OC Racing Review: Who Said Racing can’t be simple?
By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist

Racing games used to be the genre where the player’s goal was only to be the fastest and the best among the racers. However with the sudden success of underground racing games like the Need for Speed franchise, looking good while winning has never been so important.

OC Racing tries to deliver the thrill of the race and the satisfaction of having the most pimped up ride out there into a browser game.

Think of it and it shall happen

I have to make it clear though that when I said OC Racing tries to deliver, I really meant the game tries to deliver. The thing though is that the delivery of the racing and customizing experience fails to give you the experience you expect. Let’s start with the customization, usually when you have a car customization feature in any racing game, you get the preconceived idea that you would get to see how your car looks like when you purchase and attach the part to you car’s body. In OC Racing, you don’t. What the game does is give you a number of the customized parts you bought for your car with the default image of the car beside it. So the customization relies heavily on your imagination and nothing else.

Race? What Race?

Your imagination is also heavily needed in terms of the game’s races. Unlike racing games you don’t   have control of your car when it goes to a race so it’s a stats game from start to finish. There are some random factors that the game takes into consideration but if you play your cards right you shouldn’t have to worry too much about losing to a carefully picked race. The idea of using your imagination and relying on stats and car capabilities seem to be a solid enough concept on paper, however, if you are a race game fan this doesn’t cut it. The game loses the biggest reason why racing games are sought for in the first place, actual human driving. However, the game in its entirety is not a total let down. It does redeem itself a little bit with other game features and it does provide at least a competitive atmosphere to keep you playing the game.

Game Features

OC Racing not only provides browser-based racing and car customization, the game also provides alternative means of enjoyment as well. The first feature that is an entertainment feature is the racing team creation in OC Racing. You can look for or create a racing team of your own in OC Racing. There are no requirements except 10 credits which is the  in-game currency. Racing teams in OC Racing serve only as an identifying feature for players so that they can feel they “belong” to a group.

OC Racing also has a licensing system that gives you the drive to play the game longer. With the lack of any player control, the way for you to earn your licenses is to earn credits. Under normal circumstances, earning your license by credits or by any kind of currency is a blasphemy to racing games, however with the limitations of OC Racing, you can let this one transgression slide. The game also has an “underground” system where you get to pay and trade for illegal products such as weapons, drugs, booze and cigars. I think this is an attempt for OC Racing to be “hardcore” but the emphasis on numbers makes this attempt fall short in terms of providing you the “underground” experience it tries to provide.

Another alternative for earning credits and provide you the “hardcore” feel of the Illegal Street racing lifestyle is the slot machines and dice games you can play in OC Racing. Personally, I do not see the point of including this into the game because it does not do anything significant save for an alternative source of credit.

The Good Side

With a lot of problems in terms of gameplay preference and even the delivery of any kind of experience to players, OC Racing has, in fairness to the game, a huge library of cars and parts you can choose from. This serves as the game’s saving grace, even though it fails significantly in the different aspects of gaming I can say that if you are a true car fan, you would enjoy the numerous car choices the games car shop has. Aside from the car choices, the cars are ranked in such a way that it would seem that the people behind the game did their research. The problem is that it may be quite possible that it could alienate some gamer car fans who are loyal to a certain car brand or make, there is a possibility that this could affect your view on the car categories and rankings. However I’m just nitpicking the tiny details that do not really affect the game’s overall fun factor.

The other thing you have to look at in OC Racing is the depth of the game’s customization. You can customize your car with actual car parts of minus the brand. This gives the game a sort of “authentic” feel that makes it an enjoyable gaming experience.

Conclusion

Overall, I must say that OC Racing is a game that is appealing for a short while however, the lack of the experience of being behind the wheel eliminates half the fun of the game. I must really say that it is a nice attempt to mix the underground side of illegal street racing to the idea of OC Racing however it fails in the delivery.

There are times when I ask myself if this game is a racing game that tries to add the illegal aspect of racing or that if it’s actually an underground racing themed game. However you look at it though, I can say that car fans would enjoy this game more than your casual gamer so if you are it would not hurt to try this game out.

Pros:
– The huge car library can make a car fan squeal with delight
– The customization feels authentic up to a point
– There are other things you can do aside from racing

Cons:
– Lacks the racing feel
– Races are a numbers game hereby making it boring and dull
– You don’t see your car customizations on your car.

Country Wars Online Review – A Small Game With Small Potential
By Bryan King (Bryan), OnRPG Journalist

Within an enormous egg, stands ‘Silvadoo’ the tree upholding the world. On the top three branches of Silvadoo hang the Sun, Star and Moon for each of the six continents upheld by the six branches below. Inside the trunk, nourishing the nine roots flow the ‘Waters of Circulation’, actually delicate web strands spouting from the tail of the black spider inhabiting among the roots of Silvadoo. It is believed that the world tree ‘Silvadoo’ nourishes on the vital energy and records of the history and fate of all living creatures within each string. ‘Airel’ a gigantic bird controlling the weather and season, flies among the skies of the egg, turning its’ cries into thunder, flaps into wind, tears into rain and changes rain into snow by its’ possessed ‘Nin’.

Country Wars Online, published by Cisos Software, is a game released after the closing of the Indian version, A3 India. Country Wars follows a storyline based on war, deception, and evolution of the land of Helmarsh. The game promises an “epic massive multiplayer online role-playing fantasy, action and adventure game”, but does it deliver? Let’s take a look.

Character Customization… or lack thereof

Country Wars Online has four classes, which are unfortunately gender locked. The Warrior and Holy Knight, your typical, toned, blonde haired, blue-eyed macho men. These characters focus on two different aspects of melee combat, the Warrior focusing on more aggressive combat types, and the Holy Knight focusing more on the defensive combat types. Next, you have your two females, both being the generic youthful, busty phenotypes that every F2P MMO gamer has come to know. The game offers no character customization beyond later armor choices, and this simply cannot compete with other games of this generation. Players don’t achieve any sort of unique looks other than armors that they may earn.

Gameplay

Following my favored archetype, I went with a Holy Knight and entered the game. Upon entering, I was greeted by being surrounded by a group of ugly monsters, named Memora. While reading the first quest the game, I noticed that not one, not two, but THREE of these monsters were attacking me at the same time. By the time I had realized this, it was too late, and I was already long gone…

This experience was the first bad moment of a long and painful beginner journey. After spending much unnecessary time having to find an unmarked NPC, I realized that my character wasn’t regaining health. This means that the only means of regaining HP is by spamming potions or being healed by a Holy Knight. Skills in the game are acquired by defeating monsters and a skill book being dropped from them, or purchasing them from another character. However, these books are often hard to find, and upon asking a high-level character in the game, take hours to days of endless grinding to obtain.

An interesting feature in Country is the Pet Shue system, this allows players to have a pet that grows along with them as they level, provide bonuses, and evolve along with your character.

Combat in Country Wars works in the fashion of clicking a monster, auto-attacking, and selecting a skill. Right clicking on yourself, monster, or an ally will activate a skill. The game works on a click-and-go basis, and this actually isn’t that bad for a game like this. It’s simple and easy to use, and can be very welcoming for a new MMO gamer, however, for more experienced MMO gamers who have been spoiled by better combat systems, this type of combat may feel blocky and be a bore.

The camera angles in the game often became obtrusive, and detracted from my game experience. To move the camera from left to right, you need to use the left and right arrow keys, and to shift the camera up and down on a vertical perspective, you need to use the up and down arrow keys. For a right-handed player like me, having one hand on the mouse to move and zoom in and out, and the arrow keys is uncomfortable. Having no way to change this (unless you fiddle with the .ini file, maybe) makes this all the more annoying. You can drag your middle mouse key along to move the camera, but doing this and clicking at the same time, along with moving? It just seems impractical…

One thing that is pretty unique about Country Wars was the fact that players can hire NPC mercenaries to help them in their travels. There are four classes available as mercenaries, Warrior, Paladin, Archer, and Mage. These mercenaries can use skills just like players can, and can often be the difference between life and death for a player, depending on what class mercenary they have. When your mercenary dies, you must revive him or her at the Bar (the same area you obtain one from). This system might be one of the saving graces of Country Wars, because it does offer something that isn’t seen in all MMOs.

An interesting thing, GMs held an all-out GM War last year, which apparently was an event to capture castles and earn points to win for their faction, Quanato or Temoz, each of which who have kings who rule the faction.

Graphics

Country Wars Online’s graphics would be good… four years ago. The graphics don’t stack among most 3D games at all, but can be a practical solution for someone with an aged computer. The user interface serves its purpose, although the bottom bar can be a little too packed. The graphics within the game has many issues, first starting with texture errors, while moving, my camera often jumped to area under the game’s ground region, causing me to completely lose track of where my character was going, and even die at some points. It seems like a minor issue that can easily be fixed, but the game has been out for about two years and this hasn’t been fixed as of yet. In conclusion, graphics are fine for players with older computers.

Final Verdict

Country Wars doesn’t offer much to the average MMO gamer. However, for players with a very (VERY!) low-end computer, this game might be an option. It doesn’t offer much in terms of gameplay or graphics, and is relatively packed with bugs and glitches that can ruin a gameplay experience quickly. If you’re an experienced gamer, chances are this game will not be of your interest.

Pros:
– Low requirements and good option for players with low-end PC
– Mercenary system
– Interesting and addicting pet system
– Recurring conflict between factions brings intensity.

Cons:
– Plagued by bugs and glitches
– No character customization
– Skill system is painstaking
– HP recovery and certain game mechanics uncomfortable.