Microsoft's radical new race game, Monster Truck Madness, puts you in the high-speed, dirt-kicking, car-crushing world of these beastly vehicles. This action outing takes advantage of Windows 95's easy set-up and fast play, putting fun into high gear - and it's loud! The game features 12 of the hottest machines on the professional Monster Truck tour, combining great racing action with challenging tracks to create the ultimate driving experience - this is called Down and Dirty Racing. It allows you to experience the corkscrew turns of the closed-loop circuit tracks, the wide-open spaces of the rally courses, and the claustrophobic cacophony of the classic and J-style drag tracks. You must endure bone-jarring collisions with trees, buildings and trains. And if that's not enough, you also face the challenge of the elements as you charge through mud, gravel and grass. Players will find themselves jumping and bouncing their way over cars, ramps and other obstacles. You can view the action from behind the steering wheel or switch to one of the multiple external views to catch the fun from every possible angle. Monster Truck Madness not only allows you to play alone, you can race up to eight players over LAN or go head-to-head via modem with the multi-player option. You get to choose from numerous famous Monster Trucks. Army Armstrong provides the commentary from starting line to the chequered flag. Monster Truck Madness, in fact, seems pretty close to the real thing. The game also boasts an impressive list of options which allow you to customise your vehicle depending on track conditions, and you can take part in four different events. The background scenery is well-designed but quirky graphic glitches pop up when you back up close to immovable objects. Overall, there's no denying that Monster Truck Madness delivers a lot of fun. What makes it so enjoyable is the adjustable difficulty level. But it is difficult to get a smooth frame-rate with SVGA resolution and complex graphics if you do not have a fast PC. To play Monster Truck Madness, you need a PC with Pentium processor, Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 operating system, 8 MB of RAM (16 MB recommended), and 20 MB of available hard-disk space. You also need a VGA monitor (256 colours) with local-bus video and 2 x CD-ROM drive. For audio output, you must have a sound card, while for better game play, a joystick with hat is recommended. MEGAHINT: Type TREX and your Monster Truck will turn into a real monster - a robotic dinosaur, in fact. For PCs with CD-ROM Monster Truck Madness
