Off-Road Redneck Racing Preview
We travel to Interplay to play an near-finished version of this off-the-wall racing game based on Xatrix' old first-person shooter.
One of the more unusual first-person shooters to date is Interplay and Xatrix's Redneck Rampage. The humorous, deliberately tasteless game was developed at Xatrix and was designed using the Build engine popularized by Duke Nukem 3D, which was already showing signs of age as far back as 1997. The game featured a pair of characters from the backwoods of America who were trying to recapture their beloved Arkansas town from a group of body-snatching aliens. Redneck Rampage didn't take itself seriously, and in spite of its dated technology, it was a welcome change from the dark and moody action games of the time. What other first-person shooter offered a supplemental cuss pack, which filled the game with excessive foul language? Since then, Xatrix went on to develop the graphic first-person shooter Kingpin, and shortly thereafter, changed its name to Gray Matter to work on the forthcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein for Activision and id Software. Xatrix's passing doesn't mean the end of the Redneck games, however. Through the help of Rage Software, Interplay is bringing the hilarious series to the driving genre. But unlike Redneck Rampage, Off-road Redneck Racing will take advantage of the latest in 3D graphics technologies. The game is being developed in England using a modified version of Rage's Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising engine, and it is scheduled to release on our shores in early March (Hostile Waters itself is actually still in development, too). We recently traveled to Interplay's Southern California headquarters to take a look at Off-road Redneck Racing, and we've brought back some brand new screenshots and some early impressions of this lighthearted racing game.
Off-road Redneck Racing is actually a localized version of a game simply called Off-road that's being developed for the European market. That game is also being developed by Rage, and unlike Redneck Racing, it is a straightforward racing game that puts you behind the wheel of various fictitious off-road vehicles. The changes between the two games are mostly just cosmetic, so while both games will have the same exact physics model, modes of play, and so on, Off-road Redneck Racing will have certain visual additions to give it a distinctly squalid look. For example, the European version of the game features a helicopter that flies above the track, filming and monitoring the progress of the race. In Off-road Redneck Racing, that helicopter is piloted by the loud-mouthed sheriff from Redneck Rampage, and he'll be chasing you down while yelling at you through a bullhorn.
The game will be split up into three separate modes: time trial, challenge, and driver's championship. The challenge mode will let you participate in a single race on a course that you've unlocked in the time trial mode. The driver's championship mode will undoubtedly be the meat of Off-road Redneck Racing. In this mode, you'll start out the game with a relatively weak vehicle, and gradually work your way up through the game's four divisions. In the process, you'll unlock up to 16 new trucks, pickups, dune buggies, and other increasingly outrageous off-road vehicles. Each of these handles differently, and has unique characteristics for top speed, handling, power, and overall performance. Additionally, you'll be able to toggle between three different paintjobs for all the vehicles in the game. But there's even more to it.
- Interplay
- Rage Software
- Rally / Offroad Racing
- Release: May 2, 2001
- ESRB: Everyone
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