Wreckfest Finally Out of Steam Early Access!

Paul Jeffrey

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Wreckfest has finally been fully released, leaving Steam Early Access today following over four years of development by Bugbear Games...

It would be fair to say many people never really expected to see this day come to light.. and now finally it is here! Steam Early Access has been a long road to travel by Bugbear Games, and finally after over four long years of development this outstanding title has reached a full, complete and final release build version!! Roll out the trumpets, hang the banners from the rafters, the time has come!

Wreckfest is a unique title, a mix of arcade and simulation that focuses on racing and crashing in equal measure. Superbly moddable, highly entertaining and with believable physics, this game offers up a wonderful opportunity to try something a bit different when the mood to go full on hardcore sim racing doesn't quite take hold.

As always racing online with real people is where a lot of the fun can be had, and in Wreckfest that sentiment holds very true indeed. Ok so the offline career mode is impressive in its own right, but if you really want to explore what the game has to offer, then getting into an online environment and racing against other real people is something that you should most certainly give a try...

We have a great little Racing Club for Wreckfest here at RaceDepartment, but for reasons outside of our control that area of the site has gone a little quiet in recent weeks. Fear not folks! We are getting out the spanners, gaffer taping panels back on, oiling the cogs and smoking roll up cigarettes near combustible liquids, all in the name of reviving this potentially epic racing events! So hold on to your hats, keep checking the Wreckfest Racing Club forum for new events (starting with the first one to be advertised tomorrow), and let the good times roll on once again!

Anyway, back on topic, Wreckfest is here, it has a new build, and you can read all about it below...

Wreckfest Release.png


Wreckfest full launch update notes:

CONTENT
  • Added special challenge vehicles: School Bus, Harvester, Supervan and Double-Decker.
  • Added the exclusive Deluxe Edition car (backer car). The car is automatically placed into your garage.
  • Added new fun parts such as coffins, saw blades, large axes, skulls, baby prams, hot dogs, sharks, boxing gloves to decorate the vehicles with in style.
  • Added new paint jobs for vehicles and improved old ones.
  • Adjusted visual camber angles and ride heights of many vehicles to improve their appearance.
  • Adjusted performance ranges of vehicles to differentiate them from each other.
  • Adjusted names, prices and properties of many armor upgrades.
  • Added new Countryside Crop Field derby arena.
  • Resurrected the classic Speedway 2 Demolition Stadium.
  • Optimized the performance of Tarmac 2, Speedway 2 tracks.
  • Polished many of the tracks by fixing seams and holes, improving UV mapping and so forth.
  • Added color-themed curbs and barriers to a number of tracks.
  • Improved Big Stadium Figure 8 environment art.
  • Implemented backer names as AI names.
  • Adjusted a number of time-of-days to not be as dark.
  • Implemented credits.
TECHNICAL
  • Fixed particle blending glitch when hardware antialiasing is enabled on AMD GPUs.
  • MP: Host can now adjust Car Restriction in the Lobby, Options tab to choose between Max Class A/B/C/D, Host’s Car.
  • MP: Setting a specific car restriction using the Dedicated Server console now works properly.
  • MP: Special vehicles can now be disabled and enabled by host in the Lobby, Options tab.
  • MP: Event settings are no longer reset when the host switches to the Lobby, Options tab.
  • MP: Event settings that require reloading of the event are now marked with an * and accompanying help text.
  • MP: Cars no longer appear falling through the ground plane when the event is changing.
  • MP: The server’s current settings for Damage and Special Vehicles is now included in the lobby server info.
  • Implemented asynchronous vehicle loading to improve loading time when changing a car in the garage.
  • In Replay, Photo Mode, it’s no longer possible to use the free camera to fly outside the level boundaries.
  • Game is now automatically paused after it’s minimized.
  • In Replay, the timer now displays time correctly.
  • Game now detects up to 12 input devices to prevent the user from having to disconnect unnecessary controllers.
  • Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base V2.5 and CLS Elite Racing Wheel no longer lose input mappings.
  • Controllers are now longer detected automatically when entering the Settings menu;
    instead the user needs to click the Detect Controllers button on Settings, Advanced tab.
GAMEPLAY
  • Added a new Chase 3 camera that is further up and back to make it easier to see the surroundings.
  • Wrecking an opponent now registers correctly even when the victim has more speed than the attacker.
  • Limited the opening angle of hoods to prevent them from making it impossible to drive in the in-car camera once unlocked.
  • Depending the car(s), performing a PIT maneuver is somewhat more challenging than previously.
  • AI is now less inclined to ram the player in slow corners.
  • Reduced the delay at race start.
  • Expert AI is slightly faster now.
CAREER
  • Added all-new challenge events with special vehicles, for example Harvester Deathmatch.
  • Added unlock gates to career championships, i.e. some of the events are only unlocked after the player has earned enough championship points.
  • Adjusted bonus targets for many events to make them more engaging and remove impossible or very difficult targets.
  • Improved difficulty curve, added new unlocks and vehicle rewards, separated performance upgrades to classes.
  • Changed multi-heat demolition derby events to single heat format.
  • Adjusted performance ranges of AI vehicles to have more performance variation in events.
  • Added descriptions for career series.
  • Added a reward for completing the career.
USER INTERFACE
  • Added loading tips.
  • Changed over to new fonts.
  • Added a new outside garage scene to the main menu.
  • Added a new pit garage scene to the Pre-Race screen.
  • Improved a new Series Selection screen user interface.
  • Implemented a new Paint Shop user interface with a possibility to use three layers for the livery colors and resetting the colors.
  • Added a new user interface for Career Event Info and Pre-Race screens.
  • Getting wrecked mid-race now results in “WRECKED” text instead of misleading “FINISHED” text.
  • For ease of use, performance, visual and armor upgrades are now combined into a single Upgrades menu with tabs.
  • For quick access, Garage is now accessible directly from the Career Event Info screen.
  • Newly acquired parts and cars are now displayed with a “NEW” text to make them easier to find.
  • Owned parts are now marked with a little garage icon instead of “OWNED” text.
  • Damage log notifications are now longer displayed in the beginning of the new event when player restarts while taking damage.
  • Acceleration, Top Speed, Cornering and Strength stats no longer appears as 0 for Lawn Mower and other special vehicles.
  • In Market, Upgrades, items that the player cannot afford are now accompanied with “Insufficient Credits” text.
  • A purchased car is now automatically made active.
  • In Replay, the game now correctly defaults to Trackside Camera view.
  • Tab selection now loops when pressing the key or button repeatedly.
  • Select button is no longer grayed out in the main menu.
  • Mud Pit and Grass Field are now their own environments in the track selection view.
AUDIO
  • Added new licensed songs.
  • In-game music can now be enabled in the Settings, Audio menu.
  • Audio no longer suddenly goes silent on certain cars.
  • Adjusted audio balance.
LOCALIZATION
  • Added localized text for Brazilian-Portuguese, Chinese, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Russian.
  • Updated localized text for French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Wreckfest is out now on PC, with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions to launch November 20th 2018.

Check out the Wreckfest Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding the sim. For added excitement we have an already immensely popular and exciting Racing Club, details of which can be found here.

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Tell us what you think of Wreckfest! Does the move out of Early Access make a purchase more appealing to those of you who are still on the fence? Let us know your thoughts below!
 
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I got this game for £12.99 in a steam sale, then refunded it as wasn't playing it...

Then i wanted it back but it was £24.99, so thought i'd wait see if it goes into steam sale again...

Now it is £38.99?!

Brain won't let me buy it now...
I bloody had it for £12.99 why did i refund it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Looks like a huge improvement over the last build earlier this year, seems like deformation now works as expected with the right stiffness for each part.
Graphics look very well polished too, hopefully this will be a very solid release as they had a LOT of time to iron out all the bugs and improve on the physics engine, really looking forward to it.
 
Played it a couple of hours yesterday and it is fun! Not too serious. For me it is a great stress relief title in between the race sims. I hope they will improve the engine sounds. And eventually will get VR and motion support. Wheel and ffb is ok (but not to compare with the well known sims).

Graphically it surprised me. Very good! So far I've not experienced major issues. Only some overlapping menu buttons in 4K but that can be solved easily.
Also the wheel keybindings are saved properly. In the early access I had to bind the keys every time I started the game. That's solved now.

All in all great fun and good laughs.
 
They've been killing it with the updates in 2018, but this latest 4 GB update pushed it even one-two notches further! Damn impressive job.

Overhauled menus and UI looks great, improved skins, new customization parts, additional songs (mostly heavier stuff, prefer them to the earlier music, actually), more polish into track details and lighting. What's not to love. The Reliant Robins and school buses are hilarious :D

The 15€ price jump was steep though! :confused: But they warned about it in advance. And Wreckfest is totally worth this price, Bugbear can be proud, 4 years of struggle.

Saw this on Steam bestsellers list, hopefully means upped activity on MP servers...
 
Last edited:
They've been killing it with the updates in 2018, but this latest 4 GB update pushed it even one-two notches further! Damn impressive job.

Overhauled menus and UI looks great, improved skins, new customization parts, additional songs (mostly heavier stuff, prefer them to the earlier music, actually), more polish into track details and lighting. What's not to love. The Reliant Robins and school buses are hilarious :D

The 15€ price jump was steep though! :confused: But they warned about it in advance. And Wreckfest is totally worth this price, Bugbear can be proud, 4 years of struggle.

Saw this on Steam bestsellers list, hopefully means upped activity on MP servers...
i was in a mp server last night for an hour and it was full the whole hour...hilarious fun !!
 
Game filled a blank spot on market 100% there is only one game destractionderby-like and it`s Wreckfest, what more to say, gonna play carmagedon, gta ? I don`t think so.

BTW i like it very much :D
 

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