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Classic racing series 'GTR' will return in 2018
It's taken more than a decade, but GTR 2, the game rightly lauded as one of the best racing sims ever, is getting a sequel. The game's existence was announced via the Race Department forums (spotted by Eurogamer), and will launch next year for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While GTR 2 shot for accurate simulation, though, developer SimBin Studios UK is shooting for a broader audience with GTR 3. Chris Speed, the CEO of SimBin's parent company Sector3, said the game will be a "proper simulation" but "needs to appeal to both sides" to succeed on consoles. Speed pointed to recent F1 games as an example of a way to appeal to the "hardcore racer" and the "casual gamer."
Race Pro title update tackles a laundry list of issues
After revealing the patch last month, SimBin has finally updated its exclusive Xbox 360 simulation, Race Pro. Some of the tweaks include: ending a game crashing bug when 12 players joined or left a session; allowing players with DLC to start sessions with those who don't; and some other stuff that would make this a really long paragraph.More general changes include the enhancement of vehicle deformation and an attempt to offset online leaderboard shenanigans. Check out the long list of changes after the break.
GTR dev threatens legal action against Need For Speed: Shift team
There's some bad blood in the sim racing world. The recent announcement that Need For Speed: Shift was being worked on by Slightly Mad Studios, which, according to the release, "includes developers and designers that worked on ... GT Legends and GTR 2," may have seemed innocuous enough. But it's led to the threat of legal action from SimBin, the company credited with making those games.In an email we received recently, Magnus Ling, Executive Vice President at SimBin Studios AB said his company "is taking legal advice and considering to also take legal actions against Slightly Mad Studios, as a result of certain statements made by Slightly Mad Studios that we find to be incorrect, misleading and has a negative impact on our reputation as well as business negotiations."When asked about the statement, Slightly Mad Studios boss Ian Bell was quick to respond, calling the assertions "absurd" and saying "more than 25 of Slightly Mad Studios' current staff worked on and are actually credited in GT Legends and GTR2 including the majority of the core development team ... It saddens me when fellow developers make inappropriate statements like this in public but I think the fact that the first I heard of it was from you says everything you need to know about the credibility of the claims. Had there been any merit to them I am sure I would have heard sooner."Ling declined to comment further for the story until SimBin "finished reviewing the case together with [its] solicitors" and Need For Speed publisher EA has not yet commented. Regardless, this doesn't seem like it's over by a long shot. We'll let you know what we hear.
X3F TV: Introducing the 'Porto Circuit' from SimBin's RACE Pro
Today at X3F we're happy to help reveal a brand new circuit for SimBin's upcoming RACE Pro, exclusively to our readers. The Porto track in Portugal, known as Circuito da Boavista, is a street circuit with a history that reaches as far back as the late 1950's. Taking brave racers through tight alleys in between small homes and onto cobblestone streets, the Porto track was deemed too dangerous in 1960 and was closed. In 2005, the track was reopened and adjusted, adding to its length that now sits at 5.333km. Ladies and gentlemen, the final street circuit to be added to the World Touring Car Championship: the Porto track, Circuito da Boavista.
Hands-on: RACE Pro
To say that Sweden-based developer SimBin is kind of good at creating simulation racers would be akin to saying that Shigeru Miyamoto has marginally influenced the direction of video games. Racing, quite frankly, is SimBin's forte. With almost as many accolades as Mario Andretti has championship wins, SimBin has truly mastered the PC as their platform of choice on which to create realistic racing simulations.That's all well and good, but how will such a thorough level of authenticity transfer over to the Xbox 360, a device with fixed hardware and eight buttons of input? SimBin's answer comes in the form of RACE Pro, a simulation racer developed specifically for the Xbox 360, and one we took for a test drive at a recent Atari press event.
RACE Pro demo before year's end, release in Jan.
Atari and SimBin's rather generic looking racer RACE Pro has just been confirmed for release in January 2009 after initially being slated for release this Fall. With that announcement comes word that a RACE Pro demo (featuring both single and online multilplayer modes) will release to the Xbox Live Marketplace sometime before Christmas. Please, fanboys, try to contain your racing excitement.
