a wonderful sandbox
the cars are all fun in their own ways, and driving feels smooth and fun.
crashes are more so fun than frustrating, and everything feels nice.

but this is a sandbox without a game. there's nothing to do, nothing to work towards, nothing to earn. you have everything at your fingertips.
if you want to progress and earn, this game gets boring fast.

gameplay gets a 4/5.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZvLPk_9jRQ
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9AM81CIpqk
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOimakhMD0I
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pu9_D9fl1U

Think Burnout Paradise, but with mega-enhanced physics that cause some of the most fun crashes you can get in a videogame

when i first played this game back in 2016, it seemed like a concept demo for something quite specific: crashing cars. fast forward almost seven years, and it has transformed into a versatile platform for all things car-related, spanning from arcade silliness to hardcore simulations. speaking of simulations, achieving the simulation of every little part of the car with its own physics is an incredible feat; it's no wonder the game is leaning more towards sim racing. my experience with this game was somewhat limited, because achieving this level of car simulation requires relatively powerful hardware, forcing me to play almost without any ai. nonetheless, the game offered a delightful and unpretentious experience, delivering physics almost on par with assetto corsa. i definitely plan to come back and play the more complex scenarios once i upgrade my pc

(aaand another 50 hours after my last review was written, 15 in the past week ugh)
most other land vehicle simulations, including the truck simulators from SCS software, just don't quite capture the entire spectrum of both joy and terror that comes with vehicle operation with respect to the capabilities of said vehicle. beamng is "vehicle itself" sim first and foremost. that does not mean that it isn't either a driving or racing sim, nor does it mean that the act of operating the vehicle under any scenario is secondary to the softbody vehicle simulation. no other computer program quite captures the entire spectrum of emotions that the stupid metal death boxes can bring.

i've become quite fond of the completely fictional vehicles here, even if they're amalgamations of stuff that exists/existed (still wishing cash for clunkers never happened), they're all just incredibly cute. the manufacturers' inspirations are pretty obvious to the type of people who can correctly guess the make of a vehicle at night from either headlights or taillights alone about 85% of the time (ie: gavril is both fomoco & gm, ibishu is both honda & toyota, bruckell is chrysler, etc). this approach makes it far more interesting than Yet Another Sim Racer With Perfect, Licensed Recreations Of The Average Average Person's "Dream Car"s. These fictional fantasy cars (not to be confused with "Dream Car"s) that have no need for a license agreement from a manufacturer is also preferable to the approach CAVE and Genki took with the Touge MAX and (most of the) Shutokou Battle games, respectively, with their memorable machines like "I Swear It's Not A Toyota AE86 Please Leave Us Alone".

there is nothing like the k-platform chrysler lebaron, the platonic ideal of american automotive malaise, in asseto corsa or gran turismo, but beamng has you covered with the bruckell legran. (mini)vans are a rarity in racing games, more often implemented as a functional joke option. in beamng i can toss a 400-ish hp engine in a 1950's american boatycar, watch as the torque either causes the machine to veer in the direction of the engine's rotation (then off the road) with the slightest bit of throttle, or break the driveshaft as soon as i lift up the clutch. in beamng i, more often than not, just drive. (maybe i would race anything other than the clock here if my machine could handle more than just the map and the vehicle i'm driving)

my favorite machine in this game is without a doubt the ibishu miramar, incredibly reminiscent of the 1st generation toyota corolla and BMW 2002, both 4 cylinder subcompact rear wheel drive boxes from the '60s. for a time i owned arguably the last relative of the BMW 2002, of one of the last BMW e30s produced with a 4 cylinder engine (in retrospect i wouldve been better off with one of the earlier 4cyl e30s, fervent dislike for the m42 engine and drivetrain from a wrench-wielding standpoint). with that e30 i learned what a burning clutch smells like real quick. operating the ibishu miramar gives me the same spectrum of emotion that i received in my time driving the tiny e30: the joy of making the rear tires spin, the panic that came with slamming on the brakes in the wet (sorry it snows like once every other year here no experience w ice :| ), the fear of ending up flipped or wrapped around a tree while making those rear tires spin too much in a turn, the relief that comes with recovering after nearly losing all control of the vehicle, and the satisfaction that comes with keeping control of the vehicle in situations where i intentionally induce bad grip >:3.

the only emotion missing is the fear of my death or destruction of the vehicle due to a skill-issue accident, but i do get to see what would happen in that scenario, and i'm thankful i'm keeping it virtualized every single time it does.

(if you're wondering, my "Dream Car"s are either a mercedes w123 240d wagon, or a geo metro hatchback. both are about as fast as on another)

Remember when you were a child and smashed cars into each other? Did you watch a lot of crash test footage for fun? that is this game. A long iteration on soft body physics simulation that goes back decades, this is one of the most compelling car simulations you can buy. It has lovingly crafted shitbox cars from the 1980's that your grandma drove, and they disintegrate and deform as you hurl them off cliffs. There is an incredible mod and mapping scene for this game, with an in-game browser for them. The greatest example of unstructured play using computer simulation.