The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Discovered John Cooney’s I Love Traffic off Armor Games’ official blog back in April this year – a a short 20-level puzzler combining elements of twitch gaming, quick thinking, pattern matching and estimation skills. I Love Traffic is refreshingly addictive for a game that contains no violence and has a soothingly pleasant colour palette to boot.

Inadequate allocation and (occassionally) criminally-neglient misplacment await you in each level as you control ALL the traffic lights in an attempt to prevent congestion while maintaining a perfect 0% accident rate at the same time.

One of the more sensible road designs

By controlling when each traffic light change from red to green and vice versa, you’ll attempt to squeeze as many vehicles across one or more junctions with every change of the traffic lights to beat the time limit and complete each level. If you think that juggling multiple traffic lights and atrocious road designs was already bad enough, the random appearance of speeding police cars, slow-moving buses and long trailers will definitely drive you bonkers. But then again, there’s nothing like seeing a lumbering trailer clear the junction moments before a police car streaks past.

The first ten levels are essentially confidence-building exercises – later levels especially the final level will really test your estimation skills and multi-tasking skills.

Play I Love Traffic at Armor Games or check out John’s other games.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Drivey – Relaxing Screensaver
Bus Driver Demo Review
Russ Schwenkler (dangeruss) – Vexel & 3D Cars and Motorcycle Art
BMW Art Cars

I’ve been a fan of rally racing games for the PC after playing Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (CMR 2.0) years ago. It was probably the first racing game that I actually played for months at end because 4WD rally cars were easier to drive and tended to spin less frequently. Each stage was a individual event which meant you competed to beat the time record alone instead of competing with other drivers at time.

Colin McRae Rally 2005 continues this fine tradition with more cars, more stages and of course more visual eye candy. Gameplay-wise, it’s nearly the same as CMR 2.0 (I missed out on CMR 3 and CMR 04 because my computer back then was crap), but it’s now only USD 9.99 as a digital download on GOG.com so you might want to give the demo a test drive.

The demo contains three stages to race in – a gravel/mud stage in th UK (Gwyddelwern), a tarmac/gravel stage in Germany (Niederlauterbach) and a snow/ice stage in Sweden (Hjalmarson). Two 4WD cars (Peugeot 206 and Toyota Celica GT4) and the classic RWD Lancia Stratos are available in the demo with an additional 31 other cars in the full game.

Aesthetically speaking, the car and damage modelling is way ahead of CMR 2.0 and the mud and rain on your windscreen when you drive around with the in-car camera is really impressive.

The graphics for the tracks themselves are a mixed bag though as most objects are 3D while others are still unmistakably 2D – the biggest eyesore being the sprites for the cheering crowds – which jar the immersion facto quite a bit. You’ll probably not notice these graphical niggles when you’re hurtling along narrow forest dirtpaths at full speed with the responsive controls though

The improved detail of each stage is not only in terms of visual quality but also translates to additional complexity for the player. You’ll really need to listen carefully to your co-driver/navigator as he reads out the turns ahead since some of the turns aren’t visible from the in-car view until you fly off the track

Like its predecessors, the only music is the whine of high powered engines and the crackle of dirt being ignited by the hot exhaust fumes when you slow down. Besides, you need to concentrate on driving and pay attention to your navigator

Download the demo for Colin McRae Rally 2005 (cnet.com mirror) or buy the full game at GOG.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Flatout Demo Impressions
Subaru, Mitsubishi & Citronen Rally Car Wallpapers
Colin McRae: DIRT / DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road Wallpapers & Screenshots
Motorstorm : Pacific Rift Wallpapers

Currently playing the demos for several of the games available for purchase at GOG.com and primarily settled on the racing games for a quick adrenaline fix – today’s all about the demo for Bugbear Entertainment’s Flatout.

Now Flatout isn’t a game that takes itself seriously – there’s the standard races both onroad and offroad but there’s also crazy stunt races which makes good use of the absurd and overexaggerated physics model and even demolition arenas (not in demo).

The demo allows you to belt up and tear up the Finchley Forest dirt track and a proper racetrack at Fairgrass Grounds (and half of the surroundings) in your muscle car. Actually, skip the part about belting up since your race driver alter-ego has an reckless disregard for safety regulations and a even more alarming tendency to crash thorough the windscreen when you collide into one of the many obstacles on track – why anyone would park a container trailer in the middle of the road is really beyond my comprehension Expect to see debris and car parts strewn across the tracks as less unfortunate (or less skilled) drivers run smack into the unmovable obstacles (others can be powered through with sufficient speed).

With over 40 deformable and destructable parts per car, it’ll take a good driver to keep his car unscathed thoroughout the entire race – I usually get my car half busted up during the scrape at the first curve jockeying for position with the rest of the AI drivers and end each race with a flaming engine. While I don’t drive in real life, the traction on gravel and tarmac surfaces feels sufficiently different to warrant different approaches on tackling the curves on each track.

There isn’t much to find fault with Flatout really – unless you’re a purist who demands realistic physics, licensed cars and simulator-like performance modelling – if you prefer fun over complete realism in your racing games, you’ll probably enjoy Flatout. My only grouse is that I would love to play the game with an incar camera view but Flatout doesn’t offer that.

Download the demo for Flatout (Fileshack mirror) or buy the full game as a DRM-free digital download at GOG.com for 5.99 USD.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Test-Driving a T-72 in Iron Warriors
Be a Despatch Rider!
Bus Driver Demo Review
Wangan Midnight : Maximum Tune 2 Soundtrack
Initial D Opening Cinematic

© NHN Corp

Toon style cars adorn the wallpapers for Drift City, NHN Corp’s MMO racing game – there’s the always recognizable Mini Cooper and a selection of muscle cars with a seemingly out of place Vokswagen Type 2 van.

© NHN Corp

And a SUV (A Jeep Cherokee XJ perhaps?) I’m not sure that any self respecting racer would pick that over the other offerings like the two below. The yellow one is definitely a Dodge Viper, not too sure about the red one.

© NHN Corp

And let’s not forget the obligatory pretty young thing

© NHN Corp

Download these wallpapers at the official Drift City site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Motorstorm : Pacific Rift Wallpapers
Initial D Opening Cinematic
Be a Despatch Rider!

I enjoy browsing through Corgi‘s catalogues of die-cast models particularly the trucks, armoured vehicles, warplanes and cars (in that order). The PDF versions of their downloadable catalogues may be on the low-res side but it’s the only place I get to see British trailer trucks painted in colourful livery of their respective companies – brightly-painted trucks are something that we don’t get to see here in Singapore.

© Corgi

A Scania R of Eddie Stobart Ltd. (January – June 2008 Catalogue)

© Corgi

A Limited Edition model of a Coles & Sons Scania T Topline (Oct 2007 Catalog)

© Corgi

A collection of Mini Coopers in their racing livery. (Dec 2007 Catalogue)

© Corgi

A Mercedes Actros with a Volvo Excavator (2007 Catalogue).

© Corgi

Corgi doesn’t only do diecast vehicles – the 1:32 scale Forward March series includes metal miniature soldiers like this Gurkha (above) in WWI kit wielding the famous kukri.

There’s also some curios in the pages of these catalogues too. A couple of them below.

© Corgi

A experimental camouflage scheme for the A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka “Warthog”) trialled by the 57th Tactical Training Wing in the late 1970s. (January – June 2008 Catalogue)

© Corgi

A German Junkers Ju-52 (the standard transport aircraft of the WWII Luftwaffe) in the colours of the pre-WWII British Airways. (Sep 2008 Catalogue)

Download Corgi’s catalogues from the Corgi Media page.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Wallpapers for UAZ Racing 4×4 Series
Sakai Heavy Industries Papercraft
BigLorryBlog
Russ Schwenkler (dangeruss) – Vexel & 3D Cars and Motorcycle Art
John Wallin Liberto’s WWII Military Aviation Art