More TOCA 3 details

Codemasters has revealed more of what we can expect from next year's TOCA Race Driver 3 for PC, PS2 and Xbox, and released some brand new screenshots into the bargain.

TOCA 3 "will get any racing gamer hot under the helmet," apparently, with more than 100 individual championships spread over 35 different racing disciplines. That's "more than any other racing game has ever offered," don't you know.

"Forget modded cars, forget streetcars," says Codies, and we're happy to oblige having had to review SRS last week. "Just jump straight into some of the world's most exciting real competition cars, both modern and historic."

There's certainly plenty of 'em, from the modern day BMW Williams F1 Team car to Damon Hills' famous FW18. Not to mention Nelson Piquet's FW11b, the Lotus 49 and 1930s legend the Mercededs-Benz W25 Silver Arrow.

If you prefer your cars US made you can take the Dodge Charger for a spin, or go for a bit of open-wheel endurance with the IndyCar Series vehicles.

Then there's Germany's DTM and Australia's V8 Supercars series, or how about the 4x4 Monster Series trucks with their 4WD steering, low-end torque and stupidly enormous wheels. If that all sounds a bit excessive, why not take the smaller scale Baja Beetles off road and watch the dust fly.

Technical racers will be keen to get behind the wheel of the F3, Formula BMW and the Formula Palmer Audi, complete with a turbo boost function to deliver an extra 50 bph to the engine. A little tactical thinking is required, however - the boost only lasts for eight seconds, and you can only use it eight times during a race.

There's a host of career disciplines to choose from, namely GT, Off Road, Touring Cars, Historic, Open Wheel, Rally and Oval. You can take cars out of their traditional contexts to see how they fare on other tracks - race a V8 round the Nurburgring, for example, or give the TVR a spin on the Shanghai International Circuit.

TOCA Race Driver 3 will be racing onto the shelves next February. Vrrooom.