E3 2013 has officially come to a close but we still have lots of videos from all the new racing games that made their debut during the massive video game show. In this post we dig a little deeper into Need For Speed: Rivals. The trailers all looked great but what is the new Need For Speed game really about? What makes it different from the previous games? We were lucky enough to get some time with Need For Speed: Rivals creative director Craig Sullivan to find out what’s new in Rivals and the awesome new game mechanic that just might win you over. Check out the interview and new screenshots below!
Whenever I visit E3, the Playseat Racingbooth is always one of my first stops. Ever since they released their Forza Motorsport 3 seat I have been a fan of these guys, which lead to a partnership. This year, as tradition dictates I stopped by their booth to check out what have in store for this year and even got a few tidbits on some new products for next year (i.e. partnerships and Xbox One, PS4 compatibility). They definitely have a lot cooking, most notably a partnership with Formula Drift. To hear more about it from the source and get a look at the next item on your Christmas list scroll down below!
Yesterday was pretty busy day for anyone who loves video games, especially racing games. Just a few short hours after I left the Microsoft Xbox Conference I had to hot foot it to the other side of the block for the EA Games event. The near cardiac episode was worth it though as EA debuted the official trailer, and game play footage from Need For Speed: Rivals. Besides the stunning visuals, the ability for friends to jump in and out of a single player game seamlessly looks pretty awesome. Check out the trailer and gameplay video below and then stay tuned for my impressions after I get my hands on the game later today.
BOUNUS: EA has also decided to release a short “behind the scenes” feature of the upcoming Need For Speed movie, which I am admittedly less excited about than the games but take a look and come to your own conclusions!
A few months ago Turn 10 studios released an incredibly vague trailer for a game they called “Forza Horizon“. The trailer was comprised of a few glamour shots of high end cars on a road that seemed to be in the middle of no where, traveling to some type of event. After that teaser trailer was released it left most with way more questions than answers. What is Forza Horizon? When is it coming out? Is this Forza 5? What’s with the party scenes? What if God was one of us? Ok maybe no one asked that last one but all the others queries were being thrown around forums all over the internet.
Well today I can officially give you some real answers to many of those questions. Yesterday I was invited to a very low key and very exclusive pre-E3 Forza Horizon event at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Los Angeles. At this event a handful of journalist including myself got a primer to what Forza Horizon is all about and more importantly we got to play an early build of the game before it will be exposed to the rest of the world on the E3 showfloor tomorrow so in this post I will give you some of the answers you may have been looking for, my impressions of the game, and some new screenshots! In a day or so we will have more content and an exclusive interview with the developers behind Forza Horizon. For now seek your answers below!
What is Forza Horizon?
The number one question after the super-vague teaser for Horizon was released was “What is Forza Horizon going to be?” The short answer is that Forza Horizon is going to be an open world “action-racing” game. Instead of sanctioned events happening at race tracks all around the world as in previous Forza games, in Horizon players will explore a somewhat imagined area of the Colorado Desert in a free open-world way. When I say open-world I mean that players are not restricted to race tracks or even the road. You will be given a large area and you can drive where ever you want, when ever you want to along highways and by ways of this magical area of Colorado. While on these roads you will encounter other AI controlled cars that may want to race you or are just part of normal traffic.
There will be something of a central hub called the “Horizon Festival.” The Horizon festival is the focus of the game and why you are out in the Colorado desert in the first place. In the context of the game’s story think of the Horizon Festival as a cross between the Goodwood Festival and the Coachella music festival with a dash of Gumball 3000 thrown in for additional flavor. It is where speed, music, and hoonage come together. From a functional standpoint the Horizon Festival is where all the different game modes live. Whenever you decide you want to end your drive around Colorado, you return to the Horizon Festival and from there you can enter car shows, join street races, or multi-player events like racing or some of the other “playground” modes that are popular in other Forza games like “cat & mouse” and much more.
Why did Turn 10 decide to make this game?
The overall mission statement of the Forza Motorsport franchise and the ultimate goal of the team at Turn 10 Studios is to, and I quote “Turn car-lovers into gamers and turn gamers into car lovers”. This mission as been at the core of everything that has been put into each Forza game to date. However, Dan Greenawalt (creative director) felt that perhaps maybe the simulator-based Forza games to date are not as “kid-friendly” as he would have liked them to be. For teenagers and older people all Forza games have been awesome but due to their hardcore, simulator nature may have been a bit daunting to the younger audience.
It was this thinking that inspired Forza Horizon. Turn 10 wanted to create something that had all the refinement that enthusiasts would expect from a Forza game but in a package that can be easy to pick up and play for just about anyone and still be a lot of fun. When I say “fun” I mean being rewarded for doing things that would otherwise get you thrown in jail or at the very least cause you to lose a race. In Forza Horizon smashing through road signs and picnic tables is encouraged. Drifting around a canyon road will earn you points, and just barely threading your way between two cars on a busy street is not frowned upon. Although just like any other racing game, crossing the line (when there is a line) first is always the ultimate goal. Now, the idea of an open world racing game like this is not new. It has been tried before by EA Games and their “Need For Speed” franchise and also by Atari with their “Test Drive” games but none of them have really pulled it off without having the problem of repetitiveness or a feel that was too “arcade-y” with unrealistic physics and over the top presentations.
Forza Horizon is how Turn 10 plans to succeed in this area where others have failed.
However, the guys at Turn 10 knew that to take on such a project would be too much with everything else they have going on so they brought in a new studio based in the UK called Playground Games to develop Forza Horizon.
Who or what is “Playground Games”?
As I mentioned, Playground Games is a small development studio based out of the UK. What is special about Playground Games is that they are a small team comprised of individuals to bring you some of the best racing games from across the pond like the Collin McRae series, DiRT, GRiD and more. As you may have guessed many of the Playground Games team came from Codemasters, the studio behind DiRT and the new crop of F1 games. Playground Games is headed by Ralph Fulton who was formerly a manager at Codemasters and significantly contributed to DiRT2 and F1 2010.
What cars will be in the game?
It is very likely that Forza Horizon will not have the same vast library of cars that Forza Motorsport 4 has, but Playground Games went to painstaking efforts to go through that same library to pick the cars they felt are the most unique and would be the most fun within the context of what Forza Horizon is going to be. An official car list has not been released but from the demo and the screenshots it seems confirmed that the new Dodge Viper will be in the game as well as the R34 Nissan Skyline, Nissan 370Z, and Ford GT will be in the game. It should also be noted that while Playground Games picked cars from the Forza library, each car in the game was still re-created from scratch specifically for Horizon but each car still has the same stunning detail that we come to expect from Forza games.
Is Forza Horizon “Forza Motorsport 5″? Should I be worried about the direction Turn 10 is going?
The answer to both of those questions is “No”. Forza Horizon is definitely not “Forza 5″ In fact, I can very safely assume that part of the reason why Turn 10 Studios put the project in the hands of Playground Games is so their core team can continue to work on the next Forza Motorsport game. That said, there is no reason to fear that the Forza experience that we have all come to know and love has suddenly turned into something completely different or that it will go away. Furthermore, fans of previous Forza games should not shy away from Horizon due to its premise. While the idea may sound like some of the games you’ve hated before, Forza Horizon is still a “Forza” game. I will explain what I mean by that.
Game Impressions
As I mentioned earlier, I had a chance to get my hands on an early build of Forza Horizon. Like many of you out there, I feared that I may not like where Forza was heading with this title. After a few moments of playing the game myself I can say that I am a serious believer. When playing the demo I got to pilot the new Dodge Viper around the Horizon area of Colorado and it was awesome! I was racking up points for drafting, drifting, and smashing through things but at no time did I ever feel like I was playing a wonky arcade racer. The physics felt exactly like Forza. The controls are tight and responsive. There was no “floaty-ness” or delayed handling. All the precision and accuracy is still there. This is due in thanks because Playground Games had vast access to Turn 10 Studios physics engine including the same Pirelli tire physics data used in Forza Motorsport 4. All of that in an open world, “action racing” package and it all worked together beautifully. Even when I tried the demo with driving assists off the realism of the car’s physics and the wacky goals of the game still worked together perfectly. Also, players will finally get to drive at night in a Forza game. Since Horizon is an open world environment the time of day will gradually change from day to night as the players hang out and race in the virtual space. There will also be instances where players are encouraged to race off road on dirt, gravel, various other surfaces.
Another feature that I found fascinating but did not get to try was the kinect functionality. With the Xbox Kinect players of Forza Horizon will have a voice activated GPS system. Lets say you are out on the open road trying to find a specific location but got turned around. Simply say something like “GPS, Horizon Festival”. The green line that usually would normally show us the fastest way around a turn will now show up to guide players to their spoken destination. While it was not mentioned, we imagine that the Kinect will also have the same functionality that it does in Forza Motorsport 4 as well in regards to controlling cars with just your hands and no controller.
When is it coming out?
As of now Forza Horizon is set to release on October 23rd 2012 in the Americas and Asia. Europe will see Horizon released on October 26th 2012.
Conclusion
Well it is difficult to come to a solid conclusion based on my limited time with the game and other information that will still remain a mystery for at least another few months but what I can say based on my experience and what I have heard from both Turn 10 Studios and Playground games is that I think Forza Horizon will convert a lot of “hardcore” gamers who think they are too good for this type of thing as well as bring in that younger audience that Turn 10 is longing for. I will get some more time with the game on the E3 show floor and once I do I will give some more feedback on my experience.
Also stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Dan Greenawalt of Turn 10 Studios and Ralph Fulton of Playground games to get even more insight into Forza Horizon.
Fresh from my inbox I have just recieved word that even though the real-life Circuit Of The Americas in Austin is not completed yet; a finished virtual version of the track will be in Codemasters F1 2012 and be completely playable. Representatives from Codemasters released the first screen shots for the game and those shots show the current crop of F1 cars on the Austin race track. The circuit will actually be playable at E3 (which I will be attending) so if the PR-Ninjas let me I will try to get some gameplay footage for you. In the meantime enjoy the screen shots below and stay tuned for more info!
DRIVE THE CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS FOR THE FIRST TIME AT E3 WITH F1 2012™
First Screenshots Reveal the All-New Circuit and 2012 Specification
FORMULA ONE™ Cars
Los Angeles, Calif. – May 31, 2012 – Codemasters® will unveil the new Circuit of the Americas track as F1 2012 receives its world premiere at E3 in Los Angeles next week. Attendees to the show will be able to lap the new circuit, based in Austin, Texas, months before the FORMULA ONE teams take to the track for the 2012 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX™ in November.
The first F1 2012 screenshots have also been released today and can be seen here: www.facebook.com/formula1game. These new shots show the 2012 specification FORMULA ONE cars racing at the Circuit of the Americas.
You can find F1 2012 on the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment booth in the South Hall, Booth #2001, from June 5-7, 2012.
Every year when we go to E3 we search the show floor for cool games and gadgets that gear heads would love. Last year we fell in love with the Forza Motorsport 3 edition Playseat, this year we paid a visit to Playseatagain and were happy to see that they are going to follow up with a new Forza Motorsport 4 edition seat, complete with a few changes. To help go over all the changes on the new seat we had Trevor from Playseat America walk us through it. Just scroll down for pics and Trevor’s walkthrough of the Forza Motorsport 4 edition Playseat.
To celebrate the E3 2011 reveal of Forza Motorsport 4 the guys at Turn 10 Studios took over the event deck at LA Live for a massive party. There were top notch cars every where you turn including the first Gumpert Apollo which took a short outing from the CEC West LA show room to come to the party. One of the highlights was the debut of the Top Gear test track in Forza 4. The Turn 10 Crew brought over a hydraulic motion rig, set up a lap time board, and party goers were challenged to post up their best lap time in a Kia Cee’d. Every 30 minutes the fastest lap holder would win a special Stig prize pack that included a messenger bag full of Top Gear DVDs, Stig Alpinestars racing gloves, a “I am The Stig” shirt, and a Meguiars car care kit. Once everyone posted up their lap times the crowd was treated by an impromptu appearance by The Stig himself! After The Stig had a riveting interview with MC Tommy Kendall party goers were treated to a live set by Mix Master Mike and Travis Barker!
While the party was going on I managed to pull John Wendl (content director for Turn 10 Studios) to talk about all the new feature we can expect in Forza Motorsport 4 when it comes out this fall. Just scroll down for a few party pics (more in our Facebook Gallery) and the interview.
Last night the guys at Turn 10 Studios threw a massive party to celebrate Forza Motorsport 4but before that the MC of the party Tommy Kendall stopped by the Xbox booth at E3 2011 to try his hand at the game himself. They say that those who are good at racing games would probably do well racing in real life, but judging by the video below I don’t think that works in reverse! In a display of bravado that could only come from a real race car driver Tommy turned off all the driving assists, however for a bit of insurance he kept his competitors on easy mode. Yet, that still couldn’t save him from finishing in last place!
After E3 came to a close that day Tommy headed over to the Forza 4 party where he played host. During the festivities party goers were joined via television by Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson who introduced a very special guest, The Stig!. Master Of Ceremonies Tommy Kendall attempted to get an interview with Top Gears tame racing driver but it did not go so well.
Check out TK’s go at Forza 4 and his attempted interview with The Stig in the videos below!
As promised in the other post here is actual video of the new Fanatec elite Forza Motorsport 4 Wheel in action on the E3 2011 show floor. As you can see the elite version will accept attachments like an e-brake and H-pattern shifter. It also appears to come with the same metal pedal set as the standard version. Also notice the awesome carbon fiber steering hub! From what I was told the elite is still a prototype so it may look slightly different once it is released. I think it looks pretty damn cool already! I will try to get more info on this wheel from Fanatec ASAP! In the meantime enjoy the video below!
So I have a small update on the Fanatec Forza Motorsport 4 wheel. First off there will be two models available. A “standard” and “elite”. The standard looks to come with what any other wheel would however the wheel is much beefier than the offical Xbox wheel and features metal construction. It also appears to come with a metal pedal set. The elite has a more stout electric motor which I would venture to guess has more accuracy than the standard. It also comes in a different housing and features a carbon fiber center piece. What really sets the elite version apart is that it can take attachments such as a handbrake or H-pattern shifter. I will try to get more info from the Fanatec guys tomorrow. I will also have some video of the wheel in action. In the meantime check out the pictures I shot of the wheel at the Forza Motorsport 4 exhibit.
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