Everybody wants to be a racing driver. From kids with Scalextrics to big boys with souped-up Imprezas, the dream of tearing round a track will never die. Coming from Southend, street racing is in my blood. Every Saturday night the town is alive with the roaring of engines and the squealing of wheels as wide boys in even wider cars try to compensate for their physical imperfections.

Driving games are a dime a dozen on Xbox, so to make an impression in an already crowded market, a title is going to have to be a bit special. Group S Challenge is the latest in a long line of these, but has a few surprises up its sleeve. There are two main modes on offer: Arcade and Circuit. Arcade allows you to jump right into the action. All the unlockable tracks are present, and all of the cars in the game (more than 50 models) are available. The tracks are derived from three accurately recreated cities - Shibuya (Japan), Surfer's Paradise (Australia) and jet set fave Monaco. With four different routes around each city, and their reversed double, this provides an impressive 24 tracks to master. The cities have an authentic look and atmosphere to them and the cars look great, with the developer using real-time lighting and shadows to good effect.

Difficulty is measured by the categories you choose to race in; Groups C, B, A, and S represent Beginner, Amateur, Professional and Special respectively. The titular S lets you loose on all the dream cars you'll never be able to afford, like the Dodge Viper GTS or Lotus Esprit V8. Controls are your standard driving fare - brake/accelerate/handbrake on the buttons, optional manual gearshift via the triggers - perfect for a quick blast and offers easy pick up and play entertainment.

The meat of the game is in Circuit mode, which is further split into Championship, Line and Duel mode. Here you can earn cash to buy spare parts and upgrade your mean machine, but Championship is where you'll obsessively while away your life into the wee hours every night.

Buy a budget racer, compete against other cars in your class, work your way up the league tables and watch the money and women roll in. Well, maybe not women, but the comprehensive career mode does offer a substantial amount of gaming time that'll have you hankering after the latest nitro kit and brake parts for your new toy.

Gameplay wise, Group S performs on all levels. There is a marked difference in the handling and power of cars from different classes, and trawling through various cars to find a happy medium between speed and control becomes a pleasurable experience.

However, there are a few fundamental flaws. Racing games are perfect post-pub entertainment and deserve to be played with a few mates, but Group S only allows for two-player split-screen. Another problem frequently encountered by driving games is translating a convincing degree of speed to the player. Unfortunately, in this case, the speedometer may be reading 150km/h, but it feels like you're chugging along at 30 during a morning school run.

On the whole, Group S is a decent stab at a realistic racing sim, but a few flies in the ointment, rather than on the windshield, drag it down from a podium position.

1. Loads of cars
2. Realistic handling
3. Great Career Mode
4. Finetune the cars to your exact specs

1. Poor sense of speed
2. Awful music, and no soundtracks option

Power
Great looking cars and environments and smooth frame rate puts Xbox through its paces.

Style
Glossy looking, like i's just had a whole tub of Turtle Wax applied. Terrible soundtrack though.

Immersion
Arcade mode is great for casual racers, while the career mode becomes increasingly addictive.

Lifespan
It take ages to unlock everything in Championship mode, especially if you want to see every car.

Summary
Although Group S can't decide if it's an arcade racer or driving sim, the extensive career mode is a challenging nut to crack.