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Metropolis Street Racer Preview
Noel Brady
00/12/0000
Possibly one of the MOST eagerly awaited titles to be released for Sega's 128-Bit, Herculean console.
Possibly one of the MOST eagerly awaited titles to be released for Sega's 128-Bit, Herculean console, Metropolis Street Racer or MSR as its become regarded as, will be the Shenmue of the racing genre. After months of tidbit teasings being released by the developers, Bizarre Creations; they finally unveiled their masterpiece to the gaming community. This demo shown at the recent ECTS show was great!
Originally touted as a European launch title for the Dreamcast on October 14th, the release date has been since wrenched back to the Early April 2000 due to Bizarre's in depth precision which has involved honing nigh-maximum efficiency from the DC. This was clearly evident from the playable demo's displayed at ECTS, which might i add proved ample testament to both MSR's potential and the Dreamcast's capabilities. And with the game at approximately 70% completion; we can assuredly expect something even MORE spectacular! ( even though that's truly difficult to fathom!)
Getting down to the actual in-game prospects; there are 9 courses on offer divided equally among 3 famous districts. These are 1) Shibuya, Tokyo
2) Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco
3) Trafalgar Square/ Buckingham Palace (which I'm sure is a most joyous and recognisable addition to our overseas UK neighbours!!!)
There are 2 game modes playable in MSR which cater for the needs of the casual gamer and also for the more hardcore racing fanatics among us (you know who you are!): classic Arcade Mode and Gang Battle. While I don't really need to explain what Arcade Mode is, because it features the usual Championship & Time Attack modes, VS., and also Single Race; Gang Battle is slightly different as its more of a "Story" mode which utilises your car knowledge ability and you can tweak your vehicles' statistics much indicative of Gran Turismo's highly organised, similar system. And in this sense isfor the more devoted gamer. As i stated, Gang battle is indicative of a storyline mode where you pit your hi-speed, bestial driving skillls against the roughest, toughest, control freak SOB's each locale has to offer.
Another awesome addition is that the Time Attack mode will feature a Free-Run option which enables the player to "freely" roam the city chosen without event, a la Driver, to take in the gorgeous surroundings and to grow accustomed to the various nooks,crannys and shortcuts of each location.
Concerning a Multi-Player mode; Bizarre have chosen to add a 2 player-split-screen mode and had plans to introduce a 4-player edition but those plans were post-poned indefinitely due to the fact that they were unsure it would be worth their while and seemingly now are concentrating on an Internet option which would make MSR one of the first European DC titles to support this feature and would also make it more appealing than ever to the mass market.
Now i know exactly what the majority of you are thinking, "Oh no! Not ANOTHER disappointing Dreamcast racing game....." but believe me when I say MSR will be THE DC racing title for owner's of the console. Sega have been overly ambitious in this genre even this at this early stage in its life but presently it seems Bizarre have capitalised. Gathering a virtual library of reference material of well over 30,000 photo's and 30 hours of video footage for MSR, it looks promising that each 2 square miles of each texture-modelled city will be an authentically insurmountable achievement. Bizarre have literally pulled out all the stops to bring you the most detailed and smooth visuals ever to grace your TV screen.
Realism has been the crowning achievement most evident at first glance and its audio and graphical sophistication are superior to any title in its respective genre. Visually, advantages stem from the solid 30 fps at which MSR runs, with no evidence of slowdown, pop-up, or fogging. Utilised, the awe-inspiring combination of 2,000,000 polygons coupled with the Dreamcast's 8MB of internal RAM, creates an impressive array of environmental lighting, highlighting to the lusciously textured scenery which provides an admirable backdrop to your high velocity rampaging escapades throughout each course.
Bizarre's team of designers, previously only had the displeasure to work with a menial 1MB of RAM on the Sony PlayStation but now along with the DC's 8MB of RAM to utilise, their work has been made that much easier. "Dreamcast's 8MB of RAM coupled with its extremely effective compression techniques is wonderful. Photo-realism has become possible!" stated a Bizarre official.
Keeping in mind, MSR's graphical capabilities up next are the various vehicles on offer (which as an additional point of information are constructed of over 1,600 polygons each). After obtaining an absolute plethora of intricate schematics and blue-prints from the 15+ manufacturer's assigned; work got under way to produce some superb sports convertibles. The list of manufacturers available at this time include: Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Honda, Ford, Jensen, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Toyota, Rover, TVR, and Renault (phew!) and there will be also additional hidden cars and manufacturers to uncover.
Manufacturing data obtained for each vehicle contains:
-Precise 0-60 mph acceleration rates for each corresponding automobile
-The type and make of tyres associated specifically with each manufacturing company are displayed on each vehicle
-The size and proximity of each tyre's contact patches to the road surface
-And MSR's divine physic's engine allows for such visual splendour as watching the brake discs on the car turn scalding red-hot due to the various pressures, friction and heat conditions which may arise and will ONLY do so when and if the advanced physics engine complies that they are hot enough to do so.
Each car was also realistically designed with its proper suspension balance and due to the DC's audio compression techniques; will also sport their respective real-life counterpart's "specific individual accelerator rev's". Each car was also tesed on a uni-directional test-track strip to generate and then record the sound effects created from revving the car from 1000 rpm through to 7000 rpm, to create ultra-realistic on-road engine sounds . Overall this includes an impressive 14 individual samples pertaining to engine sound, and regarding the full range of engine revs.
It would be safe to say that Metropolis is far more than your average racer and when closely analyse its many aspects you'll begin to realise that it's its minor aspects which seem to bring it full-circle, and make it whole; for example the satisfying revolutionary reflective effects off the bonnets and hub, immensely detailed graphics allowing even the most minute of details to be seen such as the brake discs, and the callipers being applied, or other such features such as tail-light blur, and the usual atmospheric night-time conditions.
Working on the music aspect of things is Sega's own in-house musician Richard Jacques (famous for such in-game tunes for Daytona CCE, Shinobi X, Sonic 3D and Sonic R) is programming and composing MSR's. It will comprise of a wide variation of music to suit everyone's taste's spanning from, Garage, Jazz Funk, Prog Rock, R'n'B, Drum' N' Bass. This concentrated mixture of music scores is emphasising Bizarre's attempt to appeal to the ever-increasing mass market of games consumers. Each category of music mentioned has been promised by the folks at Bizarre to fit each location perfectly and create that true racing experience and to keep your adrenalin pumping throughout gameplay.
Bizarre Creations have also deftly and proverbially "squeezed the life" out of the Dreamcast's total 2MB of sound memory. Such is an atmospheric in-game ambience established by introducing in glorious stereo sound; passing buses and speeding locomotives recreate a wonderful Doppler Effect which is quite a remarkable achievement to say the least.
Other features which you will find attractively stunning are the "human mannerisms" portrayed by both the car, driver and in some cases, passengers of each vehicle. The DC's state-of-the-art technology allow responses to high-impact collisions and the usually jolting of in-car occupants, as the player unsuccessfully attempts at pulling of hi-speed handbrakers. Another feature allows you to design-your-own-serial plate. After selecting your own personalised license plate, these plates will be automatically accustomed to suit the style and design traits of the specific country you plan on "burning rubber" in.
MSR will make proficient use of the Dreamcast's technology and will be far more than your usual circuit racer, that much is certain but in terms of being "far more than your average racer", well that applies to MSR's freedom of movement (which is unlike any other game of its genre) through nigh-realistic cityscapes and the usual Racing features will be included in MSR, such as, the "time Checks" for each consecutive lap, etc. You get the gist anyway!!!
Many of you may recognise Bizarre for developing the ever-popular smash-hit F1 game and the resulting F1 '97 sequel and you may be forgiven for thinking, "why didn't Bizarre just create an obvious 100% sure-fire hit by producing yet another F1 title, for Dreamcast?" and well there reply was simple, "...to be truthful, after 2 F1 games, the thought of doing another was becoming less and less appealing....and technically, we felt that we would not have a huge amount more scope!" While that comment was directed towards their latter stint on the PS it seems unlikely that we will see a DC F1 title.
Finally, with its new, in-depth perspective, and focus on detail, MSR has surpassed all previous expectations and by including such detailed game aspects as the actual suspension specs of each car, right down to the actual braking mechanisms; it has become vividly apparent that in Metropolis Street Racer's case it lives up to the moniker: Authenticity is a Virtue!
And let me swear that if MSR lives up to all the hype, of which it has so far to date, then this will be one of the most versatile and dynamically virtuous titles to debut on a console!
Anonymous
Date Added:Fri 9th Nov 2007 17:33