Anyway, I only managed the one mission, then just had time to discover that Vin Diesel likes standing in fountains and can duck, but cannot jump. Then it was time for Stargate Universe, so I had to stop playing.

I’ve only spent half an hour or so with the game (thanks to The X-Factor, Harper’s Island, Eastenders and season one of Dollhouse eating my weekend), but that half hour was a gigantic feast of car chase excellence, with handbrake turns around sharp corners, huge leaps from road to train tracks, jumping from car to car, ramming cops off the road and pedestrians leaping out of the way at the last second.

You know, pretty much everything that makes car chases so thrilling. If it’s the game’s aim to make you feel part of an amazing action movie, it does the job admirably. How this will translate into several hours of gaming remains to be seen, but the core chase mechanics are definitely present and correct.