Suddenly there’s a knock on the door. Even though you’re a little upset at having your ensured victory interrupted, you answer it anyway. Imagine your surprise to find Bill Gates stood there with an Xbox and plasma TV. He’s travelled back in time just to show you the wonders of Group S Challenge.

It’s all set up, the green light glows and the game boots. There’s silence, other than the sound of your jaw hitting the floor. It’s amazing, you’ve not seen stuff that looked this good even in the arcades. How can they do it?

“Incredible isn’t it?” says Bill, “those chaps over at Capcom certainly know their stuff.”

You smile and nod as if you know what he’s on about. Suddenly there’s a fizz and crackle and a blinding flash of light. A little disoriented, you slowly acclimatise to your surroundings, and realise you’re in the heady game filled world of 2003. There’s Project Gotham Racing 2 to the left, Gran Turismo 4 to the right, and R: Racing Evolution right in front of you. Group S Challenge isn’t looking so hot any more.

And that’s the problem.

There are so many driving games available today, and many are very refined. You need to be one step ahead of the pack if you wish to sell a driving game to the masses. You need to be different, or better, crisper and faster. Why then have Capcom gone for a dreary GT clone?

Group S Challenge is by no means a bad game; it’s all here and passes the checklist. Large number of real life cars? Check. Exotic race locations over a good number of tracks? Check. A career and arcade mode? Check. Going through the motions of yet another generic racer? Check.

There are two main modes to GSC; namely Arcade and Circuit mode. The former gives access to around twenty circuits and fifty or more cars. These range from the hot hatches of group C to the super cars of group S. They look gorgeous, but then you’re doing something wrong on Xbox if your models look flat. Bump mapped textures and dynamic lighting effects scare not the graphics artist and programmer on this machine.

It’s the usual stuff. Choose your car, choose your circuit. Choose time attack, race or one car series mode. Choose to start. Choose to accelerate off the line. Choose a frame rate that’s choppier than the North Sea in a force ten gale. Now why would you want to choose something like that? Sadly you don’t have a choice. When all your opponents are on screen it’s like racing in your Grandad’s Austin Allegro; it chugs painfully along. Get past a couple of opponents and suddenly it’s flying along at 60 fps. The difference is astonishing; it actually turns in to a half decent racer. Then you reach a corner.

The handling of the cars in Group S is, interesting. Capcom have gone towards the realism end of the racing genre. Brake into the corner, turn in, fish tail your way down the next straight for a bit. It’s very much like that of Sega GT 2002. For those that don’t know, this isn’t a good thing, although it’s not so bad once you get a feel for it. Things can be further improved, but only by playing the circuit mode and upgrading your motor.

Perhaps at this point it’s worth mentioning the menu system. It’s agonising. Whenever you go to a different screen, a helpful prompt is displayed, explaining what you need to do on that screen. Every time you go to that screen, even if you go to a sub menu and come back out. Even if you’ve seen it a hundred times already; and you can’t turn it off. Well you can, but only by pressing that button underneath the one marked “eject”. It’s infuriating and unnecessary.

The circuit mode is the career mode of Group S. It comprises of Championship, Line and Duel sections. Line sees you earning points for taking the correct line around a circuit. Duel sees you in a one on one race, but is not accessible initially. You need to purchase the right make of car through the championship in order to race in it.

Unlike in arcade, the selection of cars is limited to what you can afford to buy with the 50,000 DP starting cash. In other words, nothing very flashy. At least not in a game filled with super cars. Invariably, you’ll likely end up with the Mazda MX5 which you’ll take to the group C challenges.

In order to unlock the other classifications, you must complete all six circuits in the current group. Unfortunately you must do this in one sitting. You can’t select to do races one at a time and save your progress. It’s all or nothing.

Once you’ve won a few races, you’ll be able to visit the parts shop and upgrade your car. No panel beaters are required here, there’s no damaging your motor in Group S. All the usually stuff is available from engine mods to race type gearboxes. Generic workshop and garage? Check.

You will need to do this in order to unlock the other groups. It’s a challenging racer (this is a good thing). The AI is particularly tough, especially in the higher groups, but the game artificially prevents you from progressing very quickly. The cars are priced too highly, and your race winnings are too low.

What this means is you’ll be visiting the same race, over and over until you either earn enough DP to buy a competitive car, or you hit the power switch. It would be a feat of endurance worthy of David Blaine’s 44 days in a Perspex box should you stick with it. There are a lot of cars to unlock. Respect if you do manage it.

Group S Challenge is an average generic racer with little to recommend its purchase, and several problems that certainly recommend you leave it alone. The frame rate issues are annoying as is the menu system. The handling, which doesn’t feel right initially, isn’t so bad once you get the hang of it. However, the driving genre is a particularly tough market, especially when the game at the top of league is so good. Having problems like this does nothing to help sales. Don’t waste your money, go out and buy Project Gotham Racing 2 instead.