Machinas: Customizing your cars

There are a number of playable vehicle classes in Machinas. They include Motorcycles, ATVs, Sports cars, Sedans, Pickup trucks, SUVs, RVs, Buses and Bug rigs. Their biggest difference is their weight limits.

What's a weight limit? That's how much weight your vehicle can carry without affecting performance. Yeah, sure, we'd all love to drop a quad .50 mount on the back of a '59 Corvette, but the gunner won't be able to see anything through the shower of sparks from the car's dragging tail. Every weapon, most defensive measures and some car features will add weight to your vehicle, so you'll need to choose your modifications wisely. Larger weapons are great on the offense, but are usually heavier and don't leave much space for decent defensive measures. Or maybe you want to put the Big Slab on the back of your car. Now you have good defense but will only be able to take a moderate weapon at best. And don't forget, there are other mods such as roll cages, armored seats and big block engines to consider.

You can go over your car's weight limit, but each point over the limit decreases your speed. You need speed to win, but sometimes, a little extra firepower is worth the sacrifice in speed. When you start, run a couple races with a vanilla car and learn your racing style. Do you prefer to pass a lot? Do you prefer to shoot or ram your opponents? Do you want to finish fast or finish intact? Which do you prefer having more survivability -- the driver or the car? Maybe you don't want any guns and prefer the big ram and some spiked wheels?

Sure, now you've built a nice car that's fantastic for one-off races, but how well will it do in a campaign? Does your style change from one-offs to campaigns? And what kind of race will you be running -- oval, road, highway, mountain path? There are numerous possibilities to consider when you customize a vehicle, but there's nothing like finding that perfect combo that not only suits your style, but is dynamite on a variety of tracks and against a variety of opponents.

By the way, if you want those quad .50s, you'll need at least a pickup truck.