I liked the original Destruction Derby, but mainly for the sheer brainless
fun of the smashing of cars in the bowl; I never cared for the very
frustrating racing portions, and the control felt too stiff.  The original
game also had very low-res graphics, which is why it was one of the few
Playstation games to port well to the PC.  

The new DD2 looks much better, with the car and track textures looking
smoother (though it's not high resolution).  Unfortunately, it looks like
Reflections used the same libraries that Bizarre Creations used for F1,
since there are black and white jagged lines that flash on the tracks
occasionally, just like in F1 ---  glitching that is a little unsightly
and annoying at first.  Once you get into the game, though, the random
glitching becomes easy to ignore.

I've only spent about 45 minutes very late last night playing, most of it
doing the stock car racing and wrecking racing.  The racing has really
improved, but you have to get used to the rather loose steering and 
"floaty" jumps when you go over hills --- frankly, the feel of the car was
a real turn off at first, because it felt a lot like a twitchier Ridge
Racer (you perform powerslides the same way as in RR:  foot on the gas,
with a slight press on the brake going around corners).  But once you get
into the racing, the competition is very tough, the tracks look good and
are quite challenging, and the crashes look much better than in the old
DD.  Supposedly, there is some serious pop-up in the later tracks, but the
racing is so intense that it looks like it will be easy to ignore.  Load
times between tracks is minimal.

The bowl so far has been a disappointment, but I need to spend more time
with it:  the experience doesn't seem to be as intense as the original
(though there are several bowls which look interesting, so the experience
could improve) and it goes too fast.  Also, I miss the wacked out Brit
comments from the original DD:  DD2's commentary is more generic "Ridge
Racer/monster truck rally" stuff.  I also miss the indications of a "360!"
flashing onto the screen, but that's relatively minor.

I tried racing with both a regular d-pad controller and the NegCon and
there's no contest:  the NegCon is the way to go, and I still can't
believe Sony and Namco haven't released it in the US yet, since both
Wipeout XL and DD2 are completely different games with the NegCon.  D-pad
racing with DD2 is like driving in the mud compared to the NegCon in my
experience.  Calibration is required with the NegCon though, since the
default setup is too loose for my taste.

Overall, I like DD2 a lot, but I still have to decide whether it stays. 
There's certainly plenty of challenging racing to be had, but I need to
evaluate more thoroughly the tracks and cars available.  There are so many
quality racers coming out, but I will say this: DD2 is VERY addictive, and
I can't wait to get off work and spend several more hours with it.

- Robert Mirani
rmirani@aol.com