table?

Now if you come from the arcade school of racing games be prepared for a shock. In the career mode if you try using the competitor’s cars as bumpers to slam your way around corners then be prepared for your race to be over at the first corner. In online play, expect the same short races but also plenty of abuse from your friends. You see, V8 Supercars 2 has a damage system that absolutely rocks! On your speedo there are a couple of small icons that represent damage to the key components of your car. The outside of the car can be totally trashed but also the gears, suspension, steering, wheels and engine all suffer damage that is indicated by the colour of these icons. These change from yellow to red based on the amount of damage but they aren’t simply a gimmick, the handling of the car as well as the sound effects all change and ultimately you can find yourself out of the race and missing valuable championship points. But not only is the damage represented by your speedo icons, you see headlights and taillights pop out, spoilers get wrenched off and even doors work their way loose.

On numerous races I’ve had to limp across the line in 10th place or lower with the gearbox whining, the engine clunking and the steering absolutely shot. The racing is very realistic and loads of fun online and offline. There’s one small issue with the Bathurst, Mount Panorama track where cars tend to get airborne in a place that they never do in real life, but overall with the amount of tracks included in the game, everything works very well and it’s damn hard to find fault anywhere. You also get the option to watch replays but can’t save them to the Xbox hard drive.

The graphics have had a big upgrade as well and the car models and tracks look stunning in a lot of places. The cars are extremely detailed and feature nice shiny paint jobs that reflect the sun nicely. V8 Supercars 2 easily features the best looking computer versions of Holdens and Fords in a game yet. The tracks look great too with some excellent scenery but do still feature the Codemasters patented flat trees with chunky edges and flat 2d crowds. It isn’t a major downside though as the benefit of the simple trackside graphics is the ultra fast 60fps frame rate that the game hammers along at. It never drops even with 20 other cars all screaming into a corner at the same time and I tip my hat to Codemasters for such a truly awesome achievement.

If you want to take a break from the Career mode, there is also Simulator mode. Here you can take part in single races, compete in split screen or even over Xbox Live against your mates. I’ve had a few great races and even with 6 players there was no lag at all. I did find though that racing with people on your friends list is a much more rewarding experience with V8 Supercars 2 as you can have a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to not deliberately smash into each other and this creates a real online racing experience unlike no other. The game supports up to 12 players so I just need to find another 6 people on my friends list with it. The time trial and free race modes are also the only place you can tweak and tinker with your car settings. You can adjust everything from gear ratios, downforce, suspension, ride height, anti roll, tyre hardness and brake bias. It’s pretty cool to tweak your cars to try and beat your lap times but in Career mode it’s all done for you by your pit crew.