Carmageddon is a franchise that either made you squirm in disgust or squeal with absolute glee.
It’s been a long time since we last hopped on the road and tore up other death machines and unlucky pedestrians. Past games in the series were extremely controversial due to it’s use of over-the-top violence. We have entered the year 2016 and it’s now time for one of the most gory racing games to make its return. Carmageddon: Max Damage is racing out of the gate with current-gen visuals, a wide array of vehicles, a massive single-player campaign and so much more. Come July 5, you’ll be ripping up the road and shredding anyone standing in your path of destruction.
We spent some time with the game’s development team (Stainless Games) to get more inside info on what’s to come. Here’s the most important facts you need to know about Carmageddon: Max Damage straight from the game’s developers.
1. Celebrating 20 Years of Notoriety
Carmageddon first came crashing onto PCs around the world in 1996 – yes, twenty years ago. It was one of the early wave of games to be a “true 3D” gaming experience, and technically ground-breaking in a number of other ways too… Although it tends to be remembered more for the controversy that accompanied its release!
In Carmageddon, the player gains points and time bonuses by wrecking their opponents’ vehicles; pulling off impressive stunts; and – crucially – by running over the local population. The tone of the game was kept resolutely tongue in cheek; the characters, vehicles, levels and power-ups were pun-driven and silly and the violence was always hilariously over-the-top. The intention of Stainless was always: “make ’em laugh!” But this didn’t stop the more conservative sectors of the media, and the ratings agencies in various countries, from taking offense and branding it a “video game nasty.”
The game was refused an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Certification, blocking release in the UK until the game’s “innocent victims” were replaced by zombies. In Germany, the pedestrians had to become non-humanoid floating tin-can robot things (the German USK rating board refused to rate the game, a status the game still has in Germany today). And Carmageddon was banned outright in Brazil and Australia.
Of course, the controversy generated by all this led to the game receiving considerable publicity and exposure in the media, and Carmageddon became somewhat notorious. But gamers loved the title, and – no doubt somewhat boosted by its reputation as a “Bad Boy” of the game world – it went straight into the video game charts at No.1, and went on to sell over 100-million copies worldwide.
20 years later, the world has moved on, and the bounds of what’s acceptable in video games has changed. Which means that Carmageddon: Max Damage can be enjoyed for what Stainless Games always intended it to be – an action-packed combat racing title, and a slapstick celebration of cartoon violence.
2. Carmageddon’s Coming to Consoles
On the 8th of July (5th of July in the US), Carmageddon: Max Damage will be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. Get it in retail box or by digital download.
Carmageddon: Max Damage is the latest title in the series, and it’s still the ultimate car combat driving game where you gain points by mowing down the local inhabitants and your opponents are a bunch of crazies in a twisted mix of killing machines. But the new game takes it all to a whole new level of both technical sophistication and slapstick silliness. With insane PowerUps, surreal environments and a whole variety of ways to win, it all adds up to endless hours of violent and hilarious fun.
3. Crazy Cars
Select from over 30 cool, crazy, custom killing machines designed for the job in hand; wrecking opponents and annihilating pedestrians. Each vehicle has its own highly distinctive and dangerous character, with a deranged driver to match… Choose from bladed sports coupe to scythe-sporting monster truck, deadly hearse to tank-tracked racer, military jet hybrid to heavy-duty earth mover and a whole lot more. Hitch up a trailer, and a “Mutant Tail Thing” PowerUp, and you’ve got your own killer mini convoy.
Power, Armour, and Offensive upgrades along with custom paint and rim options allow you to personalize the killing capabilities of your preferred rides.
4. Dynamic Damage and Real-Time Repair
All the cars in Carmageddon: Max Damage can be damaged and destroyed using the game’s highly sophisticated dynamic damage system. All the bodywork and mechanical parts buckle, bend, hang or tear off. Tires puncture, come off the rims, axles bend, wheels get torn off… The whole car can be bent or twisted in any axis. It can be split in two across any plane. And then, at the press of a button, all that damage can be reversed and the car will repair itself as you drive and all parts will fly back to the car from wherever they fell – and get you bonus points if they happen to brain a pedestrian on their way back!
Then, watch it all over again from any angle, using the game’s built in fully-featured Action Replay facility.
5. Awesome Environments and Easter Eggs
Tear through large open-world environments and smaller battle arenas based in the Carmageddon world of the strange and surreal: “Bleak City,” “Dusty Trails,” “MagNuChem,” “Frosty Pass” and “Devils Canyon.” Smash up the scenery whilst exploring the city streets, country trails, arid deserts, factory districts and icy wastelands while gathering Achievements, completing Challenges and picking up Collectibles along the way.
Become briefly acquainted with a varied mix of adult pedestrians of all ages, shapes, persuasions and species (Carmageddon is an equal opportunities Ped Slaughterfest) before slicing, dicing, skewering, exploding, dismembering, and generally causing carnage as you target them for points in countless ingenious ways.
Discover over 90 entertaining PowerUps that can help or hinder your game in hilarious ways. You’ll soon discover which ones maim your enemy, enhance your performance, or just screw things up. With repulsificators, anvil launchers, earthquake bombs, helium filled peds and many more at your disposal, you can even combine PowerUps for even greater hilarity and devastating effects.
Buy Carmageddon: Max Damage here.