Total Immersion Racing (XBox)

Total Immersion Racing has got to be, without a doubt, the most slap-dash racer ever made. There is nothing to warrant spending cash on Total Immersion Racing.

The major selling point is that all of the other computer controlled drivers have been blessed with 'advanced' artificial intelligence so that they will drive aggressively and 'remember' if you try to force them off the road and try to pay you back. Garbage!! They do no such thing! They just go round the tracks like mindless drones sticking to the same pre-coded racing lines! But I doubt you'll get the chance to notice that because you'll be too busy not believing your eyes at the appalling graphics.

Basic does not describe Total Immersion well enough. Grainy, bland, slow, jerky and terrible are all superior metaphors. Note to the programmers: go take a look at Project Gotham 2 or Burnout 3; that's how an Xbox game is meant to look. The game fairs equally badly in other areas: the cars are sluggish yet still have the ability to spin out at every corner. There are about 5 tracks. The menus are dull.

There is nothing to make you want to play more than once - I was so disgusted I took it back to the shop within minutes of playing it and actually demanded that they exchange it without even lying - I just told them it was dire. Realism? Immersion? No. Total Rubbish would be a more appropriate title.