Carve [NTSC-U] [799MB]*

[falinxx]

It focuses on simply providing a decent--if unspectacular--watercraft racing experience that can be played via Xbox Live and purchased at a budget price.

With the sole exception of Rainbow Studios' watercraft-racing title Splashdown, the Xbox has been sorely lacking in terms of games in this particular category. In fact, Global Star and Argonaut Games' Carve is the first game of its kind to appear on the Xbox since Splashdown's release two years ago. However, unlike Splashdown, Carve doesn't provide much depth either in gameplay or in available modes. Instead, it focuses on simply providing a decent--if unspectacular--watercraft racing experience that can be played via Xbox Live and purchased at a budget price. Ultimately, the game manages to achieve these few, less-than-lofty goals.

In terms of handling, Carve feels pretty good, though it's not very impressive. The physics are adequately realistic, save for a few intermittent instances of collisions that didn't occur when they should have. Turning feels like it's supposed to feel, therefore it generally requires a reasonable measure of accurate timing so that you can avoid crashing into walls and other objects. Jumps feel equally good, though some jump tricks seem to occur a little behind your button presses. This is fairly consistent, however, so nailing the timing just takes a minuscule amount of practice. The only real issue to speak of here is that while it all handles OK, there's almost no variety in controlling your racers. Each racer has varying stats in categories like speed, tricks, defense, and such, but very little of these come across in the actual game. Yes, speedier racers do tend to overtake other racers better, and racers with higher trick ratings are a little more adept at performing tricks, but the differences are really rather small overall. What's more, these minute details aren't enough to really give the gameplay any sort of variety from one character to another.

On the whole, Carve feels like a game that could have been a lot more than it is. For what it's worth, though, if you've been waiting for a game that lets you race watercraft online, Carve definitely delivers. So if you can forgive the generally unremarkable production, it can be worth at least a rental for this feature alone.

Download, unzip ftp/burn or both. and Njoy..

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