When a new developer takes the reigns of a particular series, I tend to get a little nervous. Remember how Appaloosa took over Konami's legendary Contra series and ran it into the ground on the PSOne? Rainbow Studios, a company that's worked with Sony on their ATV Offroad Fury games over the past couple of years, jumped ship when it was purchased by THQ earlier this year. Fortunately, THQ has made a wise choice with Climax, the folks behind the Moto GP games, and ATV Offroad Fury 3 is a successful entry in the series.

The game features frenzied ATV-wheelin' action across a number of levels, ranging from straight-up stadium hopping to off-road challenges. Each one will challenge your handling of the vehicle and allow you to earn upgrades and other unlockables in a number of modes. The big one for offline gaming has to be the Championship mode, which offers a number of challenges to compete in and which will unlock new goodies. There are a total of 40+ tracks in all to Challenge, so you'll find plenty to do here.

Each track is pretty well designed, as most of them are your typical variety of twists and turns, as well as hills that give you the opportunity to catch some serious air. Fortunately, Climax has backed up the somewhat typical course design with some nice environmental work, ranging from screaming crowded arenas to forest-like woods to race through, and this is just the first few levels. The riders look great, and the vehicles are very well detailed. In fact, things seem to run slightly faster than ATV Offroad Fury 2!

As far as music, the game has some decent licensed tunes. The sound effects that back them up are realistic and boom through your speakers with authority, and the sounds of authentic terrain also come in loud and clear.

But let's face it, a racing game is only as good as it handles, and thankfully, Climax has replicated the Rainbow Studios-invented gameplay very well, and even added in a couple of tweaks to make it theirs. First off, the game brings back the precise handling of the vehicles, so you have to time your jumps, landings, and turns or you'll find yourself in a predictable crash situation. Then there's the ability to get some air as you build up upon an incline, courtesy of a quick jolt of the analog stick. Hit it right and you're launched big time, giving you an opportunity to perform some sick tricks, and the trick system Climax has put into play is wonderful. Instead of just trying to pull off one trick, you now have the option to build some ultra-sick combos. The impact of hitting the ground mid-combo still remains, but timing is definitely not an issue here. The gameplay feels just right.

However, some of you may be frustrated by the game's unbalanced difficulty. Throughout the game, you'll find that the computer opponents can vary in each race. Sometimes the AI is a pushover, allowing you to gain victory with ease, but then sometimes it beats you so badly, you can't really recover from the impact and suffer 3rd or 4th place as a result. If Climax had worked on tweaking this just a bit, it would have been a nice touch.

If you've mastered the single player (and even if you haven't), definitely take ATV 3 online! The game allows you to challenge five other competitors in online races, and also supports a number of leagues and voice options to make the racing more personal. When I gave the online racing a spin, I found it to be a smooth ride for the most part, with simple connections and hardly any lag time.

In addition to all of this stuff, the game has a number of unlockable items to find, including some new parts for your ride that allow you to upgrade your vehicle for better performance, new ATV's to upgrade to for later races, some slick custom outifts for your rider, and mini-games. There's a wide variety to choose from here, but the big ones have to be Air Hockey and Soccer, which are a complete blast no matter where you're playing. Just seeing them show up in a racing game is a delight.

ATV Offroad Fury 3 isn't exactly a must have title. Its difficulty may prove to be a bit too much for those looking for a smooth ride. Also, let's face it; the formula hasn't changed much. Overall though, it's a great entry in the series and its online and offline components make it a recommended purchase for those of you who like a good racer.