In our humble opinion (humble here is defined as forthright and arrogant), there hasn’t been a decent game with the words ‘Need For Speed’ in the title since one of its little-known iterations on a now-defunct console called 3DO. They’ve never been bad games per se, but instead are always content to be middling; an established convention that has never, in recent years, seen us muster so much as a Labrador (Labradors are units of excitement, we’ve just decided). As much as we’d love to say, “Thank God, Need For Speed is good again,” we won’t. There’s no point. Because those three little words are nothing more than meaningless branding – branding that’s associated with quite a few horrifically average games that share a few commonalities. This shares none, so we’ll just ignore them and instead just say, “Wow… what a bloody brilliant game this is.”

Let’s talk about driving games in general. It seems to us that, bar none, almost every driving title out there lacks in at least one crucial area. Each is different: some nail the AI but lack the feel, some nail the handling but lack the depth, while others nail the visuals but lack the soul. With at least one game out there getting each individual element bang on, it’s amazing that no one has sat down and really puzzled through which elements each of them has scored a bull’s-eye in and put the whole lot together in one game while trying out some entirely fresh ideas at the same time. Oh, wait. Hold on a minute… they have.

Placing itself entirely in the importtuner sub-genre, ProStreet’s career mode puts you in the shoes of an unknown and previously illegal street racer called Ryan Cooper. Because traditionally racers will have you fill the shoes of your own, faceless driver, not being able to name your ‘Stig’ is instantly grating. Once you get into the game, though, you begin to see the genius behind the idea. You’re Ryan Cooper. You’re somebody. Announcers in the game don’t refer to you as ‘he’ or ‘the driver’, which is really bloody refreshing, not least of all during the in-race commentary. Correct us if we’re wrong (go on, send us a letter, we may even print it) but we don’t think that, besides a few F1 games, there’s ever been a proper, organic racer that has a commentary. It really works, too; slipstreaming behind the leader and taking first place from him is now accompanied by, “Woah, did you see that move? Ryan Cooper’s just taken the lead! He’s absolutely flying!” It sounds really childish that we would be filled with a sense of foolish pride at such words but, in the context of the game, that’s exactly the kind of feeling that you will experience.

Each stage of the absolutely vast career mode is made up of a given number of race days. Each day is basically a collection of various types of race events: time trials, straight-up lap races (known as Grip Racing in the game), drag racing, drift racing and speed challenges. We won’t go into too much detail as to what each does – we have far more important things to tell you about – but rest assured that each of them and their variations are damn good fun, each representing a suitably different challenge from the next. Race days, including which events, tracks, laps and rules are present, can be custom built by the player, who can then invite his friends to take part in his event over the miracle that is Xbox Live. Now that… is genius.

What’s more, you’re going to love your car. Where most driving games are throwing new vehicles at you at the end of every event, ProStreet is restrained with reason. The game encourages you to take good care of the cars in your possession in every conceivable way. For example, you’ll only be allowed to take one car (for each event type) to a race day and boy, do they get banged up. The damage modelling is unrivalled and the constant pressure to balance between racing flat out and not damaging your precious ride is both tense and exhilarating. After all, what’s the point of winning the race if you blow your entire winnings on repairs?

There is so much more to say about this game. Things that, given a dozen or more extra pages, we would have gleefully covered for you in detail. The AI is the best we’ve ever seen – visually it’s so good looking it’ll burst your eyes – the connection between you, controller, car and track is astonishingly satisfying, and don’t even get us started on how good this game plays with a wheel, how the engine sound will kill you where you stand, or the game’s absolutely stunning art design. If you have even the remotest interest in driving games, you owe it to yourself to check this out. We kid you not, ProStreet is arguably the best driving game yet.

Dan Howdle