PC CD-ROM minimum system requirements: 486DX/66mhz; 8MB RAM; 2MB hard disk space; Windows 95 or DOS 6.22; Dual speed CD-ROM drive; SVGA. £39.99
Five, four, three, two, one ... Go! Miss the gear change into firsts and you're already down vital seconds on your opponents. Minutes later, if you manage to keep your car on the road, you could well be back in contention for winning one of the stages on the Network Q British Rally.
Your co-driver is none other than Top Gear's Tony Mason, who won the British Rally in 1972 with Roger Clark and also had stints driving with the great Finn Hannu Mikkola and his compatriot Markku Alen. Fail to take notice of Mason's advice as you hurtle through the stages and you could well find yourself looking at the world the wrong way up.
Mason's pace notes are graded into four different categories - green, yellow, orange and red. For example when he shouts "easy left" a green arrow appears on the screen to show you the way. If, on the other hand, he yells "hairpin right" it is highlighted in red and you know you've got to get on the brakes early.
Being an officially-licensed product you get to choose from some of the cars that vie for the world championship. There are six of these, five from Group A and one from Group N and the most familiar of the cars available is probably Colin McRae's Subaru Impreza with its striking blue and yellow paintwork.
Nothing be left to chance in RAC Rally Championship. All 28 stages and 300 miles of the actual event are included. Weather and road conditions also play a major part and coupled with the treacherous nighttime driving it all combines for some pretty hair-raising stuff.
Unlike the real world of rallying where the likes of McRae would have a team of mechanics and so on to give him a dig out, you can if you wish decide on how to set the car up to its optimum. Tyres, suspension, steering sensitivity, gear ratios and brakes all come into the equation as you try to produce a winning package for the different stages.
For the no vice driver there are plenty of aids to get you off the start line. You can select automatic gears, increase the width of the road (Arcade Mode only), decrease the intelligence of the CPU-controlled cars, turn car damage off and have the car's setup done for you.
But even with all these, aids 4CRally Championship it is still hard to master and, while it is great fun at first sliding the ear into corners and the like, to get the most from this game you have to get your hands a little dirty. This is just a brilliant racing game. It is also, without doubt, a lofty benchmark for any other rally games to reach. Fasten your seatbelt!
Graphics: 89%, Sound: 90%, Gameplay: 92%