Posts from ‘Racing’ Category
Kickstart This: Power Drive 2000
By: Derek Yu
On: May 29th, 2015
The release of the cheesy-fun 80’s action parody Kung Fury is coinciding perfectly with the end of the Kickstarter for Power Drive 2000, an 80’s-inspired drift racer complete with a talking car. The six modes planned all seem to be interesting variations on a time trial (i.e. racing alone or against a ghost), but Megacom Games is also planning offline and online multiplayer, so we’ll see how that works out. With 5 days left to go, Power Drive 2000 is about $15,000 USD shy of reaching its mark, so if you’re a fan of racers, you may want to give it a boost (pun sadly intended).
And also check out Drift Stage, which takes a different stylistic approach to the same genre.
One more Power Drive 2000 video after the jump:
Preview: Drift Stage
By: Derek Yu
On: August 25th, 2014
Very cool 80’s aesthetic going on in Drift Stage, a “modern evolution of the classic arcade racer”. Planned features include a roster of cars inspired by 80’s and early 90’s designs, local and online multiplayer, and a host of single-player modes, including circuit races, time trials, and a character-oriented career mode. No release date set, but the team is targeting PC/Mac with mobile and console possibly to follow.
Kickstart This: Distance
By: Derek Yu
On: October 23rd, 2012
[This is a guest post by Shinji16.]
The team behind Nitronic Rush has grown up, with three of them forming their own indie group called Refract Studios. Their first project is a game called Distance, which has been called a spiritual successor. As stated by Kyle Holdwick, the Creative Director of Refract, Distance is a chance to do things they wanted to do with Nitronic Rush but weren’t able to.
One noteworthy difference is for Nitronic Rush they built their own engine, but are using Unity for Distance. They’re also putting heavy focus on a powerful but easy-to-use editor, modding support, and live multiplayer. Nitronic’s multiplayer was ghost racing.
Right now they’re using Kickstarter to fundraise and also because they want fan feedback for direction in various parts of the project. With endorsements from Aaron Hightower, lead programmer of San Francisco Rush 2049 (a major inspiration for Nitronic), and industry veteran Cliff Bleszinski, along with proven experience as an award winning dev team, they deserve support. You can find their Kickstarter here and their Steam Greenlight here.
Zineth
By: Derek Yu
On: August 19th, 2012
Developed by a group of students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute during their Spring semester, Zineth is a non-linear action game that mostly lets you skate around, but also gives you the option to fiddle around with fetch quests, races, Twitter, and a strange Pokémon-esque minigame that’s accessible through the player’s mobile device. The main draw, however, is the skating, and it feels fast and fun. It’s complemented by a cool aesthetic and an expansive world that offers plenty of opportunities to grind, glide, and wall jump across huge distances.
Comiket 82: Preview Video
By: Derek Yu
On: August 7th, 2012
This is a video that mashes up quite a few trailers for doujin games that will be available at this year’s Comiket (Comic Market), a Japanese self-published comic book festival (and the largest in the world, with half a million attendees last year). The video was put together by Edelweiss, a doujin game developer that created Ether Vapor and is attending Comiket 82 with a new shoot ’em up called Astebreed. The festival is taking place this weekend on August 10-12.
Links to each of the games featured in the video are available here on Edelweiss’s website.
(Source: Elixir)
Trailer: Nitronic Rush
By: Derek Yu
On: November 5th, 2011
Nitronic Rush, a racing game by students from Digipen, will be released as freeware next week on November 11th.
Trailer: Krautscape
By: Derek Yu
On: August 17th, 2011
From what I gather, these are the two things you should know about the upcoming Krautscape: 1. the player in the lead builds the track, and 2. your vehicle can leave the track and glide through the air.
Proun
By: Derek Yu
On: June 23rd, 2011
Joost van Dongen’s gorgeous abstract racing game Proun has been released today as pay-what-you want. Players are encouraged the try the full game for free if they’re unsure and pay for it later if they feel that it’s worth some dough (I definitely think so!). Proun features 4 tracks (plus one bonus track when you pay for the game), up to 4-player splitscreen multiplayer, 4 speeds, online leaderboards, and an option to race against your ghosts. Players can also create their own tracks in 3d Studio MAX and share them with others.
TIGdb: Entry for Proun
Hot Throttle
By: Lorne Whiting
On: February 18th, 2011
A little late, but cactus recently released a new game through Adult Swim’s Flash portal [With the help of Mark Johns, aka Doomlaser. -Ed.]. Hot Throttle is a surreal racing game where you unleash your carsona, racing against fellow nude carsonas while avoiding garbage cans, hobos, and robots. The graphics are all simple and pastel, lending the game a simultaneously cute and unsettling look, with the numerous cutscenes definitely contributing to the ‘creepy’ aspect of the races.
In other cactus-related news: he posted a teaser image for a new Mondo game on his blog. Alas, one of the only series of games that actually uses the 3D part of Game Maker.
Darkwind: War on Wheels
By: Derek Yu
On: October 7th, 2009
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:
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.
TIGdb: Entry for Darkwind: War on Wheels
Video after the jump:
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