ArsGeek

It’s a hot summer night. You have a powerful ride and pompous attitudes are in the air. You hear the revving of the engines, the stereos crank up and the city streets are yours to burn rubber on for a nice cash prize.

From the hilly roads of San Francisco to the icy turns in a German town, you race your way up the food chain. This is your life and you’re one bad *insert preferred curse-esque word here*.

Amazon.com
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (HIN) evolves the current street racing scene, letting players experience the culture of the real-life HIN tour, the nation’s largest lifestyle custom car show in an intense racing experience. Featuring track and drift racing at real-world locations around the globe.

• Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights combines an intense, addictive racing experience with the culture of the real-life HIN tour, the nation’s largest lifestyle custom car show
• Perfect your skills in multi-car drifting races
• Driver DNA tracks each individual player’s driving habits, creating a profile that can be downloaded off of all online gaming services 
• Download celebrity DNA and test your star power skills
• In-game gambling let’s you watch and bet on live races with up to 1000 others
• Customization let’s you be who you want to be with 90 digitally scanned cars and over 250 aftermarket mods and numerous combinations of character features, players can treat themselves to the ultimate car and driver customization
• Online Pink Slip and Crew Racing means you can tap into your inner risk-taker by challenging other players for their cars and putting yours on the line.
• Race online with friends you hand-pick for your crew

I received this games months ago. Although I play it regularly, I sadly have not gotten around to writing about it because I’m trying to figure out my own opinion on the game. Actually I was hoping to improve a little bit more, however, I don’t see that happening any time soon. When you do perfect a certain skill such as powersliding, it lets you know but adding it to your DNA! I think a little ego boost helps every now and then.

I can honestly say that I like it. I find the graphics passable, the options and abilities to win money to supe up your car is awesome, but there are things that my inabilities hinder my game play. I can’t drift. For the life of me I can’t figure out why I’m such a horrible drifter! I question the controllers vice a steering wheel or perhaps it’s a simple of case of “I just really suck at it.” I don’t like the fact that you can’t move forward without showing skills in more than one area, mainly because I’m lacking in those skills.

In order to advance through the levels and gain more $$ you have to meet certain criteria’s- such as the ability to drift and pass the “Last Man Standing” challenges. You are also given a series of tasks to complete in each race in order to move forward. Example: Spook a particular driver. This part is fun because you aren’t just racing, you’re hunting someone down and scaring the hell out of them. There are bets you can place to rake in some extra cash. It’s illegal, challenging and you don’t have to worry about getting arrested or being beaten to a bloody pulp*

In each circuit your vehicle must meet a certain standard. This is fine and dandy, but you can never go back to the lower levels to see if you can sneak in some extra cash. You basically have to sell your car and start fresh. <-I’m stating this in case there are other drifting impaired people who wind up unable to move pass and you’re wanting to go to the previous circuit in order to get some practice in. If there’s a way to bypass it, I haven’t found it.

I’ve also heard that on the newer consoles you can customize your character. I feel so left out Unlike the NASCAR games, you can be any gender and guess what? The music is actually likable, especially for those long game playing days where you can drift to your hearts content. I really don’t think I can move past this drift portion without some serious professional help.

Racing games and sport games aren’t really my genre so the fact that this has kept me amused and returning, should say something. I’ve yet to lose interest and I’m looking forward to some how Matrixing myself by downloading the drifting skill into my brain so that it comes as second nature.

Juiced 2 does rock. I however, do not.

Overall 8.5
Gameplay: 8
Experience (Sound/Graphics): 9
Replayability: 9
Fun Factor/Price: 9

Only 29.99 at Amazon! Click to purchase Juiced 2
*Disclaimer: Playing this game will not prevent you from being arrested or beaten to a bloody pulp for activities outside of Juiced 2 Hot Import Nights.

Technorati Tags: Juiced 2, THQ, Racing Games, Drifting, DNA, Hot Import Nights

Popularity: 1% [?]