I definitely think that you've done a amazing job with this wordpress site it looks really good and you have a ton of great information as well, I know I found what I was searching for anyways. Just thought I would take the time to comment, again keep up the great work

great graphic big daddy truck for all games fanatic.

I downloaded this game to keep "just incase" I have several just incases that are age specific. (Such as strawberry shortcake for the younger girls). I thought this was one of them.
Today my 14 year old nephew was bored and not getting along well with the other boys being trapped inside in the rain so I put him on a P.C. game.He chose this one and got started. I finished lunch prep and returned to find grandparents,aunt and uncles as well as the younger boys cheering him on as he played. We all eventually tried. I will play this game again as will my parents and most of the male children ranging from 6 to 16 in the family.
The only suggestion I have is to make the first level a as you play tutorial demo or learn to play mode with visual clues and instructions so that it's easier for some less advanced players to get started. The boys liked the idea of a character voice egging them on with cheers of " back up and hit it" and such but the adults thought arrows and instructions with secure screen instructions and maybe popups for tips (boys thought these would look cool as street signs)
This appealed to young and old alike and I would buy it. The box isn't catchy enough and I just got it by chance but I am so glad we did. Thank you GOTD !!



..................Moderator comment...................

Thanks for you comment. If you ever lose th game you can get an earlier version thats basically the same, but with slightly different graphics from Gametop. I've linked to it in my first post.

Absolute rubbish. P4 3ghz, 2gb mem, 250gb hd, 256mb vid and slower than a 286.Mouse crawls accross screen and wont stop on menu,when finaly into game takes an age for keys to respond and vid to play.
SCRAPPED it straight away.
Never had any problem like that before.


.....MODERATOR COMMENT.......


Did you try changing the default video driver from OpenGL to D3D (DirectX)? That may have been the problem. If you didn't you can still check the game out becasue it's free 24/7 over at Gametop. A link to the free version of the game has been posted in comment #1. It is an earlier version. the graphics have been updated in the latest giveaway version. You may find the older version works better. If not, try the driver change I suggest above. Please remember to uncheck any boxes that are checked during installation. When closing any gametop game down your browser will be opened and directed to Gametops home page. You may be able to stop the connection by configuring your firewall; however, the process is non invasive, and IMO worth the small hassle for getting the game free. I've been downloading and playing Gametop games for over three years and have never had a problem running any of them, and they have bever caused any problems. :)

@Joji: That is a pain, however, I was able to disable it once with the help of Comodo Firewall (the free one). I just modified the firewall settings so that the game was not allowed to launch other programs or something like that.

How I wish there was SOME way to install giveaways on a laptop that I cannot connect to the internet. This laptop's ethernet port is just physically slightly too large to plug the ethernet cable into & I have no way to connect it wirelessly either.

It is so frustrating that the laptop is the computer I like to use for playing games with, yet I cannot install any of the giveaway games on it simply because even though I could copy the game download to an external hdd and then install the game onto the laptop, there's no way at all I can activate it since I cannot get online with the laptop.

How I wish there was some way to be able to put these games on my laptop!!!!

....moderator comment.....

You obviously have an internet connection so why don't you download the game to the computer your using to send your comment to the game giveaway . The game is free standing

off topic (you can bin it, WR, no hard feelings)...

lol @ Joji... "lazy" WR...that was a first, joji!...

read the rabbits tale:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3577

join the forum, Joji...friendly bunch, you'll learn a lot, & the free games project (started by WR, kept running with a team) may be to your liking...

: )

Tried to install the "Game Giveaway of the Day" at 9:20 PM Sunday and it would not let me. It said "connecting to game.giveawayoftheday.com checking key availability... then a dialog box came up that said "Failed to connect. Please try again later." so, after many attempts, I was unable to install the software during the free period. :-<


......Moderator Comment........

With such a message you usually need to clear your cookies from the internet temp folder and/or reboot your modem (and router if you have one). You can get an earlier version of this game from Gametop:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/monster-truck-challenge/download.html

It's basically the same game apart from some graphic changes that I've already mentioned elsewhere in these comments section. You can see the difference between the two versions graphically by looking at the images in comment #2 The version you will get grom Gametop is the upper image. Personally I think its better because I think the blurred background spoils the look of the game (though the lighting is definitely better.

Hello admin sir, uhm you know for those gametop.com games? How do you disable the extremely annoying "once you finish playing the game, gametop's website just pop up" thing?

Any ways to disable that? Please reply, if ur too lazy, tired, busy, what ever, don't bother. :)

~Joji~

........Moderator Comment........

Hi Joji,

There's no way of disabling the browser opening up when you turn the game off. It is totally inocuous though; that is the browser isn't causing any harm when it opens up. In fact it allows you to see if Gametop have had any new games added to their extensive free catalogue. I've used Gametop games for at least three years now and never had any problems with virii or other malware.

You may want to try FreeGamePick as well.

http:\www.freegamepick.com

The choice of game isn't as extensive, but you will find more games. The same rules apply; watch out for home page hijacking and the installation of toolars during installation of any game.

For those struggling with the controls - they're not much to my liking either - a little explanation: Roll left and right don't refer to turning left or right. The vehicle can only run straight. It's roll as in roll over. The intention is to help you control the car while it's airborne, to prevent it rolling over. The direction refers to the left and right side of the screen, in other words, the back and front of the vehicle. So roll left puts weight on the back end and roll right puts weight on the front end so you can try and compensate if the vehicle is starting to nosedive or "taildive" on you. Sort of like the driver trying to shift his/her weight forward or backward to keep the vehicle level in the air, as unrealistic as that sounds. In any case, it's no miracle cure. Also, in the first giveaway on the 17th of July, one of the posters mentioned how you can modify one of the configuration files to change the weight of the vehicle(s) to improve the stability, though I didn't have much success with this.

Re: Mod's Comment for #28: You probably can change the times, though an easier way is to change how much your truck weighs. Open up config.cfg with a text editor, and change weight_div up to go faster. However, if you make it too high (I think it was 1000 or something, I forgot), your car will spin out of control and you won't be able to drive it. Even if it's not that high, your truck may still slide off the level sideways, so it's trial and error.

#17 GMMan...THANKS!!! That Totally fixed the problem!!!

Note:
If you have trouble opening the config.cfg in your MTTCE folder, click on 'pick program from list', and choose 'Notepad'

or

right click on config.cfg in your MTTCE folder, click on 'open with', and choose 'Notepad'

Thanks for the help GMMan!!!
-MM

I don't usually play this type of game but this was a real hoot to run! runs great on win7 x32. great graphics. runs really smooth. the nitro really runs out quick! getting over the cars was not easy if one has no speed!

works for me. keeper! thumbs up!

Re: Mod's Comment for #16: I was referring to the size under the Introduction heading. The size was of a previous half of the game.


.....Moderator Comment........

I usually spend part of the morning once the review has bveen posted correcting any typos and mistakes, but didn't bother this morning (as you can tell, lol.)

Thanks again GMMan :)

Simple, short time trial run game with decent enough graphics.

A fun little time killer when you have a few minutes to spare. Thumbs up as long as you are not expecting some brilliant racing game.

i STILL HAVE THE TWO ORIGINALS ON MY computer
every once in a while I'll play them.
I think I'll get this one and dump the other two so I have them all together.

Thanks

This is a piece of ...deleted.... There is no UNINSTALL. It will not run. WARNING: Do not install. Total waste of your time.



.....Moderator Comment.....

Some community members actually think its quite good. Also please refrain from using any sort of unaceptable language because we do have children checking this site out. thank you.

The game is free standing, so to delete all you need to do is delete the folder and its gone.

It is simplistic? Do you mean simple.

1. Thanks for sharing this game, I love it!
2. Thanks again for giving me hte link to Gametop.com
3. Thanks once again for giving us full version of Cover Commander!

YOU TOTALLY MADE MY DAY!!!

Thanks very much, and your name is GAOTD am I correct?
Is this your job? If it is, then whoa, must be fun eh?

~Joji~

Since my earlier comment I've tried the download from Gametop with similar results. While I was able to play the game, it was very buggy. I was unable to finish the second track in a timely manner because the game would hang up for a few seconds before continuing thereby ruining any chance of being able to earn a medal. Game deleted, again.

Sorry Hand Made, I tried to give it a fair chance. :(

thanx GGOTD ! This game is perfect for my 4 years old kid ! We takes turns until he beats me lol

This game did not last long on my machine (XP sp3). Despite meeting or exceding the system requirments the game would not play. I could select the track and car but when I got to the track the screen was black. I had the timer and medals at the top and the Nitro meter on the bottom of the screen but the rest was black. I was able to play this game the last time it was given away although it was very buggy. I enjoyed the time I was able to play but it didn't last long.

I really didn't expect much from this game anyway. As I said, the last time the game was very buggy and I deleted it. The same with the time before. IMO this is not a very well put together game and it never has been. I have never been impressed with Hand Made games. Sorry Hand Made. :( Thanks GGOTD. :)

Here's the fix for the black screen problem: Open up config.cfg in your MTTCE folder, and set blur and bloom to 0. This way motion blur and bloom are disabled. Those are DirectX 9 features, and if your graphic card doesn't support them, you get the black screen syndrome.

@wrabbit: Your size quote is off by 20 MB. Also, you're missing a quotation mark in your link to GameTop.

......Moderator Comment.........


Thanks for pointing that out GMMan,

As usual I was rewriting the review in the early hours of this morning, so I'm amazed there weren't any more maistakes. thanks for pointing out the missing " I don't understand the being out by 20Mb though. the sizes I've quoted are exactly what I downloaded then installed. :)

Hmm... This again. From the comments though the game looks like it had been updated. It's nice that the developer decided to give both parts of the game. I'll try it if I have time.

i get black background too and running xp have the directx 9.0c and went to microsoft page and downloaded the runtime setup package to check update and did install . still black in back. use intel chip went to site said current for graphics. did I run wrong package from ms.?

Wow, thank you for this!! Being a mom to all boys, this is awesome.
I think we have an older demo version on an old computer my kids loved. This one I just put on my laptop (WIN 7 64bit) and my 7 year old just played it and thought it was the greatest!

Thank you for offering kid's games!!
heading over to giveaway of the day for me now!

I just noticed number 9 Comment and i am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and it is running perfectly,
Thanks GAOTD and thanks Hand Made Games

I thought this game was quite good it has kept me and my 11 year old son busy for a few hours,
@#8 Jack, in answer to your problem DONT hold the right arrow button down and you wont spin out of control, The left and right arrows are only for forward and backward tilt as per the instructions at most they only need tapped lightly to adjust.

Looks like it could be good but when I ran it I got a Blue-Screen-Of-Death as soon as I'd selected my truck.

It will not work in win 7 64 bit with newest video drivers all i get is a black screen and music
have tried compatibility mode "XP sp2" same thing

I solidly agree with number 3.
The physics in this game are awful, you hold the right arrow and the car spins out of control and the same for the left arrow.

Larva Mortus is more worth my time.

When I start the game, I can drive but the track is dark. What could be wrong?I have the same problem as number 2


.....MODERATOR COMMENT.....

Hi Grootviske, please read my comment at #2 :)

a-squared Anti-Malware - Version 4.5

Setup.exe

Trojan.Win32.Chifrax.a!A2


what's this ?

.....MODERATOR COMMENT.....

My Kaspersy AV says its clean. I think I'd trust Kaspesky which always gets good reviews over a-squared Anti Malware. Also, the giveaway team rigorously test this software for virii and other Malware, so what you are getting is probably a false positive.

I also use Returnil Virtual System which doesn't show any problems with this software and just as a precaution I've downloaded and Installed a-squared Anti-Malware - Version 4.5 then reinstalled today's game giveaway and there was still no Anti malware alert. You may have already picked up this Trojan, which may have been hiding in another program, and has attached itself to this program when you installed it.


Still, thanks for the alert. You can never be too careful. I've rechecked my installtion and its clean.

Doesn't work on a stick with XP on a virtual Snowleopard Imac.
But i don't care since it's the only thing that doesn't do the job ;)

2 Whiterabbit aka Stephen:
you posted old screens, the game visuals are better now.

......MODERATOR COMMENT.......


I didn't have access to the latest version last night; so all of the images I've posted are from the Gametop version, (some borrowed from Gametop, plus a couplke I took myself). We will have to make do with those images as it's difficult to capture screen images from this game because every time I take an image I have to close down the game and restart.

Thanks for updating me on the changes though. It's good to know that the graphics have been improved.


Addendum:

Actually I've just installed the giveaway version and yes there are slightly better graphics, and theres also a change in the title; i.e. it says "Monster Truck Trials Complete Edition" instead of "Monster Truck Challenge", and there are some shading and motion blur effects (the motion blur effects are actually a permanently unfocused background, but it works, :) The actual in-game footage looks virtually the same to me apart from the background now being permanently blurred and theres better lighting and shading. The blurriness gives a better depth of field effect, but I think I preffered the sharper image of the original; that said, the lighting and shading effects are definitely much better. :lol:

Change of title from Monster Truck Challenge to Monster Truck Trials complete edition

.
.

Shader, lighting and blur effects added

see also the comparison images I've posted in comment #2

I found this game to be exceptionally simplistic. Press the up arrow to move forwards and occasionally press the space bar for a speed boost... and that's about it. There's no steering and completing a level seems to be a matter of choosing the right place to use your nitro.

For monster truck fans this game might keep them engaged for a while, and it may well keep younger kids amused for a few hours, but it's not for me - I'm going back to Larva Mortus.

When I start the game, I can drive but the track is dark. What could be wrong?

.....MODERATOR COMMENT.......

Sounds like you need to update your video drivers and Direct X. Depending upon which OS you are using you can update either DX9.0c (XP) DX10 (Vista) and DX11 (Win 7); plus, you need to find which chip manufacturer your computer is utilizing? You can do this by going to the Start menu and selecting Run, type in 'dxdiag' then click on okay; this opens up the Direct X diagnostics panel. Click on the display tab to find out whether you have an ATI or NVidia graphics card. Whichever you have, go to the home page of their web site (Google the type eg ATI drivers or NVidia drivers). You should be able to download the latest frivers from whichever chip you have. (They are free downloads so don't get scammed into paying for them as some unreputable sites do try and charge you for them. Let us know if updating works.

Unfortunately this game has virtually no configurable options apart from the music and sound, so the above are all I can offer as suggestions at this time. Maybe someone more knowlegeable than myself will suggest other fixes later.

:idea: Oh yeah, try changing your screen resolution. :)

Another suggestion wold be to download the version from Gametop and see if you have the same problem with that one. It's definitely an earelier version. The graphics engine looks like its been updated on today's giveaway compared to the Gametop version. You can see from the two images I've posted below that the giveaway version has a different shader model, and includes blur effects.

Gametops version - lower shader model plus no motion blur

Game Giveaways newer version - with better shader engine and updated background

Monster Truck Trials complete edition:

Introduction:

Today’s game is basically the later version of the two games given away back in July 09. We got two halves of a game over three days. Now we are getting the same version that’s always available for free over at Gametop; (See link at the end of the review). Today's download is 54.1Mb expanding to 259Mb once installed.

The default instal path is:

C:\Games\MTTCE\MTTCE

You will need to create a desktop shortcut from this as there are no shortcuts created when installing the game.

The original game which was only half of today’s offering was posted on the 17th July and only received a positive 36% of 578 votes with 78 comments, most of which were quite negative about the game. You can read all the comments HERE. Then the second half called Monster Truck Trials Arctic was given away on July 19th and received only 31% of 555 with 63 comments which you can read HERE

There is no desktop or start menu shortcut installed, so you'll need to create these yourself. If you aren't too sure how to do the start menu short cut (or the desktop) you can find a short tutorial over in the giveawayoftheday frums HERE




The Game:

The game opens up to a simple main menu with continue, (indicating that level progress can be saved), new game, options, help and exit. The options menu is very simple with only music and sound options. The help menu only describes the key bindings available in game which are:

Roll Left…………..………..L. cursor
Roll Right……………..……R. cursor
Forwards…………………..up cursor
Move Backwards…..…down cursor
Nitro………………………...Space
Pause…………………….…Esc

No explanation of power ups such as nitro or air is mentioned.

When starting a new game you have to set up your player’s profile. You can set up to 6 profiles (maybe more, but there only appears to be 6 slots). Once this is done you progress to the level selection page of which there are only 8 levels. To progress from one level to the next you have to attain a bronze medal. Once this is done the next level is unlocked. There are two vehicles to choose from, Bigfoot and Buggy (which looks more like a van than a buggy), though the buggy is locked at the beginning of the game.

The game reminds me of Trials 2: Second Edition, though Trials 2 has far more sophisticated graphics, more levels; that are much,’ much’ harder and also has an online scoring system that is worldwide. This game appears to have no high scores table. Races are based on times, but if you don't attain at least a bronze time the game is null and void, that is, there is no record of your game play. Even then the only evidence you've attained anything is through the games save system once you've attained a medal, which is automatic.

I ended up crashing on my first attempt so automatically pressed R for reset (as you do in a lot of racing games<?em>), but all that did was create some weird graphical glitch that made my vehicle fall through the levels graphic into nothingness. So if you get stuck, you have to restart the game by exiting, and starting from afresh. There seems to be some bugs in this game, but, that said, I really enjoyed playing it for a limited time. (Trying to beat my times, and progress to the next level. After failing to beat the bronze time the first full race I completed, I then managed to whiz through three levels, even attaining a silver medal on my sixth try. Unfortunately wanting to post this short review as early as possible stopped me from exploring the game further. I think the buggy will unlock once you complete all levels. I'm assuming it will have a different response (that is; react differently to the controls) when running, so effectively expands the game to 16 levels.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Video:

You can watch a couple of You Tube videos of the first few levels of game play HERE and HERE

I wasn’t able to capture any screen images during game play because every time I took a screenshot the computer froze, however, the images you see were courtesy of Gametop.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conclusion:

Although a very basic driving game, I really enjoyed playing it and think it’s got some replay value, (though not a lot, lol). Only the forwards and backwards keys are needed most of the time which makes the game relatively easy to play, though you will need to get used to using both keys in combination so as to keep the Truck relatively parallel to the ground, though crashing through the red drums that caused explosions sometimes knocked the vehicle off it’s route, so maybe you should try to avoid these if you can by using the roll right and left controls. Though as someone mentioned when this was previously given away. Every so often you are able to pick up nitro packs. Use these when you come to a steep incline as otherwise you may find you have to make more than one attempt at scaling the hill, and in this game time is of the essence. There’s also air packs which I didn’t figure out the use for (though I suspect it’s used for the tyres to make them harder, which may affect the way the vehicle lands (or bounces).

You can pick up an excellent 3D racing game from Steam called Smashing Toys for just a few dollars more than what this game costs if you were to purchase it; or for around the same price as today's giveaway, two fantastic games called Driver: Parallel Lines that’s reminicient of Grand Theft Auto or Toca Race Driver 3. From good Old Games you can get a great Stock Car Racing game called Flatout for about the same price as well; (Just Google GOG for details) To be honest, apart from Trabi Racer that we got over a year ago, this has to be one of the better vehicle based games we’ve been given to date despite its limitations. As I said above, I have enjoyed playing it and think its worth at least 6 out of 10, especially now that it has both halves in the same game. :lol:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other Info

The game is free standing which means it can be played from a memory stick or even from a CD, though playing it from a CD will probably get a lot of lag.


Music:


The in game music can be changed simply by exchanging the MP3 files found in the following folder, with whatever music you want to change them to. There are four files called Level1, Level2, Level3 and Menu. You will have to change the name of the music you are replacing them with to the same names as quoted above:


C:\games\MTTCE\Data\Music

Other free racing/vehicle based games:


Check out the Wheeled games thread for lots of free racing games. I’ve not maintained the thread for a long time, but there’s plenty to keep you occupied if your forte is racing games. Just click HERE to be redirected. You’ll also find some racing games in the free games synopsis HERE
The game is always free from Gametop. the only difference is that you have to watch out for toolbars and having your home page hijacked. It definitely has a box that needs to be unchecked otherwise you will find next time you click o your internet icon it will take you to Gametop. You just have to uncheck the small box during installation. Also, whenever you close the game down, it opens up your browser to Gametops home page. Since we last got a vehicle based game Gametop has acquired more games involving racing, for example Sky Track (similar to star racing), Nitro Racing and Motoracing. You can find all these games HERE

There's also an excellent racing game that you may like as an alternative called ATV Quadro Racing, which you can also download from Gametop HERE
. It has good graphics and the feel of the game is okay. It may be too easy for the experienced racing game fan, but if you're not a regular player you may find some challenges there. You can earn points by doing jumps and tricks while in the air. It doesn't have the same physics as today’s giveaway, but it's okay:



UPDATE:

I've just discovered that the game has been updated in a couple of ways. The author has changed the title of the game and added a restart button, which can be used at any time during a stage by clicking the Esc button. You are then given the option of ending the stage, restarting or continuing. Nice one developer, glad you listened to our feedback the first time around. :)