Split/Second is, hands down, my favorite racing game ever and one of my all-time best games. I bought this game for both the PC and the PS3 even before it came to Steam and I played the hell out of both versions. This is a great game that any racing fan should play at least once and is also a great entry game for those wishing to check out the genre.

The premise of this game is, frankly, not very original but sets up the game nicely. You are a contestant on the new explosive racing show Split/Second. During the course of the "season" you will have to compete in races to advance to the next "episode." Finishing higher in events will get you more points and will allow you to progress further in the season. Each episode is capped off by an Elite Race, a race around the track against Split/Second's best drivers. Beat each episode to win the season championship. Like I said, not very original but it gets the job done.

The gameplay is very simple. You race around a track, drift around the corners and use power-ups to destroy your opponants. However, the center piece of this game is that it doesn't use traditional power-ups like those in Mario Kart or Blur. Instead, you attain energy through drifts, drafts, and air-time. Once you have enough, you can activate power-plays on the track, which usually involve destroying parts of the track to crush your rivals. Filling up your energy all the way will allow you activate the biggest power plays on the track and will also allow you to change the track's route (if the track has a route changer). Racing hard while effectively using your power plays are essential if you want to win the season championship.

In addition to the races, there are also several other types of events. The first one is Elimination. It's similar to the race, but there aren't any set laps. Instead, a there is a timer that counts down. When the timer reaches zero, the last place car is eliminated from the race. Survive all eliminations to win.

The second event is the Air Strike, where a helicopter shoots missles at you and you have to dodge the missle waves in order to gain points. The longer you last, the harder the waves become to dodge. Gain the most points to win the event.

A variant of the Air Strike event is the Air Revenge, which is kind of like a boss fight. Instead of getting points for dodging missles, you get power-play energy in addition to the energy you get from drifts and jumps. You can then use the energy to reflect the missiles back at the helicopter. Down the helicopter in the shortest amount of time to win.

The final event is by far my favorite: Survival. Here, semis are driving around a track while dropping bombs in front of you in order to kill you. As you stay alive and pass these trucks, you gain points. Passing several trucks in a row without dying will increase your score multiplyer. Get the highest score to win the event. I have sunk hours on end trying to beat my own high scores, so I think you'll get alot out of this mode.

On the down side, this game's graphics are pretty standard. It looks okay, but if you're more accustomed to the realistic racing games like Forza then you'll definately notice the difference. There are also some glitches and hitbox issues that, while not game-breaking, can lead to outburts of rage over what the heck just happened. Sometimes, though, the glitches can be entertaining in their own right (like getting killed by an explosion and restarting a hundred feet in the air). These issues, however, are very infrequent and most likely won't dampen you experience.

[EDIT] As for the controls, there isn't a manual shifting option, which I don't mind but some might be a bit miffed that this wasn't included. Also, the initial key set-up is a bit weird. You drive using the arrow keys and use the right control and right shift buttons to activate power plays. I assume this was done so that a second player could use the WASD area of the keyboard when doing split-screen. Thankfully, this is easily remediated since all inputs can be remapped in the Options menu, but it's still a bit jarring when you first start.

[EDIT 2] As I've stated below, the Online Play is no longer available as the servers have shut down. LAN and Local Multiplayer are still available, but the loss of full Online play is definately felt.

So those are the basics of Split/Second. It is very simplistic but very addictive. There's also a bit more to the game than what I mentioned, but I'll leave you to discover those on your own if you wish to pursue this game. Score: 8/10

UPDATE 2018: Please help nominate this game for The Steam Awards: Most Fun with a Machine! After all, this game is pure, cheesy, EXPLOSIVE fun.