The controls are pretty intuitive and easy to use. Steer with the left thumbstick, accelerate with the right trigger, and brake with the left trigger. Shift with the A and B buttons. According to the Atari rep, you will also be able to use third party driving peripherals with the game, for those who like that extra touch of realism.

As fun as first person mode is, racing games are of course, meant to be played with (rather against) others. In RACE Pro you can race with up to 12 other people via Xbox LIVE. There is also a Hot Seat feature, a “hot potato” type of minigame in which you hand over the controller to someone else for him or her to drive for a short time. I don’t quite understand the point behind this and didn’t get to see this in action at the demo.

I cannot really say how well RACE Pro will do. I know that Achievements can be earned, and I’m hoping that this won’t involve a mind-numbing activity such as driving around the same course 30 times (I’m looking at you, Grand Tourismo). We’ll see when the game comes out in November.

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