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Racing in the World of Outlaws circuit should be wild and exciting.
But that’s not the case with "World of Outlaws Sprint Cars," the E-rated racing game developed by Big Ant Studios for THQ.
Sure, things start out with some pretty cool clips of real World of Outlaws sprint cars careening around dirt tracks and hurtling end over end after collisions. But after the game actually starts, things settle down to an endless grind of riding round and round in ovals.
The game — bargain priced at $20 — offers a career mode that allows you to progress through a series of races and apply your winnings toward upgrades. There’s also an arcade mode in which you can select the difficulty, number of opponents and track for a single race. You can also go head-to-head with friends in split-screen or online competition.
The game is fun enough when you go head-to-head with real people. However, the career and arcade modes quickly get tedious. The competition is simply too stiff and the variety too limited. Even on the rookie setting, you have to make a near-perfect run to win a race. Since you’re just running around and around a dozen fairly short tracks, the races can get monotonous.
One thing that can shake things up a little bit is real-time deformation of the track. When cars keep tearing over the same spot, they carve a groove into the dirt. This can change the way cars handle in later laps.
Of course, since sprint cars always handle differently from the vehicles featured in other racing games, a tutorial would be nice.
It also would have been nice if crashes actually yielded some visible damage to your car. Although collisions degrade your car’s performance, they don’t leave dents in your chassis or parts on the track.
Platform: Xbox 360
On the Web:us.thq.com
