With the wheels of Burnout 3 still smoking, any title in this overfilled genre has a lot to live up to. With ever more outlandish takes on the racing title, there seem to be fewer and fewer places for driving sims to go. Juiced, Need For Speed Underground and Midnight Club have street racing wrapped up, Burnout and FlatOut cover the crash-em-ups and GT amongst a bevy of other (mostly low-rent) racers give simulation lovers their hit of realism. It's been said a hundred times before about many other genres, but you have to wonder if the racing title has had its time at the head of the pack.

Were it not for the arrival of the Burnout series on the PS2 and Xbox, the original NFSU would, I'm sure, have fared better, with its focus on style and lavish presentation glossing over some slightly iffy physics. This time around however, Need For Speed Underground 2 throws it all in and heads for the top of the heap - tooth and nail style.

The first set of headlights that appear are those of Brooke Burke, warning you of the dangers of underground street racing and the benefits of seat belts (very nice of her, but considering the constant logjam that is Brighton city centre, I don't think I'll be doing much illegal street racing in the near future). Shortly after this little safety announcement, the droolworthy Miss Burke gets us started on the racing circuit by kindly lending us her car. A sniff of the driver's seat and rummage of the glove compartment later and we're on the road ready to violate the Highway Code a thousand different ways.

In a style reminiscent of Midnight Club 2, you're given free reign over the city of Bayview. Armed with just a fast car, GPS and a kick-ass set of tunes, it's up to you to find events and drivers to pit your considerable skills against. An initial training session allows you to get to grips with the mechanics of power sliding, drafting, drag racing and nitrous. Unfortunately however, after this you're dumped back on the street in a crappy factory issue car with less grunt than a bowl of Angel Delight, as the buxom Brooke snatches her motor back from your greasy paws.

At this point the city starts opening up, allowing you to pimp up your ride with body kits, hydraulics, tints, neons and all manner of cosmetic bits and bobs. Along with the comprehensive visual enhancements, the various garages scattered around town give you the option to add a little mustard to your speed with simple upgrades, testing and performance tuning. Many of the better garages need to be found, as they don't necessarily appear on the world map from the start. Fortunately, bright neon lights lead the way to these racing meccas, so keeping an eye out as you cruise the city is essential if you want all the goodies in each garage. Also listed on the handy GPS system are races, photo opportunities, where you can earn a little extra by getting your motor on the cover of a magazine and other street racers. Challenging these midnight rudeboyz is a nice sideline of the career mode and simply involves 'outrunning' your opponent (getting as much distance between you and your chaser as possible) and a win means a little extra cash if you care to lay down a few bucks on a wager.

The open map style that worked so well in Midnight Club fares less well in Underground 2 because the nature of the city is distinctly less free-roaming. There are few jumps, a limited amount of shortcuts and set routes to the courses, making for racing that at times feels tired and old. Also, given the frequency of garage stops, races and storyline snippets, the load times can get joypad-launchingly long and, despite the sumptuous Brooke Burke blessing the load screens, the annoyance level takes a lot away from the high tempo gameplay.

I didn't know underground street racing was as involved as Underground 2 makes it out to be. As well as all the intricacies of exterior vehicle design, the range of race types is quite baffling. Drag, drift, circuit and sprint are straightforward enough, but Underground League and Street Racing X throw you into a world new to NFS. The former of these two are the real meat of the career mode, whilst the latter force you onto courses more along the lines of rally driving with brutal corners, hairpins and chicanes. All the course types are bundled into sponsorship deals that reward the completion of specified races with cold, hard cash. These sponsorship deals don't come too easy and are based on your reputation, which can be built up not just by winning, but by wiping the floor with your opponents.

Scooting around the linear courses vary from placid affairs in your standard issue Ford Focus to despicably fast blurs of exhilaration in a stonkingly powerful SUV pimpwagon, but often lack the oomph of similar titles. Whilst the physics are fairly healthy, bar a slightly airy feel to the cars and the natty blurring effect works well, without any damage modelling, ramps, shortcuts and really tight courses, there's little to get the blood pumping. That's not to say that the game is a cakewalk, as the other racers often put up quite a good fight, but the courses just don't offer the same kind of limitlessness as Midnight Club 2 or seat-of-yer-pants insanity of Burnout 3.

What NFSU2 loses in excitement, it makes up for with the presentation. A flawless, varied track listing featuring a corking tune from Snoop Dogg combines with the high frame rate, slick vehicle models and striking speed effects to create something that, despite not being overly intricate, delivers an impressive ocular extravaganza. Of course, one of the highlights is the customisation of your vehicle and this is the best effort at customisability I've seen in a racer, especially given that you can show off your girl-magnet online in any of the unlocked courses and race types.

With an abundance of multiplayer modes to round things out for the non-loner and online gamer, Need For Speed Underground 2 offers a cohesive racing title with a sizable career mode, plenty of longevity and lavish visuals. A lightweight storyline is balanced out by a hardcore car creation mode (at least on the visuals front) and all this is backed up by the delectable Brooke Burke. It's fair to say that it beats neither Midnight Club or Burnout, but it comes a pretty close second.

Reviewed by Tom LeClerc for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).