Just when you thought it was safe to open a tabloid paper, it's happened again. Writers are up in arms, foaming and ranting, demanding that something be done, preferably before the increase in blood-pressure causes their hearts to explode. And the target of their fury? Who knows? At the last count it was the 360/Wii release of Bully, but in the past many games have been singled out for attention. Carmageddon from SCI and Stainless Software's was one such game, back in the day. Specifically relating to the fact that you got points for running over pedestrians. The game was voluntarily submitted to the BFFC (a British film rating board), who refused to give it a certificate on the grounds of its violent content. Uh oh.

The BFFC's decision may seem a little odd, considering that Death Race 2000, the film that seemingly inspired Carmageddon has an 18 certificate. SCI didn't actually have to submit it - currently only games containing video footage have to be submitted, but anyway they decided to sanitise it a bit, until the BFFC were happy with it. And the German censors weren't too chuffed either, so changes had to be made there. The result? There ended up being three  different versions of Carmageddon, one for the UK, one for Germany, and one for the rest of the world. UK gamers got to run over zombies - complete with green blood, German drivers went up against human sized but non-humanoid robots, and the rest of the world got the lovely gore. . But to make things a little fairer, someone released a gore patch onto the Net, which put all the giblets and gore back in the game.


Controversy aside, what was the game like? Well, it was good. Very good, in fact. The 'plot' was pretty similar to the aforementioned Death Race 2000 - you took part in a no holds barred car race set some time in the future, with the aim of becoming number one. And that's it. No noble goals, or plots to destroy the universe here.  The game started off with you picking your player, either male or female - each has a different make of car, which affected the way you play the game. The bloke, Max Damage, had a red car which was pretty well armoured, and the girl, Die Anna, had a yellow car which was weaker but a lot faster. Certain cars in a race could be 'stolen' by knocking them out of the race, at which point you got them added to your arsenal. Fancy driving a huge bulldozer round the top of a skyscraper? No problem.

But it wasn't all plain sailing. The AI in Carmageddon made the enemy cars worthy opponents.. they also happened to bear a grudge!  Carmageddon wasn't like your average racing game, such as Sega Rally or RAC Rally. You weren't not tied to the track - you could go wandering off - and each of your opponents would be doing their damnedest to win. I'm not talking about trying to inch past you, they would actively try and murderise you with their cars. All the while you were trying to mow down pedestrians for points.

The graphics in Carmaggedon were extremely good, at least for the time.  Each level had a distinct graphical feel, including snowy landscapes, cities, industrial complexes, tunnels and so on. And car had a different style, including a hearse, a coupe, and other vehicles. Every hit visibly inflicted damage on your car, buckling the metal, or in some cases setting the engine on fire. There was a lot of attention to detail. The difficulty was perfectly pitched, the tracks were detailed, and it was a lot of fun to play. In fact, it still is, since it can be found on abandonware sites all over the net. Carmageddon 2 was pretty damn good too.

So why, then, aren't there any Carmageddon games around today? It's hard to say exactly why, but it may have something to do with the fact that the third Carmageddon game was a complete mess, moving the focus from smashing up other cars and mowing down people, back to racing. But the licence is still out there, so I honestly wouldn't be surprised if someone dug it up and produced a current gen version. It'd  give Grand Theft Auto a run for its money, that's for sure.