Get your groove on people for Nokia is all set to redefine the genre of racing games with its Ovi Maps Racing. Yeah you read it right, Ovi Maps and Racing bundled together in one package as an addicting game.
With Ovi Maps Racing, Nokia is taking game customisations to an all new level by allowing gamers to create their own tracks, right in their backyards if they wish to for racing on some of the hottest wheels. As innovative as the concept is, let’s see how the game fares on our 5800s.
Screenshots-
Before we dwell into the intricacies of the game, do take a look at this video walkthrough (Courtesy-Mobile Games):
Now that really got us pumping especially race around your block thing but much to our dismay we found out that we were not able to get a lock-on when indoors. But the Mobile Games guys do demonstrate the awesome customisation options of the game and the video clip definitely looks like it was recorded indoors. So ours might be a one-off incident.
What we like?
- Innovative concept for a racing game
- Catchy audio effects
What we don’t like?
- Graphics is a big let down
- Absence of accelerometer based controls
Verdict
While we definitely love the innovative concept of the game, we feel the graphics is a big disappointment. The game has the looks and feels of the java based mobile games of the mid 2000s and is no where near the graphics capabilities of our 5800s. Asphalt4 by Gameloft does a much better task at graphics, while the pre-loaded GT Racer is more impressive with its accelerometer based controls and decent graphics.
But Ovi Maps Racing is an innovative concept and since it is available as a free download for a limited period of time from the Ovi store, we would recommend this to our readers, just to get a feel of the new GPS based track customisations.
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 3:25 am
Once again North American customers get left out in the cold by Nokia.
In this game, making custom tracks (actually the entire “online mode”) is locked out in North America (so this game is only good in Europe only).
Coupled with late releases, late firwmare updates, crappy support,
it’s almost like Nokia actually WANTS it’s shrunk North American market share to get even smaller.
I think this phone had a lot of potential, but it was obviously not designed for the NAM market. And hence I’ll be weary of going down the Nokia route again when it’s time for an upgrade.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
I noticed this app a week ago or so (UAE, Middle East), and hit the Download button immediately. The first problem is that this game is 8.something megabytes. 8 mb! That takes a while to download. And apart from the large file size, I’m generally reluctant to download anything via the Ovi Store, because it has the annoying habit to crash suddenly. Well, this case was no exception. After reaching 92%, the Store displayed Download failed. With manic determination, I hit on Download again. This time, after downloading, it displayed Installing, and after a while, Installation Failed, which pretty much sucked donkey a**. So I exited the Store, deleted the incomplete installation file from Installation Files, and went on living my normal life.
Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
I downloaded the software, and tried out a single race in the off line mode, and then later, my phone switched off on its own. When I turned it back on, a lot of the software had gone missing. Including this one. I just don’t have the inclination of downloading it all over again.
Though, if someone can tell me where in my phone the previous download can be traced and reinstalled, maybe I could try the game again.