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Ballistics is a new racing game from Xicat Interactive. It is the future and most human conflicts have been solved. People need something to occupy there leisure time and what better than to be propelled through race tracks at insanely high speeds on individual bike like racers. That is the premise and the perception of speed is there in all its adrenaline pumping vigor. In fact the distortion of time and space is so complete that I was only able to deal with it in small doses. For someone who often finds that the perception of motion given by some first person shooters is more than she can bear (Unreal Tournament for one) this game brought back much of that agony after I had gone through a few of the courses.

The physics of the game play seemed very real to me. Spinning though the courses I was finding myself twisting and turning my head and body to keep up with the acceleration that I was imagining. The graphics are very good in this game as well as the sound. First, the tracks are enclosed like tunnels. You are attached to the walls (in the first beginners tracks at least) by magnets. You have to use the heat power ups to gain speed and the cooling power downs to cool your engines to lose momentum. You also need to avoid the barriers in the tracks in order to win. You move your speeder from side to side to roll into curves to maintain speed. You do not need some kind of joystick to do this game. The controls of keyboard and mouse do quite nicely in keeping you oriented to the track. In the straight-aways you end up breaking the sound barrier. That is truly strange. All sound stops and the disorientation gets even more pronounced.

There is progression in the game to keep you interested. Several tracks in different divisions let you compete as an beginner, up to pro. Winning races gives you cash to spend in the store to get upgrades for your speeder. There are lots of things to discover with the game. There is a heads up display that you can toggle and several views that help you decide how you want to run a race. I never really understood how this was really needed to get the job done but it is there for you to play with.

This adds a nice option as you can try out different combinations to get to the ultimate bike. You can also set up several different named racers. You can take your bike and racers to compete with others in the on-line version of the game. I did not try this as I did not wish to humiliate myself in front of others. But the true race fan will probably find that to be a lot of fun.

OK. Those are the good points of the game. There are some that are not so good in my opinion. Perhaps these are problems that infect all such games but they were significant in my opinion. First, the installation was pretty easy on my machine. However, being one to pick some nits I had problems with the fact that the installation did not check my version of Direct-X but gave me the option of clicking off the installation of it. This was not a real problem for me as this machine is a test one. But if I had some other games that I had spent a lot of time tweaking to work just right I might be upset to have a game overwrite my careful installation and updates to my version of Direct-X. I went ahead and let it install the version that was shipped with the CD knowing that this was most likely to get me to be able to run the game correctly. The first time I ran it I was able to do the tutorial and get into the first race before it crashed me to the desktop. After getting the patch from the website I have not experienced that problem. When I installed it on my least capable machine I decided to click the option off as I also knew I had the latest version of Direct-X on that machine. After doing the installation the CD rom would not run. I have no clue as to why this happened. I did not diagnose it, but simply uninstalled the game and reinstalled the CD drivers. I was not a happy camper at that point. But I do know that PCs are so complicated now days that these things can happen. I have no advice for people on this but if you are interested in getting the game I advise you to install the version of Direct-X that comes on the CD.

There were other annoyances for me with this game as well. First the manual does not give you a keyboard layout and the tutorial simply talks about the throttle. As it happens, you use the left mouse button for throttle in the game. You have to keep it pressed at all times to accelerate. OUCH. Be prepared to have a sore finger. I don’t know if it is just me but I tend to press the button way too hard.

Ultimately however, I think that one will end up being disappointed with the game. First, the speeds that you race at you never really have a clue as to where your opponents are around you. In all the enjoyable racers I have played the thrill was to see a guy in another car and be aware of how your moves were being countered by the other racers. I never felt this in Ballistics.

There are lots of different courses to race. Your ability to do well as a racer depends on your learning the course well to make the most use of the power ups and power downs to compete. However, the static nature of the courses is also a big limiter in how long the game will be a challenge to you. So far I have not seen any mods out there that bring new tracks to the mix. Maybe that is contemplated but I am not aware of anything in that area.

All in all, this is an interesting game for those out there who are speed addicts. As for me, I think I will stick with something a bit less disorientating. Gameplay:

Easy contols (once you figure them out) let you concentrate on making the most of the speed that you can achieve.

Longevity:

The tracks are static. Once you learn where the powerups are there is no mystery.

Graphics:

Graphics are good.

Sound:

I thought the sound was excellent and added to the game very much. At supersonic speeds the sound going away was very strange but yet compelling.

Installation:

Installation is easy but there were a few annoying things... like installing over 300% of the game. Not checking for Direct-X. But otherwise it installed fine.

Overall:

I like racing games where I have a perception of the other drivers. I want to be able to use my intelligence to out manuever them. In this game you do not very often even know where the other drivers are just because of the speeds you are traveling at.