What you have to do in this games is tool around some snowy landscapes in your personal snowmobile. You and your opponents start from the same point, and each must end at the finish line, but you aren't constrained to a linear path.

At various points in the play area are poker cards, which you can "pick up" by driving through them. When the game ends--after three minutes, that is--the player with the best poker hand who has succeeded in reaching the finish line is the winner.

However, you can also pick up weapons--guns and missiles--and use them to attack your opponents. A successful attack may blow the target off his vehicle, meaning he loses time, but may also knock one or more cards out of his hand--and if you're swift and nearby, you can grab that card before he recovers it.

So it isn't just a matter of being first to the finish--indeed, that may not be to your advantage. You might want to hang around near the finish line and attack people with better hands, for instance.

You can play Arctic Stud Poker Run by yourself, but it's really designed to be played multiplayer, for quick and (often) humorous pick-up games. The developer runs dedicated servers, or you can host your own games, either over the Internet or a LAN. Indeed, this is an excellent LAN-party game.

Scads of levels, humorous characters, multi-game tournaments, and, well, just lots of stuff here.

Here are some key features of "Arctic Stud Poker Run":

· Single player, multiplayer, and tournament elimination modes
· 36 playable characters
· 112 levels spanning 72 square miles in eight environments
· Cash-based tournament scoring
· 2Player-to-Player bounty system lets you form alliances
· Players with varying skill sets compete effectively
· Big Hand Possible feature tells you best available hands before the round begins!
· Auto Card Swap feature means you don't even have to know how to play Poker!
· Keyboard, mouse, gamepad, and USB Xbox 360 gamepad support
· Big Hand Possible feature tells you best available hands before the round begins!


Requirements:

· 1.8GHz CPU (2.8GHz preferred)
· 512MB RAM (768MB preferred)
· video card w/128MB
· 300MB disk space
· DirectX 9.0c+
· Preferred: 3-button scroll wheel mouse or USB gamepad


Limitations:

· Limited levels.