Arcade Skins Redux Modification Thursday, 21st November 2024

I'd love to see more cars get arcade skins, so I'm more than happy to let you use mine for Workwagon, LWG — in fact, I've just sent you a batch of them via the Re-Volt Discord server. I made sure to use Workwagon's unique wheels for them, too. (Edit: whoops.) I sure wish it was this quick and easy to throw together arcade skins for the rest of the stock vehicle roster!

Arcade Skins Redux Modification Thursday, 21st November 2024

Version 2.0 has been uploaded — this update contains some pretty big changes, hence the major version increment. In addition to myriad fixes and improvements for 23 cars, the biggest additions to this update are a new set of skins for the three Frontend Clockworks and a new optional folder with edited EnvRGB values for the seven cars that possess non-gray reflections. I'm contemplating a hypothetical Version 3.0 which could add cyan, orange, and magenta skins — assuming, of course, that there wouldn't be too many of these skins that look nigh-indistinguishable from their stock counterparts (orange NY54, for example).

Dying Dream Semi-Pro Car Saturday, 13th April 2024

This is my favorite car from the LYE. I love how much it captures Paul Phippen's penchant for fenders, wings, and abstractions of aerodynamic shapes. Heck, even it's imperfect controls are reminiscent of some of the jankier stock cars. I reckon it'll stay in my installed cars collection permanently.

Forest Mansion 2 (Redux) Standard Track Sunday, 17th March 2024

The glow-up on display here is nothing short of mind-blowing. This track has gone from merely just "passable" to downright exemplary. Give yourself a pat on the back, you've more than earned it.

Evil Evil Weasel Skin Saturday, 16th March 2024

Updated with Burner's suggestion and an added nod towards the yellow ring on stock Weasel's wheels; replaced (most of) the preview pictures with screenshots of the updated skin; truncated the skin's description. Tune in next week for Rotating Rotor and Purple PurpXL (not really).

Arcade Skins Redux Modification Friday, 15th March 2024

Just pushed update 1.2, featuring aliasing fixes, oversight corrections, and general polish for eleven cars. I've included a changelog.txt in the download for those curious about the specifics. RC Bandit in particular got a big overhaul! The preview screenshots will be updated to reflect these changes within 12 hours of this comment being posted.

Car Advanced Car Thursday, 29th February 2024

I would have expected the joke with a car named Car to be that driving it would be the most generic experience ever. Imagine my surprise when I took Car for a test run and figured out that Car actually handles a bit like a real car. No, seriously. It normally has understeer, but if Car starts oversteering, it's not going to stop. And because of how top-heavy Car is, it's very easy to roll Car over while going over basically any sufficiently uneven terrain. It's actually a lot of fun trying to wrangle Car into winning races. Basically, imagine a version of RV Loco that's actually fun to drive, and you get Car.

Downtown 1 Standard Track Monday, 26th February 2024

I like to think I'm a snob. I have unreasonably high standards and I'm needlessly hard to impress. I've seen the words "stock-like" thrown around for tracks that completely fail to capture the Re-Volt fantasy of taking mundane environments you'd see every day and making them extraordinary by re-imagining them from the perspective of a six-inch-tall toy car. This probably makes me a hypocrite. All of that being said, I hope my words carry more weight when I turn around and say that this track genuinely feels like it could have been a part of the original 1999 lineup. I don't just mean a racing line that's (mostly) intuitive where each turn makes sense as an extension of what direction you're already traveling in; I don't just mean the excellent texture work and world design that capture's Re-Volt's balance of realistic detail with surreal stylization; I don't just mean the lighting and shadows that give the environment a sense of actually existing in a physical space; I don't just mean the on-point sound design that seamlessly implies the existence of a world beyond the level's boundaries; and I don't just mean the full-sized cars driving down the street acting as a logical extension of Toy World's trains. I'm talking about the *vibes*. This track encapsulates the same fantasy of mundane locations becoming extraordinary through the lens of R/C cars so perfectly that it even puts some stock tracks (like the aforementioned Toy Worlds) to shame. This is the kind of track that little babbey Shred would have spent dozens upon dozens of hours just aimlessly exploring back in 2001-2002. If that's not the highest compliment I can pay, then I don't know what is.

High Voltage Semi-Pro Car Monday, 6th March 2023

Now THIS is how you use A.I. generated art: as concept art for an actual artist to extrapolate from. And what an abstract piece Burner's churned out here, with reverse piranha fins, spoiler supports without an actual spoiler, and a rear axle that can only be described as a cross-beam. It's absurd, and I love it. It's a fun drive, too; quick off the grid and with tight but touchy handling. It'll navigate corners like they aren't even there, yet it tends to overcompensate whenever you need to make a minor correction. And you will definitely feel its low weight in a heated race, as an errant bump in the road or a light nudge from another car can send this thing clean off the side of the road.

SS Highway Re-Volt Standard Track Saturday, 3rd September 2022

Man, this track. I must've played this track a hundred times in a row back when it first released. It's a shame that the comments from the original RVZ upload have been lost to time, because I still have fond memories of the community collectively losing their minds over how ambitious this track was back when it first released. Has it seriously already been over 10 years since then? Now, let's be honest here: by today's standards, this track is no longer a technical marvel. After all, we've been doing file replacement for over a decade. But even then, the atmosphere that this track creates is still extremely impressive and very immersive; in the heat of the moment, with the crowds at the side of the road, construction barriers blocking off civilian cars, neon searchlights circling in the distance, and electronic music blaring outside of the theater, it can really feel like thousands of people are watching you race up and down the otherwise-simple highway. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that this layout is relatively simple; there are still some pretty sharp corners at the ends of the highway that will keep you on your toes — and even a small head-to-head section after the roundabout — but overall, the track layout is forgiving enough that even someone as mid at this game as me can floor it with Super Pro cars and have a mostly comfortable ride. This might seem like a downside to some, but when this layout is combined with the immersive atmosphere, any shortcomings that the track might have just sort of fade away. In other words, while this track may no longer be the technical marvel that it used to be back in 2012, nor is it a challenging track like many of the immaculately-crafted masterpieces that have been making it into the I/O packs as of late... SS Highway Re-Volt is still nonetheless a surprisingly thrilling joyride that's rightfully earned a place in the history of Re-Volt, and if you've never experienced this track or simply haven't played it in a while, I enthusiastically recommend giving it a few runs.