right so i've recently learned (on STEAM forums of all places) that carmageddon 4 (aka reincarnation) was a net lossss, to a point of loosing the ownership of the brand :/

I know it is of little consolation but i am kinda motivated to thank any and every single person who worked on the game in any capacity (including Max Damage standalone datadisc). You have sadly not managed to get the love you did in 90s that is crushing and all i can offer is my thanks for trying and clearly getting amazing game out, one that i am very fond of. Unlike TDR 2'000 the 4 th carma is pretty much what an updated version of original should be - alot tighter controls and alot better graphics, sure the music is not that bit crushed anymore, making it feel little less raw but hey at least it sounds nice and plays nice.

So from the bottom of my heart you have my thanks for doing an amazing job, i have spent quite a lot of time trying to get to "the moon and back" and i only get bored when i do 50 laps marathon on big circuit .P cause i am dumb. even than i can pick something that controls theribly (oh hi Annihilator, CU:NT, somehow NOT twister anymore what?) because i am idiot and apparently seek the worst way to play things i like. Hats off to anyone who can win with Compact unit: nil threat via eliminating enemies that thing never goes where i want it to and tends to always go wheels up.

Aside for my ramblings the team behind the game did lovely gesture and managed to offer us, fans and gamers to even bother bringing it back. i am so sad it did not work out - this sort of effort should b rewarded.

That's insane. I love it almost as much as I love Carma 1 and 2. I guess there wasn't enough marketing or word of mouth. There hadn't been a Carmageddon game since Carma 3 in 2000 right? So about the only people who cared were old school fans who were still around. Also, I think the only driving games that anyone seems to care about these days are "realistic" stuff. Sony rebooted Twisted Metal on PS3 and it was GREAT. But no one cared and it flopped.

I thought a minute about this and I think what is mostly to blame is them not being able to draw in a new audience. Carmageddon has a cult name but the original players are all around 40 years of age now and you will not sell big numbers if only those customers buy your game again.

Games have changed since then and what was successful 20+ years ago will not be successful now. Even as a 40-ish old school gamer I acknowledge that. Some of my all time favorites are still awesome but sometimes you pick up an old game that you loved and you realize just how clunky and messy it is. And as mentioned I have seen close to no marketing for it.

Asides from that I have to say that I was mostly disappointed by the Carmageddon reboot. Sure, the game is not fully up to graphics standards, but that was not the problem. The gameplay fell short for me. It is too slow for my liking and quite limited with game modes. The AI is partly very frustrating which made me quit the game so many times. Also the tracks have many many frustrating elements built into them which makes me wonder what they were trying to achieve. Was it a substitute for challenge? Ultimately the effect for me was that the game just wasn't that much fun.

Arcade racers are a very popular genre with their own target audience and they are pretty well served. I personally hate almost all of them but they do sell well and if you look at them you will see several common factors that apparently appeal to people, but Carmageddon didn't have them so they missed out. And when it comes to wrecking cars, which was always my favorite part, Wreckfest took the sales.

I will not miss the Carmageddon reboots. I applaud them for trying though.

Indeed games have changed, it is sad but i feel like there is plenty of room for more arcade experiences, and even mayhem simulators like Carmageddon.

Graphics is little more complicated than mere fidelity, every single carma game seems more focused on iconic vehicle appearance than just high poly count - you see caddy fat cat and immediately unmistakably know that its not from any other game for example, but it wont ever compete with ACC cars in the fine detail.

I am not aware enough of player's preferences enough to know weather or not the less realistic genre has some life in it or not but i certainly hope so.

I think carma4 is the way it is because they tried to remake first carma (sans splat pack as explained in OP's part regarding the snow village), tracks seem very close to if not exactly like the original, carmageddon. I personally like it its slightly tighter than the first one obviously but not to point of Bugbear's outings Flatout and Wreckfest are too realistic for my tastes (ok fine they are not and i own damn near all of them, its different type of racing tho, nowhere near as crazy as carma).

That MIGHT be the problem tho, there are games that are somewhere adjacent, maybe people do prefer Wreckfest or Fl4tout over carma nowdays. *sigh* i'd say there is room for everyone here - just give some damn love to stainless for this game. its fun and i love it. you know whenever i am NOT running in horrible car for stupid reasons.

I feel like 90s gotten away with better soundtracks somehow (the scumbags of Iron Maiden may deserve all the hate i can muster, but they managed decent music back than, and did NOT even sue to force a name change for demented reasons), with bit more guitar based music C4 could have sounded way better to ME specifically, that dose not mean it'd be successful off course, its just too cohesive in style as it is now.

point of the post was not to bitch so my apologies for doing so - Stainless did a good game and i wish it glory. i have much respect for them trying very hard to make the game excellent and for my tastes getting damn near spot on. I appreciate that tho i can not really do much about it. so just venting my gratitude here.

As a fan of the first 2 games, I enjoyed the new Carma(s) a lot. But I got to say that, if there was a option to play 1 and 2 with modernized controls and resolutions, I'd probably enjoy replaying those games more than replaying Reincarnation or Max Damage.

Don't get me wrong, in a lot of ways, CR and CMD are the best games in the series, but in many others, they're way less fun.

Technical challenges aside, the multiplayer focused car balance in the game, meant that single player was way careless chaotic fun than previously, because you had to be way too careful ramming the other cars and evade the cops too much not to die over and over again. Cops worked in Carma 1 because you couldn't die in that game, so they were annoying, but wouldn't really impact you that much. And in Carma 2 where you could die, there were no cops.

Also, the car upgrade system, while better than 1 and 2, limited how powerfull you could make your car, again, for multiplayer purposes, instead of allowing you to be overpowered like the originals.

So, in many ways, CR and CMD gameplay is about finding power ups and using them to destroy your enemies. Instead of ramming them until they die like the games before.

Again, there's a lot of the basics that they got awesomely right. Controls are great, power ups are good, etc. But the balance of everything, that works well with multiplayer, made for a poorer single player. CMD is a bit better in that regard, compared to CR, though.

Finally, while I'm generally super fond of having old characters, and levels be brought back in newer versions of games, I was kinda bummed about how much of CR/CMD is just remade content from Carma 1. Sure, everything is High Rez and shiny and different enough to be basically brand new, but I believed the game would have benefitted more from having a bit less recreated maps and cars and more new ones, even if they kept the same old racers for the new cars.

I had my fun with both new Carmageddon games despite the mentioned flaws, and I really wish they had had more success with them.

i purchased carmageddon reincarnation and max damage(not for pc, as i got that for free by owning reincarnation). i puurchased max damage to both xbox and playstation 4 however. it have a lot of what made the first game great.

My experience with Reincarnated has been fairly limited, but here it is. I supported the Kickstarter and as Linux user I was happy they wanted to support that system as well. Then time passed and not only Linux support was dropped, the authors even made fun of their users with a sarcastic video clip where cars overruns penguins.

I am not sure what they were thinking, but laughing at your customers sounds like a bad strategy to me.

Still, when the game was out I finally installed it in a Windows machine and tried it. The initial feeling was bad already, the menus are splashy and over the top quite a jump from the classic pit-stop-screens-inspired menus of Carmageddon... but menus do not matter, do they? Let's play.

The feeling has been of a slow game and just not so fun. I'll try again eventually, but that was my experience. Just.. not fun.