Interestingly enough, developer Black Box reckons the two versions are nigh on identical, with both using exactly the same cars, scenery and Al. It's nigh on impossible to tell whether you're playing against a console jockey or a PC racer, so congratulations must go to EA's men in white coats for pulling off such a feat.

Understandably, there was more fun to be had toying with easy' and even'-rated racers, although inexperienced drivers did seem to be a little thin on the ground. The temptation to take on some punk rated impossible' proved too great, but we were soon to regret such impudence as he sprayed our windscreen with gravel and then proceeded to lap us three times - in a two-lap race. On a positive note, there's a reliable system in place to grade players by ability. Could disgruntled LANsters be behind such stunts? A rolling message in the lobby apologises for the lack of a current league table, due to hacking. Ironically, EA's big brother approach hasn't stopped the cheating. All clever stuff, but it doesn't hide that fact that console spods at least have the option of single-telly, split-screen, whereas we get chuff all. The machine which set the race up becomes the server during the actual race. You've got to log on to EA's lobby', open an account by setting your user name and password, choose up to four opponents to race (harder than it sounds), and then log back on to post results. Yes, that means no modem-free LAN play at all.

The only way to play any NFSU game online is via its dedicated servers. How on earth does EA do it? Well, here's the catch.

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