Gran Turismo began the revolution
Videogames can put you in the pilot seat of a bomber, into fights with dragons and warp you into deep space.
They can also make you a God, a surgeon and a leader of brutally efficient Special Forces units.
It's odd then, that games simulating driving cars are so popular, given it's something most of us are forced to do every day anyway.
But driving in games has only recently had anything at all to do with what takes place on roads.
Check out the top ten next-gen driving games gallery
Ageing favourites like Lotus Turbo, Top Gear or dear old Pole Position feel absolutely nothing like controlling a car, fun though they are in their own peculiar ways.
It was only after the emergence of Gran Turismo in 1998 that racing started to resemble real life.
Since then driving games haven't looked back, and while the Ridge Racer and Out Run franchises make benefits out of handling models favouring ludicrous power slides over realism, other race 'em-ups have followed their own paths to attract gamers in an every more densely populated market.
Burnout encourages appalling risk-taking in races on crowded city streets rather than the sterile confines of a race track - the polar opposite of Formula 1 games; a genre that is appropriately dull and braking-orientated to represent a sport that barely even allows overtaking.
