Back in October, Milan-based publisher Black Bean Games announced to have acquired the World Rally Championship license from owners ISC, planning to bring a new WRC video game to the PC and next-gen gaming consoles in September 2010.
Now, a few new infos have been emerged from the Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco where ISC chairman Neil Duncanson disclosed some new details on the new title currently being developed by Milestone.
“From September next year we’ll be back in the gaming marketplace,” Duncanson commented. “We haven’t been there since 2005. For the rally fans, they’ve been short-changed. There is no definitive rally video game out there right now, so we’re going to come back with a bang, delivering the ultimate in off-road racing.
This will be all of the official cars on all of the official tracks, and because we own and deliver the timing systems and all of the satellite GPRS solutions, we’re able to give you the real version of rallying, delivered to your gaming platform.
The holy grail is to deliver a real, simultaneous live race experience where you’ll be able to go after Sebastien Loeb at the same time on the same stage, and compare your performance against his. In addition you’ll be able to have his live on-board camera footage integrated into the live game-play experience.”
The possibility to race against the WRC drivers had been mentioned before as iOpener has also been linked to this project a few months ago, rallying is certainly the best plattform to use this technology given that the events are time-trials with not more than one car at a time involved.
Another very promising comment is the fact that real stages are mentioned, something that’s badly needed to make the live-racing approach work. It remains to be seen to which lengths the real stages will be included though. As a typical WRC rally consists of several 30+ kilometer stages, it’s somewhat doubtful that the title will actually include all stages of all rallys on the calender, meaning that the live-racing feature could be limited to some stages.
SBK 09 with all the aids off was quite simulative, not at the level of the unforgettable SBK01 but surely it wasn't an arcade; the other BB "project", V8 superstars racing, is instead a mediocre hybrid title...let's hope
Fans of the FIA World Rally Championship will soon be able to get closer to the action as Black Bean Game announced today that its internal development studio Milestone is working on a new official WRC video game.
The main goal of the game is to bring the action of the World Rally Championship to the living rooms of both rallying and gaming fans, while the new official WRC game will provide the sport with major promotional and commercial opportunities, which will continue to grow the reach and appeal of the WRC on a global scale.
Key Features:
The World of WRC. The official locations, the official cars, the official drivers and co-drivers. Everything is designed to give the player the sensation of taking part in the real championship as they race against their heroes.
Huge career mode creates ultimate satisfaction when the player wins the championship after a long and challenging road to the top!
Unique offline and online game modes
13 different locations around the world
Realistic physics model
Advanced car tuning that allows players to find the best settings for every single stage
Breathtaking graphics for drivers, co-drivers, cars, tracks and environments
Visually stunning car damage effects
Full 3D cockpit and dashboards
Much more to come…
FIA World Rally Championship WRC E3 2010 Screenshots The first screenshots from Black Bean and Milestone's officially licensed FIA World Rally Championship game, WRC:
Looks nice indeed, but how does it play ?
Hope it's more like RBR and less like Colin McRae..
The devs said that the game will be much more simulation oriented if compared to Dirt, but it will contain an arcade mode as well. Overall the structure of the game should be similar to Superbike X (the other Milestone's game, already available for PC and console), which contained an adjustable level of simulation:
the driver in that video doesnt even try to drift, and when he tries its a fiasco
Dunno, I had the unpleasant sensation of being in front of the usual hybrid title which fails in both the simulative and arcade modes.
I really hope I'm wrong though.
I was actually talking about it with Leo the other day, and honestly, having GT1 on the Shift engine would be the best racing game ever made
Apart from the fact that there was a RIDICULOUS amount of cars, I loved the license system and the variety of races a lot. Shift goes a long way with the star objectives though, and I wish I hadn't skipped it when it came out (I only started playing it about 6-8 weeks ago on Leo's recommendation). I kind of assumed it would be as terrible as the 7 NFS's before it
Then again, I doubt they'd be able to obtain the licenses to all the car brands.
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Looks like I will stick to RBR for another decade
