Burning down the hillsides of Corsica towards the bayside finish is fantastic fun

Bigger, better, faster, more. It's what every sequel's all about, right? V-Rally was released before Gran Turismo, and there's a lot of catching up to do...
Ben East

Sequels, then. A licence to print money? A tired excuse for a big name release when the developers couldn't think of anything better to do? Or a real chance to make a better game than the original? Thankfully, V-Rally 2 falls firmly into the latter category. It is by far and away a better game than its older brother, and for that we should all be thankful.

Now onto the real, hard and fast truth. We're going to have to wait for V-Rally 3 before we see anything approaching Gran Turismo. Infogrames' new rally-er has plenty to shout about, sure, but there's just that little something missing a little too often. You often end a decent stint on the game exhilarated but still mindful of what V-Rally 2 isn't rather than what it is.

Fine, it can boast the finest four-player racer on the PlayStation to date. But as most PlayStation owners will readily admit, albeit through gritted teeth, there's still a long way to go before there's a Mario Kart 64-beater in our midst. (And it comes in the form of Speed Freaks, but that's another story). The racing is fast and fun, but suffers from horrible slow-down at times and, as you might expect, is graphically far more spartan than its one-player counterpart.

Fine, there's the best track editor we've ever seen. Never before has it been so easy to lay down any track of your choice, decide on the scenery, the hills, the weather, the quality of road... the list goes on and on. You really can go from an image in your mind of the most tortuous track in the world, to rolling your car five times on the actual circuit just 10 minutes later.