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Vector 36 is a racing game that's quite unusual, as you're piloting a Skimmer across the surface of Mars.

 Vector 36 is Physics-Based Racer set on the terraformed surface of Mars. You pilot a Skimmer, a completely customizable, surface skimming vehicle. With total control over every component, you are responsible for how your Skimmer performs. Piloting skill and engineering make the difference between winning and losing.

It just got a lot more interesting too, as the latest update has enabled full online play. Not only that, the speed of the game has been boosted by "x1.5" so it should feel a lot more exciting.

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I love the idea of the game, however the interface for it is pretty ugly and that's being kind to it. However, the actual racing is surprisingly good and it's quite a challenge too. This is not some basic arcade racing game, there is a learning curve you need to get over and there's an interesting amount of physics simulation going on. You need to manage thrust, lift, watch out for damage, fires can happen and more.

If you like your racing games to be a little more unusual and unique, you can try it on Steam during the Free Weekend for another two days. It's also on sale, with 40% off.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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4 comments

Cmdr_Iras Jun 14, 2019
Very reminisent of the Star Wars pod racing game. Very cool idea will keep an eye on it.
shawnsterp Jun 14, 2019
Haha, looks interesting. Oh wait, I have it, but have only played 16 minutes... Oh, yeah, I remember. IDk, maybe i'm really bad at racing games, but I could not really get the hang of it. Admittedly, 16 minutes is not much of a chance, but I find that the older I get, the less patience I have for stuff. That was 16 minutes of my 45 minutes of freetime one day.
iiari Jun 14, 2019
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I've had this waitlisted for a while, maybe now's the time to pull the trigger...
lectrode Jun 16, 2019
Had never played this game before. Took a couple hours to get a good feel for the controls. Definitely a mild learning curve (there's a reason Ani is the only human who can pod-race :p ), especially if you've never controlled a hovercraft. The hovercraft physics are interesting, especially having to balance between thrusting forward and having enough downward thrust to keep from crashing into the ground.

The tutorial could use some polish. I'd prefer if the game paused completely when showing the required tutorial steps instead of slowing down, since it's already challenging to control a vehicle where the trajectory doesn't immediately change when you turn it (and the slow-mo makes it hard to tell if you're turning too much). It also didn't register the fuel drop the first couple times and I had to restart that tutorial multiple times before it finally took (it finally worked when I dropped it at the repair station...no idea why).

It's also not immediately intuitive that holding the downward thrusts long enough turns the vehicle around. I had no idea why the vehicle was turning around when I was trying to hover to slow my decent in the tutorial (the slow-mo didn't help with that part either). It also wasn't clear that you didn't have to hold the downward thrusts the entire time you were descending, just toward the end.


Overall: it's fun once you get the hang of the controls. Haven't tried multiplayer yet. I was able to get first place on a couple maps in both Easy and Medium difficulties. Haven't played hard enough to place. The devs have earned a purchase from me.
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