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Warto poczytac:
Papyrus Racing Games and Sierra are about to once again release their newest title in their highly successful NASCAR® racing sim series. This time, however, the developers have taken a slightly different direction. Instead of releasing a large leap from the previous game, NASCAR® Racing 4, Papyrus has decided to release NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season, which has a number of smaller but significant improvements from the previous game, including graphics. HomeLAN got a chance to chat with Richard Yasi, the senior designer of the game, to find out more about NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season
HomeLAN - NASCAR® Racing 4 was almost universally called the best NASCAR® racing sim made. How do you feel about the response the game received?
Richard Yasi - It's been fantastic, and quite gratifying, really, because NASCAR® Racing 4 was such a tough product for us to make. So much of it was new; new physics, new AI, a new graphics engine, a new timing and scoring system - just to name a few things. A lot of hard work and long hours went into that product, and it's great to see that people are enjoying it and that it's selling well.
HomeLAN - Why was the decision made to go ahead and make a full stand alone game one year later, rather than an expansion pack for NASCAR® 4 as has been the case in previous years?
Richard Yasi - The simple answer is that we were in the advantageous position of having our core systems already in place. That wasn't the case when we were doing NASCAR® 4. The result is that after just one year, we have a polished, value-packed product with a bunch of new features.
Expansion packs are all the rage these days, but if you take a close look at the successful ones, you'll see that they do more than just add new environments or "levels" to the game. They add new character types, new gameplay modes, new items, and so on. That's what makes them compelling, and that's why they sell.
The NASCAR® world is very different. What would we give people? The most obvious (and compelling) answer would be more tracks, but over the years we've learned the hard way that the tracks from the Winston Cup series are the only ones that most people care about, and we give you the full set in the main product. I don't think anyone wants to go back to the days of the original IndyCar and NASCAR® Racing titles, when we left tracks out of the main product and essentially forced people to buy an expansion pack in order to be able to race the entire schedule.
HomeLAN - What were the main goals in creating NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season?
Richard Yasi - Our biggest goal was to make the game more accessible to novice users. Historically, the biggest complaint we've heard has been that our games are too hard to drive. In the past, our attitude has been along the lines of, "Yes, they ARE hard to drive, but so are real racecars, and our games are simulations of real racecars. Just read the manual and practice, and eventually you'll get it." Well, in this era of gnat-like attention spans, that doesn't fly. You've got to do all you can to eliminate the frustration factor early on, or else you're going to lose that customer. NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season includes a series of driving lessons that we think will be quite helpful to the novice users, and it's got some new driving aids that should improve the level of control for people who play the game with digital controllers like gamepads or the keyboard.
HomeLAN - What has been done to improve the graphics in the new game?
Richard Yasi - Quite a bit. We're using texture compression now, and we are now supporting anisotropic filtering. Our cars are much higher resolution than they were in Nascar 4, and we have a cool backfire effect that really adds to the realism level. Overall, I think people will be pleased by the changes.
HomeLAN - How much has been done to improve the sim aspects of the game for NASCAR® Racing 2002?
Richard Yasi - Physics-wise, the biggest change has been to the tire modeling. NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season's tire model is more accurate than NASCAR® 4's, and you can really feel the difference. The irony is that by modeling the tires more realistically, most of us feel that the car has actually become EASIER to drive. So this was one of those all-too-rare cases in which "More Realistic" didn't equate to "More Difficult."
The other big change in the realism department is in the area of sound. That's what people will notice the first time they fire up the game. The engine sound in particular is really incredible. When you're in a big pack of cars with the sound cranked up, it's a spectacular experience.
HomeLAN - How many drivers will be available to for players to drive as in the new game?
Richard Yasi - We're aiming to get around 40 licensed drivers into the product. We always go right down to the wire when it comes to licensing the drivers, because at this time of the year, last-minute team changes and sponsor changes are always happening.
HomeLAN - In addition to all the tracks in the upcoming 2002 season, you are also putting up a fantasy "super-super-speedway" track. Why did you want to include this track in the game and how does it contribute to the overall gameplay?
Richard Yasi - Well, back in the late 1980's, NASCAR® started using the restrictor plate at Daytona and Talladega (the two fastest tracks) in order to limit engine horsepower. Before the plates were put on the cars, drivers were lapping at over 210 MPH at both tracks. The plate slowed the cars down to about 190 MPH, and for the most part they've stayed there ever since. NASCAR ® has to tweak the plate rules constantly in order to keep the cars down to safe speeds.
Since the dawn of the restrictor plate, the cars have become incredibly aerodynamic. The boxy cars from the 1980's have been replaced by the super-sleek models we see out there today. So, the question that naturally comes up is, "How fast could these modern, aero-friendly cars go if they were at a big, wide, racetrack with plenty of banking and NO restrictor plate?" Well, Coca-Cola Superspeedway (the fantasy track in NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season) will give you the answer, and it's a lot faster than 210 MPH.
HomeLAN - What other elements are new and/or improved in NASCAR® Racing 2002?
Richard Yasi - Well, in addition to the driving lessons, the track tours, and the steering assistance aid, we've got another new driving aid that shows you the ideal racing line around the track. It's color coded to indicate where you should brake, where you should get back on the throttle, etc., so we think that will help people out a lot. We're also including a replay editor that will allow users to make their own highlight reels and add custom sound, artwork, and special effects to their replay files.
Last but not least, we've given people the ability to restart a session from within the game world, and the ability to navigate at will among the various sessions of what we call the "race weekend." For example, if you wreck on the first lap, you can restart the race simply by pressing ESC and selecting "Restart Race" rather than having to back out two screens and re-load the track in order to accomplish the same task. If you're in the middle of qualifying and you want to go back to the start of practice, you can do so with a single mouse click. This kind of flexibility really comes in handy, particularly in multiplayer races.
HomeLAN - Is everything still set for the full version of the game to be released in time for the Daytona 500 in Feburary?
Richard Yasi - Yes. We're still on schedule to finish up the game in mid-January. It will hit the store shelves in early February. Editor’s note: Since the interview was conducted the game has gone gold
HomeLAN - Will the NASCAR ® game series now follow the trend of a new edition a year, like other sports games do?
Richard Yasi - Maybe, maybe not... he said evasively... Sorry, but I'm not at liberty to discuss our future plans.
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2002-01-29, 01:31 Interview z Richardem Yazi (Senior Designer of N2002)
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