Next Car Game (Pre-Alpha)

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Info
Title: Next Car Game
Genre: Action, Early Access, Indie, Racing, Simulation, Sports
Developer: Bugbear
Publisher: Bugbear
Release Date: 15 Jan 2014

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Synopsis
Next Car Game is a new demolition derby themed racing game with soft-body damage modeling, sophisticated driving dynamics and in-depth vehicle upgrading, featuring both demolition derbies and more traditional track races. Its all about fun, breakneck racing and over-the-top crashes. Expect epic crashes and tight, neck-to-neck fights over the finish line on run-down racing tracks. Expect proper demolition derbies. Expect brand new ways for metal to bend and the signature once-in-the-lifetime moments that can be achieved only with true-to-life physics simulation.

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Gameplay
The gameplay of Next Car Game is very smooth, I have played pre-alpha builds on games before and this is by far and away the smoothest of them all. Now in this current build you only have two vehicles to choose from, but you can upgrade them to your own custom spec and to suite the race type you're playing. This has to be customized before choosing the race otherwise you have to go all that way back to the menu. The 3 types of races included in the pre-alpha build are Derby, Gravel and Tarmac. Derby is just a free for all battle and you just hit everything you see. That is VERY fun to play. The gravel and Tarmac versions are actual races, but there are no rules as such, you can still hit and destroy all the cars that are ahead of you. The physics in the game are brilliant, when you put the biggest engine in the real wheel drive Mustang inspired car, you have to be very careful as it always wants to drift. Both the vehicles are real wheel drive, but both feel very different to drive, the smaller car is better for the races due to better handling and slightly slower top speeds, but the Mustang type of car is way way more fun to race in.

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Graphics
The graphics are very impressive and quite hard to play when on higher settings, now my PC isn't exactly the most powerful but it gets the job done, but I really had to turn the settings down to play this smoothly, now whether or not this will change when it gets updated to a more stable version, we'll just have to wait and see. The textures are very nice with deep shadow colors, the default in game brightness settings are great, I have not had to adjust them at all. The textures on the cars are brilliant, all the paint work gets scratched to a certain realistic specification. The only problem I have with this game, is the damage, sometimes you have no front tires at all, but yet you're still able to turn as if it's in new condition. I hope they change this before the final release, but that seems to be a long way off.

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Controls
The controls are pretty standard for any racing game on PC. The WASD controls are for movement in the corresponding directions. The Space bar is used for the handbrake which is very handy to use, especially in the Derby game mode. The arrow buttons can be used instead of the WASD for movement. Now I'm not sure if these buttons can be customized from the in game menu's, but I cannot see any reason why you'd want to. As they are very nice to use. This game does not have support for a controller or steering wheel as of yet, but i can see these options being added to the next or final release version.

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System Requirements
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP
Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz or AMD Dual-Core Athlon 2.5 GHz
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT or AMD Radeon HD 3830
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 2 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX-compatible

Recommended:
OS: Windows 7/Windows 8
Processor: Intel Core i5, AMD Phenom II X4 or better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, AMD Radeon HD 7750 with 1 GB VRAM or better
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 2 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX-compatible

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Video's
These are my personal Video's that I recorded for this review.

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Ratings
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Controls: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

A brilliant game overall and cannot wait for the final release.