Split/Second - This is our current favorite (starting: 6/4/2010). Most "racers" suck for online multiplayer. Typically, if you fall behind in a race, there's never a chance for you to catch up. SS is different. Combines elements of FPS deathmatch and racing. The official blurb: Split/Second is an intense action racing game set within a reality television show. Competitors will vie to be the first to the finish line in a made-for-TV city set rigged to blow with the ultimate goal of becoming the season champion. Players in Split/Second don't just collide with other vehicles to knock them from the track, but can also trigger devastating events that drastically alter the dynamics of the race. Players must use pinpoint timing to obliterate huge structures and towering TV set pieces to tactically alter the track or create entirely new routes.

Flatout 2 - This has been a favorite of ours for a couple of years thanks to maximum destruction and uncomplicated game play. It's a driving game (release: Jul/2006) that focuses more on how much damage you can do to your opponents than how quickly you can lap them on the track. FO2 can be played on relatively old hardware with excellent results. There are a number of game modes, though we usually choose the to-hell-with-the-racing-lets-tear-some-shit-up option. We stumbled across several must-have upgrades to the base game that adds a shit-ton of new cars and quite a few new tracks. All-in-all FO2 provides a good amount of variety without being a pain in the ass to configure. We don't have (or need) a dedicated server for this game as the connectivity is provided by Gamespy and one of eight players (max #) hosts a listen server.

Unreal Tournament 3 - Since so many of us spent countless hours playing the 2004 version of this game, this upgrade was expected to be fantastic. However, Epic totally fucked up the original release (Dec/2007) of UT3 so badly, with so many bugs and so much missing functionality, that it was hard to enjoy playing. Over a year later, Epic has paid penance for their sins with the HUGE April '09 release of the Titan Pack and Patch 4 (1.3Gb total download for both). If you've ever played a version of the UT franchise online, then you already know about the unbelievable graphics, crazy deathmatch environments, and multiple ways to kill someone. We tend to play more straight deathmatch than any of the team games simply because we don't have as many asshats playing this as the previous version. For *that* we blame the relatively steep minimum specs of the game. We have a dedicated server for UT3 which will require you to install a Bozgate Map Pack so you aren't spending hours downloading all the custom maps. Sorry, there's no cracked copy to download for this game that you can use on the Bozgate server. Gamespy is the master server list and tracks all serials. However, you can get the entire UT franchise through Steam for a good price. Half of our players use Steam's UT3 "Black" edition while others use a retail copy.