There's a bit of a running joke that Xbox is turning into a car park for motor sport games. It seems that every month we're offered further opportunities to get behind the wheel, put our collective feet to the floor and burn more rubber than an arsonist in a PVC factory. We're not complaining though - especially considering the number of high quality titles that have skidded into view in recent months.

Premium rally racers like Colin McRae Rally 3, Rallisport Challenge and Rally Fusion: Race Of Champions are the frontrunners in their field. So any newcomer such as V-Rally 3 has to make sure it flies off the starting grid like poo from the proverbial shovel if it wants to compete with the leading pack.

V-Rally 3 is Xbox's first taste of the long-running series and its debut trades largely on its previous success on other consoles. It's a driving title so the setup is fairly standard stuff. You create a driver, take part in time trials to win a place on a constructor's team and then compete in various rallies across the globe in the hope of elevating your team's position in the rankings. You naturally start by being invited to join the less successful teams (with the dodgier motors) and if you achieve goals set by your team manager (finishing above a certain position, for example) you will be invited to try out for some of the bigger outfits.

But what makes a racing game succeed is a subtle combination of handling, realism, sensation of speed and detailed graphical flair. And it's never more prominent than in a rally game where the only opponent is the ticking clock and you're not being distracted by a streamlined convoy of AI opponents waiting for their chance to make you eat their dust. And it's on some of these disciplines that V-Rally 3 starts to lag behind the leaders.

For a start, the handling is not as good as it could be. The car feels incredibly light to control and doesn't have the earthy relationship with the ground that a rallying game dictates. This can be best demonstrated when you're slipping and sliding from side to side - crash into an obstacle and your car will almost float in slow motion before coming back down to earth. It doesn't happen all the time but it does happen enough to dispel the illusion that you're playing a realistic racer.

Rally games naturally have the disadvantage of not being able to race through gorgeous, gleaming cityscapes and instead rely on more sparse rural terrain, so it can be more of a challenge to provide alluring trackside eye candy. But this should give the opportunity to provide stunning vistas and really show off the scenery, as was the case with World Racing. Instead the V-Rally 3 backgrounds seem very basic with the standard cardboard cut-out crowd and disappointing landscaped textures. The nice little touches are there: dust clouds, screen water splashes when you occasionally drive through streams and the odd glimpse of dappled sunlight filtering through a forest level all go some way to rectifying the generally drab-looking maps you have to race around.

The damage is also pretty neat with lots of stuff falling off the car. Windscreens get smashed, bodywork gets dented and bumpers hang precariously before being discarded. You can even lose a wheel and limp around the remainder of the course with sparks flying from your axle rather than face retirement and lose valuable season points.

Each race consists of five stages and you only get a couple of chances to repair your car during a rally so you'll often be carrying damage to the next stage, which can dramatically reduce your performance. This adds a valuable strategic element because you can only make repairs inside a set time limit, so you need to choose the most important components to fix in the time provided.

There's also an incentive to keep playing by being able to progress from driving 1.6L putt-putts to the meatier 2.0L beasts. This makes a significant difference to the gameplay because the greater power makes up for the very similar handling of all vehicles in any one particular engine class.

V-Rally 3 is like a souped-up Ford Mondeo: an average racing vehicle that doesn't really excel in any category. It's not a bad game, but it doesn't do anything particularly well either. The rally games we mentioned in the introduction are all more competent, but if you're a rallying fanatic who must own every title then you can do worse than add this to your collection.

1. A decent stab at a rally game.
2. Strategic twists.
3. Good car damage.

1. Oversensitive controls.
2. Tracks can be mundane.

Power
The framerate nips along at a decent speed but the lack of eye candy leaves it wanting.

Style
Cutscene graphics are poor but the office hub, with rival drivers' taunting emails, is a nice touch.

Immersion
Plenty of tracks and plenty of cars but fun-style challenges would have been a welcome break.

Lifespan
No simultaneous multiplayer is disappointing but there are over 20 tracks to unlock and loads of cars.

Summary
This is Colin McRae's untidier and slightly slippier younger sibling. It's got some charm but there's much better available.