Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Review

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The cars will take damage, but it has no effect on the handling or speed. It's a half-hearted cosmetic feature, and given that the Ferrari Challenge is supposedly a rough and tumble TOCA style experience, this lack of meaningful physical impact leaves a crucial element of the game - risk versus reward - feeling undercooked. I can still vividly remember TOCA races on the PS2 where I gritted my teeth and steered a mangled wreck to unlikely victory. That's not going to happen here, where shunts and collisions feel torn between gamer expectation and licensor disapproval.

In fact, the whole game feels rather aloof and clinical in its approach. This obviously isn't something that can be scientifically quantified, but there's a nagging suspicion that opening up a desirable sports car around the world's most famous racetracks should feel more...fun. Between the realistic handling and the fanatical attention to detail, the result is a game that seems more concerned that you admire your Ferraris with due reverence than do anything as disrespectful as using them for fast-paced amusement. It's obviously a game born of passion, but it feels like the sort of middle-aged "look but don't touch" passion that leads to grown men keeping scale models in carefully guarded display cases. It's all very stoically efficient, but you can almost hear the game tutting should you do anything that even feels like a dirty-boy power-slide.

Variety isn't really a concern, so I'm not about to make the foolish mistake of criticising a Ferrari Challenge game for sticking to the established one-car Ferrari Challenge format. Even though the Challenge mode restricts you to the 430, there are over fifty Ferrari models drawn from throughout the company's illustrious history to be earned, as well as sixteen real-world tracks - some renamed, presumably due to licensing hiccups. The rather ambitious plan is to apparently add new tracks and cars via download each month until every Ferrari ever made is in the game, and I suspect that Mark Cale is obsessed enough to do it as well, even if only five people buy the bloody things.

Demanding rigid adherence to the racing line, Ferrari Challenge offers few surprises.

Outside of the main event there are several attempts to expand the scope of the game, including specific Trophy events for the various Ferrari cars which can be unlocked and an Arcade mode, which handles exactly the same but allows you to razz any Ferrari you fancy through a tiered series of set races. There's no offline multiplayer, only internet and LAN play, which all feels rather 1995 MS-DOS. The options here aren't staggering - you can basically set up a race for up to 16 players, but there's no long-term championship scope or leaderboard incentive. Worth a tinker, then, but not something that will keep you logged on for long. [Or indeed at all until it's patched, in some cases. - Ed]

There's also a Top Trumps card game in which the CPU player seems to cheat like a bastard. There's no way of playing this game with a friend, so it seems like a rather odd inclusion. For those with an Airfix mentality, you also get a reasonably broad customisation suite that allows you to plaster your vehicles in vinyls and decals, saving different livery types for different events.