Giveaway of the Day - Race: Lost Roads

Race: Lost Roads

The download is 28.2Mb in size expanding to 45.8Mb when installed. The unpacked file contains a readme, a separate activation module and a setup file. The game should install to C:Games\Race, however if you haven’t cleaned out your cookies, it might try to install to last weeks location. The game was given away about 2 years ago. You can see the comments from that period by following the link below(thanks Violet for reminding me):

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/race-of-the-lost-roads/

Introduction:

The Game:

There are two modes of play to choose from; ‘Single Race’ and ‘Championship’. The main difference between the two modes is that everything is unlocked for the single race mode, whereas in championship mode you have to work through all 17 race tracks in a particular order. You can select which race track to eace next.

There are six drivers to choose from and 10 different racing teams, each of which uses a different model of classic racing car. I couldn’t detect any difference in how each vehicle responded during a race, however I only tried a few races. Hopper, who posted later in the day has found that each car does have different attributes (thanks hopper). Different speeds and even differences in braking. If you are playing the ‘Single Race’ mode you can then select one of the 17 different race tracks from around the world, such as ‘Suzuka’ in Japan, ‘Hokkenheim’ in Germany, ‘Silverstone’ in England, ‘Montreal’ in Canada or ‘Indianapolis’ in the USA.. Each track map shows the bends that are often named after famous race drivers, plus they also show the world record speeds along each stage of the race track; however, these do not impact on the game.

Once you’ve selected your team and driver you can select the number of drivers you want in the race, there are four choices, 1, 2, 4 and 6. Choosing 1 will enable you to familiarize yourself with the race track. Selecting ‘Single Race’ gives you two laps to race whereas selecting Championship mode means you have to race 8 circuits for each race. Unfortunately a few of the menus are in Russian so I can’t give full details of the set up procedures. Apart from the number of cars you select in the race there are three other choices, but as these are in Russian. (I tried using Google’s translator, but I don’t have the Russian alphabet installed, so it didn’t work.)

The controls are keyboard, but you can use the mouse to steer. (See the conclusion for further discussion on this subject).

Blockquote>Controls;

Left Arrow………………………………….…….turn left
Right Arrow……………………………………..turn right
Up Arrow…………………………………………Accelerate
Down Arrow……………………………..……..Break
Space Bar…………………………………..……Handbrake
Tab……………………………………………..….Extra Power
F1 to F7…………………………………….……Cameras
Esc………………………………………….……..Game Menu
Mouse left and right axis……………….…Turn left or right

Features:

. 17 famous tracks
. 10 class GT cars
. Racing at different times of the day
. ODE physics engine
. Soundtrack

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Useful Information:

Images:

You can see a slideshow of over 60 images by following the link below:

http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Race%20Lost%20Roads/?albumview=slideshow

Alternatively you can see all the images on one page by clicking on the Grid button to the bottom right of the slideshow images, just above the thumbnail film strip. There’s also a slider for increasing the size of the images when in Grid view.

Music;

There are two MP3 music folders, one for the game and one for the menus. These can be exchanged for music more to your taste if you wish. You may have to rename the mp3 to the same as what you find in the folder (i.e. 001 for both MP3′s), though you may also just be able to add onewithout changing its name.

If you installed to the default location you will find the MP3′s by following the path:

C:\GAMES\Race – Lost Roads\Race\sounds\mp3\game (or menu)

System Requirements:

- Operation system: Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista
- Processor: Pentium III 600 MHz
- RAM: 256 MB
- Disk space: 64 Mb
- Video: 32 Mb
- DirectX 7

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Conclusion:

The overall look of the game is rather dated considering it was made in 2008, but that said, it’s still a decent looking arcade racer. Unfortunately what spoils the game for me is keyboard controls which are appallingly bad. Trying to turn corners is a bit of a hit or miss affair and if you crash against some of the barriers it it’s almost impossible to return to the race track . That said, I found I was able to complete races reasonably well by using the mouse to turn the vehicle left or right.

There wasn’t much difference between the look of any of the race tracks available. Basically driving around once race track looked much the same as any of the other race tracks apart from the different layouts. If the locations had been reflected by the environments you expect to see at each of these locations, the game would have been a little more interesting for me as I love racing games and enjoy the scenery that usually comes as part of the game (Fuel a open world racing game I bought last year has some amazing scenery). Sadly I think this is a poor excuse for an arcade racer. Most of the ones I’ve linked to below are easier to play and in some cases much better and a lot more enjoyable to play, (IMO).

Note to the developer:

You really need to improve the keys related to movement as well as the camera views as I found there wasn’t much difference between most of the camera angles. The graphics need updating and the menus need to be corrected so that there isn’t any bilingual sections.

In all honesty I can’t give this more than a 4.5 for game play, graphics and entertainment value; (though I’m sure some will enjoy the game). If each of the races had felt different with respect to environment, or the cars had responded differently; I reckon it would improve the game significantly. As it stands at the moment though, I don’t think its worth any money and should be given away as freeware rather than being sold.

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Other free racing/vehicle based games:

Check out the Wheeled games thread for lots of free racing games such as the online game Darkwind, or the brilliant freeware game Trackmania, or if you like the Grand Theft auto games but don’t have the originals there’s links to get the first two for free. 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

Here’s several related games that you can download from Gametop. Please be aware that during installation you may need to uncheck tick boxes otherwise you’ll find new toolbars in your browser and also it’ll be opening up to Gametop’s page when you boot up your browser. . Both are easily remedied if you do happen to miss the check boxes in your enthusiasm for getting the games installed. But it’s also even easier to avoid the problem altogether and make sure all tick boxes are unchecked. The here are a few games similar to today’s game such as City Racing and Extreme racers, theres also some top down racers, a couple of bike and ATV type racers and even a space racer. Just click on the name of the game to go to the download page. There are a few more games added since I created the list below (for example Sky Track, Nirto Racing and Motoracing , so check out the racing section as well Here There’s 29 games including online games, plus you’l find a few over at freegamepick Herehttp://www.freegamepick.com

• Mad Race

• Mad Truckers

• Real Racing

• KGB Hunter

• Street Racer

The following games are all third person:

• City Racing

• Extreme Racers

• Nitro Racers

• ATV Quadro Racing

• Motoracing

Other vehicle games:

• Monster Truck Challenge

• Star Racing

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Other free racing/vehicle based games:

Check out the Wheeled games thread for lots of free racing games such as the online game Darkwind, or the brilliant freeware game Trackmania, or if you like the Grand Theft auto games but don’t have the originals there’s links to get the first two for free. 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

Here’s several related games that you can download from Gametop. Please be aware that during installation you may need to uncheck tick boxes otherwise you’ll find new toolbars in your browser and also it’ll be opening up to Gametop’s page when you boot up your browser. . Both are easily remedied if you do happen to miss the check boxes in your enthusiasm for getting the games installed. But it’s also even easier to avoid the problem altogether and make sure all tick boxes are unchecked. There are a few games similar to today’s game such as City Racing and Extreme racers, theres also some top down racers, a couple of bike and ATV type racers and even a space racer. Just click on the name of the game to go to the download page. There are a few more games added since I created the list below (for example Sky Track, Nirto Racing and Motoracing , so check out the racing section as well Here There’s 29 games including online games, plus you’l find a few over at freegamepick Herehttp://www.freegamepick.com

• Mad Race

• Mad Truckers

• Real Racing

• KGB Hunter

• Street Racer

The following games are all third person:

• City Racing

• Extreme Racers

• Nitro Racers

• ATV Quadro Racing

• Motoracing

Other vehicle games:

• Monster Truck Challenge

• Star Racing

Hello… This is a very nice and entertaining game !
I like the graphics very much and also that of being able to play with the mouse. I had no problems with the installation or activation.
I am playing Race of lost roads on Windows Vista Ultimate 64x SP2.

Thanks.