@5Game Preview: XTreme Racing: A1200/ A4000 030 required for enhanced graphics: First there was Virtual Karting which I thought was bloody crap, mainly due to the awkward controls and dark crappy graphics, although I did say that this game could be brilliant if it wasn't for those two glitches. Well, a few weeks ago, a rip off of Virtual Karting came along and before I played it, I thought. Oh Oh more crap. Well, I was in for a surprise, and a pleasant one at that. Upon loading, I found a nice intro screen which looked a bit on the @5 rendered side, followed by some great music, a sort of continuous beat thing with someone shouting "watch this", I think that was #3More>>> @5 the chorus. Xtreme racing has the ability to adapt to the users set up, so I tried both configurations, one with a standard A1200, the other with a 1200, 6Meg and an 030. No prizes for guessing which one I enjoyed the game on the most, but on the standard 020 setting, I found the game a bit of fun to play, but nothing brilliant. The graphics were dull like Virtual Kartings and the game played reasonably well, better than V.K that's for sure. The reason why the graphics are dull is because of the low detail of the graphics and because the games graphics are handled by the blitter. I then tried the 030 configuration and changed the setting to 1x1 pixel @5 mode. The graphics suddenly brightened up to reveal so much detail#3More>>> @5 I wanted to cry and hug my accelerator. All the opponent cars [5 were in amazing detail, the background was extremely clear and the road was a funny purpley, blue, grey colour which changed very nicely as if it was made of marble (like a ray-traced road), it looked very impressive. I had the frame rate at 50 frames per second which is the highest. @4 You can even chuck banana skins!! @5 That made the game run at a perfect @5 speed with no slow down at all throughout the race, honestly, it was brilliant. It's amazing how that extra power made a typical crap game with #3More>>> @5 shite graphics look brilliant, not to mention play slightly better. @5 The game sees you racing around track with several other opponents (7 not including yourself). The idea is to obviously finish first, but along the way you can pick up extra items such as banana skins, explosives, turbo boosts, gizmos which make your car jump high in to the air and a whole load of other things. To pick up these extras you must drive over a question mark and then wait and see what you've got. pressing fire will activate the extras, the downside is that you can only use it once. It has to be said that this game has a Mario Kart feel to it, but not having played Mario Kart I couldn't draw comparisons. #3More>>>@5 Xtreme racing is very difficult to get to grips with at first i.e sliding round corners, but in saying that it isn't so difficult it @5 puts you off, quite the opposite, it's so much fun trying to get those tight bends just right, that you want to keep having another go to master it. Don't you just love those, `just one more go' games? Overall, I would say that this game is going to be a cracker, it pees all over Virtual Karting, in fact Xtreme racing is what Virtual Karting should have been. I strongly advise people to buy this game as soon as it hits the shops, I have played the demo and it was brilliant, just imagine what the full game is going to be like!! #3More>>>@5 Preview scores: @5 Graphics: 92% really does set it apart from V.K Sound: 85% not bad at all, could have more variation, but this will almost certainly be cleared up on the full game. Addictiveness: 90% Playability: 89% Overall: 89% bound to be very popular, plus the fact that it offers something extra for people with accelerators. Price will be between 25 - 29 pounds.