TORCS - The Open Racing Car Simulator Reviewed by: DeathDude Positive Points: Many customizable options Many different licensed cars/tracks Game continues to be developed and improved Negative Points: No music Lots of menus to navigate Genre: Racing Size: 51.7 MB Mutiplayer: Hotseat Requirements: Minimum: 550MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, OpenGL 1.3 compatible graphics card with 32 MB RAM. Recommended: 800MHz CPU, 256MB RAM, OpenGL 1.3 compatible graphics card with 64 MB RAM. Linux, Windows 98/2000/XP, FreeBSD Questionable Content: None Editor rating: 5 Homepage: http://torcs.sourceforge.net/ Download location: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/torcs/setup_1_2_4.exe?download There quite a few open source racing projects being developed. The problem with most of these is that it takes a lot of time and effort to really put in a good amount of work and to ensure that many features are present in this type of game. What we have with TORCS is an open source racing game that has managed to pull this off and has done so very solidly. The game, which is complete but is continually being updated with new features, is already showing itself one of the best open source racing games out on the net right now. There are so many features the game has, including licensed cars, different types from NASCAR to Formula 1, to normal sports cars. There are many different tracks, many different options to choose from and even the ability to make your own cars and tracks. There are so many different features to see that it will take some time to see them all, but in this game, it delivers on every front. There are many different options you can choose from when you first load up the game. You can choose if you want to practice, maybe start racing away in a tournament and many more. You can also pick the type of car you want to race with. Be it a sports car, Formula one, NASCAR, and other types, these are all based on the licensed vehicles you have a total of 42 different ones to try your luck with. In addition, you race against your computer opponents on 30 tracks. Controls for the game are easy to set up, which you can setup in the configure players option area, then click controls and then you can setup your controls for the game. As has been mentioned, there are many options in this game, not just from the amount of tracks and different cars. What makes this game unique is you can choose different AI bots. Each bot has a number but what makes these AI bots different from other racing games is that they have been programmed a certain way by different individuals. So all the bots act differently when driving and each has there own strengths and weaknesses therefore. You can also make your own bots using C or C++. You can check out a tutorial of the process here http://www.berniw.org/torcs/robot/robot.html Graphically the game looks good overall, the environments themselves can be hit or miss at times but generally the cars themselves, and most of the environments look good. It also features some nice lighting effects, smoke, skidmarks, car damage and some more, you can see it all if you set it up in the options menu. There are numerous different cars to really experience and each one has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. You will also usually face off against racers of the same type of car you choose, usually not always so sometimes you can end up driving a formula one car against some Mercedes which is interesting to see. What was good to see in the game that had been wondering about is the fact that if you hit another car, the opponent's car will spin out! That's right no more Gran Turismo hitting a car and nothing happens business finally the true realism is there. Not like wanting to be hitting cars, just saying if ya hit a car and your going at like 200 KM per hour and your telling me you will not budge that car, yeah right some realism. Only disappointment that had was no music. Granted it is not that essential but like to listen to some type of music when racing, thankfully you can run your own media player with ease outside the game so that's still good to least have some tunes. Also menu navigation is a bit confusing at first and lots to look through but pay attention and soon you will get the hang of it. Still in the end this is probably one of the best racing games out there right now, and if you're a fan of the genre highly recommend you check this one out. Even if you are not a hardcore racing fan, this game has many different things to experience and see, so check out TORCS and race on.