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We would have liked to have seen the damage affecting the handling a bit more than it does. Hopefully, this is an area that Bugbear can continue to work on post-launch. It's just some extremely basic tweaks, and it doesn't allow you to alter the way the car handles to your liking. There's also the option of tuning your cars, but this is an area that's sorely underdeveloped. It's nowhere near the type of experience offered by something like Project CARS 2, but the simulation here is still a wonderful spectacle to behold. The cars (and the lawnmowers) come with some serious weight and it always feels as though the wheels are working hard to find some grip on the slippery tracks you race on for the majority of the game. You can opt to use a realistic damage model (recommended), and then you just relax, lean back and watch the bits of metal, tires, and debris fly through the air as you tackle your way across a dirty gravel track. Thanks to the proprietary Romu engine Bugbear has been able to achieve physics-based damage models that are completely unrivalled. It's labelled by the developers as a fun game with lots of physics calculations, which is an apt description. That said, we would have liked to have seen a bit more variety, particularly as far as the tracks go - they look alike and it would have been nice to have seen some contrasting environments. There are around 40 cars and roughly 20 different tracks (variations of the same track are also available). Pure races are mixed with destruction derbies and it's all taken to the next level thanks to how fun it is to drive and the spectacular damage modelling. The career mode offers a lot of different competitions and will last you a surprisingly long time. Sure there are gimmicks here too, school buses and massive industrial machines are also part of Wreckfest, but at its core this game is about cars, gravel, and collisions (and the resulting twisted metal). One moment we're driving lawnmowers, while the next we're in a beast of a rear-wheel drive car where it feels like the backend is about to go flying as we use the handbrake through corners. The career mode is well structured and varied. Meanwhile, you earn money and experience that can be spent on new cars, classes, and upgrades. Drive races, reach certain point tallies, and progress accordingly. The career mode itself is modelled after other modern racing games such as Dirt 4 and Forza Motorsport 7.

We wanted Wreckfest to go back to the core physics-based racing, and thankfully we didn't have to worry.

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The Flatout series had gradually evolved from a physics-based racing into something that was simply trying to be funny. Hysterical, yes, but it also had us a little worried. We started the first race and found ourselves laughing out loud as we realised that the first race would have us driving lawnmowers. It never feels as expensive or fancy as the big boys in the genre, but we're spared the pretences and fake attitude that's all too common in today's games (Gravel, we're looking at you). The idea here is to encourage collisions and contact. Wreckfest tasks you with accelerating as fast as possible and then, through using the brakes and the cars driven by your opponents, slowing down and managing tight corners.

Dirty racing where you need to forget all about Ken Block's Hoonigan Ford, brake distances, or whether it's worth a slight knock to prevent yourself from going off track. Wreckfest is wonderful even with the odd dent here and there, and perhaps an occasional oil leak, but most of all, it's wonderful. Would it provide enough substance for an entire game? We were wrong to doubt. Having played the Early Access version a few years back, we weren't entirely convinced about the concept (at the time). Bugbear wanted to create a game in the spirit of the original Flatout titles (developed by Bugbear), a series they left after the second game and which really never recovered after that.

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Would the full game ever see the light of day? Thankfully Wreckfest got unstuck and we are able to drift through gravel beds and send our opponents flying. Finnish developer Bugbear failed their Kickstarter bid, but turned it into an Early Access success story, for a while at least, then it just kind of got stuck in Early Access and the years rolled on.

Wreckfest ps5 review