Vehicular smash-em-up Wreckfest gets an unusual twist this month with the release of a new update based on classic 1990s ancestor Carmageddon.
Carmageddon ranks pretty highly on lists of the most controversial games ever released. The original idea is one we’ve seen in movies and games over the decades, particularly Death Race 2000. It’s the future, society has collapsed, and people race each other in weaponized vehicles to death or glory.
However Carmageddon turned the idea up to 11, and gave players points for mowing down pedestrians. That caused it to be banned in several countries until Stainless Games censored the title, with the eventual solution being zombies. Instead of mowing down regular civilians, players would hit zombies — human and bovine — which would burst in a cloud of green goo.
Publisher THQ Nordic now owns the Carmageddon IP, and this censored version of the game is what’s hitting Wreckfest this month.
The update adds two locations from the original game, with Bleak City and Devil’s Canyon both recreated in original 16-bit graphics. Both include a race track (with Bleak City also gaining a reverse version) and a free-roam area, while Bleak City also has a demolition arena for additional carnage.
Players will also be be able to pick up the Eagle-R car from the game, though it comes in at a hefty 100,000 fame points. There’s also dedicated challenges in the Tournament section, with a Death Race weekly challenge, and a Carnage Accumulator season challenge — three minutes of zombie-bursting fun.
The update is free across all platforms — PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series — and the tournament events are live now.
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Raced on the new courses yesterday and found them to be quite boring and rather generic.