Wreckfest: Massive PC Update - Now Available on Console

[Paul Jeffrey]

Wreckfest has been given yet more love recently with a big PC update and the long awaited console release.

That's right folks, after many months of eager anticipation, gamers on Xbox One and PS4 can now finally get their hands on the rather excellent Wreckfest videogame from Bugbear Entertainment.

Having undertaken a lengthy development process since being acquired by THQ Nordic, Wreckfest has finally made it over to the world of console gaming!

Although a big news story in its own right, Wreckfest fans on PC can also rejoice as a major new build release has been deployed to the PC version of the game. New cars, new tracks, new features and plenty of improvements, check out the update notes below:

4 NEW RACING TRACKS + 1 NEW DERBY ARENA

• Clayridge Circuit
  
• Deathloop
  
• Northfolk Ring (two routes)
  
• Dirt Devil Stadium (Speedway)
  
• Dirt Devil Stadium (Derby Arena)

5 NEW VEHICLES

• Venom (career reward)
  
• Stretch Limousine
  
• Couch Car
  
• Motorhome
  
• Big Rig

CAREER ENHANCEMENTS

• Several new career events and challenges featuring new tracks and vehicles. Check each Championship for new events – for example the first championship Regional Juniors now has the Couch Craze challenge to unlock this vehicle.
  
• There's now more variation in the computer-controlled AI cars, and they will also make use of the upgrade parts to make your life so much more miserable.
  
• Many events have been changed and tweaked to offer more engaging, balanced gameplay experience.
  
• Also, achieved bonus targets are no longer reset when restarting a career series.

GAME IMPROVEMENTS

• Polished and more detailed environments.
  
• Animated objects such as flags and balloons.
  
• New paint jobs for most vehicles.
  
• Collision improvements: the cars no longer clip each other.
  
• Quick match functinality for multiplayer.
  
• Streamlined server browser.
  
• Overhauled server lobby user interface and improved usability.
  
• Improved car and upgrade selection in the garage/pit.
  
• New daytimes for many tracks.
  
• Improved career menu screens.
  
• Multiplayer: Bots now get auto-kicked also during races if a human player joins and takes their slot.
  
• Multiplayer: At event start, players not ready won't be kicked as long as they have a valid car.
  
• New track and event specific loading screens.
  
• A save data backup is created automatically whenever the game is updated.
  
• Minimap (can be disabled in the Settings menu).

PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATIONS

• Overall game performance increased especially for older PCs.
  
• Multiplayer better optimized for poor connections and PCs.
  
• Drastically reduced loading times for all tracks.
  
• Server side: hardware and bandwidth demands reduced.

BUGFIXES

• Numerous bugfixes, tweaks and improvements, many based on the feedback we've received from you. As always, thanks for your continuing support and keep those suggestions coming!

Happy days for fans of crashing!

Wreckfest is available for PC now, with console release to follow August 27th.

For more smashing fun, head over to the RaceDepartment Wreckfest sub forum, and don't forget to check out the awesome RD Wreckfest Racing Club for some contact filled and laugh out loud online racing activity!

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[Ben O'Bro]

Sweet addon ! Feels like the 1.0 now

Whoever dares complain about the season pass & DLC shall simply not buy it and stop whining about the dev trying to make money of their hard work and offering more content.

Lot of bad reviews on steam just out of this... damn you people.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Lot of bad reviews on steam just out of this... damn you people.

I think they are more about the new rubberbanding AI and nerfed damage model. Devs confirmed these changes, rubberbanding was intentional, nerfed damage might get reverted. But realistic damage isn't punishing (at all) anymore. Overall severe collisions deform the cars much less now

Personally not a fan of notable rubberbanding, it just makes offline racing feel cheap

There's also claims that vehicle physics have changed into more arcade. But some people say it's due to Career mode now enabling all assists by default.

The developer said there is only slight changes into physics (handling wise) and they are only notable on a wheel, with assists off. I didn't see the need for any changes personally. People in RD probably race with a wheel, with assists off. That's the only handling that counts for me at least... need to test more

There's also slight worries of how 20 DLC cars will be balanced in multiplayer. Apparently also something about the multiplayer changed into more negative direction, haven't tried that yet

 

[Ben O'Bro]

I think they are more about the new rubberbanding AI and nerfed damage model. Devs confirmed these changes, rubberbanding was intentional, nerfed damage might get reverted. But realistic damage isn't punishing (at all) anymore. Overall severe collisions deform the cars much less now

Personally not a fan of notable rubberbanding, it just makes offline racing feel cheap

There's also claims that vehicle physics have changed into more arcade. But some people say it's due to Career mode now enabling all assists by default.

The developer said there is only slight changes into physics (handling wise) and they are only notable on a wheel, with assists off. I didn't see the need for any changes personally. People in RD probably race with a wheel, with assists off. That's the only handling that counts for me at least... need to test more

There's also slight worries of how 20 DLC cars will be balanced in multiplayer. Apparently also something about the multiplayer changed into more negative direction, haven't tried that yet

thanks for the summary, i didn't see all those aspect. Will give it more try when i have time, and see how it is!

 

[Paul Bennett]

Hotfixes are coming, everytime a new build comes out it maybe bit broken. In other words business as usual for BugBear

 

[Marc Collins]

Handling, steering and FFB are now reduced to cringe-worthy arcade/console level...probably not a coincidence since the console versions are now out. Just eliminated the only reason I played this title or put up with the complete morons that populate most servers--it had pretty impressive, almost sim-level plausible handling and FFB.

 

[Jonathan Young]

I’ll have to try the update for myself but this is a travesty if it’s true. Why would they squander all the good will they had with the PC community? Obviously they’d have to accommodate the console guys, but not at the expense of trashing what they had and what they were known for. Shame on them if it’s true.

 

[bmanic]

Unfortunately I can confirm that the physics have been severely changed and dumbed down. Thus making the FFB a lot worse than it was before. The AI rubber banding and silly car damage changes ultimately killed this game for me. It is now just another "Flatout" type console arcade racers. Such a shame. It had tremendous potential.

Really weird what a total disconnect the guys over at Bugbear has with the community that supported them from the start. Deleted the game from my HD tonight and am not planning on reinstalling it again unless things change back to how they were.

 

[Metla]

How can you confirm it when the devs have said this isn't the case?

 

[Metla]

Anyhow, I feel they have gone slightly too far with the Ai aggression and rubber banding. Its fine in the lower level of the career but as you progress it gets a bit frustrating. They have also made it so the car doing the ramming doesn't suffer any damage and I believe this is being reversed.

The payoff is the racing is a lot more hectic and frenzied. The downside is no matter how you adjust or upgrade your car, No matter what lines you hit, the Ai will probably slingshot past, while another one rams you mid-corner.

Worth noting, After the update my ffb and steering saturation were reset so I didn't have 1:1 steering, and the cornering performance level slider has been reversed, The open diff now gives the higher performance.

 

[Rot Teufel]

For me there are some upsides and downsides.

New veichles (not the pass ones), new tracks, a bit optimization, and that's all for the upsides.

Light illumination and skyboxes textures are the most notable downgrades. In some tracks grass is popping up only when players is quite close. It seems that even some old tracks looks more flat than the old version. Shame i don't have some video that could prove it (wreckfest never like obs, expecially on multiplayer).
The old AI names (the best one was Latte di Suocera) are gone and now i found always the same names... With the old patch at each career progress there were new challangers, now not.
I got some doubt about physis: there are some changes, like the Relaiant Robin, it was already hard to drive, now is quite impossible. The Big Rig event is simply frustrating: if you dive clean, AI will smash you outside or on a wall; if you push, car will become unstable. The bus challenge was hard (with old patch), but passable. Here not (at least for me). Even if you turn on all assist, they will do nothing.
New damage model turn the frontal crashes less punitive, but the lateral ones less efficient. The rolling was an efficient move to win or lose. Now it counts less.

Here there a good example comparison of old and new physis and damage behaviour. https://steamcommunity.com/app/228380/discussions/0/1637543304826197296/?ctp=2

 

[Metla]

and a word from the dev...

 

[Jebus]

Yeah, I didn't notice any changes in physics. Wheel gain was reset and was super heavy for my taste but dropping it to 45%, and changing few other settings, made it good again.
AI rubber banding is something I could live without though. Also not a big fan of this game too going to paid DLC route.

 

[M D Gourley]

Have tried this new update and have noticed a slight change in the Physics / car weight handling as I can pull on the handbrake and it just slides very controlled, almost to easy and the shifting weight of the car when changing direction is not as noticeable as before, feels a little bit dead, not so Sim like...might need to adjust some settings...but this has not reduced my enjoyment of the Game...but had to reduce the wheel gain down to 45% as Jebus mentioned above.
...but OMG that 'Deathloop', what a hoot of a track...if there was a good reason to have VR in a Game, this would be it...especially if you do not make it all the way around and fall from the top...awesome

 

[ShredatorFIN]

A bit contradicting info from the main developer JannesBB.

Earlier he said the physics haven't changed "one bit".

And in the above, later text he says "very minor fine-tuning that you wouldn't notice expect when using wheel with no assists". And that physics are "virtually" untouched.

However, only thing that even matters is using a wheel with no assists. Doubt people with gamepads and assists would even notice. Why the changes? I still see a lot of people make pretty extreme negative comments, not feeling the changes were "minor fine-tuning".

To me it seems absurd to go touching the physics now, even for a "little fine tuning". After first taking years of tweaking and community feedback to get it right. It was a long journey, with many different physics, now they've been universally accepted in the PC community for over a year (since launch) as the "right physics".

Why go back to it, 1 year after launch.... and start playing with fire. All they had to do is bring 1:1 same experience on console with more cars/tracks, nothing more.

But anyway, at least seems the damage and AI rubberbanding and few other issues are going to be addressed:

 

[snezana]

PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATIONS

• Overall game performance increased especially for older PCs.
  
• Multiplayer better optimized for poor connections and PCs.
  
• Drastically reduced loading times for all tracks.
  
• Server side: hardware and bandwidth demands reduced.

In other words the graphics have been degraded for consoles

• 
  
  

 

[Ryan Soucy]

I went from excited, to bummed, to cautiously optimistic. I didn't see any problems with the handling or physics before (wheel with no assists), my gripes before were with the AI. I thought there was too much rubberbanding before and that some AI were overly aggressive. Also, given there was no rear view mirror, it was impossible to keep track of the rubberbanding and psychotic AI behind you until they've spun you out. At least there's a minimap now. Maybe I'll wait a couple days for the hotfixes...

 

[Marc Collins]

I do use a wheel with no assists and the change is dramatic and immediately noticeable. Maybe there were hidden assists on in the past? Either way, every aspect of the update is a total wrong direction unless you like juvenile arcadish console titles (which, I admit, is probably 100x more people than want something half serious).

Lighting - worse.
AI - already horrid and they adjusted them in 180 degrees opposite to what was needed.
Damage - already in need of some major tweaking to provide balance and risk for aggression and they adjusted it 180 degrees opposite to what was needed (too many corner bombers achieving success before the change--now utterly ridiculous)
Steering - much less subtle FFB than before--now feels jerky like it is designed for a gamepad instead of a wheel (hopefully they just toggled something by mistake)
Handling - less plausible and realistic than before
Career and otherwise - I have no idea because I will never use this title again unless all of the above is corrected.

 

[TTupsi]

For people not happy with AI, try online! The RD Racing Club is back next Tuesday

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/all-classes-shuffled-tracks-tue-3-sep-2019.172634/

 

[Paul Bennett]

The has been a change in the FFB for sure not as smooth as it was. My TX wheel an Pro pedals were not picked in the config had to rebind all. Finding the AI are in attack mode a bit frustrating an possible rubberbanding, the physics seem the same an liking the faster load times an graphics. Lets see what the hotfix does for us.