A BIKE GAME THAT IS ALSO A SHOOTER
Gumwall GP runs in Chrome or Edge on a laptop. You ride a Monsoon course on your own trainer, or in demo mode with the arrow keys. Freedom Mode is the switch on the ride that turns the same lap into a shooter: licence plate cameras on poles along the road, delivery drones over it, ten guns, an announcer, and a leaderboard called MOST WANTED.
RIDE GUMWALL GP THE LAUNCH POST
WHAT YOU NEED
| To ride | To shoot |
|---|---|
| Chrome or Edge on a laptop or desktop (Bluetooth needs them; iPhone Safari cannot pair) | A mouse, or a controller |
| Nothing else for demo mode: the rider rolls on its own, UP sprints | Nothing else. The guns are keys and clicks |
| A smart trainer (FTMS), or any speed sensor and a dumb trainer, or a heart rate strap, over Bluetooth | A Switch Pro, Xbox or PlayStation pad over Bluetooth or USB for the right-stick aim |
Phones ride the normal game. Freedom Mode needs a mouse or a pad, so it stays hidden on touch screens.
HOW FREEDOM MODE WORKS
- The switch. Bottom left of the ride, pink, says FREEDOM MODE. On a pad it is + or the menu button.
- Aiming. The crosshair is a free cursor. The mouse or right stick moves it anywhere on the screen; the camera stays put. Get it near a camera or a drone and it locks on and follows. AIM ASSIST can be turned off in the FREEDOM tab.
- Shooting. Left click or ZR fires. Right click or ZL aims down the sights, or both barrels on the coach gun. R reloads. 1 to 0, the wheel, or the bumpers pick a gun.
- Targets. Cameras 100, the tall Condor units 200, drones 300, the Cybercopter 600, the whole train 1,000. One camera in eight is a decoy worth nothing. Hit a rider or a car and lose 200.
- Guns. Coach gun to start. Points unlock a .357, a pump, an SMG, an assault rifle, a big pistol, a bolt sniper with a scope, a light machine gun, a crossbow and a rocket launcher. They stay unlocked. Twice a pistol's unlock buys a second one for the other hand.
- Barrels. Red barrels and propane tanks at a third of the poles, and on some car roofs. One lights the next. Chains pay double, triple and up.
- Posse and free for all. The other riders carry coach guns. By default they are on your side and bad at it. Flip the switch to FREE FOR ALL and they want the same cameras you do, there is a lap board, and you can put one on the ground for ten seconds.
- The announcer. Double kill through monster kill, killing spree through wicked sick, headshot, first blood, humiliation. The lines are the Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 ones from a community sound pack; the originals belong to their publishers.
- Sound. Off until you press SOUND, so a first visit in a quiet room stays quiet.
THE BOARDS
LEADERBOARD under the ride has three tabs: BEST LAPS on the course, THIS WEEK for the course of the week, and MOST WANTED for Freedom points. Sign in with an email link and every ride posts itself. There is no password.
SETTING UP A CONTROLLER
Pair the pad with the computer first (Bluetooth settings, or a cable). Open the game, press any button, and the key help switches to that pad's glyphs. Right stick aims, left stick steers on the road, A or B pedals in demo mode.
SETTING UP SENSORS
PAIR SENSORS under the ride lists what it can find: a smart trainer over FTMS, a speed or cadence sensor, a heart rate strap. A dumb trainer with a speed sensor gets a virtual power curve you pick in the BIKE tab. The game reads power, speed, cadence and heart rate and shows the pods for whatever is talking.
IS IT FREE
Yes. No ads, no subscription, no email wall. The courses, the game and every Monsoon tool stay free.
RIDE GUMWALL GP