Gearing up for upcoming events

First off, let me say that I want to sand off the tips of my fingers, because they are encrusted with dried super glue. Over the last week I have converted about twenty (20) die cast cars to battle-worthy status. I've also been busy printing, cutting and gluing multiple sets of player components - I plan to have enough components on hand to accommodate six to eight players with ease. And then there's the scenery - Three or four buildings, tons of road segments and many 1/64th scale pump jacks, sheesh!

In all serious though, I'm very excited about this ... I think it is going to be a blast. Here's the scenarios I plan to be running May 8th:

Scenario One: Roadblock

THE GIST: Munday, TX. Places like this used to be speedtraps ... now they're deathtraps. Two Republic of Texas Rangers (ROToRs) have setup a trap for any Outriders desperate enough to pass through this particular section of old SH 277.

THE TEAMS: The Outrider team consists of a Muleskinner (hauling precious/illegal/dangerous cargo) and a Gunslinger riding shotgun. The ROToR team has one Interceptor and one Linebacker.

VICTORY CONDITIONS: The Outrider team must get the Muleskinner past the roadblock for a win. The ROToR team must destroy the Muleskinner for a win.

 Scenario Two: Hold The Fort

THE GIST: Presidio County, TX. Radio KESO is a pirate tejano station operating somewhere near the Mexican border. A ROToR task force has learned that the station has been operating under the control of a cartel of smugglers known as the Comanchero. The station has been aiding the operation by transmitting coded messages into Old Mexico. A small ROToR force has been sent to take the rogue station off the air … permanently.

THE TEAMS: The Comanchero team is represented by the Inhabitants of the building (see rules below) and at least one vehicle of the player’s choice. The ROToR strike force is comprised of at least two vehicles of the player’s choice.

VICTORY CONDITIONS: The Rangers win by eliminating the building and any guarding vehicles. The Comancheros win by eliminating the ROToRs.

Scenario Three: Black Gold

THE GIST: Somewhere near Midland/Odessa, outriders have been hired to protect a small oil field from a Comanchero raiding party. The raiders are set on destroying the pump jacks, bringing the oil production to a halt. As long as at least one pump can keep the black stuff flowing, the outriders will have earned their pay.

THE TEAMS: There are two guarding outriders, using any vehicles of their choice. The outriders have been supplied with off-road conversions as part of their compensation from the field owners. The raiding party consists of three vehicles that can be any combination of Raiders and Renegades.

VICTORY CONDITIONS: The Outriders must defeat the raiders before the four pump-jacks have been destroyed. The raiders win if they can destroy all four pumps.

I'm anxious to see what the turnout will be ... I hope to see you there.

Next post, I'll be giving a brief rundown of some of the vehicles and weaponry in Outrider.

Outrider Assaults Abilene

Attention all Road Warriors ... Join us for:

When: Saturday, May 8th, 10:00am - Close
Where: Premiere Comics, 3458 Catclaw Dr. Abilene, TX


This is your chance to playtest OUTRIDER, a new post-apocalyptic car combat board game that's being developed right here in Abilene, Texas!


No gear is needed to take part - we will provide what you need to play - just show up with a willingness to run and gun with some of the surliest characters in the Southwest!


Questions? Contact aquila.prime@gmail.com if you need additional info.

Scrap Metal Review

I've always been a fan of car combat games. I enjoy many variations from I'76 to Twisted Metal to Mario Kart (okay, maybe that's pushing it a little). But there are a alot of pioneering car combat games that were specific to consoles. RC Pro-Am, Rock n' Roll Racing and Twisted Metal. The list goes on and on. These games did alot to shape then conventions of Battle Racing. In fact, alot of the ideas present in RC Pro-Am still resonate in car combat games today.

Enter Scrap Metal (SM) from Slick entertainment. SM is a top-down battle racing game from slick studios that is one of many recent arcade releases that makes no secret that it is a homage to great top down racers from the past. Just like Shadow Complex from Chair entertainment billed itself as a spiritual successor to Super Metroid, SM takes alot of cues from Rock N Roll racing and other console racers, right down to the metal soundtrack and the odd blend of junk cars with future tech. Now throw in some archetypal characters and special abilities and you're good to go!

Like many recent throw-back type titles for the Xbox 360, SM is a beautifully rendered 2.5-D game, meaning that although it uses 3-D graphics, the game play is essentially restricted to a 2-D plane. Unlike the isometric look of some older racers, SM (sort of) reminds me of the top-down look of Super Off-Road or the Micro Machines series of console games.

The control scheme seems to be the most debated issue of the game. The game offers you two options: The R/C type option, where your vehicle is controlled like a remote-controlled car or the 'drive by wire' option where the direction is relative to the screen - up makes you head to the top, left to the left hand edge and so on - the left stick controls both direction and speed. I'm personally more of a fan to the R/C option, as the stick controlling both acceleration and direction is a bit too abstract to me, although I will admit that it does make shooting easier in a lot of instances.

Your upgrade options are really good throughout the game. The are item pickups on the track (nitros, etc) and depending on your rank at each race's end, you'll receive upgrade points to spend on all the usual aspects - Guns, engine, armor and so on. You will also win new vehicles as you progress, that you will store in your garage.

I've seen alot of negative reviews regarding the fact that there are only 4 slots for storing cars and there are SO many cars to be had. I can't comment, becuase I haven't played ALL the way through, although I will say that there may be too many variants ... I know that sounds odd ... but ut does seem like some of the builds are a bit disposable. You just use them for one particular race or mission and then move on to something else ... it can be frustrating after you have invested points into upgrading a vehicle. That's kind of an odd approach, since there are already special vehicles you will be provided with (on the track) for certain scenarios - things like construction machines, etc.

Where Scrap Metal depart from the norm is the amount of races/missions/challenges. Each of the tracks in the game can be revisited multiple times, each time the rules and conditions will be different. Sometimes it's a race  ... the next time a demolition derby ... the next time an escort mission of sorts, where you have to protect a certain vehicle for 3 laps. Add to that boss battles and SM certainly treads some new ground not seen in previous arcade-style racers.

So all in all, I think SM is a good effort. I'm not sure I rate as a 1200 point title. It feels like an 800 pointer to me, but I'm stingey. If your still on the fence, wait until it crops up as the deal of the week (likely) or perhaps it will be discounted in the future (likely a long time from now?)

but don't just take my word for it ... here's what the professionals are saying:

• 
  
  Tom Price, Team Xbox (IGN) - 7.7/10

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  Justin Calvert, Gamespot - 6.5/10

Outriding in real life?

I know some people can take or leave a game's setting/theme but I've always been a fan of RPG elements in a game, as well as tons of plastic bits. I'm a true Ameritrasher, for sure.

Anyways, when designing the game, the pseudo old west elements and the parallel elements like a American civil war just sort of wrote themselves. One element that I purposely stayed vague on was the 'how' aspect of the setting. How did we get here? Nuclear conflict? Bilogocal warefare? some natural distaster akin to an ice age or asteroid impact? What exactly would it take to make people strap guns and armor to their cars?

Just take a look at this photo:

The truth is that Outriding is going on now. There are people who make a living driving armed and armored vehicles across dangerous desert highways.

It's going on right now in Iraq. Kind of old news, I guess but lately I've been doing alot of surfing, looking for pictures of vehicle armor and vehicle weaponry and I came across alot of articles pertaining to this. Essentially, private companies are hiring security details to protect their delivery convoys as they make their way from city to city, delivering supplies to private contractors.

Just search for civilian gun truck (or just gun truck) and you'll hit on lots of links to images and articles about these security details or 'Road Guard'

The image I posted above come from this flickr collection.