Of the many things that Gran Turismo 4 & 5, Forza 1, 2 & 3, Need for Speed Shift have in common (being on the car-porn end of racing games, for example), one example is that they allfeature the legendary race track and now toll road just outside the sleepy village of Nurburg.

Yes, it’s the Nordschleife, the 20km long track with over a hundred corners that - for reasons which escape me - is incredibly popular with video game racers. Being as long as it is, it requires more effort than I’m willing to put in to properly learn. Some people, I’m sure, will gleefully take up the challenge but it’s a though that I can only imagine is tedious beyond belief.

For me, the real satisfaction in racing games comes from stringing good laps together and if you have a lap time in excess of 6 minutes, the punishment for a ruined lap is simply too great.

Never the less, I shall still pick up GT5 at some point this year, just after I’m done with a few unfinished driving games. Those would be:

• Need for Speed Shift
• Ferrari Challenge
• Superstars V8
• Colin McRae DIRT (the first one)
• Motorstorm (also the first one)
• Race Driver GRID

And let’s not even get started on the Formula 1 game.