Big City Racer for Windows

Race across Europe in this online driving game

Big City Racer is an online multiplayer racing game based in the cities of Europe. It's free to play but has some premium services too.

The general idea of Big City Racer is you race and train to win money, and so improve and upgrade your car. There are three to choose from at the start: VW Golf, Volvo or Ford Focus. Once you're logged in you can jump right into online racing with other players. It's pretty easy to do, with an acceptable amount of waiting around for other players and so on.

Each of the cities in Big City Racer is recognizable by its landmarks. The cities included are London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Rome. Each has been turned into a street racing circuit, so there is no normal traffic or pedestrians.

The keyboard controls are pretty standard. Graphically, Big City Racer is nothing special, but it's not terrible. The sound, however, is pretty irritating with droning engines that sound like wasps. When you enter a Big City Racer online race, you have to pay in game currency - you start with 100 credits, and can increase that of you keep winning. However, you'll lose it if you come last!

The worst aspects of Big City Racer are the handling and the physics. The cars bounce around off each other and the side of the tracks, and feel more like karts. The collision detection with the scenery is weird - sometimes you bounce of it, other times your car will get stuck, and you'll have to reset, losing valuable time.

Free online multiplayer racing sounds great, but Big City Racer is such a characterless and basic racing game, it's difficult to recommend.