Reviews// Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli

One of the first screens to display as you load Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli proudly states, in silver mock Ferrari lettering, 'A Mark Cale Production'. To those of you who don't know Mark Cale, this may seem like like the typical hubris of the video game producer who would much rather be in movies. But this is not just any game. It is not even just any driving game.

Those of you who do know Mark Cale will realise that Ferraris are his abiding passion. He owns them - four at present, apparently. He has at times raced them. I dare say that on occasion he dreams about them. So, publishing the most prominent Ferrari racing game in the history of video games will be something of a pinnacle of Mark's long and chequered/distinguished career in the video gaming industry.

His company, System 3, is one of the very last and possibly the oldest remaining of all the UK independent publishers. The company dates back to the early Eighties, when it caused something of a stir with its International Karate and Last Ninja games on the Commodore 64 and Spectrum.

After the long awaited, and actually pretty good Putty games which came in the early 90s, System 3 had a quiet 10 years (as Studio 3) before issuing a number of, largely shovelware, releases in the 21st Century. But this recent spate of activity has largely been background noise to Mark Cale's dream project: Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli.

One might argue that the Ferrari brand deserves the greatest car game ever made - this certainly isn't it. The game has been developed by Eutechnyx which, despite specialising in driving games, has never seemed to be particularly good at them as previous titles Pimp My Ride, Big Mutha Truckers, C3 Racing: Car Constructors Championship and Max Power racing all attest. Indeed, it's somewhat shocking that a company that does nothing but driving games can't seem to master the art, despite some 20 attempts to do so.

Ferrari Challenge is sim released for PS3, Wii, PS2 and DS, and I've been playing the PS3 version.

The game offers a number of assists to help you get used to playing. Initially you can take a spin around the training track, where (TV personality and former F3 driver) Tiff Needell will give you hints and encouragement, and the occasional admonishment too.

Once you've finished you'll be presented with a pretty comprehensive selection of marks to show how well you did in a range of categories such as apex accuracy and adherence to the racing line. The racing line is also an assist you can turn on - and will be well advised to do so at least during your first few races. The line shows where on the track your car should be positioned, and the colour of the line changes from green, through yellow to red to indicate whether you should be accelerating or braking. If you follow the line and the throttle cues, you will not go far wrong.