Xplosiv/PS2, Xbox (£19.99)
When a game has a title like this, you dont pick up your controllers expecting a bout of Myst-like subtlety. But BMT2s wilful crassness would be far easier to accept if it were funny, or even and heres the real problem if the game were any good.
The first title in this series combined an interstate truck-racing challenge with the need to acquire cash and build up a haulage business. Here, such refinements are largely gone, leaving you to blast your way down Americas freeways with the cops in hot pursuit.
Sure, swatting aside police black and whites and colliding head-on with other vehicles has a certain appeal, but after ten minutes of sliding around to an American hard rock soundtrack, you start to wish that you were playing something more involving. The fact that the graphics are so impressive, and the road maps so brilliantly extensive, only adds to the disappointment of the overall experience.
If its driving thrills youre after, The Getaway: Black Monday already does it so much better.
NIGEL KENDALL