Darkwind: War on Wheels is a physics-based, turn-based, squad-based vehicular combat MMORPG with a real world timescale and detailed economic simulation. And as improbable as that sounds, it’s apparently quite real. Shaun (udm on the forums) writes:
You create a gang, and the main goal is just to survive. Do whatever it takes – trade, race, banditry, fight etc. My favourite aspect of the game still has to be racing, mainly because my gang’s roots are too firmly ground into races. Think of the tabletop game Car Wars having sex with EVE Online, then doing a threesome with Autoduel and Auto Assault, and finally making out with Football Manager. You get to do trading and other miscellaneous activities which I haven’t explored yet via the web browser. When a battle takes place, you launch the in-game client, and you fight in turn-based 3D.
But let me elaborate more on my favourite part of the game, since it’s also my most familiar, and hopefully it will excite more people – the races. Races and deathraces are held on a regular hourly basis, so there’s no shortage of races to take part in. The game is turn-based. You select the degree of turning, select the optimal speed, and end turn, and the cars will move according to how the players/AI choose. Sounds boring on paper, but the physics are so well executed in-game, it’s a thrill ride. I’m even willing to say that this feels even more intense than any real-time racing game I’ve played. It’s just… addiction at its best.
I know there’s bound to be disbelief, but this game is really amazing. You have to play it to believe it, and I urge you guys to try it.
I haven’t played Darkwind yet myself, but I’d be impressed if the game lived up to even half of what it claims to be on the website! I will point out that character permadeath and persistent NPC gangs are two of the game’s features. I just thought those sounded particularly interesting.
If you’re interested, you can try the game for free for an unlimited amount of time. Buying a subscription, however ($20 for 3 months, $34 for 6 months, $58 for 12 months), enables you to buy, sell, trade, and customize cars, own facilities, and participate in subscriber-only events, among other things. And if you subscribe now, your subscription is free until October 19th.
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin
Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:13:00 GMT
You may remember the original Swarm Racer from Lexaloffle Games. Well this new version looks more polished and sexy than ever. And it provides a good excuse to start tagging the old Lexaloffle posts here on TIGS. (They’ve released some real gems, if you aren’t familiar!)
Posted by Guest Reviewer
Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:16:00 GMT
[This is a guest review by Duckmeister.]
GeneRally is a top-down, offline multiplayer racing game by Hannu and Jukka Räbinä that would remind one of Micro Machines. You can play with up to 5 other players, either human or AI, and drive until you cannot drive any longer. At the surface, it’s just that simple, a couple of guys sitting around the computer playing a straight-forward racing game. But once you look deeper, you start to see all the work that was put into it.
I’ll show you a glimpse at some of the features in this game. There are changeable difficulty levels for the AI players. Extremely customizable driver profiles, with custom colors, controls, and full statistics. 50+ tracks and 8 cars, plus thousands of community-made tracks and cars. Semi-realistic physics. An extremely detailed track and car editor. Ghost car (for time trials)! Full mod support! Changeable timescales! Completely customizable race conditions, like how much a full tank of fuel weighs, or how fast the tires wear off and the fuel burns up. That’s right, for such a minimalistic racing game, there are pit crews and pit stops! The list goes on and on…
Basically, GeneRally is everything you want in an arcade racing game and more. If you like Micro Machines, or just fun games in general, you’ll like GeneRally. It’s got features you’d never expect in a minimalistic racing game (like pit crews), full statistics, and some of the best and smoothest offline multiplayer I’ve seen. As a bonus, the full mod support, with the very much alive community means the replay value is endless.
It’s very difficult to explain why you should play increpare’s Ludum Dare game Rara Racer without spoiling the whole bloody thing, and unfortunately the screenshot in the thread really doesn’t do justice to the concept. The windows download is available here, and will only take a little over two minutes and 10 seconds of your time… You just have to play it for yourself. It’s worth every second!
Also, if you’ve been following the What are you working on? thread on the forums, you might have seen a screenshot or two of increpare’s Mirror Stage, which has been in the works on and off for a couple of months now. That’s nearing completion – in fact, could quite possibly be finished this weekend. I’ve seen a few running demos at various stages of development and at TIGJam:UK, and it’s definitely one to keep an eye on! More screenshots of it after the jump: Read more...
Slick Entertainment, which put metanet’s N+ onto XBLA, has announced their first title, Scrap Metal. What little information there is about the game so far is in this video. Cars. Guns. Explosions! I love Rock n’ Roll Racing, so I’m already excited about this. But as I already suggested to Slick’s Nick Waanders, “I want to see more colorful colors!”
