SPLIT/SECOND IS RIGHT. AS I BLAST around the Downtown circuit of the arcade racer (while no doubt wearing a ridiculous expression and flailing the controller around), a shipping container suspended by a helicopter spills onto the bridge in front of me.

A better gamer may have twitched their way around the detritus within the tiny response window available. I doggedly ploughed directly into it, almost defying it to stop me. It did. Then it took a moment to elaborate on my embarrassment with a cut sequence of the destruction replayed from several angles.

The representative walking me through Black Rock Studio’s upcoming title laughed with (probably at) me. Split/Second, it turns out, is as enjoyable for spectators as it is for racers.

No doubt about it, Split/Second is visually spectacular. The game takes place on a 20km-squared map, divided into twelve courses and each distinct environment breathes scale. This comes largely courtesy of massive objects such as airport control towers, cruise liners and the aforementioned bridge, which all play a part in how each race eventuates.

The game’s hook is its “powerplays” – kart racer-like abilities that bring down the game environment on the bonnets of other racers. Players build up their powerplay bar by performing well on the race course (a good drift, dodging someone else’s powerplay) which they can then spend on two levels of attacks. These attacks are executable at particular moments indicated by a tag over the target opposing cars.

“Blue” attacks – deployed simply by hitting X on the PlayStation 3 controller – typically knock a car off course, causing the other racer to temporarily lose control and speed. “Orange” attacks reshape the race course – often opening up short-cuts – and destroy opposing vehicles, necessitating a costly reset.

Black Rock has been flipping switches on the driver model to fine tune the balance between immediate accessibility and subtlety. There’s still an arcade sense of ease and control, but fishtailing out of a loose drift, for example, is common. Similarly, nearby explosions will result in some loss of control as your car is pushed across the track. It’s a fine balance between ensuring the game is unpredictable, but short of exasperating.

The destructive “kart” elements in the game mean that the AI includes rubber banding. It’s a cardinal sin in competitive driving simulators such as the Forza and Gran Turismo franchises, but wholly necessary in a title where your car can be destroyed by another racer with the casual press of a single button.

Also for that reason Split/Second has no licensed cars. The game will feature a vehicle damage model, built panel by panel. As it turns out, car manufacturers are precious about seeing their products spectacularly torn apart by Apache helicopters and Big Rigs on a second by second schedule – and we can only speculate as to the dreary closed-door debates between manufacturer and game developer about safety ratings and how much punishment each car can really take.

Instead, Black Rock winks and deploys the old fashioned “recognisably unlike” approach: There’s a car that looks enough like a Shelby GT, but it ain’t.

The game’s well-buried premise is that you’re a competitor in a reality TV series. Offline, you’ll be playing a “season” of the show. Each episode takes place on a single circuit. To begin, you’ll have three cars to choose from, each of which have the usual variances such as top speed, acceleration, handling and, importantly, durability. You’ll need to place (or win) in each of these episodes to advance to the next, thus unlocking new circuits and awarding you with the capital to buy new cars.

Additionally, each episode also includes a range of events that go beyond the standard “eight cars competing for first” formula.

The first of these, Detonator, is a time challenge with only you racing versus the environment. All powerplays will be activated against you.

Elimination is another time challenge, but includes the full pack of cars. After one minute, the last car is eliminated, every 25 seconds thereafter, a further car is eliminated until only one remains.

Air Strike is a score-based challenge that pits you against an Apache helicopter. The more missiles you dodge, the higher your score. Three strikes and you’re out.

Air Revenge is a spin on the above. Your powerplay bar is operational and when it’s at capacity, you’re able to execute events that damage the Apache. The quicker it dies the better.

Finally, Survival mode places you and a handful of other racers on a circuit with freighter trucks. The trucks will rain down blue and orange barrels as you lap the course – hit a blue barrel and you’ll be penalised, hit an orange barrel and you’ll be wrecked.

All of these modes are also available online, and will include the usual multiplayer trimmings, such as online leaderboards.

Unfortunately with a release date so close to Bizzare Creation’s Blur, it’s possible the racing community’s attention may be divided to the detriment of both titles.

And as highly entertaining as the racing events and their extravagant powerplays are, it’s easy to speculate that with a bit of practice and some rote-learning, they’ll become predictable. Lasting appeal will have to be ascertained at release.

That said, if Detonator mode teaches us anything it’s that the abundance of powerplays on each circuit and the variation in how they impact on each race means that Black Rock could well be throwing curve balls at players for some time yet.