Up until now that's what Porsche owners had to look forward to. A brief moment of exhilaration and acceleration when a rare patch of empty road beckons and then its over in one sickening Polaroid.

But not any more, because Sony has got together with those efficient Germans to create a virtual Porsche experience. Who cares that you've lost your licence for the fifth time? Now you needn't risk your no-claims bonus, just slap Porsche Challenge into your PlayStation, turn up the volume on your surround sound system and thrash someone else's car for a change!

Rage Road
Like Rage Racer, Porsche opens with an impressive rendered introduction sequence depicting the game's star, the Porsche Boxster, being put through its paces. It is here you also meet the six characters who each drive a different coloured and slightly altered Boxster. Cars come in automatic and manual tiptronic (steering wheel mounted) gear change systems, and six colours: blue, green, red, pink, yellow and silver, plus there's the ultra cool black test model if you complete all the tracks in many different permutations.

Ah yes, the tracks. Porsche Challenge lays claim to just four, which is disappointing until you realise that although Rage Racer has the same number, it is merely one big track with different off-shoots, whereas those in Porsche Challenge are completely different. Sadly though, they are all circuits and not winding roads as in The Need for Speed.

First off is the Stuttgart test circuit which is used to test the real cars, and has plenty of long fast curves, tight hairpins and a couple of decent straights to reach the Boxster's top speed of 148mph. The game also includes an American track (Los Vegas style casinos, suburban streets, trams and dock area), one in Japan (neon, gongs being thrashed), and most spectacular of all, an alpine level, which features slush a-plenty and tons of stupid skiddy bits.

Each circuit has three variations: long, interactive and mirror. The mirror mode occurs when you complete the championship and it simply allows you to race around them backwards. The Long mode adds a section of hidden track which was otherwise blocked off. And most interestingly, the Interactive mode opens up various bits of track depending on whether certain cones have been run over.

On the alpine level for example this manifests itself as a JCB digger which clears the road through a town for you to take as a shortcut. And a storm drain becomes a new route in America. This certainly extends the long term challenge of Porsche, and you also get three difficulty levels: easy, medium and evil. Naturally these new tracks can be saved to the memory card and also used in the two player mode.

Perfect Porker
Graphically, Porsche Challenge is stunning. There are so many colours and subtle textures that it puts the likes of Rage Racer, NFS and Speedster to shame, and the dynamic lighting and Gouraud shading on all the cars is gorgeous. As you round a bend into bright sunlight, the shadows move accordingly, and as you pass under the street lamps in Tokyo, your car is lit up for an instant. Squint and Porsche Challenge could be the real thing.

The motion captured drivers are also excellent, even more detailed than those in Peak Performance, but it's a shame you don't see them more. But for the opening close-up, the cars might as well be driving themselves.

You can tell that the developers lavished attention on the car itself, because there are so many cool features. The three brake lights glow rather than simply turn red, it heaves on its chassis when you corner sharply, but best of all are the alloy wheels, which blur and spin exactly as the real ones do. Graphically you cannot fault Porsche Challenge, but then if it looked shabby, Porsche wouldn't want anything to do with it, would they?

But..
Yes it all looks rosy for Porsche Challenge ­ the official licence of a seriously sexy motor car, the proven talents of the SCEE team, and visuals to die for. Future of unbridled harmony then? Er, no, unfortunately, because Porsche is guilty of that most heinous crime in racing games ­ no real sensation of speed. And they were so close...

You simply cannot imagine the disappointment in the Play offices when we began our rigorous long term test. Nice meaty engine noise. Terrific looking car. Smooth animation. And yet when you reach top whack ­ an indicated 148mph ­ it feels like you're only doing 40! This is elementary stuff, made even more unbelievable by the fact that Porsche Challenge was made here in the UK. This is no import game suffering the PAL transition blues, it is simply slow because it has been programmed that way ­ argghhhhh!

And there are other niggles as well. It is far too easy to reach the top speed of your Boxster and when you do, it makes an intensely irritating whine for the duration of your land speed record. You cannot max out a Boxtser this easily and it would certainly not sit happily at seven thousand revs for so long without exploding. Yes I know that Porsche wouldn't allow any of the cars to come to any harm, but what's the point of having a simulation mode as well as arcade, if it is blatantly not?

The handling of the Porsche is also a little suspect. It is nigh on impossible to provoke a skid of any kind, certainly not one that spins the car through 360° without using the handbrake. And in the rare instances where you actually become airborne, the car seems to go through a standard piece of animation rather than reacting in real time. It is certainly not as realistic as the aerial antics in NFS, and the resultant crash land is also unconvincing and wooden. And what about the fact that you only get rolling starts in this game because you couldn't have all six cars on-screen at once. Bogus!

Carrera
One of the saving graces is the split screen two player mode which adds considerably to the appeal and it is well implemented. The open topped Boxsters make way for the hard top versions to keep the frame rate up, and it is great fun battling each other to the finish line.

Porsche Challenge is certainly no old banger, it's just that instead of the thoroughbred PSX racer we were expecting (and deserve), what we have here is a great looking car with a distinctly average racing engine. Although the screenshots and in-store displays will put up a pretty good case for you parting with your £35, you've got to ask yourself a question. How many racing games do I need? On its own Porsche Challenge is certainly worth the money (especially if you have a steering wheel), but you've got to consider that Rage Racer is just around the corner, as is the Need for Speed 2, Peak Performance (now Powerslide), and Speedster. Out of the two official Sony games, it's got to be Rage Racer. Accept no substitute...

Verdict: 82%