Q&A: Formula One PS3 director spills more details
IGN (UK) recently trudged up the English countryside to Sony Liverpool’s offices (okay, they took the train) to meet up with Formula One Championship Edition director Graeme Ankers about his baby. And since it’s been a long time since TGS 2006, it’s actually nice to get some substantial data about the game.
And the game’s a lot about the substantial data. As with Polyphony Digital‘s manic obsession with Gran Turismo for the PS3 (whenever that’s coming out), Sony Liverpool paid attention to every detail of F1 racing. And that’s where the exclusive license comes in: Ankers reveals they had access to every car and track blueprint, the specs of the engines, BHP, torque levels, the works – and it’s all fed into the game.
And because they’ve got a ton of gameplay and graphics and audio and AI and other data to work with, they’ve actually replaced the high-end PC workstations they’ve been working on with a rack of PS3s. Because “in terms of raw processing power it absolutely rips apart a high-end PC”. It took hard work, and some re-engineering of their systems, but Ankers is proud of what his team has achieved. That anecdote should warm the heart of a Sony fanboy (and piss off PC Gamer…).
Okay, enough on making the game, let’s see the other gameplay stuff Ankers reveals. F1 PS3 can be played like a sim, what with all that detail packed into it, but entry-level players should have no problem getting into the cockpit, too, with 40 garage customization and driving aid options to hold your hand – or tweak to your heart’s content. Because you know Schumi’s settings are just downright WRONG for your driving style…
There’s a pit-stop minigame to look forward to, where the wrong button means those precious milliseconds between first and second place. The weather system’s totally dynamic: Ankers says you can start a (rather long) race in the dry, then have the rain clouds roll in in the middle, and then stop and have the track dry out in the remainder of the race. And different parts of that track will dry out at different rates, because of the traffic pattern rolling on it.
And for online, expect 11-player competitions with the rest of the grid filled out by the AI – although they may “up that (number) near completion (of the game)”.
IGN (UK) recently trudged up the English countryside to Sony Liverpool’s offices (okay, they took the train) to meet up with Formula One Championship Edition director Graeme Ankers about his baby. And since it’s been a long time since TGS 2006, it’s actually nice to get some substantial data about the game.
And the game’s a lot about the substantial data. As with Polyphony Digital‘s manic obsession with Gran Turismo for the PS3 (whenever that’s coming out), Sony Liverpool paid attention to every detail of F1 racing. And that’s where the exclusive license comes in: Ankers reveals they had access to every car and track blueprint, the specs of the engines, BHP, torque levels, the works – and it’s all fed into the game.
And because they’ve got a ton of gameplay and graphics and audio and AI and other data to work with, they’ve actually replaced the high-end PC workstations they’ve been working on with a rack of PS3s. Because “in terms of raw processing power it absolutely rips apart a high-end PC”. It took hard work, and some re-engineering of their systems, but Ankers is proud of what his team has achieved. That anecdote should warm the heart of a Sony fanboy (and piss off PC Gamer…).
Okay, enough on making the game, let’s see the other gameplay stuff Ankers reveals. F1 PS3 can be played like a sim, what with all that detail packed into it, but entry-level players should have no problem getting into the cockpit, too, with 40 garage customization and driving aid options to hold your hand – or tweak to your heart’s content. Because you know Schumi’s settings are just downright WRONG for your driving style…
There’s a pit-stop minigame to look forward to, where the wrong button means those precious milliseconds between first and second place. The weather system’s totally dynamic: Ankers says you can start a (rather long) race in the dry, then have the rain clouds roll in in the middle, and then stop and have the track dry out in the remainder of the race. And different parts of that track will dry out at different rates, because of the traffic pattern rolling on it.
And for online, expect 11-player competitions with the rest of the grid filled out by the AI – although they may “up that (number) near completion (of the game)”.
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