When Acclaim lost the rights to Criterion's Burnout series, the publisher could have been forgiven for bowing out of the street racing genre completely. But no, just 24 hours after word reached us that Electronic Arts would be publishing Burnout 3, Acclaim confirmed that it had secured the worldwide publishing rights to the previously unannounced Juiced from UK-based Juice Games. We've recently had the opportunity to spend some quality time with the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox preview builds of Juiced, and we're pleased to report that we've not only found the game to be enjoyable, but we have also found it to be surprisingly varied.

Acclaim's hitting the streets with its new racer, Juiced. Hit the "stream" option for a larger view.

Almost all of our time with Juiced has been spent playing its all-consuming career mode, partly because that's where you'll get to purchase and customize your own licensed vehicles, but mainly because progressing through it is the only way to unlock some of the game's most innovative features. There's so much to the Juiced career mode that it's difficult to know where to start talking about it; perhaps the beginning is as good a place as any. You'll commence your Juiced career without any wheels of your own, but after borrowing a car, betting on, and preferably winning your first race, you'll find that you have more than enough funds at your disposal to purchase your first car. In fact, there's a good chance that you'll have upwards of $75,000 to play with the first time you visit the garage. However, it's worth noting that the running costs for vehicles in Juiced can be pretty high--particularly if you're prone to damaging them and you don't win many races.

All of the licensed cars available to you initially will be "class 8" 100-199 bhp models and, although your funds will easily pay for enough modifications to move your first vehicle up a class, doing so will only make the game harder by forcing you to compete against better cars and by excluding you from the relatively easy class-8 events. The randomly generated and very limited selection of cars you're offered at the start of your career will most likely include at least one that's brand new, one that's used, and, if you're lucky, one that's sitting on the scrap heap after sustaining damage in an accident. Given that you'll almost certainly want to change the paint job when you start customizing your chosen vehicle, the only real difference between new, used, and damaged vehicles appears to be that the new ones cost a lot and often come with pearlescent paint; used ones are cheaper with regular paint; and damaged ones, even after you pay to have them repaired, cost you next to nothing.

Once you've taken your first car into the workshop, and it's in a good state of repair, you have the option to customize both its appearance and its performance. Cosmetic upgrade options for autos in Juiced include front and rear bumpers, hoods, wheels, side skirts, rear spoilers, neons, tinted windows, decals, and the like. The options feel a little limited compared to those in Need for Speed Underground, particularly those for decals, but there are more than enough licensed items and paint colors available to ensure that your vehicle is one of a kind.

Performance upgrades are also relatively limited in terms of variety, and each available part is rated either as stock, level 1-3, or as a prototype. Stock parts are those that are fitted as standard; level 1 parts become available to purchase as soon as you own the car; and more advanced parts for any given car are unlocked as you progress through the game and continue to drive it. Performance upgrade options in Juiced include induction systems, suspension, exhausts, gear ratios, brakes, tires, turbo kits, nitrous injection systems, and variable ride height and fine-tuning settings. The Juiced garage will also allow you to test your car using a dynamometer that automatically measures its top speed, power, and torque.

Many of the cars in Juiced are barely recognizable once they're fully customized.

You'll also have the option to test-drive your vehicle at any time if you want to see how noticeably your modifications are improving its performance; but be warned that any damage you sustain during a test-drive will have to be repaired (and paid for) before you're allowed to race. You'll have to pay to refill your nitrous oxide tanks anytime you use them, and since the tires and brakes suffer wear and tear every time you drive, you'll also want to keep money aside for swapping them out when necessary. In short, running a Juiced car can get pretty expensive. With that said, the relatively realistic and extremely varied handling of each and every car in the game can take some getting used to, so it's definitely worth taking any new or recently customized ride for a quick spin before you put your respect and your bank account on the line by racing in it.