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Eighteen months ago, Firebird released a game some consider to be the top racing simulation for the C64. It was a conversion from an original game written for the BBC Micro called Revs. Some reviewers went ape. Others - myself included - were sceptical [Trust you! - Ed].

The problem with the first Revs I remember was that it looked great, had a very realistic-looking cockpit view, made a nice roaring sound as you drove, but was simply unplayable. It asked you to use an assortment of obscure attachments (I mean, can you remember where your Commodore paddles are, after all these years... You threw them out, right?) or to sit there hands spread over the keyboard in some contorted shape like Mozart looking for the lost chord.

In the instructions, Firebird boast they have corrected this problem. You can now use a normal switchable joystick to steer with. Fine, but you still have to change up and down and throttle using the keyboard. Why couldn't they put it all on one stick, or if that wasn't possible two. Controlling the car is still something of a trial even for two people.

Maybe you could argue that I'm useless at playing it, but let me say that I can drive and further that I have driven the kind of car this game is based on. Nigel Mansell would struggle to control this machine. One of the other reasons is that this is blindingly difficult to steer. It's not the wheel that's the problem, just that your view of the track is so restricted that you simply can't tell what's coming up, and when the change down. I realise the view from the cockpit of a Formula 3 car isn't the same as you might get if you were driving a bus, but really it makes it very hard word to stay on the track. You go sliding off at the slightest error.

The tracks are all painstakingly contoured to represent the courses of Brands Hatch, Nurburg, Silverstone and several others. The backgrounds are all the same though, so you wouldn't really know the difference - unless you were used to driving the German Grand Prix with your eyes shut, that is.

For the rest you get the authentic-looking cockpit with the rev counter and nose high wheel. The mirrors are the best touch with cars appearing in them before they go zooming past. All of which is a complete waste again, because whatever way you look at this game it's still frustratingly unplayable and all the nice packaging with its information on the courses of Europe and aerodynamics can't disguise that. Firebird still can't see the wood for the engine transmission. Didn't I say that last time?