Because apparently every genre needs to have zombies in it, car combat racer Gas Guzzlers Extreme has, more than a year after its original release and many months since the last DLC, returned from the Gamepires body shop sporting a new DLC upgrade. Yeah, yeah, I know the whole zombie apocalypse thing has been beaten to death at this point, but that doesn’t stop Full Metal Zombie from being one seriously killer add-on.

But first, before digging into the nuts and bolts–or brains and entrails–of the Full Metal Zombie DLC, if you haven’t played the base Gas Guzzlers Extreme yet, go buy it now. It’s all kinds of awesome. Peek under its hood and you’ll find parts from Mad Max, Twisted Metal, Destruction Derby, and Mario Kart. Talk about a sweet ride.

Now on to the DLC. Here’s a bullet point rundown of the key feature additions included in the $6.99 expansion:

• A total of 22 zombie variants, from regular old zombies to ax wielding maniacs, to giant undead zombie animals packing explosives, to an enormous minigun-wielding boss.
• An all new arena: Warburg, a HUGE new city map.
• New car: the Kaiju GTR, a fast iconic Japanese sports and drag racing car
• Two new game modes: Defend the Base and Survival (both single and multi-player).
• And a new military skin. Bust those Z’s like GI Joe!

In short, Full Metal Zombie is the car combat equivalent to horde mode. The two new modes introduced specifically for zombie play both involve murdering waves of increasingly relentless enemies. Survivor is purely a fight for survival through a gauntlet of 10 waves. Defend the Base is pretty much the same thing, only it adds the element of a central base area that must be protected while you drive to survive the zombie apocalypse. A health bar is displayed as a representation of the base’s status, and if the base sustains heavy damage you must park within a circle indicator marking its perimeter in order to perform repairs and prevent its destruction. In both modes, stations scattered throughout the maps also allow for refueling and repairing your car.

The Survivor and Defend the Base modes are available to play online in multiplayer or offline in single-player quick race with bots. For solo play, you are forced to have at least one bot, but up to seven bots can be added for a total of eight “players.” Damage cannot be inflicted upon other drivers, so killing zombies primarily is a cooperative experience. However, there is an underlying competitive rivalry to be the last man standing or the player/team with the most kills. Surviving to the end requires helping other drivers stay in the fight (the respawn pool is shared), but don’t be surprised if road rage fuels the desire to ram other players out of the way to get the jump on a weapon or ammo pick-up, or to break their line of fire on a juicy crowd of meatbags so you can score the highest kill count.

All of the base game’s existing arena maps, which must be unlocked by playing the Deathmatch and Last Man Standing events in the single-player campaign, now have a layout variant for zombie play. So you can look forward to blasting the undead back to death in areas like the desert, parking garage, junkyard, or at the port. Additionally, as listed above, the DLC offers a brand new map called Warburg. The Warburg environment consists of a surrounding network of alleyways winding between city buildings which connect to a somewhat open central plaza area by way of small cobblestone bridges. Next to the existing Castlevania arena, with its gothic architecture, graveyards, and howling wolves in the background, Warburg is the map I’ve most enjoyed playing. If you haven’t done so yet, you will need to clear nearly all of the campaign to unlock it, as the Warburg map doesn’t begin appearing in the map rotation until the third and final tournament series.

Most importantly, the game itself marries so well with the zombie theme. In a lot of ways, Gas Guzzlers Extreme is like a first-person shooter on wheels, even more so now when you add mobs of zombies, giant trolls with clubs, undead hyenas and bulls charging ahead like heat seeking missiles (sometimes they’re even strapped with explosives like suicide bombers), and these tall super solider boss dudes armed with chainguns. Adding Full Metal Zombie to the mix makes it feel like you’re playing a Serious Sam car combat spin-off; it gets that chaotic and intense. The glorious gore effects only amplify the fun factor. Zombies and other beasties gib and splatter the screen with more blood and guts than any standard windshield wiper would be able to clean off. My favorite part, though, is blowing enemies into bloody chunks with the shotgun. Machine guns and rocket launchers have their advantages, but this game absolutely nails the forceful kickback and iconic “chk chk” sound of a video game pump action boomstick.

Full Metal Zombie is a great add-on, but it isn’t without its faults. For starters, when attempting to play online the game does not allow in-progress matches to be joined. I understand this not previously being an option, but for a zombie horde mode players should be able to jump in and out of the action, during wave changeover at the very least. Survivor and Defend the Base sessions tend to last a while, and I highly doubt anyone will want to wait in the lobby for upwards of 20 to 30 minutes until the current match ends. I sure as hell didn’t.

On roughly half a dozen occasions I have also encountered a glitch which caused zombies–usually just one or two–to get stuck somewhere on the map with no way to kill them at the end of a round, rendering it impossible to complete the wave and move on to the next. This has happened most often on the Warburg map, so I guess it has something to do with all the tight alleys and high buildings, because in multiple matches the game has been ruined by a lone zombie somehow launching all the way onto a rooftop. Obviously none of the cars can aim that high, so if this happens the only solution is to restart the entire wave over again. Similar occurrences happened on a ledge in the Port map as well as another time where a zombie fell to the ground without dying and wouldn’t get back up so I could shoot it. It looked dead, but the red blip indicating a live enemy still appeared on the radar.

Even though it could use a bit more fine tuning and is just another retread on the zombie apocalypse motif, Full Metal Zombie is a welcomed mode expansion which brings a whole new dimension to the base Gas Guzzlers Extreme feature set for a very reasonable price. Sadly the game’s online community is verging on dead, so good multiplayer sessions are tough to come by. However, both the core game and the DLC have plenty to offer for solo play thanks to bots that are more than capable of holding their own, so lack of consistent online activity shouldn’t scare you away. I’ve played many standalone zombie survival games that aren’t as much fun as what Gamepires managed to stuff into this DLC.

Pros:
+ Like Serious Sam on wheels, and that’s bad ass
+ You gotta love that boomstick
+ Provides a wealth of additional content and gameplay hours at a great value

Cons:
– Not being able to join in-progress matches is a drag
– Zombie glitches occasionally prevent wave completion

Game Info:
Platform: PC
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Developer: Gamepires
Release Date: 2/16/2015
Genre: Action Racing
Players: 1-8
Source: Review code provided by publisher

Car combat racer Gas Guzzlers Extreme, which we reviewed last year and praised as an exhilarating racing experience offering “many hours of drive-and-shoot enjoyment,” will soon become even more fast, fun and furious with the addition of downloadable content.

Iceberg Interactive will be releasing two DLC packs for the Steam (PC/Mac and eventually Linux) title, beginning next week with the Full Metal Frenzy pack, followed by the summertime launch of the Full Metal Zombie pack. Not even Gas Guzzlers Extreme could resist jumping aboard the zombie apocalypse bandwagon.

Zombies aside, these DLC packs will add new arenas, cars, modes, power-ups and skins. Oh yeah, and a female announcer voice-over option. Let’s take a closer look at what’s planned for each add-on.

Full Metal Frenzy DLC Includes:
• Two levels (arenas)
• Two new cars
• One new team skin for all 20 cars, including police skin with siren and lights
• Female announcer voice-over
• Two new power-ups
• Three new game modes

Full Metal Zombie DLC Includes:
• One new level (arena)
• One New car
• One new team skin, for all 21 cars
• Nine zombie types and animations
• One new game mode ‘Defend the Base’

In case you were wondering, the screenshots on this page are all from the Full Metal Frenzy DLC. No zombie screenshots have been released as of yet, but we’ll be back to share those with you as soon as any surface.

At some point in all of our lives we are likely to drive a car of some sort. Driving a Honda Civic or a Ford Focus is most likely the extent most gamers will ever experience behind the wheel. But that’s no fun, which is why we turn to video games to live out our road rage fantasies of driving cars armed with machine guns, shotguns, and rocket launchers. Gamepires makes such dreams a reality with Gas Guzzlers Extreme on Steam, an arcade racer that combines gearhead driving with car combat and RPG-like progression.

Gas Guzzlers Extreme tantalizes the player with a first race that offers a high end car, fully loaded with weapons and modified components, in a chaotic sponsored race. Pitting gamers in a race without any foreknowledge of the map, speed of the cars, temperament of the AI, and the overall mechanics of the game can be a bit frustrating.  Being thrown to the wolves with a typical gamer expectation of needing to win every race is almost a slap in the face when it is abundantly clear that there is no chance in hell you are going to win. Once this initial race is over, the game drops back to a menu saying the sponsors have dropped their funding, but offer a paltry severance, saying thanks for trying. The money is enough to buy the Gas Guzzlers Extreme equivalent of a micro car like a Fiesta or Yugo and get your career started at the bottom of the rankings. 

At the lowest rank, there are three races to choose from and they are a mix of pure racing, combat racing, and elimination racing. Winning a race will net a small profit, but income can be earned without necessarily finishing in one of the top three slots. Combat matches (or a variation of the combat race) awards bonus points for each time an opponent hits an oil slick, drives through a smoke field, or runs over a land mine. So even if you suck during the first few matches, the game offers other means to earn money to save up for a better car. Additionally, each race offers secondary objectives that award more bonus points, such as eliminating 3 opponents before the race is over, forcing other cars to drive through oil slicks, or keeping specific AI drivers from finishing in the top three. These secondary objectives offer a nice alternative to simply trying to finish a race at the top. They also allow for inexperienced drivers to focus on how the car handles on a given track, while providing a means to earn much-needed income.

Outracing the AI allows players to unlock new tracks, cars, and modifications, as well as level up their overall ranking. One thing I noticed as I leveled up my car (and in turn my driver), there wasn’t an immediate jump in AI driver aggressiveness. Rubber banding isn’t too noticeable if you maintain a lead during a race either, but this can also be an issue if you get too far behind. There is no easy way to catch up to the rest of the pack and try to at least not finish last. Of course pretty much all of the races are only two or three laps so having to redo a race isn’t the end of the world. Load times are pretty quick as well so it never feels like the game is penalizing you if you want to restart a race.

If three consecutive races are won a sponsor will offer to pay in exchange for putting decals on the car, which of course means higher payouts for winning races. Continuing to win while being sponsored also provides invitations to fully sponsored events with better cars as well as expectations to work as a team.

There is a slightly dark sense of humor running throughout the game. In many ways the game reminds me of a mix between Death Rally and Twisted Metal. Part of the humor comes from the fictional companies that are advertised on the cars–Monster Cock (I’m assuming some sort of energy beverage), or a grisly Grim Reaper decorated funeral service. You’ll also be racing up against some rather silly AI drivers with names like Bjorn Toulouse, Jack Kass, Jacque Strap, and Sam Urai.  The game also taunts drivers while their zipping around the track with various sound bites from famous games and movies, similar to the random audio blips that play constantly through Big Sky Infinity.

My feelings are a bit mixed when it comes to how the game balances racing and combat. On one hand I really enjoy the driving mechanics and the unique handling that each car provides (and how much better each car performs as new upgrade are unlocked). The tracks are well designed and offer branching pathways, similar to the Motorstorm series on PlayStation 3. Courses are also raced at different times of the day and under various weather conditions which adds nice variety to change up running the same tracks. Visually the game is pretty stunning and maintains a steady frame rate even racing along at high speeds. The cars as well as the damage model are detailed and believable.

Compared to the racing model, the more arcade-style combat element doesn’t always mesh with the realistic handling. Don’t get me wrong, the combat is fun, but it also doesn’t feel as responsive and tight as it could be. In a game like Twisted Metal, cars have an almost uncanny ability to turn on a dime, reverse, and then zoom in a different direction, all the while firing rockets or machine guns with good accuracy. Gas Guzzlers Extreme handles like a real driving simulation. Shooting two massive machine guns from a car while speeding down a mountain road is a blast, but accurately hitting a target while also avoiding other cars or obstacles can prove problematic. This is mainly an issue in the arena matches. To illustrate what I’m talking about, Gas Guzzlers Extreme offers a few maps that are more akin to large, complex deathmatch events from a first-person shooter. The problem with these matches is that the cars don’t spin or turn quickly enough to be able to shoot an enemy driver as the car zooms directly in front of your car. Trying to lock on and aim at a particular car is also much harder to do.

In addition to the robust single player campaign, Gas Guzzlers Extreme also offers deep multiplayer. Several different dedicated servers are available to play on and each server has a rotating list of races providing a nice mix of maps and race types. One thing I appreciate with the dedicated servers is the fact that the game will fill in drivers as AI standbys so that you can race without feeling like you have to wait for someone else to join. The servers I played on had several races queued up for a tournament and new racers could join the server, but if a race was active, they would have to wait for the match to finish. This pales in comparison to many console based online racing games where there is no good indication of when a round will be finishing up. One nice thing with Steam is that you typically have a keyboard right by you, so it is not an issue to chat a few quick words to say hello while waiting for a race to finish.

Gas Guzzlers Extreme is a fast paced, great handling racing game, mixing car combat carnage with a wide variety of car types (each with appropriate handling), a nice range of maps, a remarkably high detailed environment, robust online multiplayer, and just the right amount of dark humor. The vehicular combat mechanics don’t hold up as well in the deathmatch events, but all things considered Gas Guzzlers Extreme offers a deep racing experience and many hours of drive-and-shoot enjoyment.

Pros:
+ Great car handling
+ Progression system offers a rewarding challenge
+ Nice mix of full on combat through straight racing events
+ Richly detailed environments

Cons:
– AI can be frustratingly aggressive at times
– Deathmatch events don’t feel as well controlled as race events

Game Info:
Platform: PC via Steam
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Developer: Gamepires
Release Date: 10/8/2013
Genre: Racing/Car Combat
Players: 1-8
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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Games designed for iOS devices that are then brought to other platforms have an advantage that typically can’t be said for the opposite.  By that I mean, a game designed for a keyboard and mouse or game pad often faces the difficulty of being brought to iOS devices which offer limited input options by comparison.  The age old question of do virtual analog sticks and buttons actually work on a screen that can’t provide any tactile feedback just doesn’t apply to a game once it is brought to PC, where it can have two or three ways to be controlled. The question that does apply, however, is whether or not the game is better for the additional inputs.

Developer Kukouri has stepped up to the plate with a Steam version of their iOS title Tiny Troopers, and I’m happy to say that they have knocked this version out of the indie ballpark.  The premise is simple: Command two or more soldiers through various battlefields, taking out infantry, towers and tanks while collecting hidden medals and intel.  On iOS the player taps to move in the desired direction and taps on an enemy to toggle a sticky lock-on until the enemy is dead.  In the Steam version, movement can be done by left clicking and then shooting by holding down the right mouse button, or using WASD keys to move while shooting with the left mouse button.  A third option (which I didn’t try because I don’t have a gaming laptop) utilizes the touchpad and keys.

Missions in the game are relatively short due to the original nature of the game being from the iOS ecosystem where games traditionally need to be played in “snackable” sessions.  While short, they vary enough by rotating out objectives and presenting each map with a unique strategic layout.  Most missions boil down to killing every enemy and vehicle in sight, but some branch out from there to include objectives like escorting journalists and surviving the occasional horde rush.  What sets this game apart is the fact that it is an odd mix of quick play, strategy, and action-shooter, all played out on a rich, cartoonish battlefield.

The fact that the soldiers you lead into battle resemble background characters from South Park is only enhanced by minimal voice work throughout the game.  I can’t help but feel a bit giddy (in a sick, demented sort of way of course) whenever I hear an enemy trooper screaming out in gurgling pain after he has been mowed down by my squad.  Troops shout out cliched phrases like “Stay frosty!” but when mixed with the cartoon look of the models and the high-pitched voice work it’s hard not to crack a devious smile.

The game is segmented into three sets of 10 levels and each level can be played on three different difficulty levels.  Each mission starts out with a purchase screen where money earned from the previous mission can be spent to upgrade armor, weapon damage and accuracy, and to enlist additional specialized soldiers to your army.  The specialized soldier classes bring additional weapon types to the team, including things like grenades, rockets, and air strikes. (These different weapons can also be found randomly from dead enemies or hidden within a map.) The one downside is the cost for each of these upgrades is fairly high compared to how much money is earned during any particular mission.  Die early in a mission after spending all of your funds to upgrade, and all that money and all those upgrades are gone for good.

My one minor complaint about the game is that the mini-map doesn’t seem to scope to the same level as the actual game field.  The map looks like a black and white satellite photo and the scale of where the troops you control in relation to any given objective highlighted on the map doesn’t quite line up with the actual movement of troops on the battlefield.  To exacerbate this problem, the camera view doesn’t scroll beyond the field of view of the troopers.  This makes sense, but at the same time the game feels like an RTS and I’ve been conditioned to be able to move the mouse to the edge of the screen and have the camera continue to move out of the view of the troops I’m controlling.  This is only a small gripe, but one that I found myself getting caught up on as I would constantly want to move the view of the camera to be able to see what’s ahead in game versus trying to guesstimate with the mini-map.

Steam achievements add an additional level of replay beyond the three levels of difficulty for each map and while I can appreciate that the developers provided additional, if somewhat artificial replay options, this game is a perfect example of a polished one-time 6-7 hour indie experience that’s easy on the wallet and entertains from start to finish. Tiny Troopers looks amazing at 1920×1080 and offers enough strategy and upgrades during the first full playthrough to keep gamers interested without feeling like they are simply grinding to reach the end of the game.

Pros:
+ Fun blend of action and strategy
+ Leveling system for units and weapons
+ Cute art style

Cons:
– Upgrades don’t carry over to the next level
– Game view doesn’t scroll past characters

Game Info:
Platform: PC/Mac (previously released for iOS)
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Developer: Kukouri
Release Date: 8/24/2012
Genre: Action/Strategy
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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