Next month Virgin Interactive in collaboration with Lotus will launch a new
video game featuring a comprehensive range of Lotus cars in a new and unique
driving game for the PlayStation 2 (and X-Box to follow).
Developed by simulation specialists Kuju, Lotus Challenge gives you the
chance to drive everything from the Lotus 7 through to the new Elise 2, with
Lotus Cortinas, Lotus Carltons, Esprits, and a range of others to choose from in
between. Lotus stylists have also designed two unique cars which feature in the
game.
The game includes a variety of driving scenarios from out and out racing to
stunt driving or pursuing other cars through city traffic. Each course is set
across a variety of landscapes and tracks, and will see players racing around
locations including London, Hethel (the Lotus test track), Tokyo Rainbow Bridge,
Minato-ku, the Tokyo Bay Tunnel, Arizona Speedway and Jupiter Beach Raceway in
Florida.
We had a preview of the game last week and can vouch for the quality of the
graphics and gameplay. The special effects are particularly outstanding, with
rain, storms, snow, fog, dirt and mud all gloriously represented, although our
particular favourite was the inclusion of GATSO cameras in the town scenes.
Advanced real-time particle systems handle the dirt, smoke and damage
effects. For instance, drive across grass, wheelspin in gravel or handbrake turn
in sand and you'll notice your tyres pick up grit, but work themselves clean
after racing for a time. Scrape your Lotus down the side of a tunnel at over 100
miles an hour and see scratches, and dents realistically form on the bodywork.
Unlike other racing games the effects of damage and road conditions are
calculated in real-time rather than just being the results of look-up tables.
This results in particularly entertaining behaviour if you're more of a banger
racer and get off on clipping the odd tree with the back of your car.
The systems that model the behaviour of the car are particularly realistic
and were developed in conjunction with Lotus chassis engineers who were able to
feed in the actual measurements from the road cars into the computer model
before final tweaking to ensure realistic behaviour on screen. Things have come
a long way since the ZX81...
Lotus Challenge will be released for Sony's PlayStation 2, in September
published by Virgin Interactive. An Xbox version will be released in 2002.
