A title for the PS2 a while back, this game is now destined for life on the Cube. The thought of yet another PS2 port just trembles you with excitement I know, but hopefully this game will be a worthy one to have on our side. Luckily the developers, Take Two, have had the decency to up the graphics a notch or two and have tossed in a few added extras to make it that little more appealing.

What's it all about then? In short, it's a fast pace, high adrenaline speed game of smuggling goods from one border to another whilst having other cars eat your dust trying to catch you. It's very arcade like and certain to be fun. Of course this is just the simple premise, speeding away from coppers just wouldn't be fun unless an added little spice was introduced, and smuggling across War zones is just what it introduces as its key drawing feature. It's not the same thing every time though, you have to complete missions such as helicopter drop-offs, escape and destroy missions and enticing chases. The game takes place over 5 of these immense and mine filled levels across which you will have to not only survive but keep the authorities off your tail. Expect heart stopping action and death defying stunts as you get forced over these war zones taking place in Vietnam, Russia, North America and Eastern Europe.

The game also features the following countermeasures in order to aid you in your quest to smuggle your stolen goods:

• Electromagnet - use this to pull back your rivals from getting the goods. Get there first and reap the rewards!
• Repulse Shield - force your opponents away from you and escape!
• Vertical Boost - posh name for 'jump!' launches you up immediately to overcome obstacles….can also be used to soften the impact from a high fall.
• Cloaking Device - appear invisible and be un-detectable for a short period of time to confuse the fools chasing you.
• EMP - (Electronic Magnetic Pulse) Confuse everyone by making them loose their maps and be miss-aligned from their true placements in the field.
• Caltrops - a good old Ninja weapon which you can use to burst some tires to send your opponents skidding out of control.
• Oil Clicks - drop in the path of opponents and well…the rest explains itself.
• Smoke Screen - Simple enough, obstruct opponents view for a short time period making them more vulnerable to hazards.
• Exploding Kegs - Kaboom! Blast your opponents flying into the air.
• Nitroboost - race away with screen blurring speed used to great effect.

These promising countermeasures will surely make the game a good blast and certainly increase the excitement level. Coupled together with the dangerous aspects of the locations, this game could well be worth a look especially if you get to play its multi-player mode. This is where this game should really come into its own, speeding to steal the goods before your mates, barging and charging them about if they get it before you in order to snatch it from them, sounds like a lot of fun!

Now to the features of these locations: They are fully interactive and little fogging means out spread visions off into the horizon can be seen and quite amazingly you can speed off out there and explore. The levels are expectedly huge and full of traps and hazards such as cunningly positioned mines, steel grazing crossfire and avalanches making it all the more important that your driving skills are next to none making snap judge decisions on where to turn. The sheer size of the levels means there's always something new to explore and be thrown into. Even after countless hours of crashing about the place you will still get surprised by what faces you which should cater for the fact that the game only has a lacking 5 levels.

The game is also home to more little features that make it what it is such as the following:

• Rear view mirror which allows simple close watch on the happenings behind you.
• Night missions using infra-red sight requiring increased stealth and planning. In the dark, the levels are 10 times as deadly!
• All goods and loot that you gain possession of has its effect on you carrying it. Some might be heavy and so will drastically decrease your speed. Others may have a have a biohazard sticker on which means if you don't deliver it before its timer runs out...boom! Some goods may even be fragile and so will break if victim to your reckless driving. Careful now!
• Different vehicles are available such as quad bikes and military tanks! Quite pleasingly parts will get blown off and damage to all cars is visible which takes its toll on handling and speed.
• Various weather conditions mean delivering the goods may be more difficult than it first seems like sudden rain causing you to skid out of control and making handling a lot more difficult.

Outlook:

The first instalment of this game was a lot of fun and it's in this light that we should be quite glad it's coming to the GameCube. It certainly looks to have a lot of appealing features and sets out to be a hectic, intense off road driving experience. Multi-player is possible its key pull factor yet it seems to have what it takes to offer a good solid single player with the different mission styles and expansive levels. There's nothing really like this on the Cube as of yet which means it's original and fresh to a lot of gamers. Keep an eye out for it...