Menneisyys
12-24-2006, 01:51 PM
SuperCars (2) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Cars)? Does it ring a bell? Gangsta Race (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/052006MIPSGames.asp)? Dreamway (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1393&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)? Ever wanted to play something like them – but something MUCH better, with freaking good visuals, sound effects, animation, in-game music, incredibly good controls and, last but definitely not least, possibly forthcoming multiplayer support?
I’ve often reported on (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=k-rally&sentence=AND) the current state of the K-Rally project. Thanks to the excellent folks at Infinite Dreams (iDreams for short), who provided me a pre-release beta version of the Pocket PC version of this EXCELLENT racing game, I’ve been playing this title for a week (played it almost entirely through) and am absolutely astonished. Now that I’ve also received the final, commercial version, I’ve quickly played it through to see how it has changed; I've also used this chance to update my remarks / screenshots.
http://idreams.pl/gfx/db/000178.jpg
(Note that this review is FULL of in-game screenshots - I've made some 60 of them. Make sure you click the links to see them - I haven't directly included them in the article to keep its size down.)
Best Pocket PC game of 2006?
I don’t think I exaggerate when I state K-Rally is by far the best Pocket PC game released in 2006. Yeah, SkyForce Reloaded (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=SkyForce+Reloaded&sentence=AND), the best top-down shooter for the Pocket PC, is a very close second and there have been some other outstanding titles too; for example, Enslave (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=Enslave&sentence=AND) in the action, Edge (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=349&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) in the RPG and, for example, some new 4Pockets (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=4Pockets&sentence=AND) games in some other categories, but I’d say K-Rally is even better. (Actually, I’ve thought about whether Edge or K-Rally should be called THE best PDA game of 2006 as both of them are of really high quality and a lot of work has been spent on both of them. Then, I’ve chosen K-Rally because Edge is, originally, a Palm OS game.) Finally, I don’t think desktop conversions like the otherwise great Broken Sword (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=Broken+Sword&sentence=AND) or some Zuma ports (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1062&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), should be compared to native PDA titles like Edge, Enslave, K-Rally or SkyForce Reloaded. After all, they're ports "only", with most of the work (artwork, graphical, music, sound, map, conversation etc. resources and scripts) previously created for the desktop version.
Gameplay
This top-down 2D (note that it has MANY 3D effects, which will already be known to you if you have played SkyForce Reloaded) racing game is pretty simple by default: you race, possibly fire at other cars to slow them down (or, in cases, to destroy them), collect experience points and money (and different powerups from the road), buy upgrades to speed up your car / make it more durable etc. If you’ve ever played the, technically, much-much more inferior Gangsta Race (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/052006MIPSGames.asp) and Dreamway (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1393&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), you already know what the weapons are for :)
You start the game with setting up a profile (this, incidentally, can be done any time if you, for example, find the Easy / Normal level too easy and would like to continue with the Hard level without finishing the easy/normal difficulty levels first). First, you enter your name (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyCreateProfile.jpg) and, then, the difficulty level must be selected. The Easy (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyEasy.jpg) and Normal (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyNormal.jpg) difficulty levels are very easy and don’t really present much challenge – at least in my opinion. Therefore, you may want to start with the Hard (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyHard.jpg) level at once. After this, you’ll need to select whether weapons are allowed (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyWeaponsSelect.jpg). I strongly recommend enabling them – without them, the game becomes much more boring. Also, having weapons greatly enhances the strategies you can use to beat your opponents.
After all this, you start with 0 eXperience Points (XP’s). You need to collect these points to unlock different modes: with 0 points, you can only use the Tutorial mode. After finishing the tutorial, you’re given 100 XP’s and must select Quick Race to further increase your XP's – you’ll need 600 for the next step, the Championship mode.
After you’ve collected 600 XP’s, you may want to go straight to the Championship as it’s, in general, much more challenging than the plain Quick Race. Championship, depending on the difficultly level you’ve selected upon creating your profile, will offer 4, 6 or 7 leagues, each consisting of several (between, in general, 6 and 10) races.
After successfully finishing a league (if you're the first; if you aren't, you'll need to start from the beginning of the given league), you’re assigned a new car as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/kRallyBestCar.jpg) (showing the best car given at the end of the sixth league on Hard level.) With this car, the maximal speed will be about 155 Mph (without turbo) with all the upgrades (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyEverythingAtMax.jpg). (The latter, however, will cost you an arm and a leg – for example, the best engine upgrade costs $30000, which is pretty complicated to collect even in Hard mode and the last league, where the prize of the first is $3000-$3500. Compared to this speed, the speed of the car you’re given in the first league of all the three levels are really disappointing – about the half. Fortunately, as has already been mentioned, you aren’t forced to play through the easy / normal leagues if you go straight for the Hard difficulty level.)
After collecting 5000 XP’s, the Career mode will also be unlocked. It’s pretty hard even in Medium difficulty level (much harder than the Championship mode) so I really recommend playing through the Championship mode first, even if you’ve already passed the 5000 XP threshold (playing the entire Championship league through gives you some 30 000 XP’s). Also see the "Best practice" section below for more tips to follow.
Finally, there’re Random tracks (requiring 18 000 XP’s so you’ll need to play through at least both the easy and normal leagues – if you start with the former) where tracks are generated in a completely random way and a Ghost mode (requiring 3000 XP’s to unlock), which is great for practicing (it helps you in fine-tuning your controls by showing the route you've followed in the last lap) but is pretty boring and non-challenging otherwise.
Availability
The game is available for purchase at ClickGamer (http://clickgamer.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=7159&section=PPC) and Handango (http://idreams.pl/buy.php?idProduct=5&idPlatform=2). The homepage of the game is here (http://idreams.pl/product.php?idProduct=5) - really worth keeping an eye on it to see whether there're upgrades. Also, following the official forum (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewforum.php?f=2) is recommended.
It doesn’t have a trial version, which is pretty understandable, given that a simple dumbed-down (for example, only the first league – with a crappy, slow car; it’s only at later leagues that you’re given faster cars) would have been a severe impact on the demo – only based on my experiences with the slowest car, I wouldn’t be sure I’d buy the game. The same stands for in-game music: it’s only by playing some leagues completely through that you’ll see most leagues have at least four different, very cool and original music tracks. With an one-league demo, demonstrating this would be impossible. All in all, I understand why the iDreams folks haven’t come up with a demo / trial of the game.
In general, I’m strongly against Pocket PC developers not releasing trial versions – sometimes I even disqualify these titles from my full roundups. The case with iDreams, however, is entirely different – they produce really high-quality games and can be safely purchased without your getting, later, disappointed. I’m pretty sure your WM2003, WM2003SE or WM5 Pocket PC will run the game without problems. I haven’t had speed problems, only on my 195 MHz, non-overclocked HTC Wizard when using the stylus to control the car (as has been pointed out in many of my game reviews, the Wizard is especially sensitive to stylus usage - if you do keep the stylus pressed on the screen, the overall speed of the device decreases considerably). However, overclocking the Wizard (see this (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=518&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) for a tutorial) to 240 MHz certainly helped this - then, the game became quite playable, even with the stylus. Note that in this case you can also disable extra visual effects in the Options menu to further increase the speed.
Also, make sure if you have a WM5-upgraded hx4700 or Dell Axim x50(v) you don’t install it into the main storage, only on a storage card. The reason for this is that the game often writes to state / config files in the home, which, if it’s in the built-in flash ROM, will, sooner or later, result in a time-consuming compaction. Please also see the comments here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1528&c=1&page=1&more=1&tb=1&pb=1) on this matter.
Compatibility
The game is compatible with all WM2003+ devices (not compatible with previous OS’es; that is, don’t expect PPC2k2 compatibility, unlike with, say, earlier builds of the original SkyForce). I haven’t had any problems on any Pocket PC’s I’ve tested the game on: the Pocket Loox 720, the Dell Axim x51v, the HTC Universal (all VGA devices), the QVGA HTC Wizard (running at 240 MHz to avoid stylus speed issues), the HP iPAQ 2210 and the WM5 Airis T620 (QVGA devices) and, finally, the WM5 HP iPAQ hw6915 (a square-screen device).
It runs in both portrait and landscape modes, using landscape orientation (with a game area wider than the height) in the latter. The ability to work in both cases is of great help for users that have Pocket PC models with a not very good screen, polarization-wise (for example, the x50v/x51v (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=578&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)). Kudos to iDreams for this too!
It also supports vibrating; I’ve, however, after playing the game on the HTC Universal and HTC Wizard, haven’t seen it being used at all – not even at running on mines. I don’t know how it’s supposed to work. In the official iDreams forum, this S60 thread (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewtopic.php?t=1157) states you need to enable vibration on your S60 smartphones. On my doing so on my PPC PE’s (by switching off sounds entirely), I couldn’t make it work either. Hope this minor glitch will be addressed by the developers.
Note that the game does NOT use high resolution on VGA devices, despite what the blurb at ClickGamer states (“Pocket PC VGA resolution (fullscreen 640x480)”). It uses pixel doubling. However, if you're a VGA owner, this shouldn’t stop you from giving it a try - the visuals are really-really good even with pixel doubling!
Controls
Fortunately, everything related to controlling (including manual turbo mode, which isn’t really needed in the easy and normal difficulty level but you MUST use it in the last two leagues of the hard difficulty level) is accessible on the screen, by using the stylus. As a rule of thumb, you will want to control the car by the “analogue” stylus as it offers far better controllability (except for, sometimes, the car’s being hidden under the stylus) than the “digital” hardware D-pad.
You’ll only need the latter (if you don’t reconfigure your buttons) for shooting rockets and putting down mines. If your Pocket PC has a jog dial, you will want to play the game in Portrait mode, use the stylus to control the car (even including the manual turbo mode) and use the jog dial for the two kinds of weapons – it’s FAR easier to control the car this way than using the D-pad. On my Pocket Loox 720, which has a jog dial, it’s a treat to play the game using the jog dial to shoot / mine.
Unfortunately, the excellent PPC PE utility SmartSKey (see this (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=do_you_have_a_htc_wizard_do_you_want_to&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) for more info) doesn't work with title either, as with most other games.
However, the game does support the volume slider of some? most? Pocket PC phones if you explicitly redefine the game keys in Options. Just double-click Rockets and press the volume slider upwards (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/KRallyWizardVolumeSlider.jpg) and do the same with Mines and downwards. This will work independent of SmartSKey and makes gaming much easier on a lot of devices; for example, the HTC Wizard.
In-game tips; some stuff you need to be aware of
The game offers numerous (there’re about 33-34 of them and they’re shown in a sequence) tips upon starting to race. Some of them are just ads (like this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTip1.jpg)), some general wisdom and / or silly stuff (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips2.jpg) (also see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips5.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips8.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips13.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips14.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips9.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips26.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips27.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips28.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips29.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips30.jpg) and this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips31.jpg)) , some more useful ones (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips3.jpg) (also see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips4.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips6.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips10.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips11.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips12.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips15.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips16.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips17.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips18.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips19.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips20.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips21.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips22.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips23.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips24.jpg) and this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips25.jpg)), some mention future (not yet existing) upgrades (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips7.jpg).
There are, however, two tips (mostly shown in the introductory, obligatory Quick Race) that can cause misunderstandings. One of them (see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyQrace.jpg)) states weapons slow down your car. This is REALLY misleading and is not at all true. I’ve even done some speed tests. With the fastest car & all the possible upgrades, the car is capable of about 155 mph, with fully loaded weapons AND without them.
The other (see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyQrace3.jpg)) states you can earn 200 XP’s with reading the manual. This is pretty misleading too (at first, I’ve also searched hard for this in order to collect the 600 XP needed for unlocking the Championship mode as quickly as possible) – the PDF manual can only be read offline and you can’t make the game give you the 200 XP in any way. Yes, you’ll need to work through some Quick Races to gain access to the Championship mode.
Bets
You will be offered bets several times during championship (example here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyBets.jpg)). In most cases, I was able to win these bets. Don’t forget to select the largest available bet by pressing the Right arrow on D-Pad. Don’t be afraid of the tip “Don’t bet too much, otherwise, you may get into debt” too much – you'll never have negative balance because you can't bet more than your currently available cash.
Sometimes you’re even asked to kill another player. In these cases, as this task isn’t very easy, you’ll be offered ten times more money (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyKillAnother.jpg) and the target car will always be denoted with a red arrow (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyKillAnother2.jpg) so you'll always know what car to shoot rockets at / drop mines in front of.
Playability, chances
Without any hacks, I had no problems (I didn’t need to restart a league) up until the sixth league (there are seven of them) of the hard level. I, however, had to restart these two leagues several times to get thru (particularly the last one). They are really though – even with money hacks. Without them, it’s almost impossible to remain the first.
Hacking
It’s possible to hack the save file to increase your money (yeah, it’s sometimes VERY handy to have a very strong coder / programmer background ;) ). Then, it’ll be possible to buy all the upgrades at once as can be seen for example in this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyEverythingAtMax.jpg). I don’t, however, publish how this should be done as I don’t want people upload “hacked” results to the online high score ranking (http://www.idreams.pl/krally/highscores/records.php). Don’t e-mail me on this matter either – mails asking for the hack will end up in the bin :)
Path finding algorithm – some minor flaws
Unlike most other racing games, there are no natural (terrain) barriers between (even close) roads. Therefore, the game has some built-in protection against users that want to cut corners to gain some advantage. This, in cases, can cause some problems because of a small flaw in the algorithm. You must be aware of this flaw to avoid being placed back on the road, which, in some case, when every second counts, can even lead to your losing a race.
The algorithm works as follows: when you just leave the road (not very far) but there isn’t anything between you and the road, nothing happens. However, if there’s a terrain obstacle (except for the three flags, which can also be seen in the bottom right corner of this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTHreeFlags.jpg)) between you and the road, independent of its size, you’ll be replaced on the road. This may be somewhat annoying on straight roads where you drift off the road, without any intent to cut corners. The iDreams people may want to consider reviewing the algorithm or completely getting rid of it and implementing terrain obstacles to avoid players’ cutting corners.
Note that, before I’ve found out how the algorithm works, I’ve only had two or three cases where it caused some headaches; therefore, it’s not that big a problem. When (and if), however, the multiplayer add-on arrives, this may become an issue – after all, in multiplayer, even the slightest algorithmic flaws can be deadly. (See the example of, say, Blizzard’s Starcraft on the desktop PC, Mac and N64.)
Best strategy?
You can gain some REAL advantage if you always make sure you have at least one mine before starting a race. Then, just drop it, right after starting and getting in front of (some of) them, to get rid of at least one of your opponents for the rest of the game because opponents you take out so early in the game will battle with other opponents (which slow them both considerably down) to get further, not you.
After that, if you do maneuver well, these opponents won’t cause you any problems. Also try to put mines in front of the car that is just behind you.
The same stands for rockets – try to shoot them from as close as possible. For example, if a faster car has just overtaken you, you’re still very close to him to shoot him. The same stands for when you run into him: you can even use rockets while your cars are connected.
Using this strategy, I’ve managed to defeat many opponents even when I used much slower cars than theirs.
As far as the career mode is concerned, the best startegy to follow is just staying on the easy levels (you won't be able to beat almost anyone on Normal / Hard maps with the default car, not even fully upgraded) until you collect 25000 bucks to buy the fastest, most expensive car. With that, even Hard maps / races will be a breeze and you'll be practically unbeatable, even with a non-fully-upgraded car.
To effectively collect money on the Easy maps, I recommend either the $50 map or, if it's offered (sometimes only a $300 race is offered, which isn't as lucrative as the $50 / $100 / $200 races), the $100 / $200 races. They offer the most for the first place-winners.
Boss levels, game state backup
There are boss levels at the end of all the three difficultly levels (that is, after the first 4, 6 and, finally, 7 leagues). As far as both the easy and normal bosses are concerned, I’ve found them pretty easy to defeat. If you, however, are afraid and don’t want to replay the entire easy / normal / hard league (if you lose three times to the boss in turn, you will need to restart the entire set of leagues - nt just the last one, as is the case with not being the first after a standard league), you may want to consider backing up the profile0X.sav file (where X is the number of the used profile; 0 if you use the first profile in the row) in the home directory of the game (\Program Files\ Games\KRally if you install the game to the default built-in storage) before the game and, if you are defeated and would need to replay the entire league, just copy back the file.
Documentation
The game has an excellent online documentation (http://files.idreams.pl/KRally/krally_manual_ver_1.00.pdf). It’s really worth reading.
The game, as has also been pointed out, also has a(n obligatory – you must make it through in order to start earning Experience Points) built-in tutorial (screenshot 1 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial1.jpg), 2 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial2.jpg), 3 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial3.jpg), 4 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial4.jpg), 5 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial5.jpg), 6 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial6.jpg), 7 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial7.jpg)), which explains the basics.
Multiplayer
The authors may release a multiplayer update in the near future. It’ll be, as usual with iDreams’ games, multiplatform – that is, you’ll be able to play your mates with non-Pocket PC’s (as could you play them in earlier iDreams multiplayer-enabled games). Also, as far as the Pocket PC version is concerned, they promise support for both the Widcomm and Microsoft Bluetooth stacks (unlike the previous two multiplayer-enabled titles), which means it’ll be compatible with 99.9% of current Pocket PC’s.
Compared to Gangsta Race (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/052006MIPSGames.asp) / Dreamway (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1393&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)...
(Please follow the links to see a review of these two games.)
I don’t think it’s even worth comparing K-Rally to these old(er) titles. There is just no comparison: K-Rally simply blasts them both away in almost every respect (except for, maybe, the, on VGA devices, high resolution support of Dreamway. The latter, however, doesn’t add much to the overall gameplay and enjoy factor of the game). This will be particularly true when multiplayer support is indeed released.
Pros
Even better than SkyForce Reloaded, the, up to now, best action game for the Pocket PC
Astonishingly nice visuals: fog, 3D effects, tracks on the road etc.
Unique, really good, not repeating (but, unfortunately, mono) retro music tracks in most leagues (I have counted at least four of them – there may be even more, I’m not sure) – as was the case with SF Reloaded
Very cool sound effects: laughing, explosions and even ambient sounds like birds etc.
VERY fast: it was only on really low-end Pocket PC’s (for example, the cheapo Airis T620) that I had to decrease the graphics detail. The game was extremely fast and responsive on all other devices with all effects enabled
Multiplayer, when and if it comes, will add even more to the game! Multi-platform multiplayer (as is the case with earlier iDreams titles), support for both the Microsoft and the Widcomm BT stack, four simultaneous players etc.
Incomparably better than ANY top-down 2D racing games on the Pocket PC
(the Finnish flag in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyFlag2.jpg), in addition to the Polish, American and English one ;) Yeah, the iDreams folks do pay tribute to some of the superpowers of rallying ;) Also, I’ve seen a Finnish name in the Championship opponent list – Marko. I wonder if, given iDreams’ strong ties to the demoscene, it has anything to do with Marko Mäkelä (http://www.ktverkko.fi/~msmakela/index.en.html), the well-known Finnish Commodore scener)
Cons
Sometimes annoying pathfinding algorithm flaws
No trial version
Verdict
I don’t think you should miss this title. It’s a must – it’s REALLY good, far better than, I’d say, most other Pocket PC games. Give it a try even if you aren’t a racing / action fan and/or didn’t like Gangsta Race (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/052006MIPSGames.asp) / Dreamway (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1393&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) much: I’m pretty sure you’ll be satisfied.
Other links
See other remarks on the game at AximSite (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=144188), iDreams' forum (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewforum.php?f=2) (for example, this thread (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewtopic.php?t=1160)), here (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?p=1262898), here (http://www.mobilitysite.com/forums/games/32941-review-k-rally-best-game-2006-a.html) and here (http://www.mobilitysite.com/forums/games/32907-best-game-2006-k-rally-out-symbian-s60-v3-ppc-version-will-released-soon.html).
Finally, don’t forget to check out my other game reviews here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&cat=36). I also recommend the game reviews in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs) by Ben Stanley (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=27&cat=259), Al Harrington (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?cat=272) and Eric Pankoke (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?cat=278).
UPDATE (12/25/2006): AximSite frontpage (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=144286)
I’ve often reported on (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=k-rally&sentence=AND) the current state of the K-Rally project. Thanks to the excellent folks at Infinite Dreams (iDreams for short), who provided me a pre-release beta version of the Pocket PC version of this EXCELLENT racing game, I’ve been playing this title for a week (played it almost entirely through) and am absolutely astonished. Now that I’ve also received the final, commercial version, I’ve quickly played it through to see how it has changed; I've also used this chance to update my remarks / screenshots.
http://idreams.pl/gfx/db/000178.jpg
(Note that this review is FULL of in-game screenshots - I've made some 60 of them. Make sure you click the links to see them - I haven't directly included them in the article to keep its size down.)
Best Pocket PC game of 2006?
I don’t think I exaggerate when I state K-Rally is by far the best Pocket PC game released in 2006. Yeah, SkyForce Reloaded (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=SkyForce+Reloaded&sentence=AND), the best top-down shooter for the Pocket PC, is a very close second and there have been some other outstanding titles too; for example, Enslave (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=Enslave&sentence=AND) in the action, Edge (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=349&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) in the RPG and, for example, some new 4Pockets (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=4Pockets&sentence=AND) games in some other categories, but I’d say K-Rally is even better. (Actually, I’ve thought about whether Edge or K-Rally should be called THE best PDA game of 2006 as both of them are of really high quality and a lot of work has been spent on both of them. Then, I’ve chosen K-Rally because Edge is, originally, a Palm OS game.) Finally, I don’t think desktop conversions like the otherwise great Broken Sword (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?s=Broken+Sword&sentence=AND) or some Zuma ports (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1062&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), should be compared to native PDA titles like Edge, Enslave, K-Rally or SkyForce Reloaded. After all, they're ports "only", with most of the work (artwork, graphical, music, sound, map, conversation etc. resources and scripts) previously created for the desktop version.
Gameplay
This top-down 2D (note that it has MANY 3D effects, which will already be known to you if you have played SkyForce Reloaded) racing game is pretty simple by default: you race, possibly fire at other cars to slow them down (or, in cases, to destroy them), collect experience points and money (and different powerups from the road), buy upgrades to speed up your car / make it more durable etc. If you’ve ever played the, technically, much-much more inferior Gangsta Race (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/052006MIPSGames.asp) and Dreamway (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1393&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), you already know what the weapons are for :)
You start the game with setting up a profile (this, incidentally, can be done any time if you, for example, find the Easy / Normal level too easy and would like to continue with the Hard level without finishing the easy/normal difficulty levels first). First, you enter your name (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyCreateProfile.jpg) and, then, the difficulty level must be selected. The Easy (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyEasy.jpg) and Normal (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyNormal.jpg) difficulty levels are very easy and don’t really present much challenge – at least in my opinion. Therefore, you may want to start with the Hard (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyHard.jpg) level at once. After this, you’ll need to select whether weapons are allowed (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KTallyWeaponsSelect.jpg). I strongly recommend enabling them – without them, the game becomes much more boring. Also, having weapons greatly enhances the strategies you can use to beat your opponents.
After all this, you start with 0 eXperience Points (XP’s). You need to collect these points to unlock different modes: with 0 points, you can only use the Tutorial mode. After finishing the tutorial, you’re given 100 XP’s and must select Quick Race to further increase your XP's – you’ll need 600 for the next step, the Championship mode.
After you’ve collected 600 XP’s, you may want to go straight to the Championship as it’s, in general, much more challenging than the plain Quick Race. Championship, depending on the difficultly level you’ve selected upon creating your profile, will offer 4, 6 or 7 leagues, each consisting of several (between, in general, 6 and 10) races.
After successfully finishing a league (if you're the first; if you aren't, you'll need to start from the beginning of the given league), you’re assigned a new car as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/kRallyBestCar.jpg) (showing the best car given at the end of the sixth league on Hard level.) With this car, the maximal speed will be about 155 Mph (without turbo) with all the upgrades (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyEverythingAtMax.jpg). (The latter, however, will cost you an arm and a leg – for example, the best engine upgrade costs $30000, which is pretty complicated to collect even in Hard mode and the last league, where the prize of the first is $3000-$3500. Compared to this speed, the speed of the car you’re given in the first league of all the three levels are really disappointing – about the half. Fortunately, as has already been mentioned, you aren’t forced to play through the easy / normal leagues if you go straight for the Hard difficulty level.)
After collecting 5000 XP’s, the Career mode will also be unlocked. It’s pretty hard even in Medium difficulty level (much harder than the Championship mode) so I really recommend playing through the Championship mode first, even if you’ve already passed the 5000 XP threshold (playing the entire Championship league through gives you some 30 000 XP’s). Also see the "Best practice" section below for more tips to follow.
Finally, there’re Random tracks (requiring 18 000 XP’s so you’ll need to play through at least both the easy and normal leagues – if you start with the former) where tracks are generated in a completely random way and a Ghost mode (requiring 3000 XP’s to unlock), which is great for practicing (it helps you in fine-tuning your controls by showing the route you've followed in the last lap) but is pretty boring and non-challenging otherwise.
Availability
The game is available for purchase at ClickGamer (http://clickgamer.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=7159&section=PPC) and Handango (http://idreams.pl/buy.php?idProduct=5&idPlatform=2). The homepage of the game is here (http://idreams.pl/product.php?idProduct=5) - really worth keeping an eye on it to see whether there're upgrades. Also, following the official forum (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewforum.php?f=2) is recommended.
It doesn’t have a trial version, which is pretty understandable, given that a simple dumbed-down (for example, only the first league – with a crappy, slow car; it’s only at later leagues that you’re given faster cars) would have been a severe impact on the demo – only based on my experiences with the slowest car, I wouldn’t be sure I’d buy the game. The same stands for in-game music: it’s only by playing some leagues completely through that you’ll see most leagues have at least four different, very cool and original music tracks. With an one-league demo, demonstrating this would be impossible. All in all, I understand why the iDreams folks haven’t come up with a demo / trial of the game.
In general, I’m strongly against Pocket PC developers not releasing trial versions – sometimes I even disqualify these titles from my full roundups. The case with iDreams, however, is entirely different – they produce really high-quality games and can be safely purchased without your getting, later, disappointed. I’m pretty sure your WM2003, WM2003SE or WM5 Pocket PC will run the game without problems. I haven’t had speed problems, only on my 195 MHz, non-overclocked HTC Wizard when using the stylus to control the car (as has been pointed out in many of my game reviews, the Wizard is especially sensitive to stylus usage - if you do keep the stylus pressed on the screen, the overall speed of the device decreases considerably). However, overclocking the Wizard (see this (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=518&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) for a tutorial) to 240 MHz certainly helped this - then, the game became quite playable, even with the stylus. Note that in this case you can also disable extra visual effects in the Options menu to further increase the speed.
Also, make sure if you have a WM5-upgraded hx4700 or Dell Axim x50(v) you don’t install it into the main storage, only on a storage card. The reason for this is that the game often writes to state / config files in the home, which, if it’s in the built-in flash ROM, will, sooner or later, result in a time-consuming compaction. Please also see the comments here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1528&c=1&page=1&more=1&tb=1&pb=1) on this matter.
Compatibility
The game is compatible with all WM2003+ devices (not compatible with previous OS’es; that is, don’t expect PPC2k2 compatibility, unlike with, say, earlier builds of the original SkyForce). I haven’t had any problems on any Pocket PC’s I’ve tested the game on: the Pocket Loox 720, the Dell Axim x51v, the HTC Universal (all VGA devices), the QVGA HTC Wizard (running at 240 MHz to avoid stylus speed issues), the HP iPAQ 2210 and the WM5 Airis T620 (QVGA devices) and, finally, the WM5 HP iPAQ hw6915 (a square-screen device).
It runs in both portrait and landscape modes, using landscape orientation (with a game area wider than the height) in the latter. The ability to work in both cases is of great help for users that have Pocket PC models with a not very good screen, polarization-wise (for example, the x50v/x51v (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=578&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)). Kudos to iDreams for this too!
It also supports vibrating; I’ve, however, after playing the game on the HTC Universal and HTC Wizard, haven’t seen it being used at all – not even at running on mines. I don’t know how it’s supposed to work. In the official iDreams forum, this S60 thread (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewtopic.php?t=1157) states you need to enable vibration on your S60 smartphones. On my doing so on my PPC PE’s (by switching off sounds entirely), I couldn’t make it work either. Hope this minor glitch will be addressed by the developers.
Note that the game does NOT use high resolution on VGA devices, despite what the blurb at ClickGamer states (“Pocket PC VGA resolution (fullscreen 640x480)”). It uses pixel doubling. However, if you're a VGA owner, this shouldn’t stop you from giving it a try - the visuals are really-really good even with pixel doubling!
Controls
Fortunately, everything related to controlling (including manual turbo mode, which isn’t really needed in the easy and normal difficulty level but you MUST use it in the last two leagues of the hard difficulty level) is accessible on the screen, by using the stylus. As a rule of thumb, you will want to control the car by the “analogue” stylus as it offers far better controllability (except for, sometimes, the car’s being hidden under the stylus) than the “digital” hardware D-pad.
You’ll only need the latter (if you don’t reconfigure your buttons) for shooting rockets and putting down mines. If your Pocket PC has a jog dial, you will want to play the game in Portrait mode, use the stylus to control the car (even including the manual turbo mode) and use the jog dial for the two kinds of weapons – it’s FAR easier to control the car this way than using the D-pad. On my Pocket Loox 720, which has a jog dial, it’s a treat to play the game using the jog dial to shoot / mine.
Unfortunately, the excellent PPC PE utility SmartSKey (see this (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=do_you_have_a_htc_wizard_do_you_want_to&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) for more info) doesn't work with title either, as with most other games.
However, the game does support the volume slider of some? most? Pocket PC phones if you explicitly redefine the game keys in Options. Just double-click Rockets and press the volume slider upwards (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/KRallyWizardVolumeSlider.jpg) and do the same with Mines and downwards. This will work independent of SmartSKey and makes gaming much easier on a lot of devices; for example, the HTC Wizard.
In-game tips; some stuff you need to be aware of
The game offers numerous (there’re about 33-34 of them and they’re shown in a sequence) tips upon starting to race. Some of them are just ads (like this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTip1.jpg)), some general wisdom and / or silly stuff (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips2.jpg) (also see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips5.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips8.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips13.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips14.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips9.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips26.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips27.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips28.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips29.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips30.jpg) and this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips31.jpg)) , some more useful ones (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips3.jpg) (also see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips4.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips6.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips10.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips11.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips12.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips15.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips16.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips17.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips18.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips19.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips20.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips21.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips22.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips23.jpg), this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips24.jpg) and this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips25.jpg)), some mention future (not yet existing) upgrades (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTips7.jpg).
There are, however, two tips (mostly shown in the introductory, obligatory Quick Race) that can cause misunderstandings. One of them (see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyQrace.jpg)) states weapons slow down your car. This is REALLY misleading and is not at all true. I’ve even done some speed tests. With the fastest car & all the possible upgrades, the car is capable of about 155 mph, with fully loaded weapons AND without them.
The other (see this (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyQrace3.jpg)) states you can earn 200 XP’s with reading the manual. This is pretty misleading too (at first, I’ve also searched hard for this in order to collect the 600 XP needed for unlocking the Championship mode as quickly as possible) – the PDF manual can only be read offline and you can’t make the game give you the 200 XP in any way. Yes, you’ll need to work through some Quick Races to gain access to the Championship mode.
Bets
You will be offered bets several times during championship (example here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyBets.jpg)). In most cases, I was able to win these bets. Don’t forget to select the largest available bet by pressing the Right arrow on D-Pad. Don’t be afraid of the tip “Don’t bet too much, otherwise, you may get into debt” too much – you'll never have negative balance because you can't bet more than your currently available cash.
Sometimes you’re even asked to kill another player. In these cases, as this task isn’t very easy, you’ll be offered ten times more money (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyKillAnother.jpg) and the target car will always be denoted with a red arrow (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyKillAnother2.jpg) so you'll always know what car to shoot rockets at / drop mines in front of.
Playability, chances
Without any hacks, I had no problems (I didn’t need to restart a league) up until the sixth league (there are seven of them) of the hard level. I, however, had to restart these two leagues several times to get thru (particularly the last one). They are really though – even with money hacks. Without them, it’s almost impossible to remain the first.
Hacking
It’s possible to hack the save file to increase your money (yeah, it’s sometimes VERY handy to have a very strong coder / programmer background ;) ). Then, it’ll be possible to buy all the upgrades at once as can be seen for example in this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyEverythingAtMax.jpg). I don’t, however, publish how this should be done as I don’t want people upload “hacked” results to the online high score ranking (http://www.idreams.pl/krally/highscores/records.php). Don’t e-mail me on this matter either – mails asking for the hack will end up in the bin :)
Path finding algorithm – some minor flaws
Unlike most other racing games, there are no natural (terrain) barriers between (even close) roads. Therefore, the game has some built-in protection against users that want to cut corners to gain some advantage. This, in cases, can cause some problems because of a small flaw in the algorithm. You must be aware of this flaw to avoid being placed back on the road, which, in some case, when every second counts, can even lead to your losing a race.
The algorithm works as follows: when you just leave the road (not very far) but there isn’t anything between you and the road, nothing happens. However, if there’s a terrain obstacle (except for the three flags, which can also be seen in the bottom right corner of this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTHreeFlags.jpg)) between you and the road, independent of its size, you’ll be replaced on the road. This may be somewhat annoying on straight roads where you drift off the road, without any intent to cut corners. The iDreams people may want to consider reviewing the algorithm or completely getting rid of it and implementing terrain obstacles to avoid players’ cutting corners.
Note that, before I’ve found out how the algorithm works, I’ve only had two or three cases where it caused some headaches; therefore, it’s not that big a problem. When (and if), however, the multiplayer add-on arrives, this may become an issue – after all, in multiplayer, even the slightest algorithmic flaws can be deadly. (See the example of, say, Blizzard’s Starcraft on the desktop PC, Mac and N64.)
Best strategy?
You can gain some REAL advantage if you always make sure you have at least one mine before starting a race. Then, just drop it, right after starting and getting in front of (some of) them, to get rid of at least one of your opponents for the rest of the game because opponents you take out so early in the game will battle with other opponents (which slow them both considerably down) to get further, not you.
After that, if you do maneuver well, these opponents won’t cause you any problems. Also try to put mines in front of the car that is just behind you.
The same stands for rockets – try to shoot them from as close as possible. For example, if a faster car has just overtaken you, you’re still very close to him to shoot him. The same stands for when you run into him: you can even use rockets while your cars are connected.
Using this strategy, I’ve managed to defeat many opponents even when I used much slower cars than theirs.
As far as the career mode is concerned, the best startegy to follow is just staying on the easy levels (you won't be able to beat almost anyone on Normal / Hard maps with the default car, not even fully upgraded) until you collect 25000 bucks to buy the fastest, most expensive car. With that, even Hard maps / races will be a breeze and you'll be practically unbeatable, even with a non-fully-upgraded car.
To effectively collect money on the Easy maps, I recommend either the $50 map or, if it's offered (sometimes only a $300 race is offered, which isn't as lucrative as the $50 / $100 / $200 races), the $100 / $200 races. They offer the most for the first place-winners.
Boss levels, game state backup
There are boss levels at the end of all the three difficultly levels (that is, after the first 4, 6 and, finally, 7 leagues). As far as both the easy and normal bosses are concerned, I’ve found them pretty easy to defeat. If you, however, are afraid and don’t want to replay the entire easy / normal / hard league (if you lose three times to the boss in turn, you will need to restart the entire set of leagues - nt just the last one, as is the case with not being the first after a standard league), you may want to consider backing up the profile0X.sav file (where X is the number of the used profile; 0 if you use the first profile in the row) in the home directory of the game (\Program Files\ Games\KRally if you install the game to the default built-in storage) before the game and, if you are defeated and would need to replay the entire league, just copy back the file.
Documentation
The game has an excellent online documentation (http://files.idreams.pl/KRally/krally_manual_ver_1.00.pdf). It’s really worth reading.
The game, as has also been pointed out, also has a(n obligatory – you must make it through in order to start earning Experience Points) built-in tutorial (screenshot 1 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial1.jpg), 2 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial2.jpg), 3 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial3.jpg), 4 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial4.jpg), 5 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial5.jpg), 6 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial6.jpg), 7 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyTutorial7.jpg)), which explains the basics.
Multiplayer
The authors may release a multiplayer update in the near future. It’ll be, as usual with iDreams’ games, multiplatform – that is, you’ll be able to play your mates with non-Pocket PC’s (as could you play them in earlier iDreams multiplayer-enabled games). Also, as far as the Pocket PC version is concerned, they promise support for both the Widcomm and Microsoft Bluetooth stacks (unlike the previous two multiplayer-enabled titles), which means it’ll be compatible with 99.9% of current Pocket PC’s.
Compared to Gangsta Race (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/052006MIPSGames.asp) / Dreamway (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1393&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)...
(Please follow the links to see a review of these two games.)
I don’t think it’s even worth comparing K-Rally to these old(er) titles. There is just no comparison: K-Rally simply blasts them both away in almost every respect (except for, maybe, the, on VGA devices, high resolution support of Dreamway. The latter, however, doesn’t add much to the overall gameplay and enjoy factor of the game). This will be particularly true when multiplayer support is indeed released.
Pros
Even better than SkyForce Reloaded, the, up to now, best action game for the Pocket PC
Astonishingly nice visuals: fog, 3D effects, tracks on the road etc.
Unique, really good, not repeating (but, unfortunately, mono) retro music tracks in most leagues (I have counted at least four of them – there may be even more, I’m not sure) – as was the case with SF Reloaded
Very cool sound effects: laughing, explosions and even ambient sounds like birds etc.
VERY fast: it was only on really low-end Pocket PC’s (for example, the cheapo Airis T620) that I had to decrease the graphics detail. The game was extremely fast and responsive on all other devices with all effects enabled
Multiplayer, when and if it comes, will add even more to the game! Multi-platform multiplayer (as is the case with earlier iDreams titles), support for both the Microsoft and the Widcomm BT stack, four simultaneous players etc.
Incomparably better than ANY top-down 2D racing games on the Pocket PC
(the Finnish flag in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/122006Krally/KRallyFlag2.jpg), in addition to the Polish, American and English one ;) Yeah, the iDreams folks do pay tribute to some of the superpowers of rallying ;) Also, I’ve seen a Finnish name in the Championship opponent list – Marko. I wonder if, given iDreams’ strong ties to the demoscene, it has anything to do with Marko Mäkelä (http://www.ktverkko.fi/~msmakela/index.en.html), the well-known Finnish Commodore scener)
Cons
Sometimes annoying pathfinding algorithm flaws
No trial version
Verdict
I don’t think you should miss this title. It’s a must – it’s REALLY good, far better than, I’d say, most other Pocket PC games. Give it a try even if you aren’t a racing / action fan and/or didn’t like Gangsta Race (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/052006MIPSGames.asp) / Dreamway (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1393&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) much: I’m pretty sure you’ll be satisfied.
Other links
See other remarks on the game at AximSite (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=144188), iDreams' forum (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewforum.php?f=2) (for example, this thread (http://forum.idreams.pl/viewtopic.php?t=1160)), here (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?p=1262898), here (http://www.mobilitysite.com/forums/games/32941-review-k-rally-best-game-2006-a.html) and here (http://www.mobilitysite.com/forums/games/32907-best-game-2006-k-rally-out-symbian-s60-v3-ppc-version-will-released-soon.html).
Finally, don’t forget to check out my other game reviews here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&cat=36). I also recommend the game reviews in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs) by Ben Stanley (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=27&cat=259), Al Harrington (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?cat=272) and Eric Pankoke (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?cat=278).
UPDATE (12/25/2006): AximSite frontpage (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=144286)