There may be plenty of racing titles to choose from whatever gaming platforms you prefer, but there remains a constant demand for more! Enter Need for Speed Undercover, the latest in the hugely successful driving franchise from Electronic Arts.

You would be forgiven for thinking that most new driving games nowadays are very little more than the same old stuff you are used to, only touched up a bit graphically and then repackaged before shipping out to what the developers appear to believe are unsuspecting fans who will settle for lack of progress, and with Need for Speed Undercover you would not be far wrong, though it has some moments that will leave the most demanding racers out there with a lot to enjoy.

The shallow plot of Need for Speed Undercover pits you in the role of an undercover police officer, surprised? You along with a fellow agent named Chase Linh must infiltrate and take down a group of street racers who have managed to become involved in a worldwide smuggling ring. Some dramatically over the top cut-scenes will pop up every now and then to help keep you on course with the plot, and though they are well filmed, well acted and nicely scripted, they do get a bit annoying before too long and you will find yourself hammering the buttons to skip them from the moment they begin.

The fictional city of Tri-City Bay will be your driving ground this time around, similar to other fictional cities in previous Need for Speed titles. The city itself is vast in scale, very highly detailed and the streets are quite simply made to be raced on! And be raced on they shall.

You will begin the game with, to put it lightly, a very basic vehicle but of course it does not take you long to work your way up to something a bit more glamorous. When you can afford to upgrade you can get your hands on some hot rides from the likes of Aston Martin, BMW, Dodge, Porsche, Nissan, Lamborghini and Mitsubishi amongst plenty of other top names in the industry.

If you prefer to play around with what you already have rather than upgrade instantly, you can play the part of a mod-boy racer by upgrading the innards of your car as you see fit, though to truly understand the flaws and benefits of certain parts you may need a basic understanding in real life as the game does not give you a whole lot of information. There is a simplified alternative though, thanks to a range of ‘upgrade packs’ which you can buy which will boost your car to various performance levels without you needing to know the technical stuff that gets you there.

How will you earn the cash to improve your car? By racing, of course! You will earn cold hard cash for winning various events based throughout the city and at the same time you will earn driving points for dominating the events, too. With driving points you are able to increase different aspects of your driving abilities, though you will never notice an improvement in your vehicle handing however much you improve these - so if you just suck at driving, no car can save your ass.

Different events will task you with different challenges. For example in some races you will need to gain a lead of so much distance, and then maintain it for a certain amount of time. It sounds easy, but when you take into account the vehicle handling snags in Need for Speed Undercover this can be a little more difficult than it sounds. All in all though, the difficulty level of the game is a little too easy to be honest.

The police in the game will chase you for a while, bump into a few times, and then seem to graduate filter out before disappearing altogether - and it’s not just because you are faster than them, as much as you would like to think so. They even have the ability to lay spikes but seldom choose to use it. You can destroy half the city and still not come across spikes - kind of like real life.

Overall the game has too many flaws to be considered a must buy title even for racing fans. It is a bit too easy, there is a lack of variety to keep you coming back for more, and at times you will notice a blatant drop in the frame rate for which there can be no excuses, not with the power of today’s gaming systems. Need for Speed Undercover is a game for hardcore driving fans to steer clear of.

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