All-terrain vehicles, or ATVs are a bit like guns and binge eating; they might not be that popular over here but in the States those fellas love eating their McFat burger while shooting a rifle from a moving quadbike. Probably. Anyway, the popular series of ATV games is under new management this time around and it looks like there have actually been some changes…

The environments have also been given the same treatment, with each surface making the ATVs react quite differently; tarmac tightens up the acceleration and cornering while gravel loses grip on the corners. Ice and snow are a complete nightmare but feel like ice and snow should, so are challenging rather than just annoying.

The graphics have been given a slight tune-up too and, as well as improving ATV and rider animations, a lot more has been shoved into each race; more trees and logs litter the track and the draw distance has been pushed even further back. There are a few little things too, like how your driver and wheels get caked in mud/snow as the race goes on and the little trails of debris your ATV kicks up behind it. The frame rate holds steady most of the time but the main problem is shearing, which only happens every so often but is a pain in the ass, especially if you’re lining up for a jump at the time…

Supercross is basically a race across man-made tracks, usually staged in indoor arenas, so naturally they’ve got loads of jumps and tight corners to fill the space. Because the courses are tight corner upon tight corner, you never get a chance to see what’s ahead of you and plan where and how to jump without losing time or crashing. The computer riders seem to know exactly how to take each corner to line themselves up for the next jump, leaving you in the back flying all over the place. If you happen to be in first place for a few seconds the narrow tracks will make sure you aren't for long. The tracks are so narrow that if you happen to come in at the wrong angle on a jump, you’ll either land off the track or, better still, crash into these huge bales which cordon off the track. In ATVOF3 one crash will put you at the back of the pack and in SX mode, you can never recover.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally got through the SX stages (which they put first) and got to the nationals and cross-country. Nationals are outdoor stages with more detail, wider tracks and huge jumps (rather than loads of little ones). This is where I started to love ATV, as the minute timing of jumps and corners of SX was replaced with high-speed jumps and big sweeping corners. The competition is just as fierce as the computer riders in ATV are dangerous; it just feels a lot fairer and more fun.

The tricks system of ATV is a bit of an anomaly, as there still doesn’t seem to be any real reason why you’d risk bailing a perfectly good jump and losing hard-fought positions. At the moment it feeds into the points system, which you use to buy new ATVs, maps, mini games and loads of other extras, although you get more points for winning a race than risking it all for loads of trick points, so it’s best to play it safe. In the freestyle section there is a string of challenges, such as finding certain targets, but the main focus is on tricks. There are challenges for high scores as well as original combos and stringing loads of tricks together, which is now done by using a Tony Hawk-style manual system, in the form of wheelies and endos. It’s fun for a while but ultimately takes the focus from the main part of the game, which is good cornering and balancing of the patented Pre-Loading system to get jumps right.

ATV Offroad Fury 3 is an improvement on the last incarnation in quite a few ways and feels much more like you’re racing an ATV than a clown car with big suspension. The environments are larger and more detailed and the AI gives you a run for your money. The game is let down by the occasional graphical glitch and the bloody annoying Supercross mode but if crazy racing with big jumps and a lot of dirt is your bag there’s plenty to keep you busy, and you can’t do much better.