Taxi 3: Extreme Rush

The Increasingly Popular pastime of sticking lights underneath cars and making them sound like dying lawnmowers has inspired developers to create games based solely around modifying and racing them up and down streets in highly illegal and motion blurred racing events. Tlie latest in the Need For Speed series is an example of how this should be done. Taxi 3: Extreme Rush, unsurprisingly, is not.

From its underwhelming graphics and sound to the shopping-trolley handling and "oh look, my car is apparently made of rubber" physics, the game reeks of a budget title. And when there are so many better alternatives on the shelf there's no reason to even consider buying this.

Taking place in some alternatereality London with a population of 12 cars and two buses (good old congestion charging), Taxi 3 sees you earning respect, money and contacts in the hope of reclaiming your beloved black cab, which was stolen from you at the start of the game. To do this, you take part in three kinds of race - Street, Drag and City -all equally uninspiring checkpointchasing affairs the likes of which have been produced far better in other racing games.

There really is no upside to any of this - we tried to find one by attempting to drive over the girl who starts the race, but even that was unsuccessful as she appeared to be a ghost of some sort. Bloody women.