Speed thrills (+ photos)

MotoGP 07 is one of the racing titles to hit shop shelves before Christmas.

If you are burned out from playing the same old racing games, there are some new titles to let you collect some serious virtual speeding tickets before Christmas.

Project Gotham Racing 4

G, Microsoft.

Xbox 360

Project Gotham Racing

has been a success story for the Xbox with its quality attempts to compete with the best of the highly competitive racing genre games.

The latest edition features brilliant visuals, the usual excellent gameplay, and has some exciting adrenaline-packed new additions to the title.

Now as well as cars, you can race motorcycles - complete with a cool-as in-helmet camera.

The most fun in PGR4 can be had in crazy mashup races when you play multiplayer with both bikes and cars competing against each other. If you want a super-powerful bike, try the MV Augusta F4 Senna. Just keep your grip and remember to save your photographs and put them online via Xbox Live! for a chance to be in the top 20.

Weather effects have had a revamp by developers, Bizarre Creations, and the rain effects - always spicing up the dangerous street racing - are also impressive. So is the snow and thick fog - now so good that they add a new dimension to the racing with crazy powerslides and drifts - you can find yourself in some truely hairy cornering maneuvres.

One of the points of difference between 'Gotham' and other games is that you compete for "Kudos" to win races. These points are accumulated for stylish moves like drifts, how fast you drive, your driving skills and how long you can do a burnout.

Bike riders can get Kudos for pulling long wheelies. Holding the B button acceses the bike stunts. The number of Kudos you get leads to a Kudos star.

There's also a new career mode that resembles a racing season.

If you earn enough points, you progress up the ladder from amateur to pro, hotshot to master, unlocking new challenges and garages along the way. Just beware that if you fail, you have to move on and can't replay.

One of the other cool things is the easy way to take photos at any time- just pause the game and the screen changes to a lens.

MadGamer Rating: 8.5 / 10

MotoGP 07

G, Capcom.

PS2

, PC and Xbox 360

For motorcycling fans wanting more than they get in PGR4, from Capcom comes the update of the popular MotoGP, previously done by Namco. The latest,

MotoGP 07

is for hardcore bike racing fans without the visual glitz of some of the newer street racing games.

Those diehard fans will be in familiar territory as the game includes all the riders and courses from the last season and three different settings - arcade, advanced and simulation.

Challenge mode - sort of like Gran Turismo's licence tests- involves you choosing your racer, control scheme and transmission and tacking 18 tracks. It also has around 100 reasonably fun, unlockable mini-game-style tests.

But if you are a novice you may find this a hard introduction to motorcycle racing and leaves some wondering whether the game is trying to be both a sim and an arcade game, pleasing neither fan.

MadGamer Rating: 7 / 10

Hot Wheels: Beat that

!

PG, Activision.

Xbox 360

, PS2, Wii, DS, PC

Downsizing your expectations comes a game involving driving minature cars around the track.

In

Hot Wheels: Beat that!

you choose from 30 Hot Wheels car models and homegrown track settings like bedrooms and backyard complete with ramps and loops.

The problem here is a lack of variety. Cars can get power ups as they go around a track but both cars and tracks can feel a bit repetitive after a short time playing. It's not the most difficult game to play.

It is fun blitzing round a toy-set track, like something you do as a child in the lounge with tiny matchbox cars - I remember a game like this from way back.

But this title has amazing graphics for such a simple game. Still hot Wheels does have a big following amongst the young audience so this may be the thing they want for Christmas instead.

MadGamer Rating: 6 / 10