23 Apr 2007
By Kevin Williams
One of the three formats of game genre that is ever-green for amusement – the driving format – benefits from the creation of a realistic driving cockpit to experience the thrills of high-speed action within. No matter how much console developers manufacturer force-feed-back steering wheels to play consumer games, they are left in the cold compared to the latest fully stocked arcade driving cockpit.
The creation of high-octane arcade driving action has seen some impressive newcomers in recent months. American developer Raw Thrills, headed by industry supreme, Eugene Jarvis, has released its third sequel of the motion picture license with The Fast and the Furious: Drift; the encapsulates the fundamentals of what makes successful arcade racing. Raw Thrills has bottled the fast, frantic and fun requirements of drivers in this market.
The developer added physicality to this list with a super-bike variant on the theme The Fast And The Furious: Super Bikes players riding a stylized bike interface. All the games in this series have super-stylized graphics and intense race and crash action; offering a compelling multi-player race experience, but also increasing the longevity of the title by a unique player password system allowing customised vehicles to be stored and reloaded by players.
The need for intense street race action, in a familiar package saw another American developer take the popular Electronic Arts driving property and licensed it for amusement application. Global VR has released onto the market Need For Speed Underground – and a update of this based on the new Carbon consumer release is expected next year. In this case the player is able not only to compete in conventional multi-player races, but also undertake a career-mode saving their progression through the ranks and car customisations – using a player VIP Card (memory cards that retain player data).
[Read on at Spong] [Discuss on the Forum]
Thank to Kevin Williams @ The Stinger Report
