In today's gaming world, every press conference, every trial demonstration, and even the announcement of every new generation of consoles are inseparable from an eternal theme – cars, guns and balls. In their respective fields, the game technology demonstrations of major developers have become a hot topic of discussion at major game shows every year, in addition to the overt and covert battles between Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Among the subdivisions of car, gun and ball, racing games may be the most eye-catching branch. Super cars and beauties can create a beautiful scenery at any time, not to mention the overcrowded electronic games in the hot summer. At a game show.

As the two main competitors in the gaming industry: Sony and Microsoft, both are trying their best to urge other developers to develop more car, gun and ball games for their home console platforms. In order to seize business opportunities, the two companies have tried their best: exclusivity of the "FIFA" legendary mode, provision of NBA legendary teams, bundled versions of the "Call of Duty" series, and various "Battlefield" premium membership benefits and remade maps , it can be said that there are various projects. Car games, on the other hand, have a different ethos compared to the other two types: compared to the former two, where one company dominates the market competition, racing games are more like the world. The well-known Namco "Ridge" series dominates the arcade racing category, while the "Colin Marae: Dirt" series dominates the off-road racing market share, while the "Super" series developed by it The "TOCA Pro Pace: Race GRID" series is also moving forward steadily, but the power to pursue the thrill and excitement of police and criminal pursuits is still firmly in the hands of "Need For Speed" developed by EA's studio. )》game series in hand.

There are also two leaders in the simulation racing game market, namely the "Gran" brand series from Sony's studio and the "Forza" series from Microsoft's Turn 10 studio. Just when most people would think that it would be extremely difficult to carve out a piece of the pie among these developers in such a saturated market, one studio is suddenly emerging from it and developing a A new frontier in the racing market and this studio is it.

Perhaps it is no stranger to players. This British studio founded in 1999 once became famous for its exclusive game "World Rally" series in the PS2 era. Later, in September 2007, it was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment and became a member of SCE Global Studios. With the release of Sony's next-generation game console PS3 in 2006, "Motor Storm" was also developed and became the first racing game on the PS3 launch platform. However, it seemed at the time that although "Motor Storm" may have received unanimous praise from most media after its release, because it is a racing game focusing on off-road collisions, it could not shake Yamauchi Kazunori's "GT" in terms of status. "Racing", but after all, the two types and styles are very different, so there is no competitive relationship between the two. With the Sony PS4 press conference held in February 2013, the industry generally believed that the press conference should release the PS4 version of "Gran Turismo 6", but it made a stunning debut with a new racing game "Drive Club ()".

Of course, Sony's purpose for doing this may be to hope that this new racing game can fill the gap in the market before the launch of GT racing. However, perhaps I was not fully prepared before the beginning and was a little lacking in confidence. When responding to the positioning of this racing game afterwards, it seemed a bit vague. This makes the industry generally believe that although the game is stunning, it lacks highlights. In addition, Microsoft also subsequently released its new generation of game console Xboe One, and took Turn 10's "Forza Motorsport 5" as the first game. Sony, which does not have GT racing as the leader, may be slightly behind in racing games. "Forza Motorsport 5" is more mature in terms of the realism of the graphics and the introduction of the latest generation of AI technology.

At this time, Sony suddenly announced that the release of "Drive Club" would be postponed to the spring of 2014, and SCE President Shuhei Yoshida also issued a message stating that "the production team needs more time to create this game and solve some technical problems." . However, in the following period, the development status of the game did not seem to be improved well, and the release date was delayed again and again. In an interview with IGN in March this year, Scott Rohde of the Software Development Department admitted that "Driving" Club" did not achieve the expected results and needed to be redone. Coupled with the large-scale layoffs of SCE's global studios and the resignation of the game director Col, things have become twists and turns.

Surprisingly, after going through many hardships, it has brought players a new look of "Driving Club". After a year of revision, "Driving Club" is no longer as stunning as it was back then, but it completely shocked us. I once wrote an article about "Driving Club" and said: This game has become so beautiful after going through a round of major rework. The impeccable car body and real dynamic weather system elevate the entire game to a truly next-generation realm. I believe that any player will be fascinated by the changeable weather environment of the Scottish canyons and the vastness of the Chilean Andes under the sunset. And the beautiful scenery shocked me.

According to an exclusive interview with the official blog in July this year, Alex, the game art director of this game, praised "All of this is due to the dynamic simulated weather system developed by our team for the game. We even included the circulation of the entire earth's atmosphere. The system has been simulated many times in an effort to create the most realistic weather system for the game. In the early stages, our production team collected a large number of ambient light effects, including the changes in color and contrast intensity caused by light. Such as street lights, Car lights and even off-site simulated camera flashes are simulated as an independent light source. After the light source collection was completed, we began to create 3D modeling of clouds. For this purpose, we borrowed the software from NASA (NASA) aerial photography data to depict the scenes and skies in the game to achieve the most accurate representation. This means that players will feel the changes in scenery and vehicles caused by the refraction and absorption of sunlight by different clouds in the game. Changes in body light and shadow reflection, and if you are lucky, you may also see the Northern Lights (limited to Norway, the Scottish Highlands, and Canadian circuits)."

Since everything is dynamic, during the game, the changes in weather conditions are also automatically generated by the dynamic weather system in the game. That is, just like the real world, the sky will change every day, which also gives players the opportunity to play. Players bring a certain level of driving difficulty. For example, when players compete in Loch Doegtor in the Scottish Highlands, you will truly feel Scotland's changeable climate conditions. The weather may suddenly change from sunny to cloudy, and drizzle may turn into a downpour or a storm as the raindrops fall. When competing in Norway, there will be rain and snow mixed together. As the altitude of the mountains decreases, the amount of rain and snow will also change accordingly, and the types of plants in the surrounding environment will also change. To this end, the team even consulted vegetation experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens to understand the growth conditions of vegetation in different regions.

Perhaps, many people think this is just some useless icing on the cake, but game design director Paul said, "These changes in weather conditions will affect any player's performance on the field. We allow players to customize weather changes. , to increase the difficulty of the game. The thinness of the clouds will affect the amount of rain, and the wind direction can also be customized. The wind speed will also affect the direction and speed of rain and snowflakes falling, and even dust in the air and The dust splashed during the game will also affect the player's vision depending on the wind direction. The slipperiness of the road after rain and the speed of water evaporation will affect any player's driving status. Slippery tires will cause The car body becomes very difficult to control, and the braking distance will also increase, but turning and drifting will make it easier to slip compared to dry roads. As night falls, the driver's vision will be affected by the reflection and refraction of the surrounding light on the car body. Especially in the case of heavy rain, the wiper's wiping speed will make the situation more complicated. This is due to the game's use of screen space reflection (Space, commonly known as SSR) and real-time dynamic light (Real Time Light) to accurately calculate Render light reflection and refraction movement phenomena, so everything will become unpredictable."

However, compared to the improvement in image quality and technology, the industry's praise for "Driving Club" is more because the team has created a racing game ecosystem that is more complete than any previous racing game, and the dynamic control panel in the game will It will be the core of the entire game's social interaction and competition with friends. Paul, who took over the position of game director Col, said, "The main reason why "Driving Club" will be delayed or even remade is because of the imperfect dynamic interface." The dynamic interface of the game will not only provide the latest event information, but also allow you to race online with friends who are online or invite friends to form a group to race. The reputation earned at the end of the game, as well as players' evaluations of you and challenge letters issued to you will be displayed on this dynamic interface.

Trying to earn the first place in the game will allow you to earn more reputation money. As your reputation increases, players will be able to challenge more difficulties and other related projects. Use this to unlock more new cars and driver clothing sets. Maybe some players are not experts in racing games at the beginning and think that the reputation system of this game will embarrass them. In order to avoid this situation, the reputation system has been adjusted. Even if the last person in the race crosses the line, they will receive a certain amount of reputation. The reputation system in the game will provide various rewards according to the different situations of each player. , in order to encourage players to improve their driving skills and strive for more fame. Paul later said, "We hope to create a racing game. Here you can share your event success, fame, and even your own racing photos. To this end, we have spent a long time on related technical research, including seamless online Access and real-time App software on IOS and systems, we want to make the entire process as smooth a transition as possible, without lag or loading."

"Drive Club" will land in the North American market on October 7. The industry generally believes that the game will become Sony's powerful opponent against Microsoft's famous racing brand "Forza Horizon 2". Many people even said that ""Drive Club", "Forza Horizon 2", "The Crew" and "Cars Project" will compete on the same stage in the past two years." But I think these four may not be in a competitive relationship. Although "Forza Horizon 2" cannot compete with "Drive Club" in terms of dynamic weather effects and racing details, the fields pursued by the two are different. They are not the same. One is an open world, and the other is a real simulation racing similar to an arcade. Some people even say that "Drive Club" cannot be compared with "Project Cars" in terms of the number of car polygons (the former has 250,000 polygons, and the latter The PC version is said to have 300,000 or more).

Photorealistic screenshots from Project CARS

Regarding these comparisons, each racing game has its own characteristics and shortcomings, but in the development of racing games in recent years, racing games are almost all developing in the same direction, that is, socialization and real-time dynamics. Changes in these two mechanisms may bring more immersion to players who love racing games than improvements in image quality, making the life cycle of the work longer. Think about the upcoming "Destiny" and think about the success of "Titanfall", and you will find that this change is not just happening in racing games, but in the entire gaming industry.