Freeware PC

Along with a more famous racing franchise releasing this week Trackmania Nations Forever, comes Driving Speed 2 from developer Wheelspin Studios.

This free racing simulator features sports cars, a decent amount of tracks and LAN/online play. I'd say this game is best for a coffee break but, not much else.

The graphics aren't bad but they aren't great. The models look pretty good and the surrounding environment is rendered smoothly. One thing I like about racing games is the sense of speed, which DS2 fails to present. Sadly, no physical damage is shown on cars. The cars aren't licensed but this a free game you must remember. Licenses cost money but the models do look like their real life counter parts. Load times were also pretty fast.



Each car controls differently and in realistic fashion. This game is definitely not an arcade racer. Since I was stuck using a keyboard, the controls were frustrating but with a gamepad I am sure those frustrations can be solved easily. The AI is solid and competition can be tough sometimes.

Sound is pretty lackluster without any real "ooomph" put into the engine or collision noises. It's not something to cry over. The download and install is pretty small. The system requirements are easy on the eyes too. The menus are easy to navigate which is also a plus. The online ranking system is also there to keep track of scores and course times.

Like I said, this isn't a game I would easily become addicted too or play that often, maybe only on lunch breaks or when I have some downtime.

Check out http://www.wheelspinstudios.com/drivingspeed2/index.html for more screens.
Check out http://www.fileplanet.com/185728/180000/fileinfo/Driving-Speed-2-(Free-Game) for the download.

The Bottom Line: 7 out of 10

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Trackmania Nations Forever releases tomorrow! Stay tuned for my review!

I've been playing MMORPG's for a quite a bit now, mainly free one's that don't charge monthly subscription prices. I have found that the majority of them have wasted my time because of the unrewarding gameplay, terrible tutorials, starting difficulty, and even sometimes the translation. The list goes on I assure you. Rarely to MMO's keep me playing for more than a week.

Although I have gotten stuck on one that has been at the top of my playlist, Cabal Online. It was picked up OGPlanet early this year and I've been playing it since the open beta. I am surprised that this game still has me playing because I'm not really a MMORPGer as it is.

First let me start by saying, as far as free MMO's go, graphics usually aren't top of the line. As for Cabal, they are pretty decent. Animations are smooth, environments are detailed accordingly, and with a good graphics card I was able to pull out some nice frame rates. Monster design is not out of the ordinary but appropriate for each landscape. As for some quests I did grow tired of seeing a lot of the enemies. The armor and weapon design for each respective class is very cool, something I have come very accustomed to. If a game has cool armor, it is always something to look forward to each time you gain a few levels. By my judgment, you should be able to play this a semi-low-end PC and fast internet connection.



Control wise, the HUD is pretty helpful and not overwhelming to say the least. Hotkeys, inventory, map (GPS as the game calls it), and the quest list are all pretty standard but I have to say that it is a lot friendlier than other games. You can use the WASD keys or point and click to move which is always a plus, hold right-click and you can rotate the camera 360. And I must further note the GPS, it has the ability to tell you where your objective is and even where to the stronger enemies are. I found this very helpful since I like to wonder far and wide, I knew what areas to avoid so I didn't get insta-raped.

The quests are pretty standard (kill X amount of X monster. gather X amount of X item , talk to X NPC to complete quest etc.). Sometimes I became fed up with quests and sometimes I didn't but most of the time I find it pretty enjoyable to complete a quest.

The battle system is fast but I found it weird that you had to select the option for auto-attacking. For a good portion of the game I was constantly hitting my attack hotkey, leaving my finger sore. Experience is based upon how much damage you do to the enemy and the enemies strength. For example, If I do 50 damage, I may receive 70XP or so if the enemy is around the same level I am.

I don't want to explain the different classes and weapons because Wikipedia does a great job of doing it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabal_Online
Character creation is simple but be warned you won't start with the awesome armor you see at the character creation screen. A nice thing is that every ten levels you get challenge to take on. If you can complete the challenge, you are granted new abilities like a combo system (I find the combo system pretty hard to use) and "aura" mode which sadly doesn't last very long.

Sound is pretty mediocre. Slashing noises aren't annoying but tolerable. The music is pretty decent but I ended up turning it off and blasting my own tunes. Still I could easily play this game with no sound at all and notice no difference.



Now I did find a few problems with the game. For one there are too many bots advertising/spamming power leveling and such, something the GM's should look into. At first the game is a little laggy from loading but that's expected. Sometimes it takes 1-2 minutes for me to play lag free after server and character select. Once that's done, it's smooth sailing. Other times I have been disconnected for no reason, this has only happened a few times though.

Some more monsters would be nice. For example, there are some "+" monsters but I have only two of them in my playtime. For now there only looks like a few areas (from start at least) but on the GPS there are a bunch of "???" areas I have yet to reach.

I haven't really payed attention to the story and I'm not sure there is one, as far as I know, I am a dude going around doing favors for the local villagers for a living. But each quest has its own little background and story, always nice to know that at least some thought went into them.

Like I said, I find it very hard to play MMORPG's just because I feel like it is wasting my time and repetitive nature of the gameplay but for some reason I feel drawn to Cabal. Maybe it's because the game is very well designed? Or maybe it's because I have nothing else to play? Who knows. Either way, I was very impressed with this free MMO. There are perks to Premium account though: more item storage, faster leveling....I might have to invest.

Check http://www.ogplanet.com/ for more info, game client download, and screenshots.

The Bottom Line: 8 out 10

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Next up: Trackmania Nations Forever. Get a preview at http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32542.html
Trackmania Nations Forever is set to release April 16th 2008.