Carmageddon 3: TDR 2000

It was bound to happen, and it was bound to happen sooner rather than later. SCi have announced Carmageddon III, the 'threequel' to - duh - the original vanilla Carmageddon I, the notorious pedestrian-squishing driving game in which human life is treated with absolutely none of the respect it deserves.

Carmageddon 3 is different from the previous games for several reasons. For one thing, it isn't actually called Carmageddon III at all; its official title is Carmageddon: The Death Race 2000, and it seems explicitly tied in (as far as the title goes, at any rate) with the movie that inspired the whole damn thing in the first place. Furthermore, it's being developed by an entirely different team. The first two Carmageddon games came from Stainless Software on the Isle of Wight, Carmageddon: TDR2000 is being assembled down under by people with comedy accents and corks dangling from their hats - you know, Australians. The company's called Torus, and they've previously been responsible for a sort of sheepshearing game. Apparently.

As you can see from the pretty pictures smeared across this attractive spread, the game looks better than ever before, and in motion it should look better still; it's laden with all the high-falutin' lens-flaring, shadowcasting, coloured lighting hoo-hah you could wish for, and reflective metallic paint on some of the cars. What's more, SCi claim the thing will cruise along at twice the frame rate of Carmageddon II using the same hardware. We're also promised a new 'revolutionary physics engine', although it's hard to see how they're going to improve on Stainless' mightily impressive original.

Zombie Flesh Eaters

Gorehounds might be a tad alarmed that so far there's no sign of human pedestrians; instead there's much talk of censor-pleasing zombies. Intelligent zombies, mind. Whereas in Carma 1 and II the hapless bystanders were little more than brainless bumper fodder who spent their time milling aimlessly around and occasionally running away, this time around we're promised 'proper' behaviour - crossing the road and moving in packs, in other words.

They'll also be more aggressive - and anyone who's ever watched a George Romero zombie movie knows what that means: overwhelming hordes of slavering zombies relentlessly attacking your car and trying to chew off your limbs and suck out your guts. The cheeky monkeys.

Other, less violent, enhancements include the ability to design your own car at the start of the race, as well as the opportunity to build a pedestrian resembling your least favourite person in the world (bonus points to be awarded to whoever sends ZONE the first Vanessa Feltz - assuming the engine can handle the immense polygon count required to replicate her great big shuddering flanks).

What else? Oooh, 45 races across 15 different settings (and more confined, race track-oriented stages at that), a proper in-car view (with a mirror and a windscreen wiper and everything), animated trackside objects (like cranes and, er, larger cranes), booby traps, and more Internet play options than you can shake a big computer stick at.

The only worry is that those maniacs from the Isle of Wight aren't involved anymore. Presumably they're hard at work on something even sicker (I shudder to think - Ed). Still, with any luck the Aussie team can look at the game with a fresh critical eye and make changes in all the right places. And if there are any changes you want, you can tell them - just visit site and take part in the survey. The split second we get a full review copy, we'll play it to death and let you know what it's like.