RACE Pro

The first encouraging thing you should know about this new racing genre name to the 360 family is that developer SimBin has good form, having been responsible for the GTR series of games for PC. The company's first venture onto console comes on like Forza in feel, and Codemasters' Race Driver titles in breadth of gameplay. It's a simulation like Forza, but without the tooling around in the background. Early reports touted it as a pure racer rather than a sim. It's somewhere between the two. No bad thing.

Powered by Lizard, SimBin's own physics engine, the look and feel is suitably gritty - one could even say that the handling is unforgiving. With precision physics and handling, players can feel every curve and bend and burst of acceleration. RACE Pro's realism is helped by the presence of licensed marques, realistic car models and official FIA championships and tracks. Some of the manufacturer names included are BMW, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet and Dodge. Tracks include Pau, Laguna Seca, Macau, Porto and the fabulous Road America. Competitions include the Mini Cooper Challenge, World Touring Car Championship, Formula 3000 and Formula BMW. Suffice to say, there's lots to do.

Online play and System Link support enables up to 12 players take on all-comers and test their skills on a global scale. Bringing things closer to home, the brand new Hotseat feature puts players in the driving seat for a limited amount of time before passing the controller to the next player and so on, demanding quick reactions and precision racing from newcomers and seasoned drivers alike.