Crunch Brunch: Next Car Game Is Now Wreckfest
Online multiplayer and new game modes
Bugbear are the modern masters of vehicular carnage, as exemplified by their efforts in the FlatOut series, which fell flat on its carface when development duties were handed to a new studio. Their latest title, currently in Early Access, has been known simply as Next Car Game, but it has a proper title now - Wreckfest. That's almost exactly how describe the sort of greasy spoon full English breakfast that cures all current ills while creating future ills of its own design. Along with the name change, Bugbear have released an update that adds online multiplayer among other changes.
Multiplayer currently supports 18 players but Bugbear are pushing for 24. You might need to make adjustments to your port settings to connect or host, say the devs - "If you’re experiencing difficulties when joining or hosting a game, you may need to adjust your network port forwarding: 27015 UDP and TCP for Steam, and our game uses 33540 UDP."
Along with the multiplayer, there are two new game modes - Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch - as well as oodles of changes to the already impressive engine physics and AI.
The name reveal is certainly not all, for Wreckfest has also evolved to include 18 player multiplayer! The players can now challenge their friends to share the most visceral demolition racing mayhem in existence! With four different game modes, Racing, Demolition Derby, and the new Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, Wreckfest’s conjunction of purity of driving and the innate beauty of twisted metal creates massive amounts of emergent glee when punishing your friends and foes alike.
We’re pushing the limits to get the number of simultaneous players to 24, but optimizing the network code will take a bit longer. Because the code is not yet optimized, remember that the speed of your ISP has a tremendous impact on how the races will run. Check the Recommended Upstream figure when you host a game, and you’ll be fine.
After the terrible accident at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, I'm not quite as eager to watch a million metal-rending motorsport collisions as I usually am. Obviously, Bugbear's game is about make-believe machines and the crashes come without consequence, but I don't feel quite as keen as I usually am about dangerous digital driving. Here's hoping that Jules Bianchi recovers, swift and strong.