Pros: 3 games in one, great graphics, solid control
Cons: None, you hear me? None, go buy it.

Here's a preview of my review: This game is beyond incredible and you should feel bad because you aren't playing it right now.

If that didn't convince you, read on.

San Francisco Rush was one of the first racing titles I know of that stressed going off the beaten path. The first took you through beautifully (and accurately) recreated areas of San Francisco, California. It was a great game that left many hours of play time. There is a San Francisco Rush 2 which I never played. Now has come Rush 2049, no more San Francisco, and it is wonderful.

Gameplay
10/10
No game packs more modes into one disc than Rush 2049. There is of course the "standard" race mode which is anything but standard. You race around a futuristic (thus the 2049) city which in many places still looks like San Francisco (Lumbard St. is still there). However, saying you "race" doesn't cover half of it. First of all, in my cases you don't need to spend more than 50% of the time actually on the main track. Short cuts, long cuts and cuts that don't lead anywhere are EVERYWHERE in this game. I've put in weeks of play and I'm still finding more. There are ramps, loops, jumps, tunnels and more, and this is only circuit mode! This racing alone would have made a fairly good stand alone game.

There is a lot more to the racing than just winning races however. Scattered about every track are 8 gold and 8 silver coins. Some simply require you to drive down a path to no-where, but some require you to fly through the air at blazing speed and land perfectly on a small ledge. Crazy, crazy stuff. These coins encourage exploration and give the race mode a huge boost in interest. You can also (thankfully) get the coins in Practice mode. This mode is exactly like circuit mode, but there is no time limit and no other cars to deal with. You are free to explore, and explore you will. Finding each little secret is very entertaining.

These coins unlock new parts for you cars as well as additional cars. You can get new tires, engines, transmissions, everything. You can tweak the cars to your heart's content. You can even change how responsive the steering is and how big your wings are.

Wings? Yes, wings. Unlike the arcade version, the home version of Rush gives each car wings. You pop the wings out by simply pressing B and holding it. This allows your car to glide a bit longer than usual, but more importantly it lets you tilt the car in case you are about to flip over. Awesome, awesome addition.

So, sounds like a pretty good racer huh? Lots to do, lots see, you're interested. But wait, there is so much, much more! In addition to the circuit and practice modes there is Single Race, Ghost Race, Stunt, Battle and Network. Single race is nothing special, its exactly as it sounds. Ghost race involves you, no wings and no other opponents. The other cars on the race track are actually "ghosts" of your previous races on the track ALA Mario Kart, very sweet. The network mode plays off this (no, you can't directly race other people online..) by allowing you upload and download ghosts. Someone says they're better than you? Download their ghost and find out. It's not online racing, but its better than nothing.

Battle Mode basically takes a game like Vigilante 8 and drops it down right smack in the middle of this already great racing title. You, and up to 3 other friends, drive around 8 different battle arenas blowing each other up. There are 6 (I think weapons) in addition to shields, invisibility and life power-ups. It is really, really well done and again, could basically be a game in itself. What's missing? Computer controlled drones would have been nice so you could play one-player, but its no huge loss.

The Stunt mode surprised me a lot. After playing the other modes I thought surely at least one would lag in excitement. Boy, was I wrong or what? This mode has probably sucked up most of my play time (since you need to play it to unlock the last mode, Obstacle mode) and is tons of fun. It consists of 4 tracks each with 8 gold and silver coins. You must fly off ramps and things trying to pick them out of the air. It's quite a rush (no pun intended) when you finally do. All the while you are spinning around doing flips, wheelies and whatnot earning points. It's all done by using the wings and it is just awesome. Again, this could have been a game in itself.

I don't know much about Obstacle mode because I haven't yet unlocked it but from what I've heard you drive though a stunt course simply trying to survive until the end. Sounds interesting.

Sound
6/10
Would someone PLEASE turn off that tire screeching on EVERY turn?
It really is an annoying sound. You can turn off sound effects but the engines and explosions sound so cool! The background music is pretty good (especially the Disco stage) but that screeching really turns me off.

Graphics
9/10
Wow. Beautiful, simply beautiful. The graphics are very, very sharp. The water effects are awesome. The cars look great too. Awesome effort here by Midway, very impressive.

Replay value
10/10
People, there is SOOOO much to do in this game it's ridiculous. I almost want to send Amazon $15 more because I got so much for so little. This is the game Crazy Taxi (which is still awesome) should have been. It is that good. Every mode is awesome. If you get bored of this you should see a doctor.

Buy/rent?
Duh. Buy! Now! Go!