You know what's frustrating? When you buy a game that is both no fun and broken. Like, even if the game was consistent/stable, it would still suck. It's a minor annoyance at best.

You know what else if frustrating? When you buy a game that is stable, but no fun. At least the devs created something that is playable, but it just isn't your cup of tea. Minor annoyance.

You know what is so infernally frustrating? When you buy a game that would be just utterly, outstandingly fun if it weren't broken as hell! Major, angering annoyance.

Welcome to Wreckfest!

Right, so the first thing you'll notice about this game is just how damn lovely it looks. It really is quite a sight to behold. The next thing you'll likely note is the controls, well, feel nice at first . . . we'll come back to this . . .

The physics are great and makes for a visually exciting environment to play in as piles of tires get tossed through the air when you or some other driver runs into them, and when cars collide with one another or other solid objects in the world. The paint and car pieces flying about while the soft body physics engine sees to it that the damage is displayed in a very remarkable way. It's very captivating.

The tracks have good layouts. Yeah, every now and then you'll have to do a boring old oval track, but thus far, in my progress anyway, they're few and far between.

Now, back to the controls. They started off perfectly. In my first 10 or so races nothing changed with them. The car would accelerate at the same rate, brake at the same rate consistently, turn, etc. Then after race 11 or so, weird things started happening. The car would make a turn at 80 kpm, and the very next lap would fly dramatically towards the outside barrier on the same turn at 50 kpm. This has been happening a lot, where it will feel like suddenly a turn gets bored and, just for funsies, develops a gravitational pull that would make Jupiter jealous. I seriously have no other way to describe it, but at first it felt like my inputs effected the turning of the car, because, you know, that's what driving a car is. Now it feels like the actual track's turns themselves will sometimes effect the car because . . . reasons? And it seems to come and go. I might glide around one turn and feel like a bad ass while doing so, and 2 laps later that same has transformed into ice that still looks exactly like dirt, causing me to very dramatically slide towards the outside.

Other weirdness has happened too, like bumping a car or bumping into a car and us getting stuck together. Or me driving down the track, mostly alone as I'm very far out in front, and then suddenly something invisible will spin my car out (usually sending me into a barrier) or completely flip my car.

Speaking of being in the front of the pack, these oddities: possesed turns, poltergeists flipping my car, cars suddenly turning into super glue upon contact; tend to happen when I'm in first or second place. I seriously want an answer to this: Is this how the devs decided to make the game "more challenging"? By making it to where if you win, the game just ♥♥♥♥♥ the bed on you?

This game is bad ass, but plagued with some real problems. If the game sucked and was broken, I'd shrug my shoulders and be on my way. But no, the devs had to make a game with a ton of potential, but we end up with a buggy mess. I look forward to patches that may fix these issues. If that happens, I'll change the thumbs down to a thumbs up.

*POST EDIT*

Okay, so the truth of it is that despite my complaints on this game, I did also give it a lot of praise, and I cannot stop playing it. (My kids really like it too, at least the demolition derby part of it anyway.)

So I learned that if you ride the ever loving hell out of the brakes, you'll usually execute turns decently enough to win. As I first started developing this tactic, I really didn't like it. I felt like I was being punished for going fast in a racing game. It felt counter-intuitive. However, the more I play the more it instead feels like you just have to very deliberate in your driving. It's easy to think you'll quickly be over taken by having to slow your car to a crawl every time you go around a bend, but I'm still able to come in first most of the time doing so. There are things that still feel wonky about this game, but overall it's good enough to keep me coming back.

With that said, I've changed my rating from a thumbs down to a thumbs up. Play it, just expect to get very well accomodated with the brake button.

Back to thumbsdown. After some patches and the game feels like a broken mess now.

You know what's frustrating? When you buy a game that is both no fun and broken. Like, even if the game was consistent/stable, it would still suck. It's a minor annoyance at best. You know what else if frustrating? When you buy a game that is stable, but no fun. At least the devs created something that is playable, but it just isn't your cup of tea. Minor annoyance. You know what is so infernally frustrating? When you buy a game that would be just utterly, outstandingly fun if it weren't broken as hell! Major, angering annoyance. Welcome to Wreckfest! Right, so the first thing you'll notice about this game is just how damn lovely it looks. It really is quite a sight to behold. The next thing you'll likely note is the controls, well, feel nice at first . . . we'll come back to this . . . The physics are great and makes for a visually exciting environment to play in as piles of tires get tossed through the air when you or some other driver runs into them, and when cars collide with one another or other solid objects in the world. The paint and car pieces flying about while the soft body physics engine sees to it that the damage is displayed in a very remarkable way. It's very captivating. The tracks have good layouts. Yeah, every now and then you'll have to do a boring old oval track, but thus far, in my progress anyway, they're few and far between. Now, back to the controls. They started off perfectly. In my first 10 or so races nothing changed with them. The car would accelerate at the same rate, brake at the same rate consistently, turn, etc. Then after race 11 or so, weird things started happening. The car would make a turn at 80 kpm, and the very next lap would fly dramatically towards the outside barrier on the same turn at 50 kpm. This has been happening a lot, where it will feel like suddenly a turn gets bored and, just for funsies, develops a gravitational pull that would make Jupiter jealous. I seriously have no other way to describe it, but at first it felt like my inputs effected the turning of the car, because, you know, that's what driving a car is. Now it feels like the actual track's turns themselves will sometimes effect the car because . . . reasons? And it seems to come and go. I might glide around one turn and feel like a bad ass while doing so, and 2 laps later that same has transformed into ice that still looks exactly like dirt, causing me to very dramatically slide towards the outside. Other weirdness has happened too, like bumping a car or bumping into a car and us getting stuck together. Or me driving down the track, mostly alone as I'm very far out in front, and then suddenly something invisible will spin my car out (usually sending me into a barrier) or completely flip my car. Speaking of being in the front of the pack, these oddities: possesed turns, poltergeists flipping my car, cars suddenly turning into super glue upon contact; tend to happen when I'm in first or second place. I seriously want an answer to this: Is this how the devs decided to make the game "more challenging"? By making it to where if you win, the game just shits the bed on you? This game is bad ass, but plagued with some real problems. If the game sucked and was broken, I'd shrug my shoulders and be on my way. But no, the devs had to make a game with a ton of potential, but we end up with a buggy mess. I look forward to patches that may fix these issues. If that happens, I'll change the thumbs down to a thumbs up. *POST EDIT* Okay, so the truth of it is that despite my complaints on this game, I did also give it a lot of praise, and I cannot stop playing it. (My kids really like it too, at least the demolition derby part of it anyway.) So I learned that if you ride the ever loving hell out of the brakes, you'll usually execute turns decently enough to win. As I first started developing this tactic, I really didn't like it. I felt like I was being punished for going fast in a racing game. It felt counter-intuitive. However, the more I play the more it instead feels like you just have to very deliberate in your driving. It's easy to think you'll quickly be over taken by having to slow your car to a crawl every time you go around a bend, but I'm still able to come in first most of the time doing so. There are things that still feel wonky about this game, but overall it's good enough to keep me coming back. With that said, I've changed my rating from a thumbs down to a thumbs up. Play it, just expect to get very well accomodated with the brake button. Back to thumbsdown. After some patches and the game feels like a broken mess now.