Juiced (PS2)

I wanted a good racing game and was rather enthralled by the adverts for Juiced. For a racing purist you can't go wrong with Gran Turismo, but having played all the series of this game I wanted a driving game more urban and daring something in the mould of Need for Speed, well this is certainly it.

Career mode is what most of the gameplay is centred around. You begin with $30,000 and a choice of a few simple cars. You then have the option of entering a number of events. The events are as follows : Sprint, Showoff, Circuit, Team. Prototype and Point to Point. The good thing about the game, is that the computer opponents are chosen at around the same speed of your car with differing level of skilled drivers. This make sure that you are not likely to come last or first again and again, i.e. it keeps things competitive. Career mode will keep you busy for a while, your goal is to gain the respect of fellow racers who all specialise in certain aspects of street racing. Some will be impressed by your flash motor, others by your driving or betting ability. You have the opportunity of winning/buying many cars across many class types.

Where Juiced really attempts to set itself from other similar driving games is in kitting up your car, its goes in very much 'pimp my ride' style and over exuberance. There are a wide variety of styles that can be adopted and many of them will improve your car no doubt, however since nearly all the cars in the game share a similar styled 'make-over' it does becoming repetitive at times. If you have played Gran Turismo then you will be slightly disappointed that there are not the same number as cars available as that and certainly no Formula1 cars. Pink Slips are a very daring and also risky component of this game. This entails pitting your best car against that of your opponent with the loser forfeiting their prized asset. They is a wide variety of tracks, however a disappointment comes in that the tracks become very tricky once you have a full powered car. Sometimes you will stand no chance and will inevitably spin on every major corner, this is an important lesson and will no doubt help improve your driving.

There is also the ability of forming your own crew, these are required if you wish to compete in the crew challenges although it does take time to get your crew up to a competitive level. The range of cars and tracks keeps you interested for a long time and it is unlikely that most people will be turned off by this game at the beginning. So may find it repetitive while others may get hooked for weeks. It is very unlikely that you will find this game exhilarating for months as after a while you will realise that you have owned all the cars worth owning and beating the top drivers isn't as much a problem given you have the right car.

All in all, Juiced is driving simulator which appeals to be much more than that, in reality few will be absorbed by the graphical pleasantries which take the form of 'modding' cars. It brings you the street racing environment and strays away from technical driving perfection.

Juiced is a great PS2 game with good graphics and a good selection of cars. The mods are quite difficult to unlock because you need to unlock each mod for each car. But apart from that, the game is cool, and also the music soundtracks are pretty awesome.

Juiced is really good, and I got it when it was released and I have never stopped playing it.

Juiced is a very good game, it has masses of things which you can do, for example you can tune your car to many many different levels and the modifications are great!

Juiced gives many, many hours of gameplay and is a must have for driving sim fans!

Highly reccomended :D