As I may have mentioned here and there, I’m not particularly good at racing games. Or at least, I lack the motivation to play them enough to become more skilled, usually just dicking around for a bit, completing an easy couple of races and then crashing into something. That’s why my only contributions to our racing reviews are Big Red Racing (which Rik hated) and Car and Driver, (which i jumped on solely for the sake of covering as much as we can of the works of Looking Glass studios, better known for amazing first-person action titles like Thief and System Shock).

That said, I do still get tempted by games on the 2-for-£15 range. And I think to myself “ah-ha! I’ll actually make some progress this time and won’t just shove it in a draw”. So I spotted Test Drive Unlimited, which had one key appeal: a huge continuous piece of countryside (an island of Hawaii) that you can explore freely. You can do races, or just goof about. Open spaces and freedom are big plus points in my book, so I had a go.

And, er, wasn’t very good at it. And now it’s shoved in a draw for the time being. I did attempt some races but sooner or later realised i was having more fun doing this:

[shot of Stoo driving through trees]

I think the town i was looking for was at the bottom of that hill. Maybe.

Oh also the game lets you design your own in-game driver – and there’s only really two worthwile options point. You either create a hot scantily clad chick, or attempt to replicate Jeremy Clarkson.

Oh well, I’ll have another go over christmas.