TOCA’d [ tok-erd ]
When an opposing driver pulls their nose up alongside one of your rear wheels and turns into you, forcing a spin, a possible over correction, and lots of swearing.
“You just fucking TOCA’d me!”
Call me old fashioned, but Touring Cars in the nineties felt like proper racing. Mondeos, A4s, Lagunas; cars you saw on the school run. A paintjob and a rear wing and they seemed ready to go! And they weren’t afraid of getting stuck into each other, regularly eating kerbs and trading paint.
TOCA 2 captured the cut and thrust of the UK Championship well. It may not have looked quite as crisp as Gran Turismo, but it did include damage! The controls were d-pad only and extremely twitchy, leaving the line between nailing a corner and veering wildly off blurry at best. Hook your car up through a series of corners and it feels amazing, but the risk is huge. The trick is to commit a bit more with your input than you think is right, and you’ll be flying around corners. Most of the time.
Just be careful of getting TOCA’d. It’s not just another person on split-screen that will do it either. The AI can be brutal! So you’ve got to pick your moments. It’s immensely frustrating when it happens to you yet absolutely hilarious if you do it to someone else.
On the Championship mode Tiff Needell prattles on over everything which is mildly annoying, and the draw distance on split-screen reminds me of Driver 2 (it could do with a map). The audio lets it down too; each car drones the same way at higher revs.
But for its time TOCA 2 has a great level of immersion, the damage is cool, and it’s great fun. And it will never not be fun TOCA’ing someone.
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