Racing games are always popular, as the success of recent four-wheeled titles have shown, but there seems to be a definite shift away from traditional motor sport disciplines toward a more freeform street racing style.
Need for Speed, Project Gotham Racing and Ridge Racer all focus on road cars rather than the racing variety, which is why it is refreshing to get hold of the TOCA Race Driver 3 game and have a whole swathe of real race cars to choose from.
This latest in the series does not do anything radically different from its predecessors. You start as a rookie driver and work your way up through the different race series, garnering an ever-increasing reputation as you go.
On the way, you will get behind the wheel of a myriad of different types of vehicle - single-seaters, rally cars, touring cars and even monster trucks should you so desire.
Awesome grip
And this variety is one of the best elements in the game, because developer Codemasters has done a good job of giving each car an individual feel.
For instance, your Formula Ford will have awesome grip and a tendency (to begin with) to turn far more quickly than you would have thought. Contrast that with a touring car that is less responsive but more robust, and still pretty quick.
Monster trucks are simply difficult to keep on the ground long enough to accelerate and steer at all.
Each series is relatively short, usually consisting of two or three races, each of which is only a handful of laps long.
And whilst at the start you'll probably breeze through the series, you will certainly have to repeat some races more than once to get the right result and progress.
Visually the game is great, especially on the PC where on the highest resolution settings it is a sight to behold. If you have a computer that is powerful enough then the detailed cars, backgrounds and lighting effects are very nice indeed.
What is more, all the vehicles are modelled for damage, an aspect which affects handling, too. Given that the computer driver AI is quite aggressive, this can be a mixed blessing, and frankly some of the damage looks quite unrealistic.
But for PC users one of the best elements has nothing to do with the graphics. It is the control system. Whereas most racing games for the PC nowadays provide the option of using a keyboard, most are too difficult to use on the highest levels without some form of analogue input (a joystick or a steering wheel).
Wheelspin issue
By contrast, TOCA Race Driver 3 is really nice to play using just keys, meaning no investment in peripherals is really needed.
Although wheelspin on the starting line is still a minor issue, the key-mapping involved in turning and braking is seamless (despite the on-or-off-only nature of the keys) and you get a feel for driving in the game rarely seen, or felt, since the good old days of Geoff Crammond's F1 games.
There are a couple of annoyances, the biggest of which is probably the behaviour of the other drivers.
Although it is quite refreshing to feel like you are up against individuals rather than robots, they have an alarming ability to remove you from the circuit at will.
Try and return the favour, however, and you would be lucky not to simply wipe yourself out again.
Innocent punished
There is also a slight problem with running off the circuit - occasionally you will stray from the tarmac and if so you run the risk of a penalty.
It is to prevent people from gaining an advantage by driving across chicanes and the like, but it can sometimes punish the innocent, too.
Qualifying laps are a real stickler for this, and I have been black flagged on more than one occasion as a result of activity initiated by a computer driver. Annoying, to say the least.
Overall though, it is a game that really captures the imagination, and brings a welcome layer of polish to an increasingly niche set of racing formats. It does not do anything particularly new, but most of what it does is well executed.
Better still, it is fun to play, and practice is rewarded. For PC users especially, it could be the best racing title for a long time.
