Psychic Software has announced a release date for Darkwind: War on Wheels, a 3D massively multiplayer wargame coming to Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. The game will officially open on Friday, May 4, 2007.
In development for two years, Darkwind is set in a dark, post-apocalyptic future with a focus on vehicular combat — cars with guns, both in the wilderness and in man-made arenas and racing circuits. Players participate in auto-duelling.
The software has been in a period of closed beta testing for the past few months as the core development team has been adding new features and balancing the gameplay.
“In addition to our racetrack and arena based racing and combat leagues and ladders, we now also have out-of town travel, multi-player squads, and wilderness battles with NPCs and other player squads,” said developer Stéphan Bondier in a recent e-mail.
The developers have created three live towns in the online world, with more coming soon. Travel times between them can run tens of hours, so players can engage in on-the-road piracy and economic simulation — as a result, trade is a viable gameplay approach, according to Bondier.
“Resource locations, distances, and fluctuating piracy levels (which are tied to actual player activity) all contribute to the supply-and-demand calculations underpinning the economy,” he said.
System requirements call for Mac OS X, an Internet connection and a graphics card with at least 32MB VRAM.