If you’re after a realistic simulation of driving a vehicle, there are plenty of options out there. Project CARS and DiRT Rally both do an excellent job on PC already and both Gran Turismo Sport and DriveClub are getting PS VR support later this year. Now, we can say that the VR racing genre is about to get a whole lot more intense and far less realistic.
Tastee Beverage Studios has today announced that its fast-paced combat racing game, Bank Limit: Advanced Battle Racing, is officially releasing for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and standard PC platforms on August 16th. You can watch the original teaser trailer from earlier this year below:
Comparisons to one of the pioneers of futuristic VR racing, Radial-G, are inevitable, but for what it’s worth, Bank Limit is actually looking to offer a slightly different experience. Whereas Radial-G is a racing game focused primarily on racing and boosting, similar to Nintendo’s F-Zero series, Bank Limit appears to take more inspiration from Sony’s WipeOut franchise. Instead of just flying around corners, you’ll also utilize weapons to take out your enemies. Gameplay in Bank Limit also reminds me of another upcoming VR battle racer, Monowheels VR.
Bank Limit has been in development for over two years by a small team using Unity, but the screenshots don’t show it. This looks just as much like a big-budget sci-fi racer as anything from the previously mentioned racing franchises. Visually it’s beautiful and it looks even better when you’re rocketing down courses at 500MPH.
According to an official press release provided by Tastee Beverage:
Bank Limit: ABR puts players in futuristic race cars that can hit ludicrous speeds while dealing punishment to rivals via head-aimed lasers and missiles. The ability to look in any direction via head tracking to aim weapons, navigate upcoming turns or check status via in-car gauges makes driving and flying the ABR vehicles especially intuitive on VR platforms, allowing players to focus on winning the race and destroying rivals. The game supports most controllers, including Vive controllers, Touch by Oculus (when available), the Steam Controller, Windows gamepads and keyboard/mouse, so racers can choose their preferred controller when playing on any platform.
Players will mash the accelerator and blast away at rivals to reach the finish line first—even if it means they have to soar above the track to gain an advantage. Souped up with advanced tech, the ABR vehicles are capable of flight and players can blast into space for intervals of dogfighting.
Bank Limit is scheduled for release on August 16th and can be preordered on Steam for $49.99 as of today and will feature 20 different tracks, 3 different combat arenas, and various racing classes at launch. The game is releasing on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and non-VR PC platforms with fully cross-platform multiplayer on all devices.
