Update [Wed 9th Apr, 2025 11:35 BST]: Margarite Entertainment's rerelease Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing launched yesterday on Steam, and the user reviews are already confirming what most people expected.
This isn't one of those occasions where someone takes a laughably bad game and tries to rehabilitate its public image, by introducing quality-of-life improvements and an assortment of digital extras. But instead, a cheap and potentially "suspect" release that uses an unusual wrapper made in Unreal Engine to enable Steam achievements.
As users have pointed out, Margarite Entertainment seems to be banking on gamers putting down the £3.99 asking price, pretty much for irony's sake alone. And, to give credit to them, this approach seems to be working. The game currently possesses a "Mostly Positive" review rating on Steam, with its store page having been inundated since yesterday with joke reviews, saying things like "This might be Game of the Year" and "Geoff Keighley would be proud."
Meanwhile, those who have tried to approach the game critically have been left baffled by the release, with one review stating "They did it. They somehow did it. They made Big Rigs even worse than it already was", claiming the game's "Winner Wizard" wrapper was "obliterating [their] RTX 4060 GPU".
It's safe to say, this is one game you should probably stay away from.
Original Article [Sat 22nd Mar, 2025 20:00 GMT]: You'd be fair to say that it doesn't really deserve it, but Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is getting another chance to 'shine' thanks to a release on Steam.
If you haven't heard of this game before, consider yourself fortunate. Published by GameMill in 2003, the game's developer, US studio Stellar Stone, outsourced its production to Ukraine, resulting in an unfinished car crash (literally!) plagued with bugs and seriously lacking in actual gameplay.
Hilariously, driving in reverse allows the truck to accelerate indefinitely, while your opponent in the race doesn't actually move during it. There's no collision detection, and driving off-road (or up hills) has no adverse effect on your speed. The game was effectively released in an unfinished state.
As you might imagine, reviews weren't kind, and Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing became the worst-rated game on both Metacritic and GameRankings at the time. Since its release, it has often been called one of the worst games ever made.