Carmageddon devs start a new carfight with ShockRods

Stainless Games, the makers of tabloid-baiting smash-o-racer series Carmageddon, are returning for more carfights with their next game. Today they announced ShockRods, a multiplayer arena shooter about murdercars. In 6v6 or 12-player free-for-all, they'll whizz around and blast each other to pieces. Carfights!

"ShockRods draws inspiration from the classic 'kill or be killed' arena shooter greats of yesteryear with over the top weapons, explosions and insane mobility," Green Man Gaming Publishing said in today's announcement, "but with a twist - the titular ShockRods; these customisable, hulking, technologically advanced vehicles, equipped with nitros and the ability to double jump, allow for truly thrilling and action packed gameplay."

It did take me longer than I'm happy to admit to remember that 'multiplayer' and 'arena' does not mean MOBA. How lord-management games ended up laying claim to that ludicrously broad genre name, I'll never understand.

ShockRods is due... at some point. It'll hit Steam Early Access for a bit ahead of the full launch. Details are hazy for now. However, I can tell you that it will be playable at EGX Rezzed, the games show run by our corporate overloads in London in April.

How come this isn't branded as a Carmageddon spin-off? Stainless don't own it anymore. Last year they sold the Carmageddon rights to THQ Nordic. Y'know, the folks who've bought THQ's name and a whole load of games that were big in the nineties and noughties. The ones who held a Q&A on 8chan then claimed ignorance of its reputation. THQ Nordic didn't buy Stainless Games, only Carmageddon, so they're not involved with HotRods.