When a countdown on Carmageddon.com began ticking away to June 1st, we were pretty sure that it would usher some new game in the long-dormant Carmageddon car combat franchise into the world. After all, the site was called Carmageddon.com. Still, after learning that the site domain was errantly listed as owned by Square Enix Europe (owners of original Carmageddon publisher, SCi), all sorts of possibly scenarios began to percolate. Had some new benefactor purchased the rights to the Carmageddon name from Squeenix Europe? Was Square Enix really behind this, and just deflecting? Was this all a ploy by some European Audi dealership to promote a big summer sale?

Today, we found out as Carmageddon: Reincarnation, a downloadable title from original series developer Stainless Games, was revealed as the title behind the countdown. Stainless reacquired the rights to the series and recently began work on the new title, which it hopes to release in 2012. The press release states that the title is still fairly early in development, and that Stainless is "actively seeking a partner with whom to move the project on to full production."

On the subject of what players could expect from Reincarnation, Stainless co-founder Patrick Buckland clarified that players would not be experiencing a meditation on life and rebirth through the eyes of series veteran Max Damage, as he takes a transcendent journey through time and space in a variety of new forms, both physical and spiritual, but rather will just be driving around killing people and laughing about it like usual.

"Carmageddon: Reincarnation will feature the same black humour and comic violence that made the original game such a success." said Neil Barnden, Executive Director and Stainless co-founder. "All the laughs, the crazy power-ups, and extreme destruction will return. We will make sure the existing fans get what they want and expect from a Carmageddon game, and a new generation discovers the delights of sliding into a Cunning Stunt."

No platforms have thus far been announced, but Stainless has had multiple successes developing titles for the Xbox Live Marketplace in the past. At the very least, an XBLA version would seem likely.

When a countdown on Carmageddon.com began ticking away to June 1st, we were pretty sure that it would usher some new game in the long-dormant Carmageddon car combat franchise into the world. After all, the site was called Carmageddon.com. Still, after learning that the site domain was errantly listed as owned by Square Enix Europe (owners of original Carmageddon publisher, SCi), all sorts of possibly scenarios began to percolate. Had some new benefactor purchased the rights to the Carmageddon name from Squeenix Europe? Was Square Enix really behind this, and just deflecting? Was this all a ploy by some European Audi dealership to promote a big summer sale?

Today, we found out as Carmageddon: Reincarnation, a downloadable title from original series developer Stainless Games, was revealed as the title behind the countdown. Stainless reacquired the rights to the series and recently began work on the new title, which it hopes to release in 2012. The press release states that the title is still fairly early in development, and that Stainless is "actively seeking a partner with whom to move the project on to full production."

On the subject of what players could expect from Reincarnation, Stainless co-founder Patrick Buckland clarified that players would not be experiencing a meditation on life and rebirth through the eyes of series veteran Max Damage, as he takes a transcendent journey through time and space in a variety of new forms, both physical and spiritual, but rather will just be driving around killing people and laughing about it like usual.

"Carmageddon: Reincarnation will feature the same black humour and comic violence that made the original game such a success." said Neil Barnden, Executive Director and Stainless co-founder. "All the laughs, the crazy power-ups, and extreme destruction will return. We will make sure the existing fans get what they want and expect from a Carmageddon game, and a new generation discovers the delights of sliding into a Cunning Stunt."

No platforms have thus far been announced, but Stainless has had multiple successes developing titles for the Xbox Live Marketplace in the past. At the very least, an XBLA version would seem likely.

Cool
 
I played Carmageddon a lot when I was young... so I'm interested.

Never played a Carmageddon game. Are they any good?

I've never cared much for Carmageddon, but man... Reincarnation is a damn good subtitle.

Cool. Also I'm tired of the phrase "black humor". Makes me double-take every single time. -_-

Carmageddon was awesome back in the day, so I hope this comes out on PSN so I can actually play it.

Is that the Opponent Repulsificator? 
 
SOLD!

The existing fans? Please, we're all in our 30's now and have moved on. I have reservations about how this franchise could make sense in 2011. Back in the 90's it was fucking fantastic. But gaming came a long way since then.

Really hyped, Carmageddon was one of the games I played every day for months back in the day.

Loving the not so subtle "...sliding into a cunning stunt." at the end. I doubt it'll be as good as sliding into a stunning cunt....

I love that if you look in history on the site and click on TDR 2000 it just says "we don't talk about this" and shows a  picture of a turd. Damn right, that game was awful.

cunning stunt indeed.....

Since the website was made I've been unsuccessfully trying to re-install my copy of Carmageddon 2, such good memories. 
 
Really stocked for this new game!

now to bring back blake stone!

Hmm.

Wait . . . More Iron Maiden? I'm in. 

Fuck. Please don´t tell me I have to buy an Xbox again...

I had a lot of fun playing both Carmageddon 1 and 2 so I'm stoked!

That image tingled the right memories of the repulsificator. Updating the mechanics and making it easy to play multiplayer sounds like it would be good enough for me to try out again.  
 
Hope they don't mess it up like they did with TDR 2000.

I am infinitely more excited for this than I am for the new twisted metal, played Carmageddon1 and 2 to death.

Blegh, car combat games.

*deleted*

The news could not possibly be any better. They had better release it on the PC as well.

this has to be on PC, I'm pumped that picture looks pretty good. their site is down :D. I tried to play the second one but it's annoying cause you can't see more that 100 meters in front of you, just make that game with better graphics and i'm good.

So I was not the only one who read the last line as "the delights of sliding into a Stunning Cunt"

I am interested as I really wanted to play Twisted Metal.

Carmageddon 2 is a definite part of my childhood (I know it "shouldn't" be). It was just a great mix of racing, combat, exploration and experimenting. I so want to jump my car to a rooftop with springs and try to catapult 10 innocent civilians to their death at the same time... Oh the good old days. I hope they go the nostalgia route with modern tech and not try to reinvent anything.

Licensed metal soundtrack or no buy

If it's download title it could work, only if it copies the goodness that was in Carmageddon2.

Never played Carmaggedon. Still I'm interested.

When I first saw GTA3, my immediate reaction was that it looked like Carmageddon, but you could get out of your car. 
 
For the time, this was an awesome game, with surprisingly realistic physics that made ti difficult to master.

Ohmygosh yes! I loved Carmageddon and its sequel. When word of a possible revival started reaching me, I tried remembering what it was I liked about the old games, and I could only think of the crazy "racing", taking out opponents' vehicles by literally chopping them in half against the corner of a building and other such crazy things.
 
I'd completely forgotten about the insane powerups. I mean, holy crap, moon gravity! Bouncy suspension! That ball-and-chain tail thing! That one powerup that made pedestrians super volatile so just grazing against them would cause a number of limbs to just fall off, leaving them bouncing about with just a single leg left and it looked so hilarious! And then there was that zapper thing that'd automatically fry every pedestrian near you... as soon as you grab that, you just want to speed off to the nearest mall or whever there's a high concentration of them and just watch your framerate spaz out because everything on screen is exploding simultaneously... oh man...
 
I was a huge fan of the hot rod and Jupiter gravity combo, myself. Makes your car go super ultra fast, but have really good grip and stay low to the ground because of the gravity. So much fun to fool around with! I hope all of that insanity remains in the new game, and I hope they let you use it to break the game even more severely than before!

I recommend reading this: http://www.stainlessgames.com/pix/EDG190_Carmaggedon_hi.pdf 
The making of Carmageddon.