Which one's the gas?
The original Swedish Touring Car Championship was a fairly standard slice of driving action that doesn't quite match up to the mighty TOCA series but which still provided some entertainment. This sequel improves on matters significantly and although it's still not there, it stands as a nice alternative to that other excellent franchise. As you'd expect from the title, this is a racer based around touring cars, and there's the usual array of cars, tracks and modes to try out here, including test tracks, qualifying rounds, championships and so on. This one is based on the 2000 championship and features all the licensed cars and drivers from the season, so it's a good bet if you have fond memories of the period. In addition to the touring cars, you also get the Super Stock Racing, where you drive a Camaro, while there's also a couple more real world tracks from Sweden to try your hand at. This being an EA published game, there's lots of flashy presentation, with some nice movie style clips and plenty of razzle dazzle and which helps to give the game some appeal. As far as specialist racers go, this is a pretty good bet. The touring cars make for a nice change to F1 or rallying, and provide an interesting challenge while still being fun to drive. There's a good range of real world cars to try, as well as some enjoyable tracks to speed around, and thanks to the solid AI, you can expect to be playing for a while. Throw in some effective visuals, decent physics and a good sense of speed and you have a fine driving game.
