Motorhead from Gremlin Interactive goes for the hands on no-brainer arcade approach rather than the detail and simulation approach. As a result what you get is futuristic racer which ends up as a cross between Ridge Racer and Wipeout.

The look of the game is obviously inspired by modern sci-fi film classics such as BladeRunner and (to a certain extent) Tron. The senery is full of Futurisic looking structures such as monorails and towering bridges all neon lit. The graphics engine is more than capable of doing justice to the designers vision. In software, at high colour (16bit) running on our test p233, it ran at around 20fps with full detail. The accelerated version, as you would expect, improves even further on the visual quality. The 3DFX native (Glide) version comes out on top being blisteringly fast. A D3D version is also available for those cards that support it, which also whips along at a fair old pace.

The gameplay is where this game begins to shine compared to its bretheren PC racing titles however. They have got the handling (different for each car provided) just right. The ability to powerslide effectively is one gameplay aspect that is often forgotten when driving titles are developed for the PC, But it is included here with gusto. In fact powersliding is positively encouraged as part of your more advanced driving techniques needed to pass the later stages.

The structure is fairly standard stuff, each time you race you must qualify (finishing first will gain you maximum points) when this is accomplished you acsend the league and gain access to more challenging tracks and opponents. Along the way more cars also become available enabling you to improve your times and progress further within the game.

The tracks themselves are wonderfully imaginative and really encourage you to have 'just one more go' to find out what later tracks have in store visually.

All in all Gremlin have produced just what the PC racing market needed - a damn fine, no nonsense, no brainer arcade racer with gorgeous graphics and great playability.

Reviewed by - Paul James