''TOCA 2: Touring Cars'' (''TOCA 2: Touring Car Challenge'' in North America) is a British

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic raci ...

developed and published by

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports ...

for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It is the second game in the ''TOCA'' series, based on the 1998 season of the

British Touring Car Championship The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

. Mainly an annual franchise update of cars and tracks, the game added more detailed graphics, physics, multiplayer modes and other minor features. Realistic tracks were added, and support races such as

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car that was marketed by Ford from 1976 to 2023 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and had been positioned below the ...

s, Formula Ford and others also arrived. The level of car damage possible during a race was also enhanced, which was a significant selling point compared with the likes of '' Gran Turismo'' which had no damage model at the time.

Gameplay

The game modes include the support races such as Formula Ford and the Ford Fiesta Championships, a test track mode where the player tests any car on certain variations of the test track, a Championship mode which is dependent on the length with the difficulty selected, a feature new to the game is the support cars are able to be chosen with the colour the player prefers. A challenge mode is included to see how fast the player can get to the checkpoints in a limited amount of time. The single race mode allows the player to select the track to race on, as well as the weather conditions, laps raced and allowance for computer cars for one or more players. Similar to the first game, once the players select a car, they replace a driver and partner the other driver, but unlike the first ''TOCA'' game, this time they replace the second team driver, not the first. The standard cars featured are the

Audi A4 The Audi A4 is a line of luxury compact executive cars produced from 1994 to 2025 by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The A4 has been built in five generations and is based on the Volkswagen Group B platfor ...

Ford Mondeo The Ford Mondeo is a Mid-size/large family car, large (D-segment) car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company, Ford since 1993 across five generations for model years 1993-2022. As Ford self-declared world car, the Mondeo was intended to ...

Honda Accord The , also known as the in Japan and China for certain generations, is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States sinc ...

Nissan Primera The is a Mid-size car, large family car which was produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1990 to 2007, for the markets in Japan and Europe. In Japan, it replaced the Nissan Stanza, Auster/Stanza, and was exclusive to ''Nissan Motor Comp ...

Peugeot 406 The Peugeot 406 is a large family car that was produced by French automaker Peugeot between 1995 and 2004. Available in saloon, estate and coupé bodystyles with a choice of petrol or turbodiesel engines, the 406 replaced the Peugeot 405 in Peu ...

Renault Laguna The Renault Laguna is a large family car that was manufactured and marketed by Renault for 21 years in three body styles: hatchback, coupé, and estate. The first generation Laguna was launched in 1994, the second generation was introduced in 20 ...

Vauxhall Vectra The Opel Vectra is a mid-size car ( large family car) that was engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel from 1988 until 2010. Available in saloon, hatchback and estate (from model year 1997 onwards) body styles, the Vectra was al ...

and

Volvo S40 The Volvo S40 is a series of subcompact executive cars marketed and produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1995 to 2012, offered as a more mainstream alternative to the compact executive Volvo 850 and later the Volvo S60 to com ...

. The support cars are the AC Superblower,

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

Grinnall Scorpion The Grinnall Scorpion is a small-series sports car built by Grinnall Specialist Cars in England since 1992. Two models are available, the three-wheeled Scorpion III and the four-wheeled Scorpion IV, with the Roman numerals referring to the numbe ...

Jaguar XJ220 The Jaguar XJ220 is a two-seat supercar produced by British luxury car manufacturer Jaguar from 1992 until 1994, in collaboration with the specialist automotive and race engineering company Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The XJ220 (with catalytic co ...

Lister Storm The Lister Storm was a homologated GT racing car manufactured by British low-volume automobile manufacturer Lister Cars with production beginning in 1993. Road car The Storm used the largest V12 engine fitted to a production road car since ...

and TVR Speed 12. All the tracks used in the various championships, including the main

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

championship, are real racing tracks in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. These are as follows: Thruxton;

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

;

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport Race track, circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, sti ...

;

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...

;

Oulton Park Oulton Park is a hard surfaced Race track, track used for motor racing, close to the village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England, from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington, with a nearby rail connection a ...

; Croft;

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population ...

; and

Knockhill Knockhill Racing Circuit is a motor racing circuit in Fife, Scotland. It opened in September 1974 and is Scotland's national motorsport centre. The circuit is in the countryside about north of Dunfermline. It is the only FIA-approved circui ...

. There are bonus tracks and cars which can be accessed through the championship mode. ''TOCA 2'' for Windows also has the ability to import skins for each car. They can be edited using any paint/drawing program.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer mode (known as Linkup Game) allows for two or more players to race on any circuit and also in the Championship mode. ''TOCA 2'' is notable for being one of only four PlayStation games (the others being '' Wipeout 3: Special Edition'', '' Ridge Racer Type 4'' and ''

Andretti Racing ''Andretti Racing'' is a video game developed by American studios High Score Productions and Stormfront Studios and published by EA Sports for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996, and for Windows in 1997. The game's title refers to professi ...

'') to feature a four-player mode using the PlayStation's link cable and split-screen at the same time - i.e., four players compete against each other simultaneously using two PlayStation consoles, with two players per console and connected to two televisions.

Soundtrack

The main menu background music features "Retro", and the opening video "Soundclash" by

E-Z Rollers E-Z Rollers are a British drum and bass group.IMO Record"EZ Rollers", '' IMO Records'', London, 21 October 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2011. The group was formed in 1995 in Suffolk, England. E-Z Rollers began releasing output on the Moving Sh ...

. Other versions feature "Sole Sentiment" by Ratman in the opening intro.

Reception

The game received "favorable" reviews on both platforms according to video game

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. ''

Official UK PlayStation Magazine An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of thei ...

'' said the PlayStation version was an improvement on the original game, with many tracks, but that "the new cars felt tacked on". Rick Sanchez of '' NextGen'' said of the same console version, "Hands down, ''TOCA 2'' sone of the best touring-car sims available, and one of the best new driving games for PlayStation." The PC version was nominated for '' PC PowerPlay''s "Best Driving/Racing" award, which went to ''

Grand Theft Auto 2 ''Grand Theft Auto 2'' is a 1999 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sequel to 1997's ''Grand Theft Auto'', and the second main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series. Set within a retrofu ...

''.

References

External links

* {{TOCA series 1998 video games Codemasters games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation (console) games Racing video games set in the United States Sports video games set in France Sports video games set in Germany TOCA (series) Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in England Video games set in Scotland Windows games