Welcome to
Ford Racing: Off Road. You begin by figuring out where in the hell you begin. You have your entire standard fare of options in the Main Menu. You have the Quick Race where you get in and go. You have the Career, the Tournament, the Arcade and then last and least, the Multiplayer. Quick Race being self-explanatory, let me jump to why I made the comment about trying to figure out where in the hell you start. In Career mode, you are offered the following options in order: Career Map, Garage, and then Showroom. Let me also include that there is no instruction booklet in the box. You click on your first option, the Career Map, which details your current progress. It is first on the list, so why not? You are presented with your map and starting point. All of the other races are locked, so obviously we start there. You get in and read a description of the race and the prizes. Start here? No. When you choose the race, it says you need a car to start. So next on the list is the Garage. Start Here? No. There is nothing in your garage. So last on the list, instead of first, we have the Showroom. You were bound to run out of options. So you choose one of the two models you can afford to buy with the money they provided you to start with.
You are given $6000 and told to buy a vehicle. This will buy you a Ranger Truck or a Defender SUV. Each vehicle has three stats: Acceleration, Speed, and Handling. The truck is $4000 and the SUV is the full $6000. There is absolutely no difference in the starting stats between these vehicles. At least you don't have to pay for the paint job; you can just choose a color. Now you have a vehicle and you can race. To progress, it is First Place or nothing.
I cannot even begin to tell any difference between the Career Mode and the Tournament Mode. You get a little more cheese in the bank account to start, allowing you to pick from all four unlocked models. The process is identical to Career Mode where you choose your car, race your car. Map works the same. Win or go home. The races are longer in the Tournament, but not much else is different.
The Arcade mode allows for the fun and excitement of being able to race a course backwards. You can unlock several types of races, but these come well into the Career mode. This ties in directly with our last mode, the Multiplayer. Well, actually the point is that it doesn't tie in at all. The multiplayer allows for a split screen, two player game. You have a ton of games you can unlock in the Arcade and sit and enjoy all by yourself. The Multiplayer Mode only offers you three different games.
