Admittedly, the new Season mode provides more structure than in Extreme GIII. Players now sign up to a single team and stick with them through a hierarchy of championship series. Races now feature secondary objectives which include destroying opposition and beating specific racers; the latter of these, considering you’re ideally trying to win each race, is actually somewhat redundant. In what quickly becomes an overall sticking point, XGRA only seems to deliver half the package. The game serves up its Season and Time Trial modes, and there the party prematurely ends. Likewise, weapons seem to have evolved sideways – strategically stronger, they ultimately prove limited and arguably less exciting than before.

In terms of presentation, the front-end is surprisingly dull, devoid of even the previous game’s sense of style; the work of the Designer’s Republic on the Wipeout series subconsciously undermining the entire affair. Races themselves are a similarly mixed bag, though thankfully the biggest flaw – a very unsteady frame rate - comes only as a result of unchecked ambition. Despite a few duds, most of the game’s tracks feature varied, well-rendered and often interactive environments. The inevitable light-trails and the profiles of the bikes themselves won’t surprise, but they’re nonetheless an attractive centrepiece. Post-race replays, however, remain strangely unconvincing.

The engines of XGRA still roar like those of a jet-powered motorbike should, and no one can deny the solid production of sound in the game. Curses, however, to whichever dev green-lighted the addition of mid-race banter between the games various ‘characters’. Inevitably the repeated use of the same few phrases doesn’t take long to grate, and doesn’t take much longer to become quite bloody annoying. Interestingly, two separate soundtracks are available – Rock and Dance. The latter of these is a love-or-loathe barrage of licensed house tunes; the former … isn’t very good from any angle.

Importantly, the physics within races have been refined. Unfortunately, though, it’s not enough. Extreme G-III thundered at such a pace that the game’s handling became akin to that of a pinball table, with tracks becoming ill-conceived, unforgiving chicanes. Things have certainly improved: power-slides are now entirely possible thanks to generally heavier handling and the tracks themselves are wider and slower, whilst still maintaining their often outrageous layouts. Despite the gesture of configurable weight distributions, however, the bikes still feel both twitchy and clumsy. Opponent AI is more tempered than before, but few gamers will stay long enough to perfect their grasp of the games flawed mechanics.

Certainly enjoyable, XGRA misses enough bum-notes to justify at least a rental. It’s the missed potential, however, that will haunt you after the game is returned.