If you're looking for a free, but great, sim racing game, you can't go wrong with this one.
Once in a blue moon a freeware game comes along the path that people should take notice of, no matter how short it may be. BMW M3 Challenge has all the depth and feel of a single lap of a Gran Turismo game, but it's too short for the excellence it strives to maintain. Be warned: this is NOT a game for those looking for an arcade experience.
The game has you playing on one track that will last you under three minutes when you get the hang of it. Don't be too concerned with learning all the curves of several others; you only have one track choice. And as far as cars go, you guessed it, one also (otherwise it wouldn't be called BMW M3 Challenge), with the ability to change that cars color. By removing all the distractions such as various tracks and versions of the car make the game work, it does it's job. When you get comfortable enough with the game to play online (good luck finding a match, however) you realize that the game is actually about equality: All racers have the same car and from there it depends on knowledge of tuning, braking, accelerating and cornering.
You have the ability in-game to change the car's tuning and to turn the corner difficulty notifications on or off.
As short as this may seem it all works out. I still have yet to master some of the corners.
The graphics are complete, but not perfect: and I have only seen a few instances where there are improper shadows, line breaks, and a few other things that seem out of place. These are ignorable and can't take away from the feel of the game unless you let it. The car detail is excellent but may be slightly off if you've seen a real M3 before.
You can select the time of day you want to race in from realtime, 2x the normal time speed, up to 60x. This means that as you're racing you can stop and take notice of the sun rising, setting, etc. With 60x you can go through an entire day within an hour.
I personally like driving at 6 in the morning so I can see the sunrise.
The sound is something that I haven't taken notice of so I'm not really able to compliment on it. But as far as racing games go, the tire squealing may have gotten on my nerves anyway.
The replayability factor is there, however small. At first glance it may seem like a tech demo for what could be a larger game, but once you notice the website dedicated to the top times and such, you realize that this is what it's meant to be.
A few more track selections, however, wouldn't hurt if it were a patch update or a "sequel."
On one hand I can appreciate it for what it is, on the other I'm begging for an update with at least one more track to race on.
Tech heads will love the depth of realism, those who simply enjoy racing games may lose their interest quickly, those looking for an arcade shootout with drifting need not apply.