Carmageddon Careens Back Onto Radar

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to GameSpot's report that a new version of gory driving title Carmageddon is listed for release in 2005 by publisher SCi. This highly Death Race 2000-influenced franchise often got in trouble with censors for "sequences in which pedestrians are run over by the player", and despite suffering diminishing returns for the sequels, was a fiercely addictive title (especially in the original's rarely-tried LAN multiplayer modes.) However, there's no word yet on platforms or gameplay details for this new title.

Comments

LAN game was buggy

[Kuad]

especially in the original's rarely-tried LAN multiplayer modes

That's because although multiplayer Carmageddon was fun, it was a bitch and a half to get running!! You *needed* to drive around killing people after the frustration-fest of setting up a LAN game.

SCi's business plan...

[DarkRyder]

Step 1: Make fun game.
Step 2: Having made lots of money on game, make new version with better gameplay and graphics.
Step 3: After making even more money on second game, make horrid piece of crap that looks like previous games, but which fans hate.
Step 4: Beat dead horse?

(Sarcasm aside, I truly hope this is better than TDR2000. I would like nothing better than to see this franchise restored to it's former glory.)

Re:SCi's business plan...

[Anonymous Coward]

You didn't hear it from me, but...

There is one -- if you apply the no-CD patch, Carmageddon 2 no longer complains when you run it on Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP (I've personally run it on 2000 and XP, no problem. Never tested NT.)

Times have changed

[ColonBlow]

I doubt they'll get much reaction about running pedestrians over after the GTA3 phenomenon. They better focus on the fun action, and not the gore level, since, as SOF II and Postal proved, you have to have a good game as well.

How do you plan that far in advance?

[scootr1]

How do you tell people that you are going to have a game out in two years? Is it being designed for today's equipment? Tomorrow's? Equipment two years from now?

My gut says that either it'll never come out, or it'll be so out of date by the time it does that nobody'll buy it (*ack*Daikatana*ack*)

Re:How do you plan that far in advance?

[Zathrus]

Well, maybe you should go look at id Software, or Epic, or Valve, or Origin back in the WC days, or... well... any successful design company.

These companies, of course, push the bleeding edge with their games -- they talk to video card makers, CPU makers, etc. and guess at what features will be available in N years. They then target those features for the high end of their game engine (or in the case of Origin in its hayday, target beyond those features...) while making sure that it's playable with current technology (or in the case of Origin, blatantly ignore current technology).

And, somehow, they're successful. Not to say it's perfect, not by any means, but they've generally done quite well. Better yet, while the game may want the bleeding edge hardware to run at top performance with all the visual toys turned on, other developers can license the engine and be relatively safe in knowing that when they release their game in 18-24 months those bleeding edge features will be much, much more common place.

As far as Carmageddon is concerned, are they trying to be one of the bleeding edge companies, or are they just trying to make a buck? The make a buck companies usually just use the stock engine, maybe a couple modifications, but nothing really big. There's also the middle ground - companies that license existing engines and then modify the hell out of them (like Valve did with the Q1 engine and HL).

Being on the bleeding edge is dangerous - if you mis-estimate where the edge is you can either come out with a game that requires more hardware than is available at release time, or you can come out with a game that already looks outdated (Daikatana managed to do both at once, plus be full of bugs and poor design decisions). Being on the other end can be dangerous too -- anyone coming out with a Q3 or Unreal engine based game is going to look very dated once HL2, D3, DE2, etc. come out.

Awesome game, but don't go out driving for a while

[N0decam]

I've gotta say that Carmageddon is the one game that, while fun to play, seriously affected my driving for hours afterwards.

It was very tough to not swerve onto the sidewalk on my way home after a day-long Carmageddon session at a friend's place. Seriously.

But I didn't do it, which is why I'm not currently in prison or the loony bin.

In other news...

[JRAC]

SCi has filed a law suit against Grand Theft Auto publisher, Rockstar Games.

SCi claims parts of GTA contain ideas and concepts - such as pedestrian death by motor vehicle - originally developed by the company in their Carmegeddon System V software, have been illegaly incorporated in to Rockstar Games' products.
SCi has revoked Rockstar's IBSL (Innocent Bystander Squishing License) and has also sent letters to over 1,000 GTA owners warning them of the possible copyright infringement.

Bad logic

[Ra5pu7in]

These reports use bad logic to prove their point. If a person owns a dog and wears a red shirt, and you can find a number of people who own dogs that wear red shirts, it DOES NOT logically follow that anyone who wears a red shirt must own a dog.

Here is their typical logic:

1) Determine a person is a sociopath - usually by some anti-social behavior.

2) Find their sources of entertainment which mimic the anti-social behavior.

3) Repeat with a number of proven sociopaths.

4) Provide this as conclusive evidence that anyone who enjoys that particular source of entertainment must be a sociopath.

The missing step that they don't want anyone to remember is:

Find anyone who enjoys this game. Review their life and behavior. Determine what percentage of gamers who enjoy it are actually potential or known sociopaths. Compare that percentage with the percentage of the general population who are potential or known sociopaths.

IOW, if every one of those millions of gamers who bought GTA3 was a sociopath eager to steal cars, beat up pedestrians, etc. we would have a massive epidemic of such behavior. Instead, we have a relative minority of sociopaths who are attracted to the game for their own reasons, while the majority just find it fun.