There is large scope for destroying objects on sidewalks, but you can't kill anyone - people always dart for cover

Eat your hearts out David Soul, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. Thanks to the creators of Destruction Derby, we can all play cops and robbers in '70s America...
Gideon Kibblewhite

Ladies and gentlemen, come and get behind the wheel of a huge, sleek, gas-guzzling monster of a car and enjoy first-hand the antics, thrills and spills of any classic car-chase movie you care to mention! That means riding pavements, scattering pedestrians, booting cardboard boxes down shady alleyways and slewing round corners at breakneck speed.

Leave all manner of pile-ups behind you and generally revel in all the other perks the undercover cop enjoys when engaged in high-speed pursuits through the thronging streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami or New York. And all you need to do to join in this high-octane, supercharged madness is go out and buy a copy of Driver.

With Driver the thrill of the chase is heightened by the game's superb narrative - you'll actually feel like a movie star after a spin down one of SF's huge, rolling streets. The opening animation sees you going undercover to bring in the notorious Mafia boss, Mr Big. Once you've proved yourself in an admittedly ridiculously difficult driving test in an underground car park, you're out on you own and on your first mission as a driver for the mob...

And what glorious fun the missions are, too. You choose each one from messages left on the answering machine at your seedy rented apartment. You must complete 25 out of a possible 44 missions which vary from driving across town to pick something up (without attracting the attention of the cops or shaking the explosives you're carrying on the back seat) to racing across town against the clock without stopping for anybody - traffic, police or bad guys.