Round 1, Part 3
WE STILL LIVE EDITION
November 15th, 2026, New York City
“How long are we going to drag this meeting out?” groaned Borliik, leaning back into his chair. “Can we just call it a day?”
“We’re so close to the end. Just eight more entries.”
“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
Midlands Ceres Apex
@Portalkat42
Borliik: “This thing has presence. That long hood like those classic GT cars, its obscenely 70s profile and proportions with that sheer length, and that muscle car look makes this thing just plain awesome. It’s such a timeless look, but with some futuristic touches here and there like the LED lights in the front and back. It’s almost like a rival to the Edge Rider, since both very clearly pay homage to the golden days. It’s also very clearly aimed towards the car nerd demographic. An F1 V12 engine and it’s also a fan car? These guys clearly have a hard on for classic motorsports. And it’s a good thing, because so do I.”
Christina: “Cold fusion engine, huh? Wasn’t your PhD thesis on that?”
“As a matter of fact, it was… compact, transportable fusion reactor design, to be precise. I wonder if I could sue these guys for theft of intellectual property. Hah, just kidding! But it looks like they’ve recreated a very realistic-looking rendition inside the cabin. I love how those tanks feed into the intakes of the V12, that’s a magnificent detail.”
“For this vehicle, the set of abilities looks highly dependent on the player’s own skill. It’d be very interesting to have that, which might be frustrating for newer players but will be highly rewarding for players more experienced with racing games. The other mechanics such as the thorium pellets are very similar to older games, which reminds me of nitrous in a way?”
“Listen, I think we can agree the car is badass and all… but the characters. One, I don’t want to change this game’s rating again, and two, I’d much rather our flagship game meant to show off a flagship console’s capabilities not to have that kind of fanart clogging social media. You hear me?”
Visual Criterion Compasses
Eligibility for Featuring
A 6x6 muscle car is a 100% badass build, one that anyone will be sure to appreciate whether they are a car fan or not. This design isn’t lacking in any department, and neither are the characters in a very specific one. It looks like there will be yet another duo amongst the main competitors, and if Borliik is willing to risk tainting his company’s reputation, the Ceres Apex and its drivers Gwen and Storm have a chance at making it to the main cover.
Madson Brooklands Torpedo-AGV MOD
@Sureascanbe
“Looks like this one will take some time to load, lemme check if our guest is here yet.”
While Boris is checking his DMs on Fixcord, a rather unusual looking silhouette starts appearing on the display.
“Aight I think he’ll be here in - WHAT IN THE FU-”
He looks around, and every other person in the room has roughly the same facial expressions as him.
“So lemme get this straight,” He finally sits down and sips his coffee “At this point, we have seen a huge spider car, a Hyper-tank and even a huge humanoid robot armed with an assault rifle the size of a car. But this, this is some next-level shi-”
Christina angrily stares at Boris.
“Ahem, right, let’s take a look at the creator’s comment on this thing.”
“Apparently, it’s based off a prewar racer. And then the entire front section is replaced with…that thing. Not too sure how that thing works, but my god it looks rad as fu- heck.” An artist in the meeting exclaims.
“I have something to add too.” One of the gameplay designers raises his hand. “The craft clearly is a monster in terms of outright speed, but the TIME ATTAC rule of altitude limit and it’s rather heavy weight and clumsy handling would balance it out perfectly. It’s perfect for one of those challenging crafts to master, and the game definitely needs one of those.
Borllik nods with approval. “So, it’s almost perfect for what we want.”
“Almost?”
“Like, this thing is basically the crotch rocket of the future. The person that rides this thing, is probably a psychopath and a half. I think the creator can elaborate on that a bit more…that’s all I can pick on this thing anyways. By the way, y’all saw the movie Revlimiter?”
“…”
“Anyways, it’s in, and the bar has definitely been risen again.”
Visual Criterion Compasses
Eligibility for Featuring
We'll even go so far as to call this art. Things like this you absolutely don't see every day. The execution, the idea, it's all perfect. It's undoubtedly making it into the finals.
2030 Delphinida Orca Atavis
@azkaalfafa
“…”
“Oh. Wow.”
After being deeply impressed yet again, Boris takes a deep breath and collapses into his office chair.
“Not gonna lie, I’m a bit jealous of this Keiji guy.”
“Huh?”
“Like, imagine not being able to show up your friends’ party blasting Life Grabs in this thing, and everytime you get into the craft you get chat with this AI instead of having to deal with my dumb friends who has less IQ and probably less EQ than this AI. If I’m in this thing, I don’t have to care about nobody, but you better give me your attention 100% of the time.”
“Hmm, now that I think of it.” Christina smirks, “This craft would suit so perfectly to you, because the dear Boris I know from high school just happens to someone that has no friends and wants attention all the time, no?”
The entire meeting room laughs.
“Owwwwwww, that freaking hurts, didn’t I pay you enough for this month? Anyways, y’know, I was bit worried about the role of, y’know, one of those rich family entries being missing after we binned the uhh, the La Grande Nuit Noir. As you can see now, we have the perfect candidate for that role. By the way, y’all seen the movie Revlim-”
“Actually, jokes aside, I think Boris has a point.” The story designer who has been slacking off the entire time suddenly speaks.
“About how everyone should watch Revlimiter?”
“Uh, no, about how effective the craft is at portraying the role of an entrant like Keiji. I think the advanced AI with that face is an extremely nice touch in my opinion, just imagine the potential storyline and conversations you can design around this AI. The rest of the craft captures his personality very well, and it has a theme, which helps set it apart from other hovercraft-type builds."
“Exactly! See what I mean? Quirky, cool, expensive car… hover-thing for a quirky, cool, expensive guy.”
Visual Criterion Compasses
Eligibility for Featuring
The Delphinida Orca Atavis is unique in the way that it acts as an extension of this character's personality. A clear amount of effort put into the design of both is highly impressive and only makes this more fitting as a potential finalist.
Skyfire Starship
@BannedByAndroid
“Well, some classic American muscle, who doesn’t love that?”
“Lets see, swoopy lead sled bodywork? Check. Enough chrome to cause 3rd degree burn to your retinas under sunlight? Check. Big fat blower sticking out blocking more than 70% of front vision? Check. Mhm. All it needs now is a pair of fuzzy dice hanging off the mirrors.
“So we’ve established that it’s pretty darn American. How’s the rest of the design?
“Well, it apparently offers a road mode and a levitating mode in order to clear rough terrains. Which is a bit of a shame, because with the rough terrain of the race, that V12 engine would be a dead weight doing nothing for the majority of the race."
“So what’s the verdict?”
“I think this has a place in the game, but it’s just not as impressive as it could be.”
Visual Criterion Compasses
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It’s not at all a bad design. The concept is good and so is the execution, but it’s just not quite good enough to make it into the finalists as a potential main rival. It will, of course, still find its way into the game as a quick race vehicle.
Zacspeed Phoneix
@chiefzach2018
Judging from the reactions around the meeting room, it was obvious that this next racecraft was instantly a favorite amongst science fiction nuts. One of them being Borliik himself. However, despite the overwhelming amount of approval from the rest of the developer team, it was still up to the man himself to call the shots.
“Right. So at first glance, this reminds me of that certain craft from Solar Battles, y’all know which one I’m talking about, right?”
“The T-wing? And I’m pretty sure it was Intergalactic Conflict, not Space Battles. How do you mix those two up?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, you’re right. But when you look into this bastard a bit more, it makes the Intergalactic Conflict craft look like some kind of kid’s play. Let’s start with the looks. I don’t care if this is clever product placement by Zacspeed attempting to rope zoomers into its aging customer base. Why? Because it works. They’ve always made stunning race cars throughout their history, and this thing right here proves that they know what the hell they’re doing with basically any kind of transportation they lay their hands on. The exposed mechanical stuff on the wings make this design even more extreme than it already is. I mean, it’s a literal freaking space fighter! Does that need any further explanation?”
“Spiritually, this reminds me of repurposed WW2 fighter planes that were turned into race planes. That this used to actually be a military aircraft according to its lore, but unlike other race planes, this one still has its armament. Which brings me to my next point: this is so extreme to the point that I feel like it doesn’t belong in the game, at all.”
“Well… when the premise of this challenge is that anything is fair game, this is to be expected. Because of that, I mean at this point it’s more like 60% racing 40% combat. All thanks to stuff like this, the VARATA, and the RfX01. Hmm… like old fighter craft with guns, the lasers on this are calibrated to converge trajectories at a few hundred meters out. They’ll be more effective at that range, but in street or jungle courses with very limited visibility and lots of blind turns and jumps, they might ont be as useful there. This is pretty clearly on the more offensive side with its… BFL. Hey, it uses a Galilean beam expander? I studied that in university! It’s super interesting how it works. You know the concept of tessellation?”
“…you already lost me there.”
“It’s simple, really. The beam expander is composed of exotic matter, which itself is composed of nearly infinitely-repeating units of crystalline manifolds. We can extrapolate the concept of tessellation from simple shapes and apply it to complex n-dimensional non-euclidean manifolds, similar to the ones that make up the beam expander in the BFL. With this construction, you’re able to alter the phase of the lasers on the fly and this is invaluable for high-energy applications.”
“I… totally understood all of that. So I’ll take that as a ‘yes’?”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
Visual Criterion Compasses
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Common sense: exist
Zacspeed Phoenix:
Vol-Tech XX80
@mart1n2005
An orange vehicle appears in the holographic display. Despite its cute and harmless looks, it possesses one of the most powerful stats on the grid.
“Picture this: this thing is moving out of a garage, and you first see its adorable and almost production car-like front and the next moment whaddaya know, a huge ass nuclear thrust nozzle appears in front of your eyes.”
“You know what scares me about this thing?” Boris says after a long pause, “Even though it is pretty crazy on it’s own, and every single brain cell of mine suggests that I should feel excited about this thing. But somehow…I…just don’t.”
“Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing really…it’s just that I am an absolutely spoiled man after seeing some of the other crafts. Like, I feel sorry for the creator of this craft, but if I haven’t seen what this thing is up against, I’d include it, no questions asked. But then again, I’m spoiled."
Everyone nods in agreement.
“That aside, I do quite like the simplistic approach of it, but I can’t help but to question perhaps if it’s a bit too simplistic. You know, our players would think that a Mach 1.5 capable nuclear reactor powered missile would look a bit more insane than this.”
“Yeah, I can’t say much more about this thing. It’s good, but a touch too tame to our rather spoiled tastes.”
Visual Criterion Compasses
Eligibility for Featuring
The Vol-Tech XX80 is perfect for a cyberpunk setting and perfect for TIME ATTAC. Seeing all of these various takes on the hovercraft concept is very interesting, and this one does a very good job at looking distinctive and convincing enough. It doesn’t quite have what it takes to be in the finalists, however.
Akatronix All-Terrain Leisure Transport
@yurimacs
“Hah! This looks exactly like something you’d see if you asked someone from the 70s or 80s to make a hovercraft. This was back in the golden day of CAD! You know those crazy Italian concept cars back in the days? All hard angles. Not a single curved surface to be seen. Straight lines and simple shapes. I could see this being right at home in
Solar Battles. By the way, they really botched the new trilogy, didn’t they? I mean, whose bright frickin’ idea was it to kill off-”
“You know, it’s really hard for me to tell if you hate something or like something. You just go on and on about it but it’s so hard for me to pick up on it.”
“Oh no, I definitely like this. I mean, compared to the other hovercraft we’ve had before, this is definitely set apart from the others aesthetically. I don’t know if the correct term is cassette futurism… or hell, what this specific style is even called anyways, if there exists a word for it. But it has such a cool retro-futuristic vibe to it that it’s gotta be in this game, no doubt about that! After all, RetroniX has made some extremely funky-looking cars throughout their history. This thing is no different.”
“This has just under 500 000 pounds of thrust… that really doesn’t sound usable at all.”
“So like the Brooklands Torpedo-AGV thing… this will also be another straight-line speed beast. I mean that basically outpaces the hell out of all the ground vehicles we have so far, it’s totally unfair. I think we’ll have to make a separate hovercraft class just because of this thing! Can you imagine being in that Kita buggy against this thing? But at those speeds, just how maneuverable will it be? I’m telling you, if you try doing any turns at Mach 2 you’ll be out cold faster than Christina on $5 wine.”
“W- what?”
“The CEAOM should give it a fair bit of protection against crowd control attacks, especially EMP-type ones, considering the pilot will still be able to regain control of the vehicle. But manual controls on an aircraft… at this speed… you better be damn jacked, you know what I mean?”
“I can’t quite put my finger on it but I’m just not feeling it for this, you know? It’s missing something. Personality. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly a nice design, and a very unique one for that matter… but it doesn’t quite inspire me in the right way."
Visual Criterion Compasses
Eligibility for Featuring
The Akatronix has incredibly sharp (literally) styling; it’s visually aggressive like the B1 Alpha Pro R1 X but with a funky twist that makes it feel somewhat retro despite very clearly being a futuristic, highly-advanced hovercraft. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t have the right touch to make it into finals, but it’s absolutely going into the base game.
KOBRA 1100
@TheAlmightyTwingo
“I think our resident old Merc simper will like this one.” Christina says as a boxy silhouette appears on the projector.
“Oh man, you’re definitely right on this one” Boris leans back into his chair “How many times did I tell y’all that I want a 300CEL?”
“Lost count of it.”
“Exactly. And look what we have here. As the creator suggests, it is based off the famous AMG Hammer coupe, but I can definitely see other influences here, the body kit reminds me of the 190E Evo 2. Heck, I can even see some Group 5 Silhouette cars in it. "
“Old car appreciation aside, it also has some cool details, like the massive blue tank in the middle of the car, it even has a pressure gauge on it.”
“You know that anime? Where the guy reaches his hands to the sides and opens a valve, those gauges goes crazy and the car just goes out of control ballistic. Imagine that in the game."
“It’s cool and all, but how would this thing be implemented gameplay wise? The intent seems to be a speedy but fragile vehicle, like the B1 Alpha. But…I don’t think it’s reflected enough in the design. It apparently has 5700hp, but to be honest, I don’t really see it. Certainly not with these wheels, which looks straight from the time this car originally came from. "
“That, and even though I love the idea of a super-modified icon, but really, it just looks like a generic road car out of the asset bin of Digifunk 2707. Uhh, a part of me really wants to make this a major vehicle, but I can’t really convince myself that it deserves it. It’s just, not quite there really.
Visual Criterion Compasses
Eligibility for Featuring
A classic that is revived with a large dose of technological insanity. Like the Kita, this is a love letter to the racers of the past. Its designs combines the visual features of iconic cars with a healthy amount of futurism. Unfortunately, when lined up against other competitions in this very harsh challenge, the execution of the KOBRA is not quite there. The idea of a ludicrously quick but fragile car is good, but the design doesn’t really bring out and support it’s rocket ship outright speed. It’d probably pass as a stylish daily driver, but not so much for this challenge. It will be featured in the game as a quick race vehicle.
Now all that’s left is the finals round. When is that coming? Good question.