Game ReviewsMoto Racer 2 from Electronic Arts
If you ever wondered what the big deal was about network games, Moto Racer 2 will answer your questions. This is an outstanding game with an easy learning curve, outstanding graphics, lots of options and, best of all, absolutely exhilarating action. People unfamiliar with network games have watched us play this in our home office and had only question: "how can I do this on my home computers?" Even people who don't like computer games, or flat out state they don't have time for such foolishness, have sat down and wheeled around a few laps of this great motorcycle game. The price is right, too. We found it for $37 + shipping at buysoftware.com. Although homePCnetwork.com has not posted a lot of game reviews, we've played enough to know that this deserves a homePCnetwork Editor's Choice award.
Overview Moto Racer 2 is an excellent follow up to the original Moto Racer. It provides two basic modes, racing "superbike" motorcycles on road courses and "motocross" cycles on off-road tracks. In either mode, you can practice, have single races and championship series. You can race in single mode or, best of all, in network mode over the internet or locally. The latter mode is the main subject of our review, of course. The game comes with a ton of options for graphics, sounds and controllers (joysticks, etc). It also provides a range of skill levels from easy with automatic transmission all the way up to hard with manual transmission. A range of bikes allow you to choose for speed, grip (handling), acceleration or braking. For each race, you can also set the distance, time of day and weather conditions. One of our favorite settings is at night in the rain. Outstanding effects if you have the right hardware. A track editor is also included to let you revise existing tracks or make up your own from scratch. This feature alone ensures that you can always find something new and different in this game for a long, long time.
Installation/Network Setup Installation of the game, like most games these days, will take up some major hard drive space. Even without copying the movies to your drive (which we think are great, but not worth 50 megabytes), the game still takes up 141 megs. However, installation is easy and we were up and running in no time. Once you start the game, your very first option is to play in a single or linked game. Click on network, and you'll be presented with options for IPX, Internet via TCP/IP (which also works over a local LAN), modem or serial connection. In our setup, we had the must luck using the TCP/IP connection for play over our local area network. However, we suggest you try both IPX and TCP/IP protocols, making sure, of course, that you have them set up on your network (for more on that, see our Ethernet how to article) With Moto Racer 2, we've had most luck playing over TCP/IP on our local LAN. As always, we suggest trying both IPX and TCP/IP to see which works best for you. We have found each game to be different in our setup. Some seem to prefer IPX; some TCP/IP. Even when we've made no changes to our hardware/software setup. After all of the players appear in the network setup screen, you can set options for the game, including track, weather and time of day, your team and the bike. and team/bike selections. Once those selections are made and all of the other players have set their options, the ready button changes to a start button. Click and you're all moved to the starting line. Depending on the speed of your network and each computer, the "synchronization" of all players make take a minute or two. You'll get a 3-2-1 countdown from the announcer and then you're off.
Gameplay Gameplay is outstanding. With little or no learning curve, you can set the game to the easiest settings, link up with another player and blast around a course in no time. The street courses seem the easiest. The off-road courses will throw a LOT of bumps at you. Many of the larger hills send you airborne. The announcer will let you know when you're in the lead, running last, setting a new lap record and other "events." At least in the easy setting, the game is fairly forgiving. You'll bounce off most walls and opponents. However, if you really slam something or someone, you can come off the bike. Luckily, the game automatically "dusts you off" and puts you back on the bike. Hit the accelerator and you're back in business. Gameplay over a fast Ethernet network is VERY smooth. Obviously, again like most games today, you'll need some decent hardware for each machine. Electronic Arts recommends (c'mon forget the worthless "minimum requirements") a P2-233, 64mb of RAM, 200mb of free hard drive space and a 3D accelerated graphics card. Both of our game machines met this recommendation so we're sure that added to the fun and the excellent graphics. Although we didn't specifically test it, we'll bet you can "make do" with a slower processor and even less RAM, as long as you've got a 3D accelerated graphics card. With original Diamond Monster (and similar) 3D add-on cards now less than $50 on sale, that shouldn't stretch the budget too much. Summary What can we say. We love this game. Clearly, racing games aren't for everyone. Then again, we can't think of anyone who didn't love watching this network game as two people went at it around the track. Nearly everyone wanted a turn at the joystick. Based on the widespread appeal, we are frankly surprised that more companies selling network kits don't include this game as a great example of how fun local network games can be. If you have a local area network and want a fun game that will take advantage of your linked computers, this is a great one to buy. Grade = A+ Details
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