Battleracer? But Why?
Well, we've all tried to have a buggy-race in BF2 at one point or another. Most of the time it just became too difficult and inconvenient to setup to make it worth the time, or too irritating to get more than one or two people organised to actually have a proper race. The good folks at Battleracer decided to fix this with an integrated system of timing, some decent basic racing functions and a slapdash of paint to spruce the whole thing up.

How A Race Works

Upon entering a server, all players are automatically placed on one team and given the engineer kit (with only the knife and wrench as weapons).

At the beginning of a round, players are given 90 seconds to position themselves at the start line. A system of warnings and disqualifications prevent false starts, and once the signal is given the excitement begins.

Each map has two versions of the course - the 16 player and 32 player sizes. This adds a bit of variety, and longevity to the mod. All the maps have been reconfigured to suit the mod, with signposts, crash barriers and other variety of objects clearly marking the race courses.

Battleracer displays players' checkpoint times, lap times and standings in the area usually reserved for kill-messages, along with instructions, countdowns and any other necessary information. Cars are damaged in the course of the race, and can be repaired during the contest. Howver, you will incur a 15 second time penalty for exiting your vehicle. Every aspect of this system exudes polish, and having something like this allows you to focus on what matters (somewhat) - the driving.

The Driving
The cars are the famous dune buggies of Battlefield 2 - almost. After spending a month or two at the gym and the beach, they've been reborn...

Sexeh.

They handle pretty much the same as always, but pressing the sprint key unleashes a complete beast. The boost function makes your car act like you tied it to an F-16 with duct tape and just a bit of string, and certainly makes the races a bit more exciting.

Oh, and did I mention that this thing has an online database of stats?

The Good:
Bizarre fun, polished, well-implemented.

The Bad:
Limited race tracks (3 maps, each with 2 courses), limited replayablitity (fun for a few hours, though)

Final Score:




4 Banhammers out of 5

Official Battleracer Website