Players Premier
£2.99

Championship sports car racing is what Turbo Cup's all about, so here's another (not another!! -Ed) opportunity to drive a Porsche. Let's see how it measures up to the driving game formula, shall we? Okay then, roads. Yes, it's got four of them; real European racetracks too! Curving and twisting all over the place - distinct lack of hills though. Cars? Oh yeah - plenty! Well, in the main competition anyway - you get the road to yourself in the practice round and your finishing time in this round determines your grid position in the race. What's next, erm... Speed! Lots of that too. You can drive at around 120 mph but the car spins out of control on sharp corners at this speed, keeping between 60 and 80 is okay.

Next - controls: accelerate, decelerate, left and right. It's simple but it takes a few goes to get used to the sensitivity. Do the vehicles look like cars or squashed dustbins? Not a squashed dustbin in sight, the car graphics are good but not animated very much - turn left and the graphic suddenly switches from straight ahead to 45 degrees, not bad really. There's scenery along the roadside and just the right amount too! it doesn't look cluttered but going off road is hazardous. Graphics are black and white so it's clear but looks s so very dull. And finally - is it any good? Hummmm, it's okay, just not very exciting.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Once again RICH PELLEY leaps into the driving seat of a number 39 bus and zooms off to Cheap City...

Players Premier
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Oh, not another driving sim!? How 'unthrilling' can you get? Oh well, suppose we'd better have a look.

"Race at speeds in excess of 120 MPH!". More like jerk' around rather slowly if you can get to grips with the stupid control system. "Practice on each course first, before competing in a head to head race!" True, but the practice bit is intensely boring (there's no one to compete against). "Race around four of the most exciting race tracks in Europe - Magny, Cours, Dijon. Prenois, Nogargo and Paul Ricard!" Exciting? Pretty samey, I'd say. And there's hardly any scenery either so there's little to look at (or indeed crash into). "Featuring unbelievably accurate graphics!" (erm, no). "Artificially intelligent competitors!" (not really), "Accurate race track representations!" (yes, but who cares?) "And more" More? "Hurrah!"

Oh dear I hate to say it, but this is a bit of a waste of time really. Unplayable, unaddictive, jerky - and a bit crap. Thank you and goodnight.

It's going to be very hard to stretch this review out to fill the space, so let me first start by saying how nice it is to be sitting in this nice warm office when the wind's blowing outside, how kind it is of you to read this review, and how much I look forward to a hot cup of coffee and a jaffa cake as soon as I've finished typing. Ah yes, life.

It's not that I WANT to fill the page with meaningless waffle, it's just that there's so little to say about Turbo Cup Challenge that anyone would be hard put to fill the space (even if they were being paid by the word). Here's the instructions in full; "Each race consists of two events; the practice, which takes place on a Saturday (Does that mean you can't play the game on a Thursday? - CJ) and the final race, which is held on a Sunday. The practice determines your grid position for the race held on the Sunday. How to drive your Porsche 944 Turbo. You may use either a joystick or the keyboard. Keys: Accelerate - Q Decelerate - A Steer left - O Steer right - P." That's your lot! If you think that there must be more to this road racing game, you'd be wrong.

There are in fact four tracks to complete - Magny-Cours, Dijon-Prenois, Nogaro and Paul Ricard, which must mean something to Murray Walker, but not to me. In fact the graphics are very limited - the background buildings are particularly hopeless - but to give it its due, the game does at least give you a fair impression of 120MPH+ speeds. All you have to do, though, is steer and accelerate, gear change is automatic, so it isn't much of a simulation.

On the practice courses, the important thing is to get through without spinning off the track - for some reason it's amazingly difficult to get over the verge and back onto the track, especially if you're using a joystick. On the actual race, where your opponents zoom away from the grid at great speed, you'll be lucky if you manage to catch up with them, let alone overtake them. The best feature of the game is the Porsche car itself, which is well designed, and which turns and spins most convincingly (though not necessarily when you want it to). Not bad fun, then - doesn't add anything to the six squillion other racing games on the market, but it certainly doesn't smell as bad as burning tyres.