NEWS - Friday, September 14, 2007
Bizarre: Deserts, ATVs for PGR 5
PGR 4 has gone gold and is heading to the shops - bikes, weather effects and all - next month. But even though the latest entry has only just fallen onto the production line, lead designer Ged Talbert is already thinking about where he should take the series with the inevitable Project Gotham 5. "Obviously Gotham 4s about to come out and were really happy with it, but behind the scenes weve already started ripping our game to pieces," Talbert told CVG yesterday. "We know where we failed in certain areas; for instance we wanted more trackside damage, more particles and smoke effects, a bigger damage system - and all of these things are being stripped out in a post-mortem." "Next time its more on the detail. Thats what we think; we think the devils in the detail. Anyone can make a good looking game but the top games blow you away by being super-realistic, adding things that you didnt expect and surprising you." We got to travel down to Bizarre Creations sweet-smelling Liverpool offices yesterday to take the fourth instalment for a spin - and its looking and playing brilliantly. Beyond PGR 4, Bizarre seems to be considering worlds outside of its roster of cities, and might even take the Kudos racing into the desert... "I personally believe theres a lot we can do by taking our vehicles weve already got and putting them into different, more interesting environments," said Talbert. "It doesnt always mean outside of the city, it just means getting lets say more elevation - somewhere we can finally do big jumps." "Thats what were looking for in the next game; going to deserts - that kind of stuff. Seeing how they affect the gameplay, see if we can get Kudos working their as well." As for vehicles, the designers got plenty of ideas beyond the bikes and cars of PGR 4: "We could bring cruisers in, we could bring ATV-type bikes in. None of these are definite," he said, "but theres are whole world of things for us to do."Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com