Alfa Romeo Racing Italiano

Alfa Romeo Racing Italiano (also known as SCAR – Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo in Europe) is a racing game developed by Milestone srl for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. Like Ford Racing and Ferrari Challenge, all the cars in the game center around Alfa Romeo. A unique feature of the game uses a similar system to a role playing game.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The "Dynasty Mode" looks disappointing. Each event has a given car on a given track and you cannot choose your own.
 * 2) * Speaking of the cars, the AI grid is made of the same car as the players (even if you pick a car in Quick Race Mode).
 * 3) The Challenges in all difficulties are repetitive. All levels have Speed Trap, Top Limit, Clean Drive, Chase and Escape.
 * 4) Driving off the track literally damages the car!
 * 5) Pausing takes five seconds before choosing an option. And if you select one, you have to wait another five seconds!
 * 6) The "RPG Style" driver abilities system looks unbalanced. While Vision, Heart and Focus are useful abilities to upgrade, there are some abilities that are rendered pointless. Like the Handling ability only gives you a 0.6% increase. What is the point of that upgrade?!
 * 7) You cannot use a certain gear when you reached your certain level.
 * 8) Poor car handling. Even a slight turn feels like your driving on ice.
 * 9) Terrible AI. Eventually they will even crash with each other.
 * 10) The tracks may look breathtaking, but they're just mirrored versions of well-known racing circuits.
 * 11) * Campania has a layout of Sportsland SUGO.
 * 12) * Toscana has a layout of Nürburgring.
 * 13) * Sicilia has a layout of Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.
 * 14) * Veneto has a layout of the Red Bull Ring.
 * 15) Slightly outdated graphics, even for 2005 standards.
 * 16) Some cars look off-model.
 * 17) The Driving Condition feature is pointless. It occurs when an AI is intimidating you from behind. As you get intimidated, your Diving Condition drops. When it reaches zero, the screen gets blurry and you're considered "Knocked Out" (if done against the AI, they will lose control), what makes it pointless is that when an AI is intimidating you, it's avoidable to simply just slow down and let them pass you.
 * 18) The car's lights are always on during races. Even on daylight.
 * 19) Despite a good range of Alfa Romeo cars, some are just different versions of the same model (e.g. there are three different versions of the Alfa Romeo GT and four different versions of the 156).
 * 20) Prior to May 28, 2022, it had not full walkthrough videos on YouTube and it's walkthrough playlist was cancelled, meaning that you should cue yourself in order to beat the races in Unlimited Tour and Platinum challenges. The same problem applies with Super Pickups (a reskin of this game but with pickup trucks instead of Alfa Romeo cars) but even worse as there are not even walkthroughs that reaches to the Amateur Season let alone Veteran Season.
 * 21) *Fortunately a walkthrough youtuber named "rynogt4" with the name of Steve Arcanine (formerly known as Ryan Burton) is making a walktrought playlist of the game.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The game has a good amount of Alfa Romeo cars like the 8C Concept, 155 V6 TI 1993 and the 156 Super 2000.
 * 2) There are some good real life tracks such as Laguna Seca, Donington, Hockenheimring and Valencia.
 * 3) The Tiger Effect is a very useful feature, allowing to back time for a few seconds, which is useful in case of a mistake. It's similar to the Rewind from Forza or Flashback from GRID.
 * 4) Some gear are very useful in difficult races.

Reception
The game received "mixed-to-negative" reviews from critics.

IGN gave it a 4/10, while Gamespot rated it a 4.5/10.

VideoGamer.com gave it a 3 out of 10. Ian Dransfield had stated that it "has lots of ideas, but no great ones."

