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Not content with screeching around the streets throughout the year, preparations for the annual policemen's race are underway.

Certain sections of San Francisco are cordoned off, ready for police departments from all over the US to do battle. You play the SFPD's most suicidal bobby, who races against other like-minded maniacs for the honour of your department.

The first section of the race starts on Golden Gate Bridge and ends several tyre-screeching blocks away on Fisherman's Wharf. Plenty of competition lines up on the starting grid, revving their engines as they wait for the chequered flag. To avoid confusion, the jolly programmer chappies have made your car a flashy red colour.

As with most racing games nowadays, the car has manual gears, so leave the car in low until you reach 100mph or so, then whop it into high.

Though the roads are closed, the Sunday drivers are out in force, not that they damage your car if you smack into them. Something much worse happens - you lose precious race seconds. Similarly, if you hit the traffic that crosses the road at certain points or pile into the scenery, another few jiffys are lost.

The SFPD's reputation's at stake here, don't let the guys down. Look on the bright side, at least you can't be stopped for speeding!

Mirrorsoft should be arrested for trying to convince innocent Speccy owners to shell out their pocket money for Cisco Heat at full price!

I've seen better racing games on budget labels - Chase HQ for example. It's not that the game's crap, by any means - the graphics are detailed, even though they're mainly monochrome - but the market is full of racing games and anything new has to have something special to stand out from the crowd.

Sadly, Cisco Heat is stuck somewhere in the mediocre pile. If it had been released a couple of years ago, the story could have been different, but before you consider purchasing it now, take my advice - try before you buy.

One type of game the Spectrum's never been short of is racers. There are car, truck, motorbike, jet-ski and even push-bike racing games available - all of them a lot better than Cisco Heat! There's some sort of game in there, but simplistic graphics and terrible colour clash hide it.

The action is supposed to take place in San Francisco, famed for its hills. The ones in the game aren't smoothly curved, they jolt up and down at drastic angles and, when driving up one, it's impossible to tell what's on the other side! You usually end up smashing into the back of another car, often losing yourself the race.

There are much better racing games available on re-release - check them out and save yourself a lot of dosh!