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MOTOR CITY ONLINE

MOTOR CITY ONLINE is EA's latest entry into the wide world of online gaming communities. At first glance, it looks as though they have entered a racing game into what has primarily been composed of RPG-style titles, such as Diablo or Ashron's Call. After playing for a short while however, you will realize that MOTOR CITY ONLINE is a bit more than a standard racing game.

Before you can get behind the wheel you must create your persona. About twelve different character models are available to you, all straight out of Happy Days. Then, after creating your own personalized license plate, off to Motor City!

You start off with a paltry amount of money and the option of three different cars. None of which are quite what one would call "cherry." Every week you get a paycheck that grows larger as you level your character, which you do by simply winning races; the higher the rank the more experience you obtain.

For quite some time you'll find yourself racing in time trials and sponsored races with a company-sponsored car against other people driving similar cars in order to get enough money and high enough level to actually start competing in more interesting races. Since these aren't your cars, you don't suffer the consequences of flipping three times while trying to bump your opponents into a wall.

Eventually, after many, many hours of tedious circuit racing, you'll find yourself with enough money to start creating a beautiful hot rod the likes of which this world has never seen! Or just something that goes real fast and impresses the blonde chick you've had your eye on since junior high. Whatever fits your needs.

This is where the real game shows itself. With over 60 different vehicles from the muscle car era to play with, and about 2,000 different modifications available, more of your time will be spent deciding what to spend your hard-earned cash on than actually racing your finely tuned beast. The online community allows you to trade parts or even cars with the other people online, and usually there are quite a few people looking to trade at all hours of the day and night.

Once you finally have a car worth racing, more options are opened up to you. You can race in a circuit, drag race, or street race with your other fine citizens. And don't think you just race for money either. If you can't front the cash but feel like you can still cut it, maybe you've got the guts to put a pink slip up for the chance to compete. No matter what you are racing for, be careful; if you flip your car end over end you're going to have to pay the bill.

This game plays and feels more like a RPG than a racing game and the portion that is actually racing isn't really that spectacular. The graphics are not by any means great, although that is to be expected with an online venue such as this. As for the control, it would be a good idea to invest in a gamepad for this one, or better yet a steering wheel. Tight turning by tapping the arrow keys isn't the best way to play a racing game.

The biggest problems with MOTOR CITY ONLINE are the glitches they failed to address upon release. Some of these problems have been fixed, like the incompatibility with certain video cards, but others are still quite prevalent. You may find yourself in a race, blowing by the competition that you thought was out of it because of a crash, only to find yourself two laps behind a couple of minutes later. For the most part, these glitches don't interfere with the game, but they make themselves known just often enough to be annoying. The first time you log in expect a few minutes of patch downloads, along with a quick check every time after that. They are fixing them, but slowly.

Although it stalled off the line with the numerous bugs, MOTOR CITY ONLINE might yet become a success. Despite the ten-dollar monthly fee, the population of this online community is growing constantly because of its nicotine-like addiction and competitive appeal. Personally, I'd rather be tweaking real cars than virtual ones, but due to the fact that I don't quite have the funds to own a '69 Shelby Cobra, I'll settle for this at the moment. Before you know it people will be selling their Motor City cars on Ebay, alongside the Diablo weapons and EverQuest characters. Who knows, maybe you can make a living playing video games.