Up until recently, I didn’t have a high-end graphics card in my PC. This severely limited the types of games I could play, especially newer, more graphics-heavy ones that really suck up all the power that a computer can offer (I’m looking at you, Forza). Because of this, I mostly stuck with older racing titles that I grew up playing. Even now, with a higher-end but not top-tier card in my machine, I’ve gotten to where I just prefer the older stuff. Maybe it’s a sign of getting older, or maybe it’s just the lack of time I have to play anything. Whatever the reason, retro is in my blood, and I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon!
While there are many other racers out there I thoroughly enjoy, these are the ones I either keep going back to or wish I could go back to:
Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now (PC)
This is less a racing game and more a deathmatch demolition derby with everything from traditional stock race cars to dump trucks to airplanes that drive on the ground and chop things up with their propellers. It’s a very strange game, but it’s some of the best demolition derby racing you’ll ever experience on a computer. The good news is it’s available on the GOG.com. In it, that there are a bunch of different maps, ranging from racetracks to downtown areas to country settings to I think a big shopping mall, and it is just a free-for-all. I believe there’s a way to actually beat the levels by racing around the different checkpoints, but any time you attempt that the your computer. Opponents are are trying to raise either. They’re all trying to wipe each other out or you out, so you’re better off just focusing on the demolition side of it. Besides, that’s all the fun is. That and running over unsuspecting pedestrians. I never really played much of the first or third games, the second was young when I have a lot of experience with, and it’s also the most biased towards.
Twisted Metal (PlayStation 1)
It took us a while before we got an original PlayStation, so there was already a significant library to choose from by the time we had one in our possession. We rented a fair share of black discs from Blockbuster, and Twisted Metal was one that we rented more than once. Anytime we had that in our PlayStation, we didn’t play anything else. Just the sheer amount of craziness from the maps to the weapons to the cars, there was always something to do and somebody that needed to get blown up by an ice cream truck driven by a crazed clown trying to find his favorite garbage bag companion (I’m not exaggerating or making of any of that, by the way).
The Mario Kart Series
One of the first racing games I remember really enjoying at home was Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo. My brother and sister and I sunk so many hours into that game, and later on its sequels for the Nintendo 64, the GameCube, and the Wii. This may not seem to be as pulse-pounding as the others I listed, but it could definitely lead to some controller-flinging moments, whether you’re playing multiplayer or single-player. I have yet to play the one on the Switch, but we’ll get to it someday. The whole series is good, family-friendly fun filled with a whole lot of hijinks from a slew of characters from Nintendo IP history. What better way to get ahead in a race than to drop a whole pile of banana peels in front of your opponents, or to shoot turtles that act like homing missiles, or to use a strange lightning bolt item to shrink everyone down to a tiny, easy-to-run-over size? Unless realism is your thing, you can’t go wrong with this series of games for off-the-wall fun. Just be mindful of the so-called “Nintendo Cheats” that the AI does to get ahead of you, or to keep pace. In the old SNES version, you could literally watch the little icons of characters lagging way behind suddenly zooming way ahead to catch up to you in the blink of an eye if you were too far ahead. I’m not sure if the later games did that, but the earliest ones did.
Anyway, enough of the walk down memory lane for video games. Since we’re on the subject of racing and deathmatches, we’ve got some Car Warriors news!
Let the Marathon of Madness Begin!
The third Dead Man’s Run novel is slated to release on May 17th! Written by Christopher Woods (Of Fallen World and B.E.N.T. fame) and set in Steve Jackson Games’ Car Wars universe, Marathon of Madness features a new leg and stars a new pair of heroes in the Dead Man’s Run that is sending Autoduellists tearing across the fractured future United States. If you’ve read any of Woods’ previous novels, you’ll know you’re in for a fast-paced, action-packed ride starring memorable, relatable characters you’d want to have a beer and a burger with. After the race is won, of course!
Jake Turner worked the road crews of the lawless lands…
That was until he became the sole survivor of three separate raider attacks and was blacklisted by his employer, the Tennessee Titan Authority. When the company’s probability programs red flagged him as a raider, he was done in Tennessee.
His only choice was to go home to Tazewell, where he learns that the woman who broke his heart left him because she had a degenerative disease. But if those five long years on the road crews taught him anything, it was that Gold Cross and their cloning ability could save her.
Unfortunately, the only way to afford it involved winning a race, and not just any race. It was the Dead Man’s Run; a cross-country road rally with every raider and savage in the lawless lands determined to kill them.
