Wreckfest - Xbox One

Let's start with a quick rant...For the longest time, I've adored driving and racing games. I used to spend hours with the likes of Gran Turismo, WipEout, Project Gotham, Burnout, Flatout, NFS, you name it. Gradually unlocking cars, competing in harder and harder races - getting a feeling for the driving model.One thing put my enthusiasm for the genre to rest, especially with recent games, and that was open worlds. I'm sick to the teeth of roaming around aimlessly in sandbox-style environments, having everything unlocked from the start and the necessity of having licenced vehicles. It feels like racing games are forgetting to be 'games'. I thought it was just me getting older (27) and growing out of such things...Then I heard about Wreckfest.I've not had such a blast playing a racing game since Party Crash mode in Burnout 3 Takedown, or reaching Zen level of Zone Mode in Wipeout HD. Let's get straight to the point - the physics and damage model in Wreckfest are downright spectacular. When 23 computer cars slam together, with shards of bodywork flying through the air and you're desperately trying to thread the needle through the chaos, it really gets the heart racing.The garage of available vehicles consists of unlicenced tributes to some great machines from the '60s, '70s and '80s. There's a Volvo 245 Wagon, Saab 96, Chevvy Blazer, Mark III Supra, amongst numerous others. The customization is straightforward, and allows you to make your car individual without going overboard with countless meaningless options. Tuning options are pretty slim, but cover the basics.The campaign mode presents a nice amount of variety. Standard banger races and demo derbies are interspersed with challenges with wacky vehicles, like limousines, American school busses, ride-on lawn mowers combine harvesters and 3-wheeler Reliant Supervans (like the one in Only Fools and Horses).The cars handle very nicely, and there's plenty of difference in handling characteristics between the vehicles. The game doesn't feel too arcadey (best experienced with the driving assists, TCS and ABS switched off), but isn't 'simmy' to the extent of needing a wheel to play it properly - I'm looking at you, Dirt Rally 2.0! Sliding around on the dirt tracks feels highly satisfying, and most objects you can see cattered around the racetracks are destructible; even fragments of the concrete walls break off when you smash into them!I do have a few gripes...Local splitscreen multiplayer is absent, which is a real shame. This game is begging to be played with three friends, in deathmatch mode, or competitive manger racing. It really feels like a missed opportunity. I guess there's always Destruction Derby 64!The graphics for the most-part are very nice. The cars look nice and details, and the environments are varied and pleasant to look at. The same cannot be said about the skybox textures, which look pretty workman-like and a bit grainy, especially at sunset. The cars deform in a pretty realistic way, it's kind of hilarious to see your once Mustang-shaped ride squished to the length of a Peugeot 205 and still driving!. It becomes clear here that the developer compromised realism in terms of how the mechanical parts of the car survive the impacts and destruction. It's not uncommon to see a wheel floating in space as the rest of the car breaks away around it.All things considered, this game is an essential purchase for any racing game fan, especially if you enjoyed the old Flatout, Burnout or Destruction Derby games back in the day. You will not be disappointed.From me it earns a well deserved 9/10

There is lots of fun to be had with Wreckfest with its brilliant car destruction details and physics. Decent choice of vehicles along with great graphics and decent soundtrack. If racing and smashing each other up whilst driving couches and lawnmowers sounds fun to you then I would definitely recommend this experience.

The first and best thing about this game is that the cars are v driveable. There are a load of tracks and don't be put off by the sart of the career mode when you start with a lawnmower. Lots of customizable features and all in all a game that will hold your interest.BUT - the worst thing is the time it takes to load the race. Far too long. Secondly you can purchase cars from the Market but you can't sell them. Last is that when there is a load of debris on the track some of it is floating in mid-air. None of these is a deal breaker but it's best to be aware. Otherwise it's excellent fun!

I love this game. I’ve watched a lot of beamNG videos on YouTube and wanted to find a game that I can smash up some cars on that wasnt on PC! The damage is brilliant, the add on packs are great (more money, thanks) and the circuits are brilliant - glad to see it’s always being updated with new features / tracks / cars. Definitely worth every penny!!

if you want to have really good fun and I mean really good fun with a racing game this game is for you there's lots of crashes thrills and spills the physics on the vehicles are fantastic as well really a great surprise purchase the only downside and it's a minor niggle is the engine sounds are a bit whiny but that's maybe 2 be expected of a demolition type game great stuff brilliant

I like racing games and remember destruction derby, flatout etc. I really really wanted to love wreckfest and to be honest from the onset I thought it was great. However after playing career mode for a few hours, to be honest it just isn't polished enough to keep my attention long term. It is a good fun game for a quick half hour or so, but I cannot see any real continuity in it. Having decided that career mode was a bit lacklustre, I then tried multiplier which started off great fun; however when a lot of players are crashing about on the screen, this soon heavily disappoints. The frame rate slowdown is shocking and has since made it unplayable online for me. I hope this gets resolved in future updates as in this modern day and age, this level of coding is disappointing and the developers will have clearly known about the poor multiplayer. Done get me wrong there is a massive potential for this game, but only when some decent updates and patches are released would make it a long term playable game. At the moment I would wait until it is discounted; I paid full price and at the moment can honestly say if I had seen the game first I would have waited. All the positive reviews currently all over youtube, which I checked out extensively first must have been heavily sponsored as the reviews don't really match the final product.

Grandson said great game true to presentation

Our son (nearly 12) loves Forza Horizon 4, and also The Dukes of Hazard. Wreckfest seems a natural progression, and it is fair to say that he loves it. He much prefers driving games to some shoot-em-up "death patrol zombie watch tour of duty robotfest 17", so as far as I am concerned, this is a big hit. Driving is much better than killing people anyway!With regards to the posts which says that the games take a long time to load - well, they are not instantaneous, however if your life is so busy that you cannot wait a few seconds, then you either have something wrong with your expectations of real life, or your time management is poor.