Dirt Showdown trailer shows 8 Ball arena
Dirt Showdown bears the Dirt name associated with Colin McRae and, once upon a time, serious rally racing, but is really more of an arcade spin-off. This new trailer shows off an “8 Ball” course. It’s like those Hot Wheels toys where you’d launch cars down convoluted tracks towards a central crash site, where they’d collide and fly off to hit your dog in the eye. This time, you’re inside those cars, and some of them are spouting fire.
Showdown’s focus is on Destruction Derbies and “full contact” racing, with lots of ramps and choke points, and will apparently make use of “gaming’s most advanced damage engine.” Move aside, Frostbite 2! It’s due out in May and was announced with an announcement trailer a few weeks ago which looked a little bit like this.
Need for Speed: World introduces $100 car
“Free-to-play” used to mean just that, but now it seems that it’s becoming “Remortgage-to-play”. First, DarkOrbit releases a $1,000 item and sells 2,000 of them. Now EA’s Need for Speed World sells a $100 car, according to GameSpot.
The pricey car in question is a Koenigsegg CCX “Elite” Edition. It heads up Need for Speed World’s “Premium Elite” collection, which is targeted exclusively at people with more money than sense. The car is reduced to “just” $75 at the moment, but even for that price you could pick up Race On ($19) and GRID ($15) on Steam – both of which feature the Koenigsegg CCX – and still have $41 left over to buy a cheapo steering wheel.
On the whole the free-to-play model does seem to be working, but these costly items make it look like developers and publishers are taking advantage of an audience willing to pay exorbitant amounts for fairly rudimentary power-ups. A report in the Daily Mail is sure to follow shortly.
F1 Online open for closed beta registration
Codemasters’ free-to-play web-based racer F1 Online has opened for closed beta registration ahead of its launch in the first quarter of next year. The Unity-powered top-down racer includes assets from F1 2011, and includes the requisite team management on top of the driving.
From what we’ve seen it’s rather entertaining, pleasingly recalling Codemasters’ own long-lost Micro Machines franchise, albeit in a shinier package. The top-down single-button controls aren’t going to please those who’ve spent thousands on recreating the interior of an F1 car in front of their monitors, but the low system requirements could make it a lunch-break hit.
Sign up for the closed beta here (warning: requires stupidly complicated password and the drop-down boxes are tiny), watch the brand-spankin’-new trailer above, and see the brand-spankin’-new beta screenshots below.
TrackMania 2: Canyon Powered by Players video gives us racing toilets
I played the original TrackMania not so much to death, but to the point where it was six feet under and the flowers had gone mouldy. In a way I’m not surprised by how little I’ve played its latest incarnation, TrackMania 2: Canyon. It’s the same jolly good physics-defying racing as the first, complete with the absurd track designs. But, for me at least, it just feels a bit too similar to the original.
This new video has piqued my interest, though. It reminds me of the thing that makes TrackMania great, other than the fact that you can drive upside-down: the community. I spent many a night up until 2am in that “just one more race” mentality, racing a hotchpotch of strangers on un-completable tracks. Once, I was racing three Swedish people on a track that simply consisted of a three-foot diameter tube and nothing else. We were all so determined to finish that we failed to see the futility of attempting to keep a racing car on a surface that it didn’t fit on in the first place.
Download Burnout Paradise for free on Origin
Those clever folks over at HotUkDeals have figured out how to get open world racer Burnout Paradise for nowt via EA’s Origin service – in the UK, at least.
You’ll need to install and open the Origin client, do a search for Burnout Paradise, add it to your basket, check out and then enter the word “PARADISE” (in caps) as the Promo Code. Et voila, free Burnout. It’s worth noting that if you choose to pay by PayPal you won’t have to enter any credit card details during the checkout process. We have no idea how long the offer will last, so get it while it’s hot!
Auto Club Revolution closed beta starts this month
Auto Club Revolution is a new free to play racing sim aimed at car lovers interested in “owning, customising, driving, racing, and most importantly, enjoying cars online.” It’s being handled by verteran dev Eutechnyx, who have been making racing games for the past 14 years. They say that the game will include “single player and multiplayer modes, drafting (slipstreaming), drifting, a fully-featured HUD, a suite of assists and much more.”
The closed beta will kick off later this month. You can sign up here. More details and screenshots follow.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 free DLC hits this weekend
Upon release, Test Drive Unlimited 2 was a bit of a mess. Thankfully Joystiq have reported that an update hitting the PC this weekend adds new content and irons out some of the bugs, and is available for free.
The Exploration Pack adds new cars, events and outfits. There’s also a stereoscopic 3D mode added should you have the set-up and wish to race in all three dimensions. The complete patch list can be found after the jump.
New Need for Speed to use Frostbite 2
The newly announced instalment in EA’s racing franchise – Need for Speed: The Run – will use Frostbite 2 as its base.
Frostbite 2 has rocketed to fame after its graphical horsepower and capabilities were shown off in footage from Battlefield 3, which it also powers.
The Run is being developed by Black Box, and continues the cops vs racers war in a similar fashion to Criterion’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from last year. However, this time around the central focus is that of ‘The Run’; an illegal cross-country race from San Francisco all the way to New York City. Players will have to “weave through dense urban centers, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds”, whilst keeping an eye out for law enforcement.
Need for Speed: The Run is expected November 15 in the US and November 18 in the UK.
[via Big Download]
Dirt 3 release date announced with new screens
Codemasters have announced that Dirt 3 is due to come out on May 24, and have released a couple of shiny new screenshots showing a British Peugeot and an Italian racer blasting across the desert. You’ll find them below.
New Need for Speed: Shift 2 details, screens and trailer
A whole stash of NFS: Shift 2 details have been released concerning auto-log, helmet cams and, of course, cars. Read on for the latest news, along with a new trailer and plenty of screenshots.
Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed announced
EA have announced that a sequel to the popular racing sim, Need for Speed: Shift is on the way. It will be called Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed, and it’ll be out in spring 2011. Read on for details and the teaser trailer.
Massive F1 2010 patch incoming
The eagerly awaited first major patch for F1 2010 is imminent. Codemasters have posted a list of the fixes included in the next update, and they look to be addressing almost all of the concerns raised by fans when the game was released. Read on for details on the major alterations.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit to start race wars
The latest Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit video shows off some of the hyper-competitive networking features the game will game will have. Essentially, it’s going to start a four-wheeled war with everyone on your friends list. Check out the video below.
Need for Speed World released July 27
Need for Speed World, the racing MMO from EA, will be making annoying revving noises at a stop light in time for a July 27 launch. You can pre-order it now to get early access to the game. So spend money now, and once you’ve already spent that money and you’re poor, find out whether you like it or not. Sigh. On the other hand, it’s got a not bad pricing model.
Driver: San Francisco features upgradeable coma
Not many racing games can say this. Over 100 licensed cars, 208 miles of road, and the psychic ability to take over other drivers’ brains. Allow the video to attempt to barely explain the madness.
