OVI Maps Racing

[08032010 2208]

I've been looking for a proper Nokia 5800 software to capture the pictures on the screen (i.e. screenshots) for quite sometime. And when it came to downloading, I always forget about it until when I am too sleepy to move a muscle. This is because for a touchscreen phone, the buttons are limited and in most applications, they are either used up or, not to be used in case you want to get back to the main screen for instance. Anyway, getting the Screensnap from the OVI store was a good idea. Anyway, let's put this to some use:

This software allows you to customise the shutter
button on the Nokia 5800. For my case, I used the
screen lock slider switch instead of the camera's
as this function was not available to me.

NOKIA OVI MAPS RACING
And with the OVI Maps being free, the next best thing was OVI Maps Racing which allows you to race your little car in your location, wherever you are. Nice? No? Ok, lets go through this.

This is a game where you can choose from a 15 pre-set tracks or use the OVI GPS to get a fix on your location and hence a map for you to customise your own tracks. Then you can race down on it.

Just like the title says.

Here, this is where you can choose to go online or
select the tracks already in the game.

And so, I chose the ONLINE version and fired up
the OVI Maps. As soon as it gets a GPS lock, I am
ready. The last time, I did not do this but switched
on the WIFI instead (well, it did say 'ONLINE' ma)

Yep, I got the nice GPS satellites relaying info
to my Nokia 5800 now.

And then back to the game.......... aw shucks. Fail.
And I am so not driving all the way to KLCC for
it to generate the map either. Or even Genting.

So, now I went to the 'OFFLINE' mode and choose
my little car instead. Yeah, the yellow one is more
manageable as I crash a lot with the other two.

In the pre-selected tracks, you can test race your
car and after the first lap, you will be racing with
yourself, i.e., your 'ghost' car from the previous
lap. At first, I thought I picked up another racer
via Wifi........ then I noticed the stupid crashes and
silly mistakes of the ghost car, which was , well, me.

And so, after awhile, I got bored and created my own
track. Bear in mind, the pre-loaded tracks are limited
and I suspect, so is the location map if I successfully go
get a map for my location. Anyway, the route making
stage is fairly simple. You just tap on the arrow at each
junction to signify the route while the top left would
show you the rough track you're making.

After that, its time for a 'Test Drive' and unlike
Perodua's Alza, you do not need to pay RM100
deposit.

OK, so now, I decided to make a Paris track since
the one above was boring. Too bad I could not make
the track pass through Arc De Triomphe. You could
not even do this in real life.

And so, on to the 'Test Track'. As usual, I crashed,
went 'off-road', crashed, and well, crashed again.
And I hate the narrow streets which allows only
one car per side, which makes me crash a lot.
Plus, the turn warning was too fast or short
which made me go to the wrong street if
there was a fork in the road.

But hee hee, I passed Arc De Triomphe!

And so, its a nice game and the controls are either touch-screen, which I was afraid of cracking since in some corners, you tend to get too excited and might press harder than usual. Still, its a nice game for when you need to pass the time. But there were other features such as sharing with your friends which, on the Internet, said, you need to send the track file via email and not just share on-line or something. Plus, because of the map or your location, the radius is probably less than a mile.