The Need For Speed franchise is long and respected, and it was bound to come where EA struggled for ways to renew the reserved racing mechanics of a series that had already done so much. ProStreet will certainly find ardent fans in boy racers and people who can sit through the Fast And Furious movies with an excited smile, but the rest of us will struggle to pry the queasy look from our starchy faces.

This latest iteration appears on all formats, and EA must be praised for the consistency across the different machines – each version clearly tweaked to ensure the individual system is using its strengths to the fullest. Certainly ProStreet can’t be accused of looking shoddy – the cars, tracks and environments are lush, realistic and vibrant. The damage system and physics of the cars have probably never been rivalled on the home consoles, with every little mishap showing up in the body and paintwork for you to repair later on. Smoke, mirrors, dust and scratches grab players by the eyeballs and blind them with impressive detail.

You might have noticed I rushed through the awesome visuals of ProStreet very near the beginning of this review. That’s because I wanted to capture the same audience this game is presumably aimed at (who would have given up reading by the third paragraph), and felt pretty sure that would be enough to reassure the boy-racing attention deficit sufferers that this is the racing game they’re looking for. ProStreet is feature rich, but it must be said that many of those features are based in the garage rather than on the track. There’s a temptation to suggest this would have been well titled as Need For Speed: Pro Body Shop.

All manner of customisation is available, from tweaking body parts, engine and mechanical modifications, adding body kits, respraying and testing new configurations in the wind tunnel. The sheer volume of modifications possible is essentially the crux of ProStreet, and if that’s your bag, it’ll be a long time until another game betters the weight of possibilities found here. If, on the other hand, virtual mechanics are not the reason you’d buy a racing game, ProStreet will come across as a little vulgar and callow.

While such attention has clearly been poured onto the customisation of the vehicles, it would seem consideration was spread a little thin over the actual driving. ProStreet struggles to make a decision on precisely what type of driving game it’s trying to be. While it might be a little unfair to expect EA to pigeonhole its new game so concisely, playing ProStreet for an hour certainly brought home the apparent expectation we have from driving simulations. Either they’re accurate, physics laden serious racers, or they’re go-anywhere-and-do-anything street stockcar derbies. ProStreet is somewhere in between – a racer that takes its physics too seriously, but adds a cartoonish, romantic ideal of how super-car hot rods might actually perform.

The cars almost behave like they’ve got jelly in their suspicion – quivering and wobbling around as you rev the engine, waiting to start. Then, as soon as you hit even the slightest corner at speed, the car slides out of control, insisting you drive with far too much caution to allow for any real breakneck fun. The break peddle gets more use than the accelerator. Although this does add more drama and edge-of-the-seat tension to the moments when you do get to really open it up and weave through the course, it’s too unforgiving to allow this excitement to permeate the rest of the game.

Of the different views available, the third person is without doubt the best – tracking away from the car as the speed increases, which opens up the vista quite superbly. The other modes feel incredibly limiting and obscure afterwards, but at least vision isn’t a problem ProStreet has to deal with.

Although there’s plenty of online action to be had, such as racing against friends (naturally), and sharing your customisations and cars with other drivers (a nice and unusual touch), there’s an aspect of being connected that verges on appalling. The in-game advertising and product placement is utterly shameless, with a constant barrage of opportunities to spend being thrust about the screen wantonly. All contest based unlockable features – that would undoubtedly add to the game if they were achieved by skill – are available to buy using your Microsoft Points, as are new cars, items, events and even the mobile version of the game.

Were all these profiteering elements grouped together under their own menu heading, this would be easier to avoid and therefore not so much of a problem, but laced throughout the game and clearly designed to be activated without a proper understanding of the finances attached is something this game certainly didn’t need – once you’re reluctant to start clicking buttons in a game that’s built on excessive customisation, the whole system falls apart.

ProStreet is a racing game that simply tries too hard, and while the afore mentioned boy racer might find thrills, spills and chop-shop action aplenty, I doubt this is the new demographic EA is trying to corner with this watering down of the valuable Need For Speed franchise.