Price: £39.99

Players: 1-2

Wipeout on motorbikes is the best way to describe Extreme G3 and the reason the game became one of the highlights of the week at DVDfever was not because the game's lead designer, Nick Harper, was one of my best friends at school but it's the fact that it brings shit-hot arcade racing action to the PS2. If this had been a launch title, it would have crapped all over the competition. While we wait for Sony to release the third in their popular air-skimming series with Wipeout Fusion, Acclaim have beaten them to the starting grid with a race against eleven other bikers. You can play the usual arcade mode or enter into the league which is where the the competition begins as you race on three tracks through each league, scoring 25,000 points per league in order to graduate to the next one. Points make prizes too and you can upgrade your vehicle as the game progresses. I hit upon what I thought was a problem at first since I didn't do quite as well as I could on my first goes at the first two races in the initial league, meaning I had to come second out of twelve bikers in race three. I very nearly managed it, but just as I was about to overtake the guy in second place, I crossed the finish line. Grrrr! Then I went back, played the first two races again, doing much better and thus only had to come fourth in the last one which, after all that practice, was a piece of cake. Be prepared for lots of practice to begin with though.

Both the graphics and sound are first-rate - something which, so far, only snowboarding sim SSX has achieved. Yes, screenshots in magazines looked nice and colourful, but it was when I saw footage of the tracks in motion on Cybernet (broadcast on ITV and the Sci-Fi Channel) after several cans that was a real mindfuck. It's fast and furious fun with no pop-up and the only time it slows down is because you've crashed into the track sides. Practice makes perfect though and you'll learn where to make sharp turns and by how much, as well as using the left and right shoulder buttons to turn more steadily.

While we also wait for the first PS2 game to be released entirely in Dolby Digital 5.1, the Dolby Surround sound in Extreme G3 is fantastic. The engines of the bikes roar at full power, weapons can be fired fore and aft and it's topped off with many other ambient noises in keeping with the game. Whereas a DD5.1 soundtrack would provide specific cues of where the bikers are behind you as they creep up, there are arrows at the bottom of the screen to indicate where they are. You can use the rear-view monitor to confirm their position, but not for too long because you need to concentrate on where you're going too! One tip to try, particularly when starting a race is to nudge the other bikers, but it depends on where you hit them as that will decide whether it pushes them or you just slightly behind, or right far back in the pack. Also, it's something slightly different to note that when firing at an opponent, the shots don't "stick" to the track like in Wipeout, so you need to be accurate. What are you still doing reading this review? Go and buy it!

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.