I loved OutRun 2 on the Xbox - in fact it was one of the reasons I bought my Xbox! I was thrilled when I heard OutRun 2006 was coming to the Xbox, but after getting it I am left with slightly mixed feelings. In some ways it is disappointing and a backwards step from OutRun 2. First, the good points: there is much more content in OR2006 - all the 15 tracks from OutRun 2 are present, along with the 15 tracks from the OutRun 2 SP (aka 'special tours') arcade game. The single player 'career' mode is a lot more forgiving and hence fun than it was in OutRun 2, which could be infuriatingly difficult (I never did complete all the missions). It is easier to get a 'AAA' in a lot of these missions than it was to scrape an 'A' in OutRun 2. (The ranks go from E, D, C, B, A, AA, AAA and you need a minimum of 'A' to progress) Another improvement is that you get 'outrun miles' just for participating in the game - win or lose. So you WILL be able to unlock things - that is, more cars, music tracks, extra tracks etc. regardless of how good you are at the game.
Now the negative points. These might not bother most people, especially if you never played OutRun 2, but the graphics are clearly not as good as they were in that game. Even the 15 tracks from OutRun 2, which are included in OutRun 2006, do not look quite as good in this new version. Maybe this is because the game was developed for the PS2 first, maybe not, I don't know. The graphics still look great in their own right, no doubt about that, but there is noticeably more shimmering and there is more aliasing and lack of mipmapping compared to OutRun 2. Also check out the water in the two games - in OutRun 2 it was detailed and realistic looking, but in 2006 it is just flat and featureless. Not a show stopper but slightly disappointing when OutRun 2 looked so amazing. The other thing which disappoints me is the handling of the cars. It has been changed from OutRun 2. Other people may prefer it, I don't know, but I find it more awkward, both to hold your line through a curve and to change direction - sometimes you will find yourself drifting and fishtailing when you don't want to. Other times you will WANT to drift and change direction quickly but the car doesn't respond as you want it to. Some of the courses demand very quick left-right-left drifting movements and if you don't get it right, you scrape the scenery, slow down and get passed by rival cars - losing the race. This can be damn annoying later on because there are races where you start in 100th place (!) and need to place in the top 3 in order to progress to the next stage. Overall, it is a great game in its own right and I have had a lot of fun with it but these flaws take the gloss of it somewhat. (Note I am in the UK where the game came out at the end of March - for some reason the US version is out in April. So my review is of the PAL version)
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