Wreckfest: New Update Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Bugbear Entertainment have made live a new patch for destruction derby style game Wreckfest, available now via the Steam network.

With the title still in the Early Access program recent updates have been few and far between, however the boys and girls over at Bugbear are still working hard behind the scenes and this latest update is testament to the improvements being brought to the title.

The latest patch brings some new content in the form of a new work-in-progress tarmac track and various improvements and fixes within the game, including new and improved grass! (picture below).

For those of you who crave the chaos and destruction of a public server in SimRacing, Wreckfest provides a cocain-hit version of just that for the racers out there who think their car looks better with missing panels, bent suspension and smashed windows. Wreckfest is currently subject to a 33% off sale and can be picked up on Steam for just £16.74 with the new patch available right now...

Changelog
General:

• Implemented an experimental version of part repairing and crew mechanics. Note that in order to be able to repair you first need to recruit a crew by clicking the small crew button above the car's icon and then assign your newly-recruited crew to the car.
• Added a new work-in-progress tarmac track.
• Improved all suspension setups.
• Added Racing and Rally tyres in addition to Standard ones.
• Improved off-road surfaces, now they are either more slippery or slow down.
• Improved clutch logic so it's now easier to get the car moving again after spinning out.
• Improved gamepad controller.
• Fixed frequent crashing when joining servers with lawn mowers.
• Improved vehicle paint-job changing speed.
• Improved game start-up time after system boot.
• Fixed graphics settings resetting after system boot.
  
• Excluded paint-job related files from data modification check.
  
• Implemented new grass.
  
• Alpha-to-coverage multisampling for foliage is now always enabled.
  
• Removed festive stuff.

Server:

• Added basic event rotation functionality for dedicated server.
  
• Added an ability to log dedicated server's messages to a file.
  
• Further reduced idle dedicated server CPU usage.
  
• Dedicated server configuration is from now on read from server_config.cfg file which is not clobbered by Steam updates. The file is seeded from the old initial_server_config.cfg file.

Take a look at our RaceDepartment Wreckfest forum for latest news and discussions.

Played the new update? How do you think this title is progressing? Please let us know in the comments below!

 

[thatmotorfreak]

About time, I was worried about the game's state after the post-Holiday limbo.

 

[Nick Gregory]

I would consider checking this out if Bugbear would actually finish it and get it out of Early Access.

 

[Keith Joyce]

It's a real hoot!

 

[antirussia81]

I would consider checking this out if Bugbear would actually finish it and get it out of Early Access.

I hope you are a member of a long-lived family...

 

[MarcG]

I would consider checking this out if Bugbear would actually finish it and get it out of Early Access.

It seems to be the running trend on Steam to have everything in Early Access for overly long periods of time, including this one where it states "Alpha" in the title screen but this game is so far from that it's almost funny reading!

Good game for fun this, the lawnmowers are crazy!

 

[jonelsorel]

I'm trying to understand.. Why exactly does it bother you that the game stays however long in development as long as you have already paid for the full product AND you can enjoy the partially finished one starting today, and it's already good at this stage?

If you really find nothing to moan about, do look around you. There's plenty of things, real ones, that need solving.

 

[aka2k]

Still not sold on this one. Two years of development and so absurdly little to show... it really does not look good for the game future.

Which is too bad. There's potential there. A lot. But it's just potential for now. Sadly.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Yeah potential isn't enough for me anymore. I used to take things for granted but no longer. Brand is everything now so devs with track records of delivering are the only ones I'll back in advance and that is a dwindling list for sure.

 

[James Cook]

What to say about this one? Having bought into "Next Car Game" at an early stage it's very disappointing to see this game still floundering. What started as a tech demo has failed to progress beyond that in any meaningful way. The potential is all there but it's being squandered by snail's pace development and some poor development choices. Bugbear didn't desperately need to overhaul the physics model. They did desperately need to add new content, features and reasons to actually play this game offline.

That said, get a group of people together, head online and there's a huge amount of fun to be had. In this respect I have had decent value out of Wreckfest, but in its current state (a hollow shell of a game, low on content or anything meaningful to do, for that matter) I couldn't recommend this title at full price.

 

[antirussia81]

I'm trying to understand.. Why exactly does it bother you that the game stays however long in development as long as you have already paid for the full product AND you can enjoy the partially finished one starting today, and it's already good at this stage?

The problem is that... it's not. Moreover, it's got worse than it used to be (at least optimisation-wise). That said, I haven't tested the game after the last week update. So maybe it improved massively and I'm just not aware of that.

 

[pingu666]

I hadnt played it since the patch which killed the performance, but its back to being good fps again for me

 

[antirussia81]

I hadnt played it since the patch which killed the performance, but its back to being good fps again for me

Really? Then, like James May used to say: good news! I will give it a go next weekend.

 

[James Cook]

That's encouraging. The game runs like a pig since the big graphical update about a year ago.

 

[M D Gourley]

This new update is definitely a small step in the right direction...I can change gears faster now, still a small bit of lag between gear changes but better than before and my T300RS has fairly decent FFB...
I personally am happy with Wreckfest at the moment as I might race for about an hour then move onto one of the other 6 Sims I have on my PC so I am not to bothered at how long they are taking to finish it...lol

 

[xnorb]

I don't mind it being in EA so long if it gets finished.
There was this huge screw-up with the new physics engine, but before that and since then development continues slow but steady
I own this game since 11/2014 and back then it costed me only 14€ and i already got my money worth out of it.

It's good to hear that shifting improved, because that was really a joke before the update.
Will definitely give it another try then.

 

[Andy Kettler]

Yep they made a new DX11 graphics and physics engine last year... I´m really happy with the game and how less arcady it feels compared to the Flatout series they made...

Go and get it... The fun starts at 25 Dollar

http://nextcargame.com/pre-order/

 

[Paul Bennett]

The latest update has made good improvements in handling physics, also transmission an tyre upgrades which make it a much better drive. I agree with all comments on slow progress, I want to like this but a whole lot more. But BugBear still say it's pre-alpha

It's graphic heavy so if you want better FPS, disable grass an dynamic shadows in options. The devs even say this as it's still a long way off optimized.

 

[xnorb]

Just had a short race against AI.
Shifting bug is finally solved, now is behaving like i expect it to do.

I really hope they don't turn that into some sort of RPG, requiring you to collect enough repair points to be able to repair your car. Don't want to grind through stuff to be able to race my car of choice...

Performance was okay, but soon left the AI behind me.

Handling - well, i was on Easy for driving characteristics, guess i should change that *g*

 

[Paul Bennett]

I just use it as a chill out drive after a sim session, drive like you stole it