Simbin, some love them some hate them. There's one point however everyone can agree on: they make hard core race simulators. Things that had to go were the visual lap / time indicators and using the grass as race line. But do these Sim like features destroy the fun?
Presentation
GTR2 is a reliably old game but still up there with the big guns .. When it was released every sim freak went nuts and everyone else just thought: I can not drive this. But it still appeals to quite a broad audience. And that's no surprise because it packs some pretty impressive features. First of all it's the only game that licensed the official FIA GT championship. A championship split in two groups of race cars. A fast pure race machine class and a normal sport car tweaked class. Available cars include the Ferrari F360, Saleen S7-R and Aston martin DB9. And with machines like these and a clear push by the manufacturers for development, it's clearly not a B competition. Also the cars all look beautiful when the graphics are turned up. As do the tracks, that include greats like Spa and Imola. So the game packs the goods when it comes to license (they lost it now since the awful sequel) and graphics. That's quite an achievement from the developers from Simbin.
Gameplay
GTR2's presentation appeals the broad audience but the game play joins the sim players. Driving around the track of Spa is such a joy. Every bump in the road you feel and some places of the track clearly have less grip than others. For example: the pit exit feels very slippery but the racing line gives you the grip. The tracks are made in such detail that I almost forgot to mention the lack of them. GTR2 is not grand turismo. It has about 12 tracks and 35 cars but the detail put in each track and car makes up for the lack of content. Cars all feel different and sound different. I'm a Ferrari fan and love that distinctive Scuderia engine sound, but others might like Porsche and will only by the sound recognize the vehicle.
24 hours
How many games let you race trough night and day in an extreme endurance race between manufacturers all over the game? Not many but GTR2 does! Doing that results in a fantastic experience with real life cars and tracks turning day and night on your full HD computer screen. Rain suddenly falls everyone pits, it turns night you have to press H to turn the headlight's on. Then your tires are worn out and you have to make an extra pit stop as the number 2 Ferrari overtakes you and wins the fight after many hours of excitement. This perfectly sums up this highly realistic game that both pleases the arcade and sim racers. But to get the most out of it you must have patience and keep practicing. This is not a pick it up and play but extremely gives you the fulfilling feeling of a real race victory.
4/5 starts
GTR 2 game review