Racing around various European cities sounds like fun, doesn't it? Flooring it down narrow Parisian streets, roaring past all those pavement café tables and upsetting everyone trying to enjoy their morning cup of sludge (we refuse to call a thimble-full of syrupy Espresso a coffee).

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As we darted between oncoming Citroëns on the approach to the Arc de Triomphe, it occurred to us that European Street Racing is a bit like Midtown Madness 3, which also focused on hair-raising traffic-dodging around Paris. Although European Street Racing lacks Midtown's cool missions. And finely balanced car handling. And pretty graphics. And meaty sound. Which might beg the question - has ESR got anything going for it?

You want specifics? Okay; the game is crudely presented, from the clunky menus to the in-game graphics. To be fair, the environments are passable: the real fault lies with the car, which doesn't quite seem to be connected to the road beneath it, as if it's sliding along rather than driving along. This rather ruins any true sense of visual realism.