Driving Speed

Pros

• Great online mode! Multiplayer is left out on a lot of indie games these days. It's good to see it as part of this one.
• Realistic driving. If you want an actual race with a development team that strives for a standard racing environment, here's your game.

Cons

• The graphics are a bit dated. Some new modeling for the cars would be nice.
• Continued development would make this game so much better. WheelSpin Studios, start running advertisements and host your game. Make a cash shop to get some of that microtransaction money and keep working on this. It's easy to like where it's going, though.

WheelSpin Studios brings you Driving Speed 2, a game for PC and mobile devices that allows online competition using European and Japanese cars. It offers nice range of activities, including career mode competition, credits to enter racing events and opportunities to upgrade your cars for different driving purposes.

If you're confused about the version of the game and how it fits into the Driving Speed collection, 2.0.9 is part of the Driving Speed 2 release pipeline. This version only has two tracks, but it's a good way to get a feel for what WheelSpin Studios intends for its designs. Give it a download and get a feel for some of the great racing it has to offer for such a reasonable file size.

The online play isn't connected to any large company server, but servers can be easily set up if you check online for instructions. If you or someone you know has set up a Minecraft server before, the process is fairly straightforward and should give you no trouble.

You can either use a dedicated server to handle all of the bandwidth transfers and memory or processor usage, or you can try a personal server to host the game from your own system. When you host, you can even change the rules in the race, adding in different race conditions if you want to customize competition.

The server setup for Driving Speed allows up to 11 players to join a server at once, which should be enough to allow AI players to round out the competition with your friends. You're not just stuck to a few stock vehicles; the game's server allows you to use your own customized vehicles throughout gameplay.

System requirements for Driving Speed aren't too terrible. A Windows XP machine can handle it, and future versions are available for most mobile devices. For the original game, you'll need a system with the following specifications:

• Processor: A 1.5GHz processor.
• Memory: 512MB of RAM.
• Disk Space: 250GB of hard drive space to be safe.
• Video: A graphics card with DirectX 9 capability and 256MB RAM.

Most tablets and decent phones made after 2010 are ready for such specs, but make sure to check your phone to be sure. The space requirements for mobile versions are different and less demanding than the PC version.

A lot of great work was done in the game as far as achieving realism. While it isn't exceptionally gorgeous, WheelSpin Studios has thrown out a lot of the more silly and spectacular features of flips and tricks reminiscent of those found in Burnout 2. While plenty of players love those crashes, more can also appreciate a realistic simulator.

The sound effects are just awesome. Maybe WheelSpin Studios simply excels at audio across all its games, but in this one, but the engines, breaks, passes and tire squeaks sound wonderfully true to life.

Pros

• Great online mode! Multiplayer is left out on a lot of indie games these days. It's good to see it as part of this one.
• Realistic driving. If you want an actual race with a development team that strives for a standard racing environment, here's your game.

Cons

• The graphics are a bit dated. Some new modeling for the cars would be nice.
• Continued development would make this game so much better. WheelSpin Studios, start running advertisements and host your game. Make a cash shop to get some of that microtransaction money and keep working on this. It's easy to like where it's going, though.