Joyrider: Need for Speed Underground Rivals

The green light flashes, the flags go up, churning and burning they yearn for the cup. We race down narrow, snaking flyovers in the embers of dusk. Rubber on asphalt. Thumbs on joypads. A cold sweat in the small of our backs. We're edging into first, gaining confidence fast. A dab of nitro and the scenery goes into hyperspace. A second later we've hit a family estate car.

This is always a risk with illegal road racing. In the back of your mind lurks the fear that you'll total a family of five on their way to dinner -- leaving them in a fiery gasoline graveyard. There's no time to check if the family estate car is alright, we've got our own problems to deal with. We're spinning in an uncontrolled fashion, switching lanes involuntarily and heading down the road at 210mph, in reverse. Things have gone wrong for us.

My Chemical Romance sings "Thank you for the venom", as we lift the handbrake, lock the wheels, and snap back around into a graceful recovery. We've slipped into third place and we're listing towards the crash barrier at 190mph. Metal punches through metal with a groan and flips the car across the track. We land on the roof of another racer, spinning there as he continues to drive at an ungodly speed down the track. When we finally slip down his bonnet and onto the road, his car is kicked into the air and hurled into a wall. Cackling like children we scream, "how d'you like them apples?", before colliding with a lamppost. Need For Speed Underground Rivals will be available for the PSP from 1 September, 2005. -CS