Car and Driver

One minute you're screaming through a wide bank at 250 miles per hour, hounded by a rival dogging your slipstream. The next, you're racing a gentle mountain stream on a lazy ride through the country. From pole position to pine trees and everything in between. Car and Driver roars to life, fueled by outstanding variety and challenge.

The game is honed from the same 3-D modeling found in such topflight simulations as Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Solid-fill polygon graphics keep the action fluid and lightning quick. Players equipped with Super VGA will also enjoy an eye-popping, 400-line, high-resolution display. Although the game requires nothing slower than a 386/16 MHz machine, 25 MHz is a more realistic bottom line. The designers help out by allowing drivers to fine-tune graphics, sound and performance levels.

A clever front end emulates the look and feel of the product's licensed namesake, Car and Driver magazine. Play selections are made from the index-style menu, leading to inside articles about each car or track. Handsomely illustrated and colorfully written, the stories offer detailed specifications, ratings and driving tips. This 4-megabyte, on-line magazine can be deleted without affecting game play. The game's stable of ten cars represents a car-lover's dream come true. Slip behind the wheel of a $399,000 Ferrari F40, Porsche 959 or Lamborghini Countache. Test-drive the extraordinary Mercedes C11-IMSA Formula One racer, capable of accelerating from zero to 160 m.p.h. in a gut-wrenching 8.4 seconds. Vintage car connoisseurs will appreciate the classic beauty of the 1957 Ferrari Testarossa and Shelby Cobra. Others in the collection include the Corvette ZR1, Eagle Talon, Toyota MR2 and Lotus Esprit Turbo. Notable options include manual or automatic shifting, G-force meters, Steady Cam display stabilizers and four levels of handling difficulty. You can even tune the radio to one of four frivolous and annoying stations.

The ten available courses range from raceways to back roads and offbeat test tracks. Test your performance handling at the Monterey Raceway, Autocross obstacle course or specially designed EA Speedway. Those looking for a wild ride can cruise the San Dimas mall parking lot or visit the wonderfully weird Dobbs Raceway, named after counterculture icon J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. Three of the best courses are public highways, featuring scenic views and dangerous two-way traffic: New York Highway 97, California Route 1 and an amazing 25-mile stretch of Arkansas Route 7. Select up to ten laps and four computer-controlled opponents for most races.

Car and Driver's finely calibrated analog steering leaves its competitors in the dust. The game supports input from joystick, keyboard, mouse and foot pedals. Joystick response and sensitivity is excellent, eliminating the oversteering problems that plague similar simulations. Likewise, each car's unique real-world performance characteristics are meticulously portrayed, sometimes with deadly accuracy.

Other notable features include ten unique camera angles, available in both real-time driving and instant replay, with user-defined pan and zoom effects. Finally, the game supports head-to-head contests via null and remote modem or network connection. Electronic Arts also promises to support the game with future car and track disks.

Stunning graphics, fast action and meticulous detail make Car and Driver the new high-performance leader of driving simulations. Motorheads will think they've died and gone to test track heaven.