System Requirements

CPU: Pentium OS: N/A Modem: 56K or faster preferred HDD: 20MB Video: No 3D acceleration needed Age: Everyone

Attack Retrieve Capture is a free online game made by Sierra. You can get the client or server software from arc.sierra.com. There are two main servers from Sierra?s site. They are Alpha and Bravo. Each server has different rooms that you can enter to chat and join existing games. Like most online games you can have password-protected rooms. Hosting your own server is pretty easy. All you need to do is install the server software and enter the required parameters. You will need to designate the server name, port, ping port, your login and password, and the map to use. There are a few maps to choose from. They include Battle, BunkWar, CanadianBacon, CanVsUSA, CastleWars, Deathmatic, Fortress, and Go.

ARC is primarily a capture the flag game. Be careful, when you get the flag you will slow down quite a bit. Don\'t hesitate to drop it in order to survive. Another objective is to turn all the buttons on the map to your color. Other than that, kill the enemies or be killed yourself! This is a game best played with many people; some of the servers allow up to thirty-two people in a game. I like how you can join and switch colors at any time. You basically fly hovercrafts or saucers and each color has a different design. You can be Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. There are two gauges you have to keep your eye on. Watch your armor and ammo levels. When your armor level gets depleted, you\'ll blow up. You will get a warning when your armor level reaches critical. There are four weapons that you can use. Your primary is a laser and you can get six shots in before you need to recharge. It\'s pretty fast but only does an average amount of damage. Alternate weapons include bouncy lasers, rockets and grenades. Bouncy lasers do just as much damage as the regular laser, but it can bounce off walls and corners. They come in handy! The rockets and grenades don\'t get as many shots per charge, but they are powerful! Especially on direct hits. The grenades have a bigger damage radius.

From a Christian perspective this game is pretty clean. The only thing to take into consideration are the users. People can freely chat and say whatever they wish. Sometimes the language may not be pleasant. There is an option to filter out the dirty words, but even when enabled some things will still slip through. If you find a good clean server, you should be ok. Worst case, make your own server! The goal in this game is to blast away other or be killed yourself. There is fighting, but no blood.

The game was easy to install. It uses a Wise installer program. To play you just need to set up an account, it\'s pretty painless. Setting up a server is petty easy as well. I could not find any system requirements for the game, but it ran well in Windows 2000. It ran very stable with out any lock-ups. This game doesn\'t have any high end graphics or sound effects, so it should run well on slower computers. Just make sure the internet connection is decent. (Lag=Death) For controls you use your keyboard and mouse. There are two control configurations, Newbie and Classic Controls. It\'s just a matter of how you switch your secondary weapon. The interface is decent. They have great help files and documents. I struggled with learning how to switch sides at first, but the have a menu panel on the right hand side. Make sure you explore all those options. Overall this is a great online game to play against your friends. Best of all, it\'s FREE!