Whatever happened to the vehicular combat genre?

You know, games like Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8? I thought these games were great back in the day. Do kids just not like them? What about you, SW? Did you not like them?

It died.

Mad Max? Carmageddon?

Alot of genres died off last gen because of the rise of FPS, Zombie games, emphasis on multiplayer, and cinematic stories/gameplay.

I bought Twisted Metal last gen, and though it was fun, it was painfully obvious how limited these types of games are. They cant evolve like other genres have. They pretty much are PS2 quality type games with mordern graphics.

I had fun playing the PS3 TM but once I played through the campaing that was it. There nothing else to it. Nothing worth investing either.

@uninspiredcup: A new Carmageddon came out a year or two ago, but it wasn't very good. http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/carmageddon-max-damage

@uninspiredcup:

Is Mad Max worth $9.99?

Casualty of the great genre purge of gen 7. We just have to settle for the driving portions of some open world games like Mad Max. Twisted Metal from 2012 was pretty good, but not quite as much fun as the older games. They tried to modernize it by going super dark with the campaign, but a game about a clown in a car combat competition should not be taking itself so seriously. It just came off as silly to me. Still, probably the last good entry in the genre.

@judaspete: "They tried to modernize it by going super dark with the campaign,"

What you mean super dark?

Twisted Metal Black(2001) was Dark.

Bought this not too long ago on XOne, horrible game. I miss this genre, hopefully more good stuff comes out soon. I've yet to finish Mad Max which I really enjoy so far....I'll get to it soon, definitely want to finish it.

Did you play the last Twisted Metal? Those games suck

Use to love playing Twisted Metal & Vigilante 8...lol

Seriously. Black was much darker than the PS3 TM, and is also far and away the best game in the series.

I keep hoping that one day a new Vigilante 8 will come out (no, that XBLA game doesn't count).

It gets repetive as hell, I didn't manage to finish it.

But the vehicle missions where you chase after convoys are pretty awesome.

It is a shame about the genre. Remember playing alot of Twisted Metal 3, 4, and Black with my brothers and friends back in the day.

Mario Kart is still going, so alls not lost yet, oh and Carmageddon came out recently.

There are a few car combat games on the indie scene on Steam. I just don't think they bring in big selling numbers, so they just don't make AAA games of them.

Shout out to Interstate 76, use to love that game.

The triple A side: games got super fucking expensive to make+not enough people buy that type of game to make up for production+marketing teams don't really know how to promote that type of game+marketing teams don't get the same marketing budgets they get for the likes of a shooter or an open world game.

Plus arcadey stuff and mechanics driven games tend to be made in the middle tier bracket, as those games were more modest middle market projects. The thing is, nowadays no one really has a middle market team working at a big publisher. The middle market is the expansive indie scene. So like anything else I expect people to take some shots in that space, until someone finally nails one of those type of games in a big way.

Uncharted 2 happened.

@SolidGame_basic:

That was hardly ever a genre. Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8 were the only good games.

Been wondering the same thing. I was hoping Caramageddon Reincarnation would be good, but it sadly wasn't.

I found a game I've played a shitload with friends recently called BlazeRush. It's awesome, check it out. It's like RocknRoll Racing or Micromachines with weapons. Great fun. Costs about 2 dollars on kinguin.net.

@uninspiredcup: "It gets repetive as hell, I didn't manage to finish it.But the vehicle missions where you chase after convoys are pretty awesome."

So you saved me $10

Whaaaaat? TM 1 and 2 are far better than Black. To each him own, I guess.

@killered3: No there we games like Cell Damage that were good.

Also Mad Max is not a car combat game. At least not the Mad Max I played. Maybe I didn't get far enough into it.

@the_bi99man: "Seriously. Black was much darker than the PS3 TM, and is also far and away the best game in the series."

I only played the Beta of TM PS3 and I couldn't get into it. I remember I immediately put it in Black and had a blast.

Forza Horizon 4: This Time It's War !!!

Scorpio Exclusive. lol :D

@csward: Whaaaaat? "TM 1 and 2 are far better than Black. To each him own, I guess."

You can argue 1 but Black was better than 2.

"Also Mad Max is not a car combat game. At least not the Mad Max I played. Maybe I didn't get far enough into it."

Is it worth $9.99?

@PSP107: Very repetitive. Borrows heavily from the Ubisoft Open world formula, combat is like batman games and it's more beat em up then car combat game if you ask me. which is a shame because the driving is not bad. I'd say pass .... wait for it to get to less then $5

On topic: I enjoyed Twisted Metal on PS3, the online was sadly dead though.

The last good twisted metal was twisted metal 4 and that was on the ps1. Black and the Ps3 TW were meh.

It's more of an arcadey couch co-op genre....and those types of games are pretty much dead. When was the last time a big publisher made a light gun game? Or a crazy taxi? A metal slug?

There isn't a AAA market for those games any more.

Diesel Guns

Gas Guzzlers

Grip

Road Redemption

Driving Survival

Auto Age: Standoff

Keep an eye out for Crossout. It's going free to play once the closed beta ends... Should be soonish.

Does Titanfall count ? :D

Check out GRIP on steam ;)

I miss playing those kinds of games. TM 3 and 4, Road Rash and Vigilante 8 were fun. Vigilante 8 also had a sequel Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense.

Black was dark, but 2012 feels like it's trying too hard. Like it's written by a teenager who just discovered torture-porn horror movies. Maybe it's just because the story mode is longer, whereas Black had quick cut-scenes at the beginning and end. The live-action FMV doesn't help either.

4 is highly under-rated.

@AsadMahdi59: "Very repetitive. Borrows heavily from the Ubisoft Open world formula, combat is like batman games and it's more beat em up then car combat game if you ask me. which is a shame because the driving is not bad. I'd say pass .... wait for it to get to less then $5"

I'm not a big fan of Batman's combat system =(

@judaspete:

Twisted Metal 4 sucked sort of, didn't it? I mean, it played well and you could create cars but it didn't really feel like a Twisted Metal game. I did like the weapons on it like the rain missile and the motor and the music was mostly good but that world it was in...

I hated the world Twisted Metal 4 was in, it was like the future and you had weird ass places like Amazonia and Hell with that Minion labyrinth.

@killered3: In my opinion, 3 sort of sucked and 4 fixed most of it's problems. I'll agree that some of the levels weren't well designed, and a few of the new characters were not great (Pizza Boy, Meter Maid), but I liked the weapons and handling of the vehicles more than even TM 2. Though to be clear, I would still say 2 was the better game over all.

Dude. Looks cool. Thanks!

@judaspete:

But Twisted Metal 3 had more of the original cast of cars! Like Specter and Hammerhead and Outlaw. Specter was always my favorite. And you can't go wrong with the Dodge Viper GTS!

Most of them were gone in Twisted Metal 4 except for a few that turned into bosses. Remember Super Thumper and Super Axel? Man those were stupid!

Dirt Showdown(Dirt 4 pretty much) also has some car combat in it, but mostly ramming into others. I enjoyed it a little, but I don't really consider it a good full fledged car combat game. My memory is a little fuzzy regarding the game though, I forgot if there are weapons in there.

Always thought they were really boring but that's just me.

Yeah, the original cast was cooler, but the handling just felt off in 3. It was slower with lots of sliding around, and that weird iris wipe when your vehicle flipped over. I consider it the weakest in the series, though I still enjoyed it. In 4 they tightened the controls and sped things up again, so I prefer it despite the lame vehicle designs.

It turned into Rocket League.

Genres don't die, they just recede and resurface. The genre as a whole was never really that big though. Certain titles achieved success, but the genre itself has always been niche.

Interstate 76 was so good. I76 was closest to Mechwarrior 2/Mercenaries, just with wheels and much better cutscenes and music. It was the same engine used for MW2 and, IIRC, the first 90s Battlezone game.

Vigilante 8 was amazing! Twisted Metal has way more in common with a Quake game than a racing game. I feel like the team that made Rocket League could really pull off a Twisted Metal style game really well. The original Rocket League, SARPBC in its early alpha days was actually a full car combat game. They added a soccer mini game to their car combat game and realized that car soccer was way more fun than car combat and completely changed the focus of the game.

The driving portions of the recent Mad Max game are really close in format and overall feel, setting aside. The new Carmageddon is a lot of fun and been playing a little bit of Distance but that is more survival racing.

inXile trademarks 'Autoduel'

Steve Jackson Games files Trademark Opposition

Pixelbionic's 'Autoduel' renamed to 'Motorgun' (David Jaffe, Creative Advisor); set for Kickstarter

As far as history of the genre goes, nobody has yet mentioned Quarantine (PC, 1994) or its sequel Road Warrior (PC, 1995). Innovative, violent games where you collect taxi fares & upgrade your cab with chainguns, missiles, etc. You could shoot out the side of your cab using an uzi, or eject passengers out of your cab onto the asphalt splat. Quarantine was also released as "Hard Rock Cab" and "Death Throttle" for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn respectively. Death Rally was a really good game back in the day.

Then there's Bandits: Phoenix Rising and Have a N.I.C.E. Day. There also was a less well received sequel called N.I.C.E. 2 (or Breakneck for the international release). I know that it was quite popular in Germany as it was a German game.. but to me it always seemed like it did not make it far across our borders as you barely hear anyone mention it. Might be because it was released the same year as Interstate '76. The games are not even featured on the list of vehicular combat games on Wikipedia.

Twisted Metal 2...loved that game.

The world would be a far sadder place w/o indie games.

GTA sort of amalgamated it.