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    Wreckfest

    This is a PS Plus game for May on PS5 - so if you haven't grabbed it yet, go get it as it will disappear by the end of the weekend.

    I've struggled to find racing games I like in the past decade. Arcade style has changed from meaning fantasy driving games focused purely on gameplay - your Outruns and Ridges - to signifying what are, to me anyway, rather stodgy and self-serious semi-sims (Driveclub, GRID).

    Wreckfest doesn't buck that trend particularly - at no point do you dodge UFOs for points - but it's the most fun I've had with a racing game in years.

    It all comes down to the feel of the controls. They're not as beautifully abstracted from reality as something like Ridge, but there is something about them that is tremendously fun. Each race is a Destruction Derby style banger smash up, where you jostle into each other on slippery, muddy race courses. Drifting, bouncing and crunching your way round is simply enjoyable, in a sort of kinetic, visceral way. I'm not into cars personally, but I'm into games, and this is a fun one I reckon.

    There are loads of single player events to work through (including quite a few car combat, last man standing type ones, which to be honest I skip as I find these dull compared to races), a shop where you can buy new cars, and the opportunity to upgrade them. It's all pretty pared back compared to Forza and so on, of course. Petrolheads may find it insufficiently complex, but I'm quite happy just going through and upgrading mufflers and stuff without needing to know what they actually are, just that they make the stat numbers for my motor bigger.

    The only thing I don't like is the music. So I turn that off and play my own soundtrack with Spotify.

    Oh, and the implementation of the rumble, resistive triggers and the speaker on the DualSense is *chefkiss*. Probably the best implementation I've seen and really adds this cool bit of depth to feeling your car bump round the course. It's 4K/60 too, and looks delightful.

    Is anyone else playing?

    #2
    What is the second event after the lawnmower one? I thought that was boring AF and turned it off after that... It must get better right?

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      #3
      I don't know, I can't remember. You can pick and choose which ones to do. In platform game parlance, you don't need to do every level in a world to get to the next world - you just have to do about 60 or 70 odd percent of them I reckon. So I skip the novelty ones where you drive lawnmowers etc, and the ones where you crash into each other. I just like doing the races. I'm about halfway through now and I got to this level with a big loop de loop in the middle. That was a lot of fun.

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        #4
        I jumped straight into the online MP and had a great laugh with the C class cars. Really tight racing and fun great physics. It reminded me massively of Rallisport Challenge 2, but slightly easier to get to grips with.

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          #5
          Yeah I'm playing it on Xbox as it's in game pass. It's one of those games that gets better after the initial free races. Don't let the lawnmower and destruction Derby stuff put you off.

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            #6
            Yeah, the races are much fun than the Twisted Metal style bits or the Top Gear style lawnmower etc racing. They should've emphasised those more.

            My favourite tracks are the ones that incorporate an element of crash-based jeopardy. E.g. one shaped like a figure of eight, so you're constantly passing through a junction while other members of the pack are doing so perpendicular to you - leading either to last second dodges or multiple T-bone pileups.

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              #7
              Yeah wish there were more of those.

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                #8
                Yeah, I feel like there’s a mixed bag here. It would be cool if they could pluck out the best stuff and just make a game about that, and drop all the extraneous crash em up deathmatches and novelty vehicles. Racing on tracks designed to facilitate collisions is the best bit.

                More ramps, loop the loops and stunty things of that nature would be good too.

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