Magic Racing GP 2 (XBLIG): " A Highly Customizable & Realistic Indie Racing Game"

I absolutely love games that have a lot of customization options. Such details allow the gamer to make the experience of a video game more personal. In "Magic Studio's" latest release of "Magic Racing GP 2" they not only give the gamer a lot of customization options but deliver them in a fashion that makes the overall game experience more realistic than most mainstream racing games available today. In fact the developer's attention to details in the game are so impressive that I tweeted them a message complimenting them on a job well done. In the following review I hope to cover as many details as possible with out overdoing it. Sometimes a reviewer such as myself can lose his audiences' attention with too many details, and I don't want to do that. The fact of the matter is I could go on for many paragraphs about the details of the game since it has so much to offer, but I'll try to narrow it down without leaving out significant info on the game.

Magic Racing GP 2 is a larger than life, and smaller than mainstream grand prix racing game. The game features a impressively wide variety of tracks, and customization options. It has a massive singleplayer mode that gives you the option of playing various types of single races (Fast Race, Time Trial, Fastest Laps, Quick Race & Single Race), or the option to play through an entire season of racing that spans 20 tracks from various locations all over the world. The game also features a local (System Link), and online (Xbox LIVE) multiplayer with leaderboards that constantly update as you top your best scores. Every track within "Magic Racing GP 2" has amazing details (people, crowds, vehicles, buildings, various terrains ...) that are displayed from an aerial (top-down) view. The maps themselves mirror actual tracks that exist in our world today (I verified this fact with the developer). Features like weather conditions (rain percentages), fuel, car damage, and tyre (tire) conditions will challenge the gamer to adjust to each race in a realistic manner.

The controls in "Magic Racing GP 2" aren't like your standard arcade style racing game. The developer/s went out of their way to make the game look, and feel realistic. As you race through each track in the game you will notice how much controlling the car feels like a "Gran Turismo (PSOne)" game. If you're unfamiliar with that game I'm simply saying it feels like you're controlling a real car. When you turn curves you'll have to brake as you would in a real race. You'll find that being hasty will often cost you the race. The fact is that constantly accelerating will get you absolutely nowhere in this game. It's definitely not an arcade style racing game like the previous one I reviewed in that sense. With that being said the game offers fully customizable controls that you can assign to suit your preferences, or you can use the default settings as I did.

The customization options in "Magic Racing GP 2" are the most detailed I've seen in any game to date. The gamer has several different menus that deal with the various settings in the game. To start off with you have some default settings that allow you to pick your driver (from a roster of 20 preset drivers), and various other condition settings (race length, #CPU, rain %, fuel consumption, collisions, car damage, tyre consumption, kers, race speed % & dynamic brake signal). When it comes down to making the game really personal there is an 'Editor' menu that allows you to rename, and change the settings (nationality, car functions/details, car parts, pit stop & points) of things pertaining to the driver, racing team, and even the game's point system. If I were to go into detail about every single option, and customization setting available in "Magic Racing GP 2" it would be a college essay's worth of info. It's really that detailed. The good thing is that all this information is made easily available, and understandable through the game itself. There's no need to worry about not knowing what to do.

In conclusion I found "Magic Racing GP 2" to be a truly amazing game. I could tell that the developer/s (Magic Studios) really went out of their way to impress the gamers, and deliver a game that pays tribute to real world racing. The visual details that are displayed with each, and every race track in the game are of impressive quality even though the game is shown through a more simplistic top-down view. It honestly looks like something you'd see if you were flying over a race track in an airplane. One thing that I failed to mention earlier in the review is that the developer included some music from various languages in this game. I really enjoyed listening to the game's soundtrack as I tried out the different modes. The soundtrack complimented the game quite nicely. The only fault I found with the game was that there was no one playing online. I would have loved to have tried it out with someone, but I was unable to find anyone else playing through Xbox LIVE. I would really love to see the online multiplayer pick up so I could easily find a race. Other than that I think this game is awesome! It's definitely a game worth having, and if you're a hardcore racing fan then it is even more so.

*NOTE*: The developer has told me that there will be an upcoming patch (v1.3) addressing issues with the game.