Asphalt 8: Airborne for Windows 8

Asphalt 8: Airborne is the eighth iteration of this hugely popular arcade racing game that revels in delivering an exhilarating playing experience. Players will defy physics, use nitro boost to achieve ridiculous speeds and even catch sweet air. In fact, the big change that distinguishes Asphalt 8 from previous iterations of the game are the springboards scattered about each circuit that allow cars to airborne. The game also has a brand new engine that delivers better graphics, smoother animations and a more consistent physics model. Asphalt 8 also has a tremendous soundtrack that adds to the rush of navigating courses at blistering speeds.

A hallmark of any great arcade racing game is an amazing car selection. Asphalt 8: Airborne delivers with 47 unique vehicles that all look and feel different. Perhaps what’s most impressive here is that 80 percent of the cars have never before been featured in an Asphalt game. There are also nine unique circuits that test a player's driving skills. Five have an urban feel — Barcelona, London, Monaco, Tokyo and Venice — and four have a rural aesthetic — the Alps, French Guyana, Iceland and the Nevada desert.

Not all cars are available at the start of the game. Players earn points in every race and those points must be used to unlock additional cars. The better a player's performance, the more points earned.

The six race types the game features are classic, duel, ejection, elimination, infection and slalom. There are also three modes: quick race, career mode and multiplayer. Career mode features 180 events across eight seasons. Multiplayer mode lets the game be played locally or via the Internet, and there’s a ranking system and a leaderboard to allow players to become legends.

The biggest complaint with Asphalt 8: Airborne appears to be the microtransactions. They allow players to pay in order to unlock the better cars more quickly and thus be more competitive online. Without paying, players will have to spend a lot of time with the career mode in order to be competitive in multiplayer mode. Despite this issue, the progression is great, and cars seem to unlock at just the right time, so there seems to be little pressure to spend money as trying to win those seasonal cups.

Pros

• Impressive car selection
• Nine circuits to race on

Cons

• Microtransactions