It took some coercion and being loud to get attention - but we at Black Hole Motorsports have finally secured a preview version of Richard Burns Rally. With only roughly two weeks left until release, rally fans are getting quite anxious and excited about the PC version of Richard Burns Rally. We once more take on the role as your local drug dealer and supply you with the goods.

Much like many others, I thought of myself as a competent, knowledgeable (race) driver. I loaded up "Pirka Menoko", a Japanese stage. Selected 'bad' (what is bad about rain?!) weather, the Corolla WRC, and went at it. With my skills and physics knowledge, I will get into it by the end of the stage. Or so I thought.

My very first thought was: "My god, the understeer! This is insane". But, I know about understeer, and I know about the techniques one need to use to destabilize the car to enter into juicy powerslides, the fastest way to get around a slippery bend. But wait, I can't get the car to oversteer. It's too narrow, too slippery, I'm not paying proper attention to the pace notes. Why isn't left-foot braking working? Why are my scandinavian flicks resulting in the car rotating 180 degrees away from the turn every time, or just understeering straight off the turn? The lucky few times I did manage to get the car to oversteer, I tried to powerslide it. It ended the same every time - work up too much speed and go off on the outside of the turn, or have a spin. Why is it not working?!

The answer is simple, but not always so easy to admit: I was incompetent. Knowing turns out to be different from doing. Having an ego is never a substitute for experience and training. I know enough about physics and from my own toying around driving experience to recognize that Richard Burns Rally is about the most hardcore game, forgive me, 'simulator', I have ever played. Perhaps not quite as hardcore as Microsoft Flight Simulator, but it lurks close enough.

Enrolling in rally school turned out to be another eye-opener. The school itself was excellent. Getting to try ones hand on many different things. Getting to grips with the basics and a bit beyond. For example, during the left-foot braking exercise, I realized "oooh, you have to do it for a moment before it actually starts oversteering". I had for some reason always assumed the effect was instant. Lift-off oversteer turned out to be another highly useful technique. They both work better the faster you already travel. Things started coming together. My driving was not just driving next to the road half the time.

Gentlemen (and the few ladies), I have never had this much fun in a driving game. The moment I started managing to drive fast without crashing for a moment, getting the car to oversteer when I wanted, even if just a few times a stage, and all those other things, is when I became majorly addicted. The sense of accomplishment is massive. Watching a replay is incredibly enjoyable. The cars never appear to commit to anything they should not be doing. Yesterday I managed to pull off a perfect powerslide in the old 2000 Impreza on the Australian stage "East-West" (a favourite of mine), and when I saw it on the replay I just swelled with pride and cheered out loud.

All that for a powerslide? Indeed, something I see so much on TV and did so much in other games that I had stopped even think of it as anything special or spectacular, unlike most Eurosport-watching rally fans who never get enough of 'sideways action'. This simulator has instilled in me, a great deal of renewed respect for the real drivers, particularly the ones in the World Rally Championship. But also for those who drove skillfully in the console version videos they released.