Developer: Bugbear Entertainment Ltd. Publisher: THQ Nordic Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows Website: http://www.wreckfestgame.com/
I own this game since 2014 and since THQ is the publisher it finally made great progress Latest Dev Blog: http://www.wreckfestgame.com/dev-blog-what-are-we-working-on-2/
I have played more than 100 hours of this, but mostly before the latest updates. It got better, but I don't like that now with engine swaps any car can be in any class. Also there are a lot of upgrades, but you don't really need a lot of them to win against the AI. I'm not sure if I will play much more of it because I was already bored of it one year ago.
This game is actually quite good with a wheel. Just because it isnt a 'sim' doesnt mean you cant enjoy it with a wheel FFB is actually very good, and the driving is pretty satisfying. Yeah, this seems about right. I've had it since 2014 too, and I actually vastly preferred how it drove and played back then.. before they did a graphics switch to PBR and 'upgraded' the physics. It's taken 4 yrs for there to be a good amount of content, but by now, the game has lost some of its luster.
I really like the graphics of "Wreckfest" ... looks very natural for me ... I would like to see if this one would become the new look of R3E ... *dreaming* ... @Sector3: Maybe the "Bugbear Entertainment Ltd" want to sell their graphics engine . Scandinavian sim developers should support each other.
By now it is in a very good state and pleasurable to occasionally have fun with it, but I am with it since its beginnings, and I must say that the way they interpret "Early Access" is way off any timeline for such a program that I would lagree with, also, the production went extremely chaotic over the years and for most of the time I thought they were not really knowing what they were doing and where and what they want to aim at. Almost five years of "Early Access"? They started Early Access three or four years too early then, imo. Sorry, dude, never again, this studio is on my blacklist, although yes, the title now is pleasurable.
I think with Wreckfest Bugbear wanted to realise their original vision - a realistic banger racer but they realised they'd never get the proper budget for that. If you've perused enough forums you'd know the original Flatout game was incredibly dumbed down for release because of pressure from the publisher at the time. After all it still is the RT physics model behind it - modders have done plenty with that. While I agree that they left it far too long in EA, I also think they really wanted to find a publisher that will support what THEY wanted to create (to an extent of course), and not what ended up with the Flatout games. Now the game looks like it is in a very solid state.
In fairness, the deal with Early Access is that you have no guarantees of it progressing or reaching a certain stage, so credit to them. I've been spoiled by AC and particularly Dirt Rally's EA programmes but I'm sure plenty don't come to fruition. Getting tempted to pick this up since discovering a mod to make it more racing focused.
I played a bit today. It's kind of meh really. Physics are ok, but not very fun (maybe I need to try another car and do some sick drifts around the corners). The racing itself is kind of dull, it's either too easy, or too hard to win on the AI settings I tried. It doesn't really require you to focus on braking points and all that other good stuff racing is about. What shines is the car combat (if you can call it that) - I quickly forgot about racing altogether and focused on beating the crap out of other cars on track. Sadly, you can't win by wrecking everyone in a race (Carmageddon had a better idea here). Derbies on the other hand aren't really that fun either. I think all the potential this title had was lost due to the endless development hell, right now when the devs are back on track (no pun intended), it's just another racing games that hardly does anything super impressive. Compare this to Flatout 2 and there's just something missing - maybe it's the music, maybe the tracks aren't anything to write home about, maybe it's the physics that don't really suit the arcade racer style and you don't really get rewarded for well... arcade racing. I don't know - I played Flatouts, I played Burnouts and I played Carmageddon and each of those titles is far better when it comes to wrecking-racing. This is just in-between. Sure the damage model is excellent, but that alone doesn't make this worth spending more than a couple of hours in the game. If I wanted an arcade racer with at least some level of plausible physics, I'd play Grid. If I wanted to wreck other cars, hell Ridge Racer Unbounded, Burnout? Maybe if Wreckfest had a more engaging career mode, something like older Gran Turismos... I'm not really sure what to think - is it good, is it bad? It's just ok, I guess, but I don't see myself spending say 40 hours in this and I have spent more on NFS 2015 which was kind of bad.
March Update #2: http://www.wreckfestgame.com/march-update-2/ FIXED Fixed missing Gatecrasher LOD2 model. Fixed player unable to reset in Deatchmatch after respawning. Fixed a case in which cars could occasionally receive visual damage on the starting grid after restarting. Bogus “You have already completed this series and you have another series in progress.” message is no longer displayed when attempting to continue a series in progress. Disabled mouse axis input as a controller to prevent users with specific hardware from being unable to remap keyboard controls. In pre-race, pressing ESC while being on any of the other tabs than the first now takes back to the first tab. BullDog upgrade parts received as rewards now use the correct car name instead of European 11. Lawnmower is now correctly received after beating the lawnmower challenge. MudDigger and Rocket no longer have duplicate “None” customization parts. NEW AND ADJUSTED Added more banger racing and demolition derby liveries for select vehicles. Added a new giant can prop to various tracks. Improved environment art for various tracks. Improved various effects. Novice AI now makes more mistakes and is slightly slower. Amateur AI now makes slightly more mistakes and is slightly slower. In derby game modes, the AI now favors the player slightly more. Adjusted collision matrix to prevent the cars from rolling over at too slow impact speeds. Gameplay damage: car vs. car crashes now cause more gameplay damage. Hitting other cars now causes significantly more damage to the victim, less to the attacker. Armor sector representation in the HUD matches visual damage better. A car about to get wrecked can no longer be wrecked by a light nudge. Environment now causes even less gameplay damage. Mechanical damage occurs more logically when compared to the car health. Engine and transmission mechanical damage is reduced to make sure the player can still keep going. Improved lawnmower gameplay. MP: Added chat back to respawn state and spectate view. Improved player stats visuals at the top right corner of the screen. The game is running fanastically on my PC (i5 + GTX1070) now.
March Update 3 New weather system, more customization parts like spoilers for select cars, damage tweaks + a lot more! http://www.wreckfestgame.com/march-update-3/
April Update – Let’s Hear Your Opinion! http://www.wreckfestgame.com/april-update-lets-hear-your-opinion/