How about a Cart Racer that uses Timer() based animation, and Physics that doesn't need a Cray to run!
The one in the NewLetter was SLOW on my machine it was laughable!
Now My Machine Plays FarCry - no problem - so four karts and a few "fat pink guys" saying "YOU RULE!!!" as a cheer - should not run like a snail! (Presentation of game was good - gameplay was AWFUL)
Easy enough project - weeks not months, chance to play with physics - Either ODE or Newton (I suspect ODE is MUCH better than newton from the info I've gathered)
Just one idea of many
BTW - that game did make it so you could shoot bad guys... but didn't have ranking... just win or lose, and I read from people actually able to use it (cuz they had really fast pc's) that once you got behind it was impossible to catch up to other karters.