Carmageddon

The Good
Well, it is very addictive at first (not as much as GTA though...)

The Bad
For one, the 3D engine is horrible. Really horrible. Slow even on a P2-350, and doesn't even look good enough to justify it. The controls are really, REALLY bad and even the pedestrians' screams aren't enough to satisfy the unwary buyer.

The Bottom Line
Leave it alone, and get it over with.

The Good
I loved the fact that you can run over innocent civilians. Simple but great idea. And you can run em over and get all kinds of special bonuses, like the splatter bones and the bonus for artistic impression etc etc. I really laughed my *ss off when i first played this game, I never had so much fun.

I loved the music. Normally I don't like rock/metal music that much, but this really adds up to the "stress killer" level of the game.

I really loved the variety of vehicles in this game. From basic sedan's with the grill removed to beetle's with spikes on top of them, bulldozers, bigfoots.... you name it, it's in the game.

I also love all the characters that drove the vehicle's. Their mugshots at the beginning of the race is all you'll ever see of them in the game, but it's always fun to know who you are racing against.

The characters can also challenge you to change positions at the start. You can accept it or "chicken out" on them.

The cops are really annoying in this game, but when you waste a cop in this game, you'll have an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. Lovely!

The Bad
Well there are some lame things about this game. First of all, you can always splatter a pedestrian by bumping lightly into them. Doesn't matter how hard you'll hit them, they'll die anyway.

Another thing that I hated were the annoying remarks from Max Damage and Die Anna. It is fun when you first play the game, but it really gets into your head when you've played the game for about 15 minutes. Fortunately you can turn that off.

The Bottom Line
This game is fun. It is repetitive, but you won't notice it that quickly. If you had a rough day, and you want to blow off some steam, then this is the game for you.

The Good
I hope you don't mind if I make a list...

*1)Free movement: you can drive the track backwards, over hills, or on roof tops - its up to you.

*2)All opponents defeated win scenerio: You don't have to win the game by running the race. I've been playing this game for over 5 years and I still haven't completed a race. Your opponents won't run the race if you don't, so you don't have to worry about them winning while you're mowing over pedestrians. They will eventually find their way back to you if you get distracted. And you can actually win the race by destroying all of your opponents vehicles, which is a good way to earn credits and time bonuses.

*3)All pedestrians murdered win scenerio: It takes time and effort to run over 400+ pedestrians, but the 50,000 credit completion bonus sure is worth it.

*4)The artistic impression bonus for running over peds in a creative manner. ;)

*5)You can use your hard-earned credits to upgrade your car: Armor, Power, and Offense.

*6)You can destroy cop cars. (Though you should probably avoid them until you've upgraded your car a couple times.)

*7)You can 'steal' your opponents vehicles. That is, you can obtain certain cars/trucks after destroying them. Note: This does not apply to all of your opponents, and the chance of getting one of these vehicles is small - you usually won't get your opponent's vehicle the first time you wreck it, though it is possible.

*8)Good physics engine. The physical contraints governing the behavior of vehicles is pretty realistic, though not perfect.

9)Real time repairs. You don't really have to worry about loosing the race, because you can always repair your car as it gets damaged. However, repairing costs credits, and if you don't accumulate enough credits during a race, you will not advance in rank.

The Bad*
Pinball mode. Only fun when you have plenty of credits to spare... :)

The game is slightly unstable in windows, and may occasionally crash during gameplay.

The Bottom Line
This is one of the most entertaining games I've ever played. It does have outdated graphics, but I don't even notice. If you can't get it to run in a dos box under Win2K or XP, try downloading and installing VDMSound at:

http://ntvdm.cjb.net/

Once installed, right click on the executionable file (Carma.exe) and select 'run with VDMS'. It's a DOS emulator that is capable of running many DOS applications that Win2k and XP can't.