Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PC DVD)

 

 

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I have just bought this game. I am more than annoyed that the only game controller it supports is Xbox 360 controller for windows - otherwise you're stuck with the keyboard which is pretty useless. I have 2 Logitech controllers neither of which I can use with this game. So be warned, if you dont have an Xbox controller (£18 approx) and dont want to buy one dont buy this game!

I loved the original Juiced. It was a game of skill and progression. The faster cars were difficult to control and races at the top end of the scale became a continual balance of steering and power to stop otherwise uncontrollable spins occurring. Needless to say a good proportional controller was a must.

Juiced 2 ... well ... other than the name there's nothing of the original game there. Sure the graphics have been upgraded, it's pretty, there's new music, but not actually any game I'd want to play! As others have said there's NO support for steering wheel / joystick. I haven't tried to play a driving sim with keyboard since the '80s and I'm not about to go back in time now. As it stands the game it totally unplayable. This is what happens when you try to maximise profits by designing a game for a console then porting it to other platforms.

If I wanted to play a console game I'd get a console. I wanted a successor to Juiced. This isn't it.

Okay, let's forget about the gamepad support for a moment and look at the game. If you use a utility like Xpadder to configure you gamepad for the game's key controls then you have a solution to that problem, though I do agree that controller support doesn't score the game any points.

Overall verdict? Looks nice, but a bit heavy on the graphics card. A more challenging drive than NFS initially, though once you've mastered the steering it's not too big a deal. Some nice variations on the circuit races. Drifting is good, but very difficult to master. The DNA is an interesting idea and something they could build on in later versions. Personally I found the driving experience of the first installment more challenging and I preferred the detail of the customisation in the first Juiced as well (with the exception of decals). Overall it's fun when it's good but mediocre most of the time. Worth a look if it's in the bargain bin.

Having played the first Juiced it's tempting to draw comparison between the two. However the games are quite different. The original got slated because it was released too late and got compared to NFS Underground and the like. I think Juiced was a better than NFS:U because the driving was more realistic and challenging and it introduced the crew option which was only introduced later in the NFS series for example. The big downfall was the money system because you had to pay to enter every race, pay to get your car repaired after every race and as a result it was very difficult to earn any money for buying new cars and mods. With Juiced 2 you don't have to worry about the money as much. You need cash to customise your car and buy new models, but not for entering races or repairing your vehicle.

Juiced 2 is a different beast. Firstly progress is based on a league system, where you have to complete a number of goals in one league to advance to the next. You have circuit races and drift races with a number of variations on each such as elimination races scoring a certain amount of points. This makes the game more interesting than purely trying to finish in the top three. There are also a couple of features that make this game different. Spooking is tailgating your opponent for a certain period of time until he freaks out and spins off. You need to do this to achieve certain goals and in some of the eliminator races. Although it's an interesting idea and takes some skill to maintain your position behind your opponents (some are more easily spooked than others), it still feels a bit too much like cheating in some ways, rather than relying purely on driving skill. Another feature is DNA in which how wild or smoothly you take corners, overtake and drift is recorded and updated in a profile. You can view the DNA of other drivers and this is useful when selecting members for your crew. If you are particularly bad at certain types of races then choose a member who is better at those skills.

So what about the driving, the cars and the racing experience? The driving is more challenging than NFS, but not as realistic as Juiced was. It's very easy to end up pointing sideways in a corner at first because the steering on the whole is very sensitive. In fact it feels as though this is the only challenging aspect of the driving experience, whereas there could have been much more put into braking distance and suspension aspects for example. The circuits are fictitious runs in around major world landmarks. The cars themselves look good and there's a similar variety to what you had in Juiced. There's a damage model too, so you'll rip off your bumpers or a tail light if you hit a corner too fast which is a nice touch. The customisation options are NFS:U style where you buy packages rather than the more detailed tuning which I preferred in Juiced.

Then there's the drifting. This is a big part of this game and I must say it's executed rather well. You really have to balance the steering and throttle to get round the corners without wiping out and this is far and away the most challenging part of the game. Unfortunately it's also very difficult to master and I feel that if the controller support was better that I would have much more control over what was going on. As it is, it's great when you're on a roll, but frustrating if you want to score a decent amount of points which I found limited my progression in the game. This is a shame because if the control's were a little less twitchy this could have been a brilliant feature.

So in general the game has it's high points, but I would have preferred it if they'd just fixed the money problems from the first installment and added the rather good (if a little twitchy) drifting feature. Then it would have been a great game.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PC DVD)
the reason i marked this game so low is that although my pc just makes the spec it refuses to play so i couldnt give anymore than 1 in each vote, i'm sure that when i beef my... Read more

Published on 1 Jan 2010 by Mr. M. N. Bramwell

3.0 out of 5 stars Good fun
This is a good fun game with decent graphics.
That is the only good side---No wheel or standard game pad support and its a very tricky game to play with keyboard. Read more

Published on 29 May 2009 by Racing Junkie

3.0 out of 5 stars Specs too high!
Bought this game for a very good price but was disappointed to see that it wouldn't work on my laptop. Read more

Published on 16 Mar 2009 by Tom David Alcock

1.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Ripoff
The whole point of a driving game is the driving experience, and with no support for any controller other than the x-box gizmo, there is no driving experience. Read more

Published on 27 Jan 2008 by Gef

1.0 out of 5 stars no joypad !
it's incredible. i was thinking it was some sort of mistake of mine. but my thrustmaster joypad dual trigger 2in1 is not recognised by the game. Read more

Published on 1 Jan 2008 by Massimiliano Marchiori

1.0 out of 5 stars please boycott thq and microsoft! please
yes as others have said this is a game for a 360 controller.... so if you have one then it may be ok if not then dont bother. Read more

Published on 26 Dec 2007 by M. Dickinson

1.0 out of 5 stars *** DO NOT BUY ***
A very disappointing game. Felt totally ripped off - no controller support (unless you have an Xbox controller) and poor game play. Read more

Published on 23 Dec 2007 by R. Lilley

1.0 out of 5 stars Controller Support
What controller support. Unlike the first Juiced, this game has practicaly no gamepad support what-so-ever. Read more

Published on 6 Dec 2007 by OG

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