Ballistics: Go Ballistic! Company: Xicat Interactive The year is 2090 and the world is at peace. Disease is unheard of and everyone lives a happy and stable life. With a lack of drama in the world, people need something to entertain them. Enter Ballistics. This high-speed sport is the formula one racing of the future. Flying through tubes at mind numbing speeds is the name of this game, where the cars are giant jet engines, and the drivers are professionally trained from childhood. The Ballistics track is basically a giant gerbil tube, minus the gerbil, that allows for 360 degrees of movement. Along the track, you?ll find numerous obstacles that must be avoided while going break-neck speeds. You take the part of a Ballistics pilot, and while you?re trying to entertain the people with your stunning bravado, you?re also trying to earn a buck. Money is gained by going supersonic speeds and pulling off daring, not to mention dangerous, moves. The money is later spent on parts for your speeder, which is basically a jet engine with a seat. While the demo doesn?t let you customize your speeder, it has a pretty huge list of items for sale and there seems to be literally thousands of possible combinations of parts for your speeder. Like most racing games, Ballistics doesn?t have the most complex of controls. You simply press left to move left or right to move right and the go button to make you go forward. Advanced maneuvers consist of boost, which lets you attain speeds beyond that of the speed of sound. And if you lose connection with the track for any reason, a nifty attach button will set things right again. While Ballistics is a good concept, the beta didn?t blow my mind. But it is just a beta with only one track, and it?s too early to see where they?re going with this one. Despite a less than impressive track, our first glimpse of this game does show a lot of promise. If the good people at Grin and Xicat know what they?re doing (and I have every reason to believe they do), then we can rest assured that the finished product will be chock-full of good stuff. -Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications AKA Andrew Horwitz Related Links: Grin?s Ballistics Website