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Turbo Cup is the result of a large sponsorship deal on behalf of Loriciels. In case you didn't know in the Andros Turbo Cup race in France, one of the biggest celebrities is the one and only Rene Metge who, judging by the documentation I have on him, has done more races and rallies than you've had hot dinners. As I said, this game is based around the Andros Turbo Cup, a gruelling jaunt around some of France's toughest tracks, including the twisty and turny (with a bit of straight) Paul Ricard track.

You can choose which of four tracks you wish to compete. For a beginner, you want to look for a track with lots of straights and some gentle bends, to make the race at little easier. Unfortunately, computer cars also find that kind of track easy going, and go just that bit faster. On the more complex tracks, the cars go slower, which makes it a little easier for you to get position, but not to stay on the road.

The ATC is set over a weekend's racing. On the Saturday, each car has to do a solo lap to establish an average lap time and grid position. So, before you can race, you get to do your solo attempt. You start, looking down on your remote-control Porsche from behind and above, and this is here you stay, a bit like OutRun, but with a much higher viewpoint. It's at this point that you realise just how good the graphics are. The Porsche is amazingly well defined, complete with recognisable interior and Loriciels logo on the door. The road is in much the same mould as OutRun, with the two-tone grey stripes that scroll toward the screen giving the impression of movement.

Not that they are necessary. The markings on the road, coupled with the smooth update of the massive edge of the road items (like grandstands, buildings, trees, etc) and the ultra-slick hills and dips do all that is needed to make this a convincing game. That plus the smoothly animated computer cars and the widening and narrowing of the track and, oooh, everything.

The sound is good and atmospheric. I didn't know that a Porsche 944 turbo in neutral sounded like a bus. Still, rev up the engine, wait for the light to turn green and push her into first. How do you push her into first? Here's an innovation for you, you get a choice of five different ways to change gear. You can change it the ordinary way (hold down fire and push up or down to change up or down), you can slam it into automatic or you can use the keys 1 to 5 to change to gear one to five. All pretty basic. Then you get two choices never seen before. You can use a second joystick to change up or down, or you can hold down fire to go into clutch, and move the joystick in the same way as a real gear stick to move into position, which, though a little awkward at first, soon feels much more natural.

So you're off and racing round the bends. What do you notice then? The sticky control. Unfortunately every game has a fault, and with this it's the simple fact that the programmers have been a little bit heavy on the inertia, which make the car very hard to steer round bends at high speed.

Once you've done your practice, you get yourself positioned amongst the twenty other cards in the race and wait for the race to start. The race itself is the same as the practice, other than that there are more cars and it's a bit longer. What you're looking for is the best race time possible, as well as the best positioning at the end of it all. The computer cars make it a little difficult, however. Each has been given a limited amount of artificial intelligence. Basically, they'll get out of your way so that they don't plough into you, but then they'll cut you up so that you can't pass. Should you hit one, one of three things happens. You bump into them and slow down a little; you're sent into a recoverable spin out, or you're sent flipping and spinning and land on your roof, all depending on your speed before the crash. What got on my nerves at this point was the way that the computer car was unharmed, and carried on going.

Loriciels hope to market the software with a limited edition offer. A free die cast metal model of the Loriciels Sponsored Porsche (check out our competition for more details), complete with movable steering wheels and gear stick, opening doors, boot and bonnet and reclining seats. At only another few pounds, it's definitely worth shopping about for it.