DRIV3R. Publisher: Atari. Formats: PS2, Xbox. Out now. Price: £44.99 (but should be cheaper): THE launch of Driv3r - the stupidly titled second sequel to a popular PSOne franchise - has been eagerly awaited by the gaming industry as one of the events of the traditionally quiet summer time.

Driv3r was supposed to go on sale last Friday. So how come it was already sitting at number six in the UK All-Format Games Sales charts the day before the official "on sale" date?

The launch of Atari's big hope (rumour has it the company has bet everything on Driv3r being a massive hit, just as it did last year with Enter The Matrix) was marred by in-fighting, price cutting and early selling. Some stores managed to source stock from other countries, which saw Driv3r a week earlier. What's more, they got these "pirate" copies considerably cheaper than official stock - enabling them to under-cut the official £44.99 RRP.

This situation forced the hand of bigger multiples such as Game and Game Station to bring forward their launch plans. Local price wars soon broke out. The result was chaos and the last thing Atari needed ahead of such a massive roll out.

Even without the botched launch, Driv3r was a title mired in controversy - and not for the best reasons. Anxious to build anticipation, Atari bods have drip fed the specialist mags with early playable code. Some mags have waxed lyrical about the game, despite the unfinished nature of the product they received. Others have criticised the bugs they found.

Now Driv3r is here and we can finally make our own minds up but first: a history lesson.

Before Grand Theft Auto made street crime cool and went all 3-D on us in its third instalment, Reflections' PlayStation title Driver had already been there and done it. While the original Driver was just a driving game wrapped up in an uber-cool urban crime back story, it still established the ground rules for this genre - lots of freedom, exciting car chases and violence. No wonder it was followed by GTA 3, True Crime: Streets of LA and The Getaway.

The sequel (Driver 2, out a couple of years ago) threw a bit of on-foot action into the mix but was pretty much the same as its progenitor.

Tanner is an undercover cop who lives in Miami. His apartment is straight out of Miami Vice and I kept expecting a crocodile to walk in any moment. Tanner runs missions for mob bosses in three different cities (Miami, Nice and Istanbul) as he tries to track down the mastermind behind an international car smuggling ring, attempting to pinch 40 of the world's most beautiful automobiles.

It's a straightforward plot told via flashy cut-scenes before dumping you back into the action behind the wheel. Fans of the first two games know what to expect: drive to a certain place, evade capture, shoot some fella, deliver a package, catch a fleeing perp and get the heck out before you are caught by the fuzz (man).

If you want to reconnoitre the area first, you can just hop into a car and tool around in the Take A Ride mode that is available from the start of your adventure. Good thing too, because some of your chosen cars are a bit wayward to say the least - leaning crazily around tight corners, the tyres squealing in protest. You'll need to have a good idea of when to take a wide line if you are to avoid colliding with a lamppost or fire hydrant.

I'd like to have seen a more realistic car damage model. Although your car does crumple and ultimately explode, the level of damage seems to be somewhat arbitary. For instance, piling into a lamp-post feels totally unrealistic. It just costs you time rather than totalling your motor and the way a collision sometimes flips you over is just plain daft.

Some of the computer AI is a bit on the dense side, too. It's easy to out fox in-game characters by getting too close or too far away from them.

Driv3r compensates for this by ramping up the thrills, just like a good Hollywood action movie. The music, in particular, is terrific, really adding to the excitement, and the aforementioned cut-scenes, featuring voice acting from Michael Madsen, Ving Rhames and Mickey Rourke, make you want to play on just to see the next plot instalment.

The frame rate takes a hit when a lot is happening on screen, although the loading times are tolerable for such an ambitious title.

Tanner has the choice of more than just cars. As well as the usual, he also gets his hands on hot rods, sports bikes, custom bikes, powerboats, fishing boats, go-karts and even a bus at one point. Secret vehicles are hidden throughout the game in a nod to longevity. There's also an amusing tilt at the GTA series that's a bit of an in-joke for fans of this genre. Replays can be re-edited for maximum impact and saved to memory. If you have an Xbox, these can then be posted on the web for everyone to enjoy.

Driv3r is a game you will either love or hate - there is no middle ground. Despite some of the rough edges (I wouldn't call any of them bugs) I found the game an enthralling and enjoyable adventure.

What's more, it's a triple A game that has been produced right here in the North-East (Refections is based in Newcastle) and it's not every day that we get to see such a high-profile advert for the games geniuses who are working here in our region.