Hi-Octane (PlayStation 3)

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Description

A futuristic racing game with hover cars, in the same line as Wipeout, using a modified version of the Magic Carpet 2 engine.

Gameplay takes a straightforward approach, with the directional keys controlling the steering and throttle, and three keys to fire the minigun, missiles or charge the booster. While the minigun has unlimited ammo, both fuel, armour and missiles must be replenished by passing through some marked areas or picking up powerups in the track or by left destroyed opponents. While the vehicles float on the track they are still influenced by the ground material: they slow down on dirt and even more on water. Each track has a number of shortcuts or alternate routes that offer powerups, and some tracks feature gates and ramps that open or close randomly.

Includes 9 tracks and several game modes (for Saturn owners and PC players with the 1.2 patch installed) such as single race mode (with option to change the number of laps), a Championship mode, Split Screen, Clone Race (beating the ghost of the best race time), Death Match (Where instead of finishing first what matters is finish alive and with the most kills) and Hot Seat, where up to eight players can compete in the same race by taking turns, with the computer taking control of the players' vehicles waiting for their turn. There are six hover cars to choose from: the fast Flexiwing and Outrider, the balanced KD-1 Speeder and Vampyr and the slow but armed to the teeth Berserker and Jugga. In addition to the natural capacity of each, their Minigun, Missle and Booster capacities can be upgraded by picking up powerups during the race. There are Eight teams to choose from, which change the colour of the vehicle: Mad Medicine (white), Bullfrog (aqua green), Storm Riders (purple), Fire Phreaks (orange), DethFest (blue), Foo Fighters (yellow), Gorehounds (red) and Assassins Anonymous (black).

Screenshots

There are no PlayStation 3 screenshots for this game.

There are 20 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Alternate Titles

• "Hi-Octane: The Track Fights Back" -- Full US Saturn title
• "ハイオクタン" -- Japanese spelling

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Trivia

Demo version

Hi-Octane was released as a playable demo on EA Shortplays CD.

Development

There are a few variants regarding the game's development history:

• According to legend, Hi-Octane began a game the Bullfrog team on their own free time, for fun. Then they decided to improve and market it.
• According to a unnamed PC Gamer issue, the game was made in two weeks as a side project during the making of Dungeon Keeper. A variant of this story says that EA set Bullfrog under pressure to release Dungeon Keeper or Magic Carpet 2 - but they weren't able to. So they released Hi-Octane.

Engine

The engine used for Hi-Octane was a modified version of the Magic Carpet engine.

Patch

Bullfrog later released a patch for Hi-Octane which included additional features made for the Saturn version. These extra features included more tracks, split screen, deathmatch and more.

Awards

• PC Player (Germany)
  • Issue 01/1996 - Hardware Eater of the Year 1995

Information also contributed by emerging_lurker, Felix Knoke, James1 and Mickey Gabel

Related Web Sites

• Wikipedia: Hi-Octane (Information about Hi-Octane at Wikipedia)