Insane comes from Code Masters, a software house with a huge tradition of quality on racing titles: just remember the TOCA and the Colin McRae series, and I am sure you'll agree.

Contrary to Rat Bag's Dirt Track Racing (DTR), Insane doesn't try to debut a new racing genre and, at first sight, is just another off-road game, maybe with that extra polish that it is legit to expect from Code Masters.

Considering how awful were *all* the PC off-road titles I had ever tried, I confess that Insane was lucky to get installed on the HD. Or maybe the lucky one was me, at least after switching from Glide to D3D...

Insane's presentation video, menus and background music, are first class, and your expectations do rise when you find it is possible to set the in-car view, as the default one. This suggests a more serious software, and it is definitely preferable to the "consolesque" external perspective, that now plagues PC racing.

I am sorry if you don't agree, but it is a FACT that when you drive a car, you drive INSIDE it, not OUTSIDE it, so if you prefer simulation to bash-the-brick, then you must run away from those games who don't let you enter the vehicle...

One other good thing is that Insane lets you tweak the "realism", up to 100%, from where it should NOT ever move. With full "realism" on, if you car hits a rock the size of a cow, you'll surely roll or suffer serious damage, but don't despair because you can repair the vehicle at the touch of a button, one feature that is yet to arrive to "real life" off-roaders :).

My point is: on any racing game, always push the "realism" up to wherever allowed, knowing that, that way you'll have the best of both worlds - the most accurate physics the programmers were able to code, and the most enjoyable title, because a better handling will rarely compromise your fun.

So Insane can be played with a car handling far beyond all other off-road PC titles, but does that translate to more fun? Yes it does.

Basically, Insane lets you race against CPU drivers on wide open sceneries (forest to desert), where you aim to win random checkpoints. And if speed or obstacle challenges aren't your thing, why don't you try the "capture the flag" (CTF) version, where - a la Quake - there is a flag you must get and hold on to, knowing that everyone else is in your tail, ready to steal your precious score fountain, just by pressing the handbrake...

Insane can be played on championship or single race modes, and its multi player option is irresistible, as long as the players have similar skills.

Objectively, there is just one negative point: I found it strange that Insane runs D3D faster and much prettier, than Glide, *on a 3DFX Voodoo 5500*... This is quite strange.

So, this is a decent off-road title. The cars (plural, yes) handle great, it has superb audio (great music!), and it is different in the sense that you race on wide open areas. However, I am not sure about its longevity... I won it all on my first day...