Rollcage Reborn: Grip Enters Early Access
Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'
Grip [official site], a Rollcage spiritual successor made by a team including two of the original game's developers, has entered Early Access. The initial launch only includes a single vehicle but there are seven levels and three game modes. You can also play against AI or splitscreen multiplayer. I am quite excited about this because Rollcage is one of my favourite racing games. If you've never played it, absorb the video below to understand why I love it so.
No regard for the normal rules of the road.
Let's make sure we're all on the same page here - Rollcage is the best futuristic racing games ever made. It wiped the floor with Wipeout, slaughtered Slipstream 5000, and mauled MegaRace. Some of those fights were tough, others not so tough (I'm looking at you, Lance Boyle). Rollcage is victorious because it doesn't just go fast, it goes everywhere. The vehicles are double-sided and if they flip over, they carry on as if nothing had happened. If you're moving fast enough, you can drive up walls and across ceilings. Like in the video.
There's a long road to travel before the final launch though:
"Our goal is to have the "final" version of GRIP by the end of 2016, though with the right support GRIP will never be final, as we hope to be adding new cars, tracks and possibly pick-ups well into 2017.
The first version out of early access would be a complete version, or in other words, our vision of the full game as it's outlined in the game design document.”
That complete version will contain eight cars, twelve tracks (across four planets), ten pick-ups and a full career mode, among other bits and bobs. Most importantly, it'll contain cars that can drive up walls and across ceilings, and loads of weapons so that you can blow them off the damn ceiling and shunt aside their wreckage. The current buy-in price is £11.99, with increases to come as development continues.
And for the MegaRace fans out there, here's every Lance Boyle cutscene. If you make it through the whole video, leave a comment below and I'll arrange some kind of prize/sympathy.
I still can't work out if Boyle's employers actually murder civilians who protest about the tracks they're constructing or not. Is MegaRace a virtual competition or do people really die? What is happening?