Still it could be a pro street killer actually... Atm pro street is delayed etc.. So if friends tell friends and so on how fun juiced 2 is they might buy it or sumthing it can only kill by the number of sells or ratings. Not how fun it is or anything like that coz i think the main thing is people only like is the customization.. other people like it for drifting and it goes on..
I picked up Juiced 2 Hot Import Nights on Tuesday and have been playing it both offline and online the last 2.5 days so I wanted to give some impressions.
So far I really like it. This game has alot of unique features that are very fun and not found anywhere else. Its pretty deep too.
Once you play for a while you will realize the game plays like a cross between NFS and Ridge Racer making it very addictive probably from the ridge racer elements. There is even a Nitrous mode where everyone gets Nitrous that refills faster while racing which gives it a very Ridge Racer Feel.
This game stomps all over Carbon. Its probably the best tuner game out there right now.
It is very arcade but addicting. The controls are really responsive. At first you might hate them but after a few races you get used to them and the game is a blast. It is very fast paced and challenging yet after a few races feels in some way more realistic and exciting then Carbon did. No race is the same. The pink slip races and the races wehre you can't touch the walls are very nerve racking!! especially when you are about to loose your $90k+ Skyline on which you dumped another 60K to paint it.
many excellent car manufacturers are represented...Konigsegg, Honda, Renault, Saleen, Seat, Subaru, Toyota, Lexus, Scion, TVR, VW, Nissan, Infinity, Mitsubishi, Ralliart, Mini, Melling, Mazda, Lotus, Hyundai, Ascari, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Citroen, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, GM, and even Holden are represented. I heard that there are about 90 cars and more will be available via content download.
You can modify, tweak, and race everything from the Koneigsegg CCX, Integra Type R, Civic Si, Skyline R32 GTS-T Type M, Leon Cupra R, Ford Falcon XR8, VW Beetle GLS to a Skyline R3-GTR, Lotus Exige, 300GT VR4, Renault Menage Renaultsport 225, Skyline R33 GTS 25T, Miata MX5, Ascari, and Pagani Zonda or Vauxhall Astra. Sadly no Porsche or Ferrari but with al lthe other great cars its not really such a loss.
The graphics are really good especially the car models and environments. The levels are very well laid out, and the environmental/city graphics on the later levels look outstanding. There is a level in the UK that has a ferris wheel and a ton of buildings and it looks almost photorealistic. I disagree with the reviews that have said the graphics are meh. If you race in first person mode, or zoomed in on your car the race graphics are amazing and that is what counts.
There is a ton of details on the levels and buildings. Some levels are on icy roads, others are at dusk or at night when the roads appear wet. The close up car models, and the dealership shots are very detailed. My S2k looks exactly like the one sitting in my garage down to the golden yellow flakes in the paint, the digital dashboard that works and red brake pads and the little holes in the disc brakes.
There is damage modeling. I have had my trunk, hood, bumpers both front and rear torn off as well as dragging behind me, and even the left or right exhausts smashed in. The damage does not affect performance but visually it looks good, and its all persistent. Any parts that cars loose or dents that are made in the tirewalls or when cones are splattered all stay on the road for the duration of the race.
In motion the game looks really good and after a while it gives you a feeling of actually racing in a city. Its 60 frames a second. The physics and graphics look alot better then games like Sega Rally or in some areas even Dirt on the cars. The cars do not float like in the above mentioned games and feel heavier but very responsive. Cars move and behave more fluidly and realistically. You can see all the independent shocks move, the cars go into tailspins, hit walls and react naturally, bump each other, and even pile up. The nice thing is that they do not feel like they are on a rail like opponent cars in games like Forza that you can't knock off or deviate from their present course. There is motion blur, nitrous that looks very similar to Ridge racer, and various other effects like shaky cam.
There is alot of attention to detail. Your driver will wave to the oncomming crowd which is entirely 3D as she drives by, curse, flap her arms, shake her head at other drivers etc. Once you unlock the roof mod, any convertible can be raced with its top down which is the first time I have seen that in a game. It always bothered me in Gran Turismo, Carbon, or Forza that I could not have a S2k or Miata, or TT with its roof down. If you hit the tire wall or cones they will fly out everywhere, as will sparks and small things you hit.
However the rest of the graphics in the game outside of the racing are hit and miss though. Although the racing, levels, and cars looks great on the track and on some tracks even better or on par with PGR 3 the betting, the character models, some of the interior cockpits and the dancing girls and menus could use some more work. During races the shadows on the ground caused by trees and reflections look poor and blocky before you start the race. I did manage to make a pretty good looking chick though given what I had to work with.
Cars sound good and each car handles differently. A 300z, a Celica VVTI, a Audi TT, and a S2000 will all handle differently. The S2000 is nimble and fast around corners and glued to the ground while the TT feels slow and ponderous by comparison while the 300Z has good torque and top speed.
There is zero slowdown 99% of the time.
This game is really deep. Really Really Deep!
In Career mode there is a total of 10 leagues, a rookie league, 7 HIN leagues, and 2 championship leagues. Each league has more and more as well as longer races and completely different objectives that must be met before you can advance. Objectives range from winning a pink slip race with a certain driver or winning a bet with someone or getting a certain place in a certain race to winning a crew race or breaking a certain top speed. Its very challenging and fun. Not all objectives have to be met to advance but you can go back and play anything you have not finished. After you finish the first 2 leagues the game gets harder and more interesting.
There are various kinds of races available:
Circuit - Standard race around a track that can have anywhere between 1 to 9 laps or more.
Circuit Endurace - Endurance version of Circuit race
Circuit Championship - 3 or more circuit races all in a row. Best score out of all races wins.
Circuit Pink Slip - Race a circuit race for pink slips
Circuit Eliminator - Eliminator race where last position in each lap gets eliminated.
Circuit Last Man Standing - Can't touch any walls or barriers, where driving skill is key.
Crew battle - Race with your crew members in a race.
Circuit Tournament - Tournament style races where in each stage you go against one other and advance to championship. Think DBZ fighting tournament.
Drift Last Man standing - Drift race but can't touch any walls while drifting.
Drift Endurace - Endurance Drift race where you need to maintain a continous drift for massive points.
Drift solo - Drift race against time or points.
Drift King - race against others for highest Drift score ala NFS Carbon
Drift Obliterator - Race for position and Points at the same time. Each lap has a drift qualifier that has to be met or you get eliminated and the goal is still to win the race.
There are about 16 cars in each league. There are 5 locations (japan, Italy, USA,UK,Germany) that I have seen each with about 5-6 races each. Each race location is ficticious. You can also design your own custom DNA races and choose the starting grid, and # of laps in the races.
So yeah...there are a ton of races. AI is pretty good and very very varied. The DNA aspect does not seem to make that much difference on the AI I played against meaning sometiems good people loose but I noticed that it does for the ones I downloaded. A person who was aggressive tended to slam into walls and overtake more often then one who was more collected.
Oh yeah...you can do all of that online against real people. The entire career can be played online. Online is completely lag free. Sometimes I got kicked out of the lobby but that might have been because someone disconnected. Besides that online is a blast and you cannot tell the difference between playing online and offline as far as performance. racing against other people and making bets if very fun.
The car customization is insane. There are a ton of visual mods. Everything from carbon fiber hoods, to rims, spoilers and exhausts. In addition to the regular mods you can change the seats, steering wheel, and roof. You can even add lambo doors to any car.
Performance mods consist of paying for power, handling, and weight mods at every league however you can't tweak your car like in Forza or carbon I don't think. The nice thing is that to unlock the ability to improve your performance you must win a challenge of some sort and then buy it.
The visual painting is outstanding. If you have ADD or can't devote 15+ hours to paint a car, painting your car in this game is a dream and not a chore like it was with Forza. You can paint your own designs using shapes and gradients as well as apply many manufacturer and aftermarket designs, logos, airbrushed art, cartoon art, photo art that can be unlocked as you progress through the career. Paint also includes Flakes and thin Films.
There is more but it would take forever to explain...like all the drifting challenges, the pink slips, DNA, car selling, and the sense of speed. Point is that the game is very good. I would give it at the minimum a 8.1 up to a solid 8.5. This game has alot of features and detail not found in other racers and the overall package is a blast to play both online and offline. You can't fault the game for being a little off in areas that other games don't even have implemented.
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Some (positive) +features:
+ Long career mode.
+ Full ONLINE career mode.
+ can race online for pink slips
+ online single and crew races with real people
+ Online, Offline and spectator beting
+ Online selling of cars and purchasing of paintjobs
+ download other players DNA and use it to race against offline, or use them as hired crew members
+ Deep character customization
+ Very good selection of cars both euro, muscle, and japanese including the Koenigsegg CCX, all the skyline + variants, Mitsubishi Prototype X, all the Mitsubishi Eclipse Models, and Honda S2000 which usually don't make it into many games.
+Persistent Damage on cars and parts remain on the road.
+outstanding car models
+complete pink slip history of your car and what happened to it.
+Good car sounds
+cars handle differently and you feel it.
Negatives: (minus)
-Crappy textures and effects on cockpit view
-AI opponents sometimes do stupid stuff like raise your bet as a counter and then immediately back out of it.
-Character models could be better but at least you got a character.
-more tracks are needed. (hopefully will come with Content Download)
-menus, betting, and pre/post game screens/graphics could be better.
-No wheel support/No force Feedback/No controller layout for good wheel setup or custom keys mapping.
-not enough different AI opponents so far.
-If I win a pink slip race against AI then in the next race he will still have his car instead of a different car at least so far.
Teamxbox gave it a 7.4 and IGN a 6.8. However I think the IGN review was crap because the reviewer complained about there being 2 different control schemes, one for racing and drifting but that was exactly what NFS Carbon had an IGN didn't seem to have a problem with it then when they gave that game an 8.2. Dale's Teamxbox review was pretty good overall. He brought up both the good and the bad parts of the game but I think the graphics are better then what he said they were, and the gameplay is very good.
IGN also complained about pop in on small items like reflectors, and the interior cockpit graphics, or occasional slowdown. I think in playing for 2 days straight I had slowdown 1 time after I got some acheivment and my DNA evolved at the same time and the game saved the info for a sec. Besides that there is no slowdown. Its sad that the game got lower marks for crappy interior cockips and whatnot on some cars but a game like Forza didn't get penalized for not having any in this day and age. Go figure...
I know I will get a ton of haters who will say this game sucks but anyway I am having a blast and I recommend this game to anyone who loves racing games. this game is very addicting with many unique and interesting features that are worth discovering and enjoying.
Edit: I was looking at my receipt from ebgames and found out 190 people have preorderd juiced 2..
...
But now I have 2 cars.A Mazda RX-8 in League 6 and a Nissan 300ZX in League 6.
It mostly shifted down more then up when braking. Ive yet to reach 6th gear ill try tomorrow night when i get my new X360 and juiced 2 
