First off, I'll say that it's pretty much everything you guys have been waiting
and hoping for. You can DL the client software, HAWAII.EXE from www.sierra.com
(search around there for it), from the Sierra BBS, (206-644-0112), or from AOL
(Sierra games section type:Go Sierra). It's a self extracting Archive. Setting
it up is very easy, you just follow the onscreen prompts. Then you call a
number in Boston to get to the server.
Once on you can read messages, find out what featured races are going and DL
files, (get the Multicars.zip to all be on the same art file). You go to race
scheduler to get into races and chat with people*** around. Races are
"nominated" by selecting the track, race length, stuff like pace,
yellows,damage, night racing, etc. (You can also limit the race to a certan
setup, player skill level, etc)Then people join in if they want.
Once a race start it goes into Practice. You have 8 or 10 minutes to practice,
then it goes automatically to qualify, which there's a timelimit too. After
everyone qualifies, you have 30 seconds to load your race setup and then the
race starts.
The races are fun, and sometimes people get hot when they do some rubbin, but
there was far less deliberate trouble (almost none), than I expected. Damage
plays a big part here, and if your totalled a tow truck comes out to get you.
When people spin or crash, a spotter tells you where the trouble is. You can
preload 9 macro taunts or communications, to say while racing or type freehand
if you are talented enough.
At any given time there's 3-6 pick up races going on, 2-3 more froming, plus
some series events. Yo are rated by driving skill from 0-15. I'm not sure how
it works but the better you do (the less trouble you get into), the better
chance you have to advance. The tougher races are limited by skill so newbies
can't join in and***them up.
I found the crowd to be pretty curteous, and they kept most of the occasional
misfortunes in perspective, though there were some grumblings from the
"grognards", about all the newbies messing things up, (read:crashing into them
<g>).
For our overseas brethern, it looks like you are out of luck for a while unless
you want to call USA to race. Warps and stuff were just abouut non-existant.
Like I said, it's everything you want and expect. Hope this little review will
suffice for now.
Los
P.S.
It seems like there was pretty much always a Talladega, Michigan, or Bristol
race going on so you better work on your setups for these. Other favorites
included Atlanta Rockingham and C***te. Race lengther is usally about 5% so
qualifying is VERY important there. But if you mind your own business and don't
get collected up in on track mishaps, you should do consistantly well.