Fast & Furious: Adrenaline

In order to get adrenaline pumping through your veins, you've got to be doing something stupendously exciting to get your heart racing.

Fast & Furious: Adrenaline might flicker up your ticker's interest thanks to scores of vehicles and venues, but its mediocre racing won't trigger an adrenaline rush.

Despite possessing all the features you'd want from a street racer, there's nothing exhilarating about the game. A bland story mode and odd physics have it rolling well under the speed limit.

You buckle up as a newcomer to the LA street racing scene, gunning for control over each of the four factions that run the city. A delightful Latina guides you on your way to the top with the hope that you can fill her brother's shoes as the city's top driver.

It's never explained what happened to her brother - is he dead, missing, had a sex change and been ostracised from the street racing community? Whatever the case, it's reason enough to hit the asphalt.

The single player Turf War mode has you competing in events to seize territory from opposing factions.

Winning a set of events not only puts the corresponding turf under your name, but it unlocks the next round of events. What's nice is that this doesn't happen in a completely linear fashion. Turf previously seized often ends up contested later on, forcing you to return to earlier stages to defend your name.

It's a great concept, but the individual events themselves aren't. Time trial runs, cop chases, drag races, boss battles and competitive circuits - all sound thrilling, yet sloppy physics temper the excitement.

Slippery handling has your vehicle sliding through turns awkwardly and flipping at odd angles. A couple of times I was able to flip a car vertically onto the front bumper and watch it skid down the street.

In addition, an annoying automatic reset feature forces your car in reverse if the game thinks you're stuck. The trouble is, most of the time you're not stuck and it would be quicker to manoeuvre yourself back into position than wait for the game to reset you.

This also kills the game's otherwise great sense of speed.

Fast & Furious: Adrenaline is lacking in other areas too. Vehicle tuning is absent, there's no upgrade system, and no way of customising any of the cars.

Points earned during events increase your overall level, but there's no depth. Unlocking a new car with each level earnt is nice, but you have no attachment to any of the vehicles because you just move up to the next one as soon as you level up.

Multiplayer - online time trials with ghost cars via Facebook and local head-to-head using Bluetooth - ensures lasting value, yet the racing just isn't exciting enough to entice extended play.