Wreckfest 2 Enters Steam Early Access, Full Release Likely 2026

[Famine]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Wreckfest 2 Enters Steam Early Access, Full Release Likely 2026​

If you’ve been eagerly gripping the steering wheel awaiting a chance to smash seven bells out of other drivers then we’ve got some good news for you: Wreckfest 2 is hitting Steam early access from March 20...

 

[Sonygamer455]

Never played anything on Steam Early Access in my entire life, but this will undoubtedly be the game that changes that for me, and rightly so!

 

[breeminator]

Never played anything on Steam Early Access in my entire life, but this will undoubtedly be the game that changes that for me, and rightly so!

I'm picking it up day 1 of early access, Wreckfest was one of the best driving games of the last decade IMO. Steam Early Access can be very mixed, I've played some games in early access that were in a better state than some full releases, but others can be pretty bare bones at first, e.g. AC EVO, and it sounds like Wreckfest 2 will be more like that.

 

[brockie]

Decent! Was a super enjoyable platinum on the ps4, still need to around to get doing it on the 5

At last some more racing games coming 😁

 

[cool3865]

I'm picking it up day 1 of early access, Wreckfest was one of the best driving games of the last decade IMO. Steam Early Access can be very mixed, I've played some games in early access that were in a better state than some full releases, but others can be pretty bare bones at first, e.g. AC EVO, and it sounds like Wreckfest 2 will be more like that.

AC was really bare bones when it was in early access

 

[VetteZR1]

Steam says release at around noon eastern . Can't wait!

 

[Scaff]

Can't wait for this, utterly loved the first one, and the physics engine under it was actually really rather good.

 

[Fezzik]

Do we have any idea yet of the recommended specs? The first game runs fine on my MacBook via Crossover but I'm not sure I have enough memory for this new version.

 

[FT-1]

Do we have any idea yet of the recommended specs? The first game runs fine on my MacBook via Crossover but I'm not sure I have enough memory for this new version.

These are the system requirements currently on the Steam page:

They are very brief, but there were placeholder specs before it was changed to the above, which gives you an idea of other requirements to expect:

 

[Sonygamer455]

 

[timekiller001]

These are the system requirements currently on the Steam page:
View attachment 1437475

They are very brief, but there were placeholder specs before it was changed to the above, which gives you an idea of other requirements to expect:
View attachment 1437476

The former placeholder specs seem very old, surely a 7-8 year old i7-8700 (which I have) is recommended?

 

[FT-1]

The former placeholder specs seem very old, surely a 7-8 year old i7-8700 (which I have) is recommended?

I wouldn't take too much stock in it. After all, they have been removed now, but they were the next best thing to go off given that the current Steam page shows very basic requirements.

 

[Haitauer]

I really hope Bugbear has more content ready. I know from personal level Bugbear is infamously perfectionistic company, that way too often scraps anything even slightly sub standart and starts again from scratch. High quality outcome but very slow way to work.

 

[Veinz]

I’m on the fence about buying it now on Steam or waiting for the Playstation version.

How are these games with a wheel? If I’m better off with a controller then I’ll just wait for the PS version.

 

[timekiller001]

I’m on the fence about buying it now on Steam or waiting for the Playstation version.

How are these games with a wheel? If I’m better off with a controller then I’ll just wait for the PS version.

I personally would always play games like this with a pad, not sure how it feels with a wheel though

 

[Fezzik]

I’m on the fence about buying it now on Steam or waiting for the Playstation version.

How are these games with a wheel? If I’m better off with a controller then I’ll just wait for the PS version.

There’s a note on the Steam page saying it’s recommended to play with a controller. At first I guess they are not focusing on wheel support.

Min/recommended specs are back up

 

[timekiller001]

OK, so it's here now.
Content wise it's not much - Early Access, right?
Only Quick race and Custom races available. 4 tracks (one of which is called Testing Grounds and is a huge area just for Demolition Derby), 4 cars.
Servers seem to have trouble too so difficult if not impossble to join an online match

Oh, and the requirements have been updated. Only a slight increase to those posted earlier

 

[Pearl Jam]

Yeah, I was thinking about picking this up as I like to support devs that deliver quality but seeing that they recommend playing with a controller I think I’ll hold off until I see and hear some reviews about playing it with a wheel

 

[Fezzik]

Pad is my preferred control option anyway (Dualsense supported is a plus) and I want to support the devs after only getting the first game via PS Plus. I'll pick it up at the end of the month before the launch offer expires.

 

[EngieDiesel]

This'll certainly be on my list to pick up once it's more feature complete, even though they've got publisher backing from the start on this one I still have too many bad memories of the first one's development cycle to really be an early adopter. That said, "the first game but better and with more stuff" is a perfectly fine way to approach a sequel like this so it's looking quite promising.

 

[Scaff]

These are very early impressions.

• Can't bind pedal inputs so wheel/pedal set-up is a no go right now
• Controller works fine - but no vibration
• Looks to be capped at 60fps
• Runs on ultra fine for me at 1440p, with circa 75% GPU load and a full grid of 24 cars (PC specs in sig - GPU: RTX 4070)
• No crashes so far
• Destruction is great
• Video review to follow....

 

[daan]

• No crashes so far

You're not playing it right!

 

[breeminator]

• Looks to be capped at 60fps

It isn't capped at 60fps for me, I have the opposite problem, the game has no setting for frame rate cap so my 4080 is maxed out all the time I'm playing it (I could address this by capping the frame rate in the driver, but I'm not going to mess about like that for one game). I have it set to windowed with vsync on, with a 360hz monitor, so I assume it will be capped at 360fps, but the 4080 isn't fast enough to reach that with maxed out quality settings at 1440p.

In terms of value for money right now, the game is terrible value compared to some other games when on sale, but obviously we're expecting to get free updates that fill it out. Right now it has a roughly similar amount of content to Exocross which was recently on sale for 1/4 of the price of Wreckfest 2, and the difference in quantity of content compared to a game like The Crew Motorfest, which is £2 cheaper than Wreckfest 2 when on sale, is absolutely vast. This isn't a problem for me, I'm happy to spend the money now to be able to try the game out, and only get real value back in the future, but some people might have limited funds and prefer options that get them a lot more right now.

 

[timekiller001]

Despite the lack of content, the online races are still very fun though (and a bit more challenging with the updated damage model). Too bad joining servers is very difficult still

 

[Sonygamer455]

I have to admit, I didn't realize how much it'd cost to get Early Access for this game until the article was posted and I unfortunately don't have enough on my account to buy it right now, otherwise I'd be playing it right now. Hopefully, this won't be a problem for much longer and I'll get to experience it soon.