Playing GT5 feels like putting on your best suit and going for a no-expense-spared meal at The Ritz. It’s elite. It’s the uppermost class of racing game ever. And we’re not just talking about the stunning graphics or super-satisfying handling of the cars. Even the menu screens have a sheen - that extra touch of class - that forces home the fact that this is no budget project by some random garage developer. This is a proud team’s work of art. Note that the chilled, jazz-style music that backs the menus sounds like the kind of tracks you’d probably expect to hear playing quietly in the background in a five-star hotel lobby.

Enough about the menus though, because it’s all about the drive. We’ve been thrashing around in seven cars in the new version of the game, ranging from the woefully average Daihatsu OFC-1, to the far more aggressive, utterly satisfying Nissan GT-R and we love it. Everything feels so brilliantly fine-tuned that, when sitting in the right car, there’s immense satisfaction to be had every time you pull the perfect racing line and throw a car around a bend on the edge of its limit. GT5 is still totally simulation, but it now feels so much more playable than the previous version of the game we saw. This is far tighter. The cars are obedient, have a good sense of speed and the most realistic feeling of weight and traction of any racing game.

The version we have boasts the same performance options of the GT HD demo - ABS, stability management and traction control - as well as a choice of racing and non-racing spec tires, which means you can set up the game to feel how you want.