Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now

The Good
Playing around with this one. I can vividly remember how excited the release of Carmegeddon II had me almost a decade ago. The game holds up remarkably well and still occupies a place in my gaming heart.

It's got a unique (In my 15 years of gaming, at least) replayability about it.

The insane physics still appeal to gamers years later, as recent titles like the Flatout series and from a few years before that, 1nsane show.

And it's that very same engine that allows for such insanity that makes this game so replayable. You're never going to slice your car in half the same way as you slide into the side of a building at 200 miles an hour. Playing chicken with a commercial airliner rocketing towards you, being compressed into a ball of crushed steel by an aircraft carrier elevator, pushing a pedestrian off a ledge into a 250 foot free fall... These are all situations unique to a game this original and none will ever be exactly replicated in game.

For basically a glorified racing game, you've got unimaginable freedom.

Not the greatest game ever created by any stretch of the imagination, but of all the "mindless" games I've played, the very most replayable.

A still active modding community, very solid graphics, tight controls, a huge variety of cars from armored sports models to logging vehicles and glorified go karts... For what it is the games just about perfect. Not exceeded by the first title in the series nor its predecessor.

The Bad
The game appeals to me on just about every level. It's not a difficult game to nitpick at, especially if it's not your cup of tea. But in my opinion...

The music could of been a bit more varied.

The "Kill so many pedestrians" objectives at the end of every three normal levels are almost all tedious and sometimes nearly impossible. I've always skipped them via codes.

There's a bug on the aircraft level where your opponent disappears, leaving the mission impossible to beat.

The Bottom Line
Without a doubt one of the most insane things, none the less games, I've ever encountered in my life. Not much to compare to making a sheep explode with an armored car going 650 miles an hour.

Give it a chance. I think the majority of gamers, especially if you've got a moderately open mind, will be pleasantly surprised.

The Good
Carmageddon II is essentially more of the same. This is a good thing. There's an updated 3D engine (now sprite-free and Direct3D accelerated), little things have been added and taken away, and there's a new structure to the races. The physics and car control-and-feel are even more brilliant, allowing you to bounce, spin, skid, do wheelies... it really does feel like a real car, even when you're driving outlandish monster trucks.

The environment has improved a lot since the original, with windows and fences that break, loads of objects that can be pushed around, objects that push you around, and the ability to get just about everywhere with a bit of creative driving. It really feels like these are real places you're trashing.

When paired with the circuit idea from the original, this makes it shine all the brighter; it still feels like there's half a race going on, so the action tends to if not follow, at least loosely hang around the checkpoints and the paths in between. In this way, the full subtlety of the settings comes out as you discover new things when you return to the same setting with a different track layout later on. It's almost enough to make you feel more like driving around checking out the scenery than driving into, over and through the motorists and pedestrians on the way. But only almost.

The fact that everything is 3D, including the pedestrians, does shift the focus of play some; for one, there's less of a splatter factor when ramming at high speed. On the other hand, dismemberment is now possible, and there are additional bonuses for sadistic games such as playing with your victims and sending them flying, not to mention some extremely fun power-up combinations; need I say more than "suicidal turbo pedestrians?"

Damage to cars is a lot more detailed; fun in particular when you get your opponents to the point where only two of their wheels touch the ground, confining them to running helplessly in circles.

The Bad
Towards the end, however, it wears thin. Because of the grouped-track layout, you can get stuck on a particular set of tracks when there's a difficult mission, and there's nothing to stop you from building up for as long as you like before you progress. Since your opponents don't improve the way you do, this makes for some rather easy races.

In the beginning, it's way too easy to get yourself split in half by driving into the side of a building, and for the last third of the game, most of the vehicles are truck-types(trailers, buses, even a plane), which sort of takes the fun out of it. The trucks are really just slow and unwieldy once the power rush fades, and then you're stuck driving them since the only thing likely to take out a truck is another truck.

Carm2's realistic car control might be the biggest argument against it; after all, if it feels so much like a real car, couldn't you wind up ramming pedestrians or taking out motorists in real life?

I played both this and the original within one year, and I can't say it changed my driving habits any. It did, however, make me a more nervous pedestrian; after all, a line of cars waiting at the red light by a pedestrian crossing look very similar to the pack of cars waiting for the start signal while pedestrians walk by, blissfully oblivious.

No way would I play this game with a driving wheel and gas/brake pedal controller, however. You really don't want this closer to the mood of being behind a real driving wheel.

The Bottom Line
Lots more fun for homicidal lunatics everywhere.

The Good
Graphics are smoother with a bit more detail (e.g., cars' parts actually fall off and remain on tracks; people can be crippled). Bigger tracks suggest less inclination to "race" as it's easier to demolish one's fellow racers than to complete checkpoints; in the original game and its add-ons, I tended to "race" and complete checkpoints until the last dozen or so tracks because time and tracks suggested racing.

The Bad
While the gruesome idea of hitting pedestrians and watching other racers sit immobile in their cars after the coup de grace is not necessarily exhilarating, the improvement in graphics over the "Splat Pack" add-on is nice... after all, what's the point of more tracks and cars if one can't tell a tree from a pedestrian due to too much pixelating? Also, the multiple "floors" for each track, while offering some variety, was a tad annoying for certain levels (e.g., the aircraft carrier) if one couldn't find the way to reach that "floor". Finally, the missions could be incredibly aggravating and in a few cases (e.g., air control tower), seem to rely more on luck than skill.

The Bottom Line
Relax after a day's "road rage" commute: vent your aggressions in a game rather than in reality.