Marmite - The treacle-like substance that either tastes like heaven or the scrapings from Keith Chegwin’s jockstrap. Big Brother - Either seen as essential TV or just a bunch of morons arguing with each other. With some things you either love it or hate it, but it’s unusual for you to both love and hate something. SCAR is just such a thing…

SCAR (or Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo for those who like to sound cultured) arrives into a market currently saturated with racing games, and some very good ones at that, so it has to have something to grab the gamer’s attention from the get-go. This something is the completely new way SCAR has approached the career mode in driving games, described as a “CAR-PG”. Instead of racing for credits which you use to buy new cars or tune up old ones, all the points go towards the attributes of your driver, and boosting your on-track abilities. These attributes are some standard ones such as acceleration and handling, as well as the ability to heal damage, but also have attributes that help in other new aspects of the game original to SCAR, such as intimidation and the “Tiger Effect” rewind feature.

The other innovation is the “Tiger Effect”. This lets you travel back in time a few seconds following a crash or spin-out in order to get it right. This works pretty well and helps if you spin out on the last corner, which would usually result in a lost race, a broken joypad, some chipped paintwork and maybe some lost hair.

The handling is not one of the game’s strong points. Most of the beginning races are done using “lesser” Alfa Romeos, which feel heavy, steer like the Titanic and have a hideous braking problem (luckily most of the later cars aren’t as severe). I’d say about 70% of the times I’ve needed to use the Tiger Effect is because the brakes didn’t work as well as they should have, meaning you have to brake miles before a corner to avoid slamming into the wall. The steering is just as bad, as the cars are reluctant to turn too far left or right, and lock up if you try to negotiate an S-bend or turn too sharply. I can handle the heavy cars and dodgy braking, as you can get used to them, but it’s when cars don’t turn the way I want them to under reasonable conditions that I get angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…

Now this is what makes racing great. It’s not tuning your car as much as it’ll go, speeding past the other cars and setting good lap times alone at the front; it’s dirty and vicious pack racing without resorting to a destruction derby. In SCAR most races will be won by a whisker, and there’s no better feeling than making the leader spin out on the last corner and taking the flag.

Unfortunately it’s not all fun and games, as the AI has its limitations. As vicious and intelligent as they are, when it comes to corners they’re as cautious as Auntie Ethel, slowing to a crawl while you speed past them. This undoes all the great work that has been put into the other elements of the AI and removes part of the challenge. Another problem is that they are vicious in a pack, and sometimes it can be too vicious - the opposing cars usually spend all their time trying to take you out that by the time you get to the front of the pack, the one or two cars that escaped the pack mayhem earlier have a comfortable ten-second lead. This can also work for you, sailing ahead of the pack as they run each other off the road and spin all over the place. Either way it isn’t fun, and unfortunately happens in about a third of the races.

Anyway, back to the CAR-PG element. As well as being able to upgrade driver stats through the skills area, you can also do so through the uniform your driver wears. Chain-mail armour has been replaced by a full-body racing suit, iron gauntlets by racing gloves, as well as helmet and boot choices. Each item of clothing adds extra attributes to your character, like in regular RPGs, but +11 acceleration or intimidation range rather than damage or defence. The points to upgrade skills can be won in all races, but the clothing can only be won in certain races in the career mode.

There is quite a lot to do in the career mode, but it is much more linear than Forza or GT4, not only because you can’t choose your car for the race but also because they’re all Alfa Romeos, and racing the same few cars with quite similar handling (except for the Race-tuned versions) does feel like a step down from the freedom and scope of the above-mentioned games.

Another problem that I noticed a little while into playing the game is that there’s no in-game music! Sure, there’s some weird techno-chill-out in the menus but there’s nothing to keep you interested while you’re driving round and round. I can understand why it’s not there - because the attention is meant to be on the engine sounds and shunts, and the intimidation mode (where everything mutes out) would sound kinda pants with Van-Halen playing quietly in the background…Still, I like my music, and both GT4 and Forza have kick-ass music options. Not having any is either presumptive or just plain lazy, and I don’t like it.