If you've ever toyed with the idea of getting a bigger TV screen to more fully immerse yourself in videogame reality, Acclaim's new futuristic racer might finally push you into action. Turn off the lights, turn up the speakers, lock any friends susceptible to motion sickness out of the room, and join us on tonight's "X-Play" as we see the grimy, flashy future of motorsports in "XGRA: Extreme G Racing Association" for the PS2.

Hell on (two) wheels

If videogames have taught us nothing else, we've learned that motor sport fans of the future will kick ass, take names, and repeat. Why? Because everybody knows that the racing vehicles of the future invariably will race on huge, swooping, dreamlike, vertigo-inducing tracks and pack lots of weapons.

"XGRA" is the fourth game in the "Extreme G" series, and happily, it's also the best. It's a good thing, too, as it's hitting shelves just in the wake of Nintendo's own rocket-speed racer 'F-Zero GX.'

"XGRA" is still all about futuristic bikes and dizzying tracks with almost every aspect of the game super-sized, even the roles of the riders themselves. Each of the eight riders has his or her own involved history and story line. You groom them through a career mode from rookie to ringer. The occasional performance-boosting cybernetic implant never hurts either.

Further fueling the virtual racing season drama is the game's so-called Vendetta Code. You must keep tabs on competitors, especially those you've previously ticked off, blown up, or otherwise humiliated as they'll come back to hunt you down. Apparently, one of the cybernetic implants of the future allows for a really good memory. Special mission types and objectives also crop up, such as taking out specific opponents with weapons fire in the midst of an otherwise straightforward series of races.

Gravity, schmavity

The best part of any futuristic racing game, and certainly this one, is the track design. They're massive, sprawling, vertiginous tracks, dotted with glowing accelerator pads and pick-up items. The tracks arc high into the sky and corkscrew over, around, and through both natural environs and slightly grimy sci-fi metropolis that look like something Syd Mead might see in fever-dreams.

The tracks are hard not to look at and pose a danger in themselves. Don't believe it? Just try taking in all that beautiful ambient scenery when you're screaming down a twisty track and you'll see what we're talking about. That is, just before you plow into a support strut, plasma-pump assembly, or viciously placed land mine at around 200 kph or so.

Of course, no videogame should show you something beautiful without offering you the chance to damage it in some way. Accordingly, the tracks in "XGRA" contain destructible elements that can cause dynamic changes to the racing environment. You can take out objects such as supports, pipelines, and bridges ... sometimes on purpose.

The things you see when you don't have a rail-gun

If your opponents are simply just better riders than you are, it's good to know you can always shoot them with something. The bikes in "XGRA" are bristling with primary and secondary weapons, the latter becoming available as you fly over weapon mod pickups. Primaries include mortars, dumb and smart rockets, electrical disruption fields, and cannons of both particle and slug thrower flavors.

The secondary weapons are creative and nasty. There's an energy beam that vampirically drains the energy of other bikes. Another beam extrudes at right angles and rakes anyone passing or being passed. Yet another will dump a big ol' nuke charge behind your ride for the amusement and atomization of those riders bringing up the rear. Combined with those destructible track objects, these sorts of weapons lend a strategic element and can result in all kinds of obstacle-related headaches for your opponents.

Too fast, too furious?

It's not all easy riding. You may get easily distracted by the busy head-up display as it throws a lot of data at you while you try to make turns, create obstacles for your foes, and not get blown off the track by some sour-grapes opponent you managed to piss off seven races ago. The overall racing speed is very fast, but not as quick as "F-Zero GX." While this is a good thing in general, some will just find it too fast for comfort. Chug a Red Bull and try to keep up.

Motion sickness

As players win these races-cum-running-battles, they can accumulate rewards that let them open up all kinds of unlockables. New tracks, weapons, gameplay modes, extra bikes, equipment upgrades, and rider implants go a long way toward encouraging extended play. "XGRA: Extreme G Racing Association" offers mesmerizing, high-speed racing and crazy bike-to-bike combat on zanier tracks. Play on extremely large TV screens may induce apparent-motion-related vomiting. Consider it yet another bonus feature.

"XGRA: Extreme G Racing Association" (PS2)
Also available on the Xbox