Pure

The more tepid admirers of quad-biking may have been put off by Ozzy Osbourne's crash a couple of years ago - the one that almost left him more of a vegetable than he already is - but without all the rockstar bravado it can be a fairly tame hobby. Cruising over the dunes and/or tundra doesn't have to be any more dangerous than sailing, horse riding or indeed crossing the road. The tabloids will have their way though, and if they are to be believed, riding the humble quad bike is a few short steps away from diving out of a Cessna at 10,000ft without a parachute.

For those of you too timid to try out a real life quad bike, Pure could be of interest. It sees you making your way from quad scene newbie to global champion over around a dozen tracks and challenges set across the world.

Most of these are race-based, but there are also tricks involved. You can perform one when you launch off one of the bigger ramps that litter most of the tracks. Performing a trick is just a case of selecting one via a visual prompt with the '2', '4', '6', or '8' key and then keeping the balance of your biker by tapping either '4' and '6' or '2' and '8', depending on the trick.

These tricks add to your style points, which act as the game's currency. Collect enough and you'll be able to buy new tricks and quad bikes. The initial assumption though is that these new items will somehow improve your performance, but in truth all they do is increase your ability to pick up more points, sealing the whole point-grabbing exercise in a little enclosed world of its own that doesn't really affect the gameplay.

Even the new quad bikes only add to the point bonus you get after each event. Still, the mere suggestion of upgrading and collecting remains reasonably compelling, even if it is a structural deceit.

Similarly deceptive is the gameplay itself. Pure is only really a racing game because it tells us it is one. Really, it's more of a racing-themed action game. You're forever moving up and down in the track to avoid any terrain that will slow you down rather than timing corners. Sure, there are other racers that you have to pass in order to win, but Pure is far too prescriptive in its execution to seem like a true racer. Each track is split into a number of sections, with each one essentially pitting you against the next racer you need to overtake.

There's a number of different types of section throughout the game, from snowy or grassy fields that require you to travel in the wake of your opponent in order to pass them, to areas full of little ramps that allow you to charge up your boost function, which will let you out-pace the other rider. It's not that this is a necessarily non-valid way of making a racing game, but the extent to which everything is so transparently sectioned-off does feel rather contrived.

However, once again Pure wins back some brownie points with its compelling structure. Just as your bike and tricks don't actually improve in any meaningful way as you progress, after the first few introductory levels the game doesn't get much harder either. Nevertheless, the visual world map of events and the various different environments you have to drive through keep the action fresh and fluid, even if in practice driving through a snowy wasteland is much like driving through a jungle, with the snow swapped with long grass.

So, when is a racing game not a racing game? When it's Pure. Although a number of the game's key features reveal themselves to be dead ends as you progress, there's no denying that the tight structure carries the game further than the slightly prosaic gameplay really deserves.