With that said, a splitscreen mode for Gas Guzzlers: Extreme could have been the one mode that helped make or break the game as a true, undeniable classic.
#CANT LAUNCH GAS GUZZLERS EXTREME PC#
While home consoles are trying to wall off content and limit playability by forcing online accounts over local play, there seems to be a reemergence of splitscreen play on the PC front, mostly due to Steam's support of Big Picture Mode and since you can plug-'n-play local games in Steam by hooking up two Xbox 360/One controllers. There are some who will argue that graphics don't matter, but for this game it actually helps tell a story over the course of a race and I'm thankful Gamepires didn't shirk on the visual front.Īgain, another minor thing but a thing worth mentioning. Shrapnel blasting out of damaged cars, flaming wrecks sending smoke to the heavens after being completely destroyed and seeing cars react and respond visually to the damage they receive all play a part in helping the races unfold in a dynamic and organic fashion. A lot of these elements and the tension therein, are connected to the way game is visually represented through the graphics. A large portion of the game's tension is in whether or not you're one rocket hit away from being obliterated and taken out of the race, or if you're one shotgun-blast away from taking out the guy who has been holding first-place for you. In this case, it's not just about the pixel count and texture resolution, but more-so in how particle and visual effects are handled. So yes, graphics do matter and can affect gameplay. Gas Guzzlers isn't the greatest looking game ever, but the graphics do play a part in the way the combat and gameplay is handled. Finding a satisfying weapon and car combo can result in some amazing on-track experiences and it's one of the true highlights of the game. Each weapon behaves different from the next and there are upgraded versions of some weapons that can be unlocked throughout career mode, challenging players to think strategically about how they battle it out on the track against opponents. Shooting a car point-blank with the dual shotguns can completely tip them over, just the same as shooting mid-ranged scatter bombs can do massive AOE damage to any opponent in front of you. The real meat of the gameplay is in the different weapons and how they're used. Now, there are very slight elements of change in the way cars handle in the game, but Gas Guzzlers isn't a simulator, so all the vehicle handling is executed in a very basic way, with some cars turning more or less sharp than others and some cars having more or less acceleration and/or speed via incremental variances. The main crux of the game hinges on how well weapons, battle racing and the deathmatch modes come together.
The most important part of Gas Guzzlers – besides the vehicle handling, which is arcadey and generic – is the combat. The mode isn't readily replayable after you conquer it, but it offers enough content and playability that it feels meaty enough to give the game a feeling of content-depth, and that's very important in this day and age where many big (and small) titles suffer from content-anorexia. This mode feels like a throwback to the old days of gaming where there was a feeling of accomplishment and surprise as more content in the game is opened up as various tasks are completed. Things start off small with a few cars and a few weapons, but as players begin winning races there are more tracks, modes, tournaments, weapons, stickers, customization parts and vehicles that become unlocked as well. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the game's main mode was a fully fleshed out, fully functional, well conceived mode that has players evolving their skills, play-style and garage over the course of extended races, sponsorship challenges and deathmatch battles.
There a couple of modes in the game but majority of the content in Gas Guzzlers is contained either within the multiplayer online mode or in the game's career mode.