Crashday – Hands On
Crashday – Hands On
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but mention that around the guys from Moon Byte Studios and you’ll soon find yourself being asked to pick a window before leaving in the most aggressive manner possible… you see, although Crashday has a lot in common with Bugbear’s FlatOut, it’s so much more that Moon Byte reckon it’s very different… and at GC 2005, they showed me why.
Firstly, the Moon Byte guys are hoping to do with Crashday what the Bitmap Brothers did with Xenon 2. That is to take the best bits from every other crash/stunt/speed racer out there and blend the lot into an action packed, 97 RON fuelled fun-fest… and from what I’ve seen, it looks like they’re going to do it too.
The basic idea behind Crashday is to get yourself into a car and then compete against others in a variety of events, accumulating cash and points as you go. You then use these to get bigger and better metal beasties to go hurtling around in, causing as much damage as possible.
Crashday features 7 different gameplay modes, including the online racing stuff, ranging from straight free roam practise sessions through to full on ‘demolish everything in sight’ race against the clock mayhem sessions. There are currently 12 vehicles in the game, each with various upgrade options and, for the really destructive minded, you can bolt a fearsome array of weapons onto them to make taking out your opponents and the scenery easier.
One of the unique features of Crashday is it’s open environment, meaning that even though you might be in a race, there’s nothing to stop you haring off across the track, over the in-field and rejoining the race somewhere, provided you don’t miss any checkpoints, of course. But it’s not just racing you’ll be taking part in. There’s also the Wrecking match, where the last man standing wins the day, using whatever weapons you’ve got mounted on your motor. Or how about the Stunt show, similar to FlatOut’s stunt arena; Pass the Bomb, an explosive game of tag against the clock; Bomb Run, keep your car above a certain speed; or Hold the Flag, like Pass the Bomb but with checkpoints too.
As well as these main games, there are four mini games… Long jump, Vehicle Blast (like the long jump but with whopping great explosions to propel you further), Checkpoint Chase and my favourite, Mass Destruction, where you have to destroy everything within the time limit.
What makes Crashday stand out from the crowd though are the superb graphics and physics engines running under the bonnet. The damage modelling can be done some justice from these static screenshots, but you have to see the game running to really appreciate how well it looks and feels. The cars crumple nicely upon impact with solid objects and there’s a real feeling of momentum as you careen off one thing, swerve wildly across the track, slam into someone else and then go tumbling over… It’s cracking stuff and loads of fun.
The explosions are excellent with bits of cards and debris going flying, and if you’re a bit too close, you can take damage and even be knocked about by the force of them. Needless to say, for utter mayhem, getting a pile up going is the order of the day, so either sideswipe an opponent trying to cause a log-jam of cars on a tight bend, or just make sure you obliterate a car in the right spot to create an obstacle for everyone else to slam into. Whatever your preferred method, you’ll be laughing like a drain.
Crashday is slated for a February 2006 release on PC.
