Need For Speed: Underground 2

Every town and city has a ready-made audience for Need For Speed Underground 2 (NFSU2). You know, the kind of Jordan-fancying, Saxo-driving post-adolescent with a Burberry sub-woofer and 10 Lamberts in the glove compartment. Youth, here is your holy grail!

Competing in the Underground requires an eye-catching combination of speed and style. You can choose from hundreds of performance parts and visual customisation mods to make your ride look good and be a real mean machine beneath the bonnet. Your ride makes or breaks your reputation in the Underground, but nobody is gonna pay attention to a good-looking car if it's running last. So, while you peruse what's available from the outset - a Nissan, a Pontiac or a Peugot for example - don't think of your car as a finished article; think of it more as a blank canvas on which you can project your own personality. Your car can contribute to the all-important visual star rating. As you look more and more sleek and smooth, and your performance improves, up goes your star value and the money you can earn.

Visual mods come in many forms. You can choose from dozens of styles of rims, body kits, exhaust tips, spoilers, side mirrors and more. Your surfaces can be transformed with vinyls, by adding decals to the pearl, gloss or metallic paint job, and you can finish off with a window tint and neon undersides. Smart!

Tuner culture isn't just about how your ride looks. What's under the hood matters just as much, so in the game - as in real life - there is a plethora of aftermarket automotive enhancement available. At a price, of course. NFSU2 offers everything from weight reduction to nitrous oxide, via suspension kits and ECU fuel systems. Add these features to an already powerful motor, and keeping it under control could be the biggest challenge of all.

The gameplay hasn't changed an awful lot from Underground's first incarnation. The new location for NFSU2 - Bayview - is, however, a massive sprawl of an environment, and there's plenty of scope for exploration. Pootling around looking for a race challenge is one way of getting your kicks in the Underground. Increase your rep by performing to a high standard and you'll get more and more in-game text messages inviting you to compete in bigger and better races for bigger and better rewards. There's also the enticement of being able to take on the Underground online, broadband permitting, with the game's Net Play feature.

A special mention goes out to the music featured in NFSU2: alongside all the usual Rap/HipHop suspects, there's some pummeling chord progressions from Queens of the Stone Age, Ministry, and the recently reconvened Helmet. While we regularly find ourselves dozing off to the sound of Rap and HipHop, rock music dictates that you must drive fast!

With the inclusion of licensed manufacturers of all things automotive and the power of EA's marketing behind it, NFSU2 will be yet another massive seller. The boy racers will lap it up, and so will the wannabes.