Phar Lap: [horse Racing Challenge] - Xbox One

I’ll cut to the point. Phar Lap is about as interesting as watching paint dry. The game promises its players the thrills and the thunder of horse racing, but fails miserably to replicate any of that excitement. It’s a poor imitation, if anything, and even then I feel like I’m being generous. Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s take this from the top. Phar Lap – Horse Racing Challenge comes with a sizable variation of modes to take to from the get-go; story, quick play, online racin, betting party, and finally, the game’s creation hub.

Diving stgraight into the story. Here, you’ll create your very own rider from a small pool of generic assets. Once you’re happy with your rider and you’ve given them a name, you’ll be taken to the story hub. The hub spans the likes of a homestead, a training facility, stables, and races. The crux of play sees you participating in the latter to improve and upgrade the former. Rinse, and repeat. That’s about as deep as the game gets. Each of the hub’s systems feed into the core experience in one form or another, but it’s boring, and fairly tedious.