almost forgot:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
almost forgot:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
[20/12/04 10:54]
Most driving game sequels don't take six years. But then most driving game
sequels aren't the latest Sega Rally, says Edge
After a strangely long absence, Sega Rally Championship is preparing to
re-enter the race - and not in the arcade but on PlayStation2. We talked to
producer Jun Taniguchi and director Kenji Sasaki about their new direction
for a treasured franchise.
Sega Rally has traditionally led as an arcade title. What made you decide to
develop this version on PS2?
JT: The requests from gamers were quite important. Of course we had many
requests for an arcade version as well and, yes, we like to challenge
ourselves on powerful platforms. Arcade, PC or Xbox could have suited us in
that matter, but PS2 is the biggest market of all. It is the tenth
anniversary of the series. Until now, we had enjoyed sharing our passion of
automobiles with a broad public: first in the arcade when that market was at
its peak, then on Saturn with 1.2 million copies worldwide and later on
Dreamcast with around a million copies worldwide. As you know, though,
[coin-op] sales are down. With this anniversary in mind we wanted to make a
game so fans and newcomers alike could enjoy our game. The best way to reach
so many people was PS2.
KS: The base of the series is our love for automobiles: the fun in driving a
car is the core element of the game. Of course, the gap in terms of
technology between arcade and the console is quite important, but the main
difference is you can't enjoy an arcade game as you would enjoy a consumer
game. You have to deliver all the fun in three minutes for the arcade while,
on console, you expect to be able to play the game for as long as you want,
whenever you want. So if our main motivation is the same, we have to
redesign the game rules and play time to fit with this new market.
"Games are getting too difficult to enjoy. Most racing
games claim they are realistic, but I think realism has several faces and
one is the way you enjoy the game"
How has that affected the play modes on offer?
KS: Two of them are very similar to what you had in the arcade. The Quick
Race mode is what we used to call the Championship mode. Then you have Time
Attack. The third mode is really specific to the consumer market, the Career
Mode. It follows an automobile enthusiast who decides to drive
competitively, first locally and later aiming at higher classes until
finally entering the Sega Rally Championship. He then has a year of
competition to reach the top of that championship.
I know this style of play is quite common nowadays, but usually you need to
clear a race in order to access the next one. And eventually you come to a
race that's too difficult, and you can't progress beyond that stage, which
is where most players give up. We want to avoid these problems with our
vision of the career mode in Sega Rally 2005. All our events and training
session are scheduled on a calendar, and you are free to attend or ignore
them as you wish - although some may have conditions for attendance, such as
achieving great results in a previous race or holding a certain licence.
But presumably there'll still be a need to clear a series of events to
access the final championship.
KS: Well, the game will give the player the freedom to do what he wants. If
he wants to become the overall champion, he will aim at the Sega Rally
Championship and play hard. Others might only enjoy one kind of race, like
the Toge, illegal mountain races. You may prefer to be just a local
champion. The Career mode is divided into classes like you would find in
WRC, but we did not put a limitation on the car choice as you would find in
other games. Of course, you will definitely need to gain access to a higher
class in order to buy a more powerful car, but you can get a powerful car
from the beginning if you can afford it, just like in reality. For example,
you could buy an Impreza or a Lancer Evo as your first car. You can go to
your car dealer, buy them and then attend a local rally competition. In the
game you can do the same.
How many cars will be featured?
KS: There are not that many, around 20. One problem was that there are not
many cars in the WRC championship.
JT: But you know, in Europe, you have lower classes like the Junior WRC and
the Super 1600. In these classes you find competitive cars like the Astra,
the Golf, etc, but rally fans are focused on the higher classes with cars
like the Impreza and the 307. So packing the game with hundreds of cars is
not always the solution, and I'm not convinced that players play all these
cars. Plus, hundreds of cars mean you need to prepare the equal number of
physics - so we preferred to focus on a smaller number of cars but making
them individually really enjoyable.
What about the cars at the heart of the series - the Toyota Celica, the
Lancia Delta and the Stratos?
KS: They appeared in the demo, but we're not yet completely sure if we will
use them in the final game. I can say you shouldn't expect old but legendary
cars like the 205 or the Alpine, though. This 2005 version is a way for us
to reset the series and make a fresh start on console.
Will there be any focus on tuning your cars, or are you concentrating on the
racing aspect?
KS: Since I want to bring game back to racing, I would prefer to avoid
having players spend too much time on this. So this option is purposefully
not that deep in the game.
You've announced the game will feature a random course generator - is this
as an aside from the prebuilt courses for the main game modes?
KS: Yes, we developed the random course program as an idea to help make
players enjoy our game. But our problem at the moment is to determine
whether the courses it creates are fun. There are also plenty of courses. We
are planning something like 400 tracks of various types for the Career
mode - although that does not mean you will find 400 different landscapes.
We will also have various weather conditions prepared, and we are still
working on effects in order to study what we can do in addition to the
'classic' conditions.
How about the other racers? Are you working on giving them personality
through AI?
JT: Career mode will feature AI rivals who will have their own names and
their own specialities. So according to your driving style you may always
find yourself confronting a given rival. And they each have a kind of
'psychological profile', a way that they drive. Previously, you only had
types of car as rivals, but now you have Mr X on Evo, or Mr Y on another
Evo, Mr Z on Impreza, etc...
KS: You will find one AI known for high speed, another for aggression, and
so on.
JT: This Career mode is a start for us and I see in the future something
much more developed, deeper - maybe some kind of a simulation or team
management mode.
Simulation-style rally games have proven popular in the console market - are
you making any concession to that within this version in the series, or
keeping to Sega Rally's arcade heritage?
KS: We want to deliver a gaming experience and, in that regard, it will be
arcade. So, yes, it would be closer to a game like RalliSport Challenge on
Xbox. I know they did that game because they loved our Sega Rally, which I
find really cool. And we enjoy playing RalliSport in our office sometimes!
Overall, I think games are getting too difficult to enjoy and very
inaccessible for many. I still believe that we can enjoy games purely for
fun. Most of the racing games on consoles claim they are realistic, but I
think realism has several faces and one of them is the way you enjoy the
game.
That sounds similar to the approach you've always taken with the series.
KS: When we did the first Sega Rally, we had many competitors on the market:
Daytona, Ridge Racer, etc. When we decided to make Sega Rally, we agreed to
change the way players should enjoy a racing game. We first wanted the
player to feel as if he was actually driving a real car. In other racing
games, you would have a high sense of speed. In Sega Rally, we decreased
this speed and focused everything on controls. We amplified the controls to
make them very easy to understand. So our cars in Sega Rally were drifting
in a way a real WRC car would not. At that time, we did not spend any time
in testing real WRC cars, but the result was that users were delighted and
found our game very 'realistic'.
With Sega Rally 2, it was a time when simulators were numerous, like Gran
Turismo. So this time, we went testing rally cars with real drivers. We
realised how much our game was different from the reality. Then I felt the
need to give the opportunity to the players to experience a rally race
through the driver's eyes. That became the base for Sega Rally 2. We
analysed the cars' specifications to reproduce some of the physics, but our
main concern was to recreate the way the driver would see a landscape or the
road and the way the controls would work.
You talked about making a fresh start - do you think the arcade series is
over?
KS: Hmm... What I can say is you may expect something different from us in
the arcade. I mean, seven years have passed since the last Sega Rally in the
arcade.
When did you start working on Sega Rally 2005?
KS: My feelings about Sega Rally did not disappear during the seven years
that I was not working on it. We really started on this version last year,
in April or June. But the beginning of the development was quite slow, with
few staff working on it. Of course the libraries and our track-building
program were in progress for quite some time so it helped speed things up.
Currently, there are around 15 of us working on the game. I know you will
find much bigger teams working on a single title these days and, yes, I
would like to do the same - but right now, I think we are doing OK.
How have you found working with Sony's hardware, given how little experience
you've had with it?
KS: I think we're starting to see something quite
...
read more »
What? that your a pointless crossposting ass feltcher.
Dave
> [20/12/04 10:54]
> Most driving game sequels don't take six years. But then most driving game
> sequels aren't the latest Sega Rally, says Edge
> After a strangely long absence, Sega Rally Championship is preparing to
> re-enter the race - and not in the arcade but on PlayStation2. We talked
to
> producer Jun Taniguchi and director Kenji Sasaki about their new direction
> for a treasured franchise.
> Sega Rally has traditionally led as an arcade title. What made you decide
to
> develop this version on PS2?
> JT: The requests from gamers were quite important. Of course we had many
> requests for an arcade version as well and, yes, we like to challenge
> ourselves on powerful platforms. Arcade, PC or Xbox could have suited us
in
> that matter, but PS2 is the biggest market of all. It is the tenth
> anniversary of the series. Until now, we had enjoyed sharing our passion
of
> automobiles with a broad public: first in the arcade when that market was
at
> its peak, then on Saturn with 1.2 million copies worldwide and later on
> Dreamcast with around a million copies worldwide. As you know, though,
> [coin-op] sales are down. With this anniversary in mind we wanted to make
a
> game so fans and newcomers alike could enjoy our game. The best way to
reach
> so many people was PS2.
> KS: The base of the series is our love for automobiles: the fun in driving
a
> car is the core element of the game. Of course, the gap in terms of
> technology between arcade and the console is quite important, but the main
> difference is you can't enjoy an arcade game as you would enjoy a consumer
> game. You have to deliver all the fun in three minutes for the arcade
while,
> on console, you expect to be able to play the game for as long as you
want,
> whenever you want. So if our main motivation is the same, we have to
> redesign the game rules and play time to fit with this new market.
> "Games are getting too difficult to enjoy. Most racing
> games claim they are realistic, but I think realism has several faces and
> one is the way you enjoy the game"
> How has that affected the play modes on offer?
> KS: Two of them are very similar to what you had in the arcade. The Quick
> Race mode is what we used to call the Championship mode. Then you have
Time
> Attack. The third mode is really specific to the consumer market, the
Career
> Mode. It follows an automobile enthusiast who decides to drive
> competitively, first locally and later aiming at higher classes until
> finally entering the Sega Rally Championship. He then has a year of
> competition to reach the top of that championship.
> I know this style of play is quite common nowadays, but usually you need
to
> clear a race in order to access the next one. And eventually you come to a
> race that's too difficult, and you can't progress beyond that stage, which
> is where most players give up. We want to avoid these problems with our
> vision of the career mode in Sega Rally 2005. All our events and training
> session are scheduled on a calendar, and you are free to attend or ignore
> them as you wish - although some may have conditions for attendance, such
as
> achieving great results in a previous race or holding a certain licence.
> But presumably there'll still be a need to clear a series of events to
> access the final championship.
> KS: Well, the game will give the player the freedom to do what he wants.
If
> he wants to become the overall champion, he will aim at the Sega Rally
> Championship and play hard. Others might only enjoy one kind of race, like
> the Toge, illegal mountain races. You may prefer to be just a local
> champion. The Career mode is divided into classes like you would find in
> WRC, but we did not put a limitation on the car choice as you would find
in
> other games. Of course, you will definitely need to gain access to a
higher
> class in order to buy a more powerful car, but you can get a powerful car
> from the beginning if you can afford it, just like in reality. For
example,
> you could buy an Impreza or a Lancer Evo as your first car. You can go to
> your car dealer, buy them and then attend a local rally competition. In
the
> game you can do the same.
> How many cars will be featured?
> KS: There are not that many, around 20. One problem was that there are not
> many cars in the WRC championship.
> JT: But you know, in Europe, you have lower classes like the Junior WRC
and
> the Super 1600. In these classes you find competitive cars like the Astra,
> the Golf, etc, but rally fans are focused on the higher classes with cars
> like the Impreza and the 307. So packing the game with hundreds of cars is
> not always the solution, and I'm not convinced that players play all these
> cars. Plus, hundreds of cars mean you need to prepare the equal number of
> physics - so we preferred to focus on a smaller number of cars but making
> them individually really enjoyable.
> What about the cars at the heart of the series - the Toyota Celica, the
> Lancia Delta and the Stratos?
> KS: They appeared in the demo, but we're not yet completely sure if we
will
> use them in the final game. I can say you shouldn't expect old but
legendary
> cars like the 205 or the Alpine, though. This 2005 version is a way for us
> to reset the series and make a fresh start on console.
> Will there be any focus on tuning your cars, or are you concentrating on
the
> racing aspect?
> KS: Since I want to bring game back to racing, I would prefer to avoid
> having players spend too much time on this. So this option is purposefully
> not that deep in the game.
> You've announced the game will feature a random course generator - is this
> as an aside from the prebuilt courses for the main game modes?
> KS: Yes, we developed the random course program as an idea to help make
> players enjoy our game. But our problem at the moment is to determine
> whether the courses it creates are fun. There are also plenty of courses.
We
> are planning something like 400 tracks of various types for the Career
> mode - although that does not mean you will find 400 different landscapes.
> We will also have various weather conditions prepared, and we are still
> working on effects in order to study what we can do in addition to the
> 'classic' conditions.
> How about the other racers? Are you working on giving them personality
> through AI?
> JT: Career mode will feature AI rivals who will have their own names and
> their own specialities. So according to your driving style you may always
> find yourself confronting a given rival. And they each have a kind of
> 'psychological profile', a way that they drive. Previously, you only had
> types of car as rivals, but now you have Mr X on Evo, or Mr Y on another
> Evo, Mr Z on Impreza, etc...
> KS: You will find one AI known for high speed, another for aggression, and
> so on.
> JT: This Career mode is a start for us and I see in the future something
> much more developed, deeper - maybe some kind of a simulation or team
> management mode.
> Simulation-style rally games have proven popular in the console market -
are
> you making any concession to that within this version in the series, or
> keeping to Sega Rally's arcade heritage?
> KS: We want to deliver a gaming experience and, in that regard, it will be
> arcade. So, yes, it would be closer to a game like RalliSport Challenge on
> Xbox. I know they did that game because they loved our Sega Rally, which I
> find really cool. And we enjoy playing RalliSport in our office sometimes!
> Overall, I think games are getting too difficult to enjoy and very
> inaccessible for many. I still believe that we can enjoy games purely for
> fun. Most of the racing games on consoles claim they are realistic, but I
> think realism has several faces and one of them is the way you enjoy the
> game.
> That sounds similar to the approach you've always taken with the series.
> KS: When we did the first Sega Rally, we had many competitors on the
market:
> Daytona, Ridge Racer, etc. When we decided to make Sega Rally, we agreed
to
> change the way players should enjoy a racing game. We first wanted the
> player to feel as if he was actually driving a real car. In other racing
> games, you would have a high sense of speed. In Sega Rally, we decreased
> this speed and focused everything on controls. We amplified the controls
to
> make them very easy to understand. So our cars in Sega Rally were drifting
> in a way a real WRC car would not. At that time, we did not spend any time
> in testing real WRC cars, but the result was that users were delighted and
> found our game very 'realistic'.
> With Sega Rally 2, it was a time when simulators were numerous, like Gran
> Turismo. So this time, we went testing rally cars with real drivers. We
> realised how much our game was different from the reality. Then I felt the
> need to give the opportunity to the players to experience a rally race
> through the driver's eyes. That became the base for Sega Rally 2. We
> analysed the cars' specifications to reproduce some of the physics, but
our
> main concern was to recreate the way the driver would see a landscape or
the
> road and the way the controls would work.
> You talked about making a fresh start - do you think the arcade series is
> over?
> KS: Hmm... What I can say is you may expect something different from us in
> the arcade. I mean, seven years have passed since the last Sega Rally in
the
> arcade.
> When did you start working on Sega Rally 2005?
> KS: My feelings about Sega Rally did not disappear during the seven years
> that I was not working on it. We really started on this version last year,
> in April or June. But the beginning of the development was quite slow,
with
> few
read more »
> > almost forgot:
> What? that your a pointless crossposting ass feltcher.
>> > almost forgot:
>> What? that your a pointless crossposting ass feltcher.
> gfys
--
Andi.
Remove only one zero to reply
> Dave
> "Xenon" <xenonxb...@xboxnext.com> wrote in message
> news:9OudnUP2gtOtO1bcRVn-sQ@comcast.com...
> > [20/12/04 10:54]
> > Most driving game sequels don't take six years. But then most driving
game
> > sequels aren't the latest Sega Rally, says Edge
> > After a strangely long absence, Sega Rally Championship is preparing to
> > re-enter the race - and not in the arcade but on PlayStation2. We talked
> to
> > producer Jun Taniguchi and director Kenji Sasaki about their new
direction
> > for a treasured franchise.
> > Sega Rally has traditionally led as an arcade title. What made you
decide
> to
> > develop this version on PS2?
> > JT: The requests from gamers were quite important. Of course we had many
> > requests for an arcade version as well and, yes, we like to challenge
> > ourselves on powerful platforms. Arcade, PC or Xbox could have suited us
> in
> > that matter, but PS2 is the biggest market of all. It is the tenth
> > anniversary of the series. Until now, we had enjoyed sharing our passion
> of
> > automobiles with a broad public: first in the arcade when that market
was
> at
> > its peak, then on Saturn with 1.2 million copies worldwide and later on
> > Dreamcast with around a million copies worldwide. As you know, though,
> > [coin-op] sales are down. With this anniversary in mind we wanted to
make
> a
> > game so fans and newcomers alike could enjoy our game. The best way to
> reach
> > so many people was PS2.
> > KS: The base of the series is our love for automobiles: the fun in
driving
> a
> > car is the core element of the game. Of course, the gap in terms of
> > technology between arcade and the console is quite important, but the
main
> > difference is you can't enjoy an arcade game as you would enjoy a
consumer
> > game. You have to deliver all the fun in three minutes for the arcade
> while,
> > on console, you expect to be able to play the game for as long as you
> want,
> > whenever you want. So if our main motivation is the same, we have to
> > redesign the game rules and play time to fit with this new market.
> > "Games are getting too difficult to enjoy. Most racing
> > games claim they are realistic, but I think realism has several faces
and
> > one is the way you enjoy the game"
> > How has that affected the play modes on offer?
> > KS: Two of them are very similar to what you had in the arcade. The
Quick
> > Race mode is what we used to call the Championship mode. Then you have
> Time
> > Attack. The third mode is really specific to the consumer market, the
> Career
> > Mode. It follows an automobile enthusiast who decides to drive
> > competitively, first locally and later aiming at higher classes until
> > finally entering the Sega Rally Championship. He then has a year of
> > competition to reach the top of that championship.
> > I know this style of play is quite common nowadays, but usually you need
> to
> > clear a race in order to access the next one. And eventually you come to
a
> > race that's too difficult, and you can't progress beyond that stage,
which
> > is where most players give up. We want to avoid these problems with our
> > vision of the career mode in Sega Rally 2005. All our events and
training
> > session are scheduled on a calendar, and you are free to attend or
ignore
> > them as you wish - although some may have conditions for attendance,
such
> as
> > achieving great results in a previous race or holding a certain licence.
> > But presumably there'll still be a need to clear a series of events to
> > access the final championship.
> > KS: Well, the game will give the player the freedom to do what he wants.
> If
> > he wants to become the overall champion, he will aim at the Sega Rally
> > Championship and play hard. Others might only enjoy one kind of race,
like
> > the Toge, illegal mountain races. You may prefer to be just a local
> > champion. The Career mode is divided into classes like you would find in
> > WRC, but we did not put a limitation on the car choice as you would find
> in
> > other games. Of course, you will definitely need to gain access to a
> higher
> > class in order to buy a more powerful car, but you can get a powerful
car
> > from the beginning if you can afford it, just like in reality. For
> example,
> > you could buy an Impreza or a Lancer Evo as your first car. You can go
to
> > your car dealer, buy them and then attend a local rally competition. In
> the
> > game you can do the same.
> > How many cars will be featured?
> > KS: There are not that many, around 20. One problem was that there are
not
> > many cars in the WRC championship.
> > JT: But you know, in Europe, you have lower classes like the Junior WRC
> and
> > the Super 1600. In these classes you find competitive cars like the
Astra,
> > the Golf, etc, but rally fans are focused on the higher classes with
cars
> > like the Impreza and the 307. So packing the game with hundreds of cars
is
> > not always the solution, and I'm not convinced that players play all
these
> > cars. Plus, hundreds of cars mean you need to prepare the equal number
of
> > physics - so we preferred to focus on a smaller number of cars but
making
> > them individually really enjoyable.
> > What about the cars at the heart of the series - the Toyota Celica, the
> > Lancia Delta and the Stratos?
> > KS: They appeared in the demo, but we're not yet completely sure if we
> will
> > use them in the final game. I can say you shouldn't expect old but
> legendary
> > cars like the 205 or the Alpine, though. This 2005 version is a way for
us
> > to reset the series and make a fresh start on console.
> > Will there be any focus on tuning your cars, or are you concentrating on
> the
> > racing aspect?
> > KS: Since I want to bring game back to racing, I would prefer to avoid
> > having players spend too much time on this. So this option is
purposefully
> > not that deep in the game.
> > You've announced the game will feature a random course generator - is
this
> > as an aside from the prebuilt courses for the main game modes?
> > KS: Yes, we developed the random course program as an idea to help make
> > players enjoy our game. But our problem at the moment is to determine
> > whether the courses it creates are fun. There are also plenty of
courses.
> We
> > are planning something like 400 tracks of various types for the Career
> > mode - although that does not mean you will find 400 different
landscapes.
> > We will also have various weather conditions prepared, and we are still
> > working on effects in order to study what we can do in addition to the
> > 'classic' conditions.
> > How about the other racers? Are you working on giving them personality
> > through AI?
> > JT: Career mode will feature AI rivals who will have their own names and
> > their own specialities. So according to your driving style you may
always
> > find yourself confronting a given rival. And they each have a kind of
> > 'psychological profile', a way that they drive. Previously, you only had
> > types of car as rivals, but now you have Mr X on Evo, or Mr Y on another
> > Evo, Mr Z on Impreza, etc...
> > KS: You will find one AI known for high speed, another for aggression,
and
> > so on.
> > JT: This Career mode is a start for us and I see in the future something
> > much more developed, deeper - maybe some kind of a simulation or team
> > management mode.
> > Simulation-style rally games have proven popular in the console market -
> are
> > you making any concession to that within this version in the series, or
> > keeping to Sega Rally's arcade heritage?
> > KS: We want to deliver a gaming experience and, in that regard, it will
be
> > arcade. So, yes, it would be closer to a game like RalliSport Challenge
on
> > Xbox. I know they did that game because they loved our Sega Rally, which
I
> > find really cool. And we enjoy playing RalliSport in our office
sometimes!
> > Overall, I think games are getting too difficult to enjoy and very
> > inaccessible for many. I still believe that we can enjoy games purely
for
> > fun. Most of the racing games on consoles claim they are realistic, but
I
> > think realism has several faces and one of them is the way you enjoy the
> > game.
> > That sounds similar to the approach you've always taken with the
series.
> > KS: When we did the first Sega Rally, we had many competitors on the
> market:
> > Daytona, Ridge Racer, etc. When we decided to make Sega Rally, we agreed
> to
> > change the way players should enjoy a racing game. We first wanted the
> > player to feel as if he was actually driving a real car. In other racing
> > games, you would have a high sense of speed. In Sega Rally, we decreased
> > this speed and focused everything on controls. We amplified the controls
> to
> > make them very easy to understand. So our cars in Sega Rally were
drifting
> > in a way a real WRC car would not. At that time, we did not spend any
time
> > in testing real WRC cars, but the result was that users were delighted
and
> > found our game very 'realistic'.
> > With Sega Rally 2, it was a time when simulators were numerous, like
Gran
> > Turismo. So this time, we went testing rally cars with real drivers. We
> > realised how much our game was different from the reality. Then I felt
the
> > need to give the opportunity to the players to experience a rally race
> > through the driver's eyes. That became the base for Sega Rally 2. We
> > analysed the cars' specifications to reproduce some of the physics, but
> our
> > main concern was to recreate the way the driver would see a landscape or
> the
> > road and the way the
read more »