Carmageddon Max Pack
Carmageddon is an amazing, unique game and one of my all-time favourites. For that alone, I have to recommend it. That being said, the version being offered here is frankly quite terrible.
You get to choose between software mode and 3dfx mode. Software mode is visually outdated even by 1997 standards, so most people will play the 3dfx version. Both options run in DOSBox - and while I think there are good DOSBox ports out there, this is not one of them. The menus and cinematics tend to be completely broken. With some config modifications, you can get the 3dfx version to run in a decent resolution (and without stretching) and improve the terrible sprite pop-in, but I’ve been unable to fix the framerate in any way - and it is awful. These are “only” technical issues, but they’re serious enough that I can’t honestly recommend playing this specific version of the game.
– Real player with 48.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Combat Racing Gore Games.
Intro
The original Carmageddon is nothing short of a blast to play. However, the Steam port is absolute dogshit. The game only runs with DOSBox and if you choose to play with NGlide, no matter the resolution or graphical detail, you will
not be getting a solid 60fps with drops down to even 20fps regularly. I have a GTX1060 and an i5 4460 and it doesn’t matter. It runs like trash. I would only recommend this on Steam if you don’t mind very low framerates or don’t
care about using DOSBox. It’s unfortunate that Stainless hasn’t decided to update the compatibility because if they did I could easily wholeheartedly recommend this fantastic game.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
Carmageddon TDR 2000
For my awful video review (first attempt at one, give me a break lol), watch here: https://youtu.be/nGze6QoI_hY
Intro
By far the most underrated game I’ve ever played. It’s my favourite in the series, despite it always having been considered the red-headed step child within the Carmageddon family. Totally unique, but also the only racing game I can call ‘atmospheric’. A serious blast and a worthy successor to Carmageddon II and the original in every single way. At least most of us can agree it’s better than Max Damage, right?
– Real player with 199.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Combat Racing Gore Games.
Carmageddon TDR 2000 is a fun game,once you become acustomed to its idiosynchrocies. Most modern computers experience a glitch caused by an antiquated Mip map and vertex fog better handled by Voodoo Rush and TNT Riva cards of yesteryear. The fix is simple: backup your game cache through Steam first. browse Local Files, Open GFX file with Word Pad. Scroll to line 74 and edit line which reads all twos. Change last two to a zero, Save and done. The game has 25 races and 25 missions. For help with missions check out ZodApe’s YewTewb Channel. I have seen complaints on here about the game is broken,too hard,not enough time etc. Yet i imagine these same complainers plow happily throught the latest NFS broken crap because the Dice Team made it and they made Call of Droopy Diaties. Blow that! Need more money to buy that sweet Hotty? Try racing the first level in The 20’s and for the love of Pete,mow down every ped on the sidewalks. Keep those Combo Multiplies spinning and you will make serious bank ~ $250K - $600K per play through. Race it over and over until you have serious ends. Also the Train Station generously has Armor,Power and Slots All Around so you need not buy those,merely fill them for more even more nefarious power. Do You need more time? Use a bigger and slower car to hammer the competition. The “Jaws” car is a personal fave. Most Opponent Wasteds yield an extra minute and sometimes more added game play time. Is this game for everyone? Hell no! You have to work hard to succeed. Without some skin in the game there can be no reward. This is a game from fifteen years past when games were brutal but satisfying because you felt like you had accomplished something. if it is too hard then maybe Mario Kart or one of it’s Brawzillion spinoffs is a better bet for you. Thanks for reading,be safe,keep well and happy gaming Playa.
– Real player with 67.3 hrs in game
Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now
Intro
Loved this game for ages, but the flaws are evident and have really stopped me from enjoying it as much lately. It’s unique and you’re not going to get a similar experience from many other games. If it weren’t for the gameplay flaws,
this game would be my second favourite Carmageddon, but they’re just too big to miss.
The Great:
++Destruction looks amazing. It’s as good as Max Damage.
++Base gameplay is so much fun. Like the first game, except improved in every single way (except where it didn’t)
– Real player with 94.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Combat Racing Vehicular Combat Games.
This game is the most epically entertaining way to waste your readily rather spent hours of a short life. What makes this game good then:
- Still pretty nice damage physics. Seriously. Game is nearly two decades old yet has dynamic deformation of cars, no premodeled damage. You can even split vehicles in half, at any angle..and yet even keep driving depending on how you got split. It’s also cool how your driving is handicapped by getting damage. If your engine takes damage, car accelerates slower. If powertrain takes damage, your car will start braking randomly inadvertently. If your wheels get damage, they’ll wobble and make your car lean constantly to the given side when driving and steering will become harder. If suspension takes damage, your car will steer randomly on it’s own.
– Real player with 47.9 hrs in game
FlatOut
One of my top favorite vehicular combat racing games, and for damn good reasons. Also, one of the first games I ever remember playing, back when this came and I was 8 years old.
Pros:
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Graphics have aged well. Sure, there’s no realtime shadows or reflections, etc..but still all in all not terrible graphics for 2004.
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Great sound design. Crash sounds, both obstacle and car collision, are good and really add to the satisfaction of impacts. And the cars' engine sounds are really roaring and crisp.
– Real player with 136.3 hrs in game
A lot of people seem to be writing nostalgia reviews (to the point where “nostalgia” is not only the main theme, but also the only noun present in the whole review). So here’s a newcomer’s take for a change.
Flatout is many things, but firstly and foremostly it’s a racing game. You buy a car, you race AI opponents, get money to buy upgrades, or better cars. Complimenting that you have various ridiculous - but apparently quite iconic - events, which range from demolition derby to a variant of darts where you crash your car into a solid obstacle at speed to hurl yourself through the windshield and onto a gigantic net which serves as the dartboard.
– Real player with 57.3 hrs in game
FlatOut 2™
Best game I discovered by accident on PS2 back in 2006.
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
best fighting game
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
N.I.C.E. 2
Alright, so first let’s talk about this Steam version.
It launched a few days ago, and it was a big disappointement. I was really hyped when I found the game was going to be on Steam because I thought everything would be fixed. Well, It wasn’t the case.
The DirectX crash was still there, the overall instability of the game too, no music, and most importantly, the playtime was broken so you couldn’t write a review. (No Steam Multiplayer support but while it’s a bit of a let down it wasn’t as important as having a functional product.)
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Garfield Kart
“I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life,” says one of the searchers through the warehouse of treasures left behind by Jonathan Arbuckle. Then we get the famous series of shots leading to the closeup of the word “Garfield” on a kart that has been tossed into a furnace, its paint curling in the flames. We remember that this was Arbuckle’s childhood kart, taken from him as he was torn from his family and sent east to boarding school.
Garfield is the emblem of the security, hope and innocence of childhood, which a man can spend his life seeking to regain. It is the green light at the end of Gatsby’s pier; the leopard atop Kilimanjaro, seeking nobody knows what; the bone tossed into the air in “2001.” It is that yearning after transience that adults learn to suppress. “Maybe Garfield was something he couldn’t get, or something he lost,” says Lyman, the reporter assigned to the puzzle of Arbuckle’s dying word. “Anyway, it wouldn’t have explained anything.” True, it explains nothing, but it is remarkably satisfactory as a demonstration that nothing can be explained. “Garfield Kart” likes playful paradoxes like that. Its surface is as much fun as any mascot kart racer ever made. Its depths surpass understanding. I have analyzed it a frame at a time with more than 30 groups, and together we have seen, I believe, pretty much everything that is there on the screen. The more clearly I can see its physical manifestation, the more I am stirred by its mystery.
– Real player with 8108.5 hrs in game
When I was 18… 18 years old, I saw for the first time in my life… I saw an image of clarity. I saw a comic strip… a three panel comic strip that, though simple as it seemed, changed me… changed my being, changed who I am… Made me who I am…
Enlightened me…
The strip, Garfield, the comic strip was new… no more than maybe a month and a half since inception, since… since coming into existence… and there it was before me in print, I saw it… a comic strip… What was it called?
– Real player with 5068.5 hrs in game
Extreme-G 2
This is a game that requires patience in learning its quirks, the sometimes wonky bike physics and controls, but rewards you immensely if you persevere. And this is coming from someone who plays using a keyboard and is fundamentally bad at racing games.
There are a few bugs here and there (nothing game-breaking: just don’t decline a save when you’re offered one, or the game might stop offering), and I should elaborate on the wonkiness. The bikes are very fond of turning sideways or even backwards upon collision with a badly shaped wall or other bikes. Sometimes you might grind along a wall no problem, and sometimes you might snag on something and get turned around. The controls for left and right like reversing themselves at this point, as well as the gas pedal just kinda breaking, but you learn to deal with this very quickly (hint: it’s good to let go of all buttons briefly and then try moving again).
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
For the 2.50€ I paid for it is probably worth it. Mind that the controller support is still the worst of any steam games that I own and took some digging through the forums to find an acceptable solution. Not a decent one, but an acceptable one.
Well, I suppose that on the plus side the game actually works with decent frame rates and the WHOLE soundtrack catalogue from XG1 - 3 and both N64 and PC versions of the soundtrack is present. The soundtrack alone may justify the price tag.
But the controller support is bad, euphemistically speaking. There is no controller support in the menus, so no relaxed gaming on your TV. To get my XBone controller working, I had to set all executables to “run as admin”, then select the controller in the pre-game menu (which I have to start around 3 times on win 10 to actually start the game), then navigate to bike selection, press space bar and config my controller buttons. Shoulder Triggers are not being recognized. It’s a hassle that reeks of a lazy port. Like, every N64 emulator does this better and the only reason this version may continue to exist is stable framerates.
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit Remastered
HIT CHARACTER LIMIT, VIEW THE COMMENTS FOR ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
This was an interesting review to write. On one hand, it’s an extremely fun game to sink a lot of time into. On the other hand, it’s basically a re-release of a game, not a remaster. The game itself when it was released in 2010 was really fun. I really enjoyed it (although I’m still not a huge fan of the very heavy steering that the game supplies) for its really fun gamemodes online, good graphics, great car list, and the really good tactical nature of most of the online stuff. It’s also immensely satisfying when you do get a really good run through a series of corners at top speed and shaving off that extra fraction of a second when grinding for good times on all the single player events. Likewise, it’s also hugely satisfying to release that perfectly timed spike strip to catch one of your enemies off guard, allowing for your teammates to move in to take them out of the game.
– Real player with 295.6 hrs in game
For reference, I bought the 2010 “Limited Edition” version of this game’s original release for PS3 pretty much as soon as it was available. I played through all of its DLCs, too. Is this remaster a faithful recreation of everything from that version of the game? Pretty much, yeah.
I understand that a few cars were removed for the remaster. However, from what I’ve read online, the Carbon Motors E7 was removed because Carbon Motors no longer exists as a company, and the two Mercedes SLR McLarens(Mercedes McLaren 722 Edition and Mercedes McLaren Sterling Moss) due to Mercedes selling off their stake in McLaren starting back in 2009 and not completing until 2011(after the original NFS:HP 2010 release).
– Real player with 89.4 hrs in game
Vangers
Vangers, there are a few hurdles that you’ll have to cross to get into this game.
first is that the resolution is locked at 600x800, its a bit disjointing when you’re used to 1920x1080.
second is that the controls were obviously mapped by a programmer with very long flexible fingers, expect to spend some time slowly remapping most of the key bindings.
third it that this version of the game is lacking is any sort of manual or tutorial. expect to have no idea what you’re doing for the first part of the game. mistakes will be made.
– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game
Summary
Obviously Vangers is dated and most will play it merely for nostalgia’s sake. Nevertheless, this game has interesting features that make it stand out, even to date. If you remember this game, get it for cheap and relive the memorable times. If you’re just curious, hopefully my review will help in your decision to buy it or not.
Pros
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Interesting (background) story.
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Additional gameplay features, such as trading and exploring that make Vangers more than ‘just a racing game’.
– Real player with 23.4 hrs in game