GC '07: Race Driver One First Look

Codemasters has never been a company content to rest on its laurels where racing games are concerned. The long-running Colin McRae series of rally driving games was recently given much broader appeal courtesy of DiRT, and it's really not that long ago that the ToCA series got its Race Driver makeover. With Race Driver One--which will almost certainly not be the finished game's title--Codemasters is promising a revamp for the Race Driver series that represents as significant a leap forward as DiRT was for the aforementioned rally driving games. Codemasters will be talking about its plans for Race Driver One for the first time at this week's Games Convention in Leipzig; thus, intrigued and impatient, we paid a visit to the company's UK headquarters for a first look at the game while en route to Germany.

Ralph Fulton, chief game designer at Codemasters, told us that, unlike many modern racing games, Race Driver One will focus squarely on what happens between the starting grid and the checkered flag. Of course, there will be plenty of licensed cars for you to drive, but your goal won't be to collect them all, nor will you be encouraged to spend the majority of your time painting and upgrading them. Race Driver One will be all about "the thrill of racing" which, without straying too far from the realism that Codemasters' racers are known for, means taking a leaf out of Hollywood's book. Rivalries between drivers will be evident during races, while drama will come courtesy of more frequent crashes, mechanical failures, and the like, but not in a way that hampers your own efforts too much.

In Race Driver One's career mode, you'll start out as a lowly driver-for-hire, trying to scrape a living in demolition derbies and other events that aren't nearly as glamorous as those featured in most racing games. But you won't be the only driver striving for a shot at the big time because you'll be up against hundreds of other drivers from all over the world who are working toward the same goals as you: driving for prestigious teams then ultimately, starting your own team, being in a position to hire other drivers, and signing sponsors. Every race that you compete in will take place in a persistent world that's divided into three main regions: Europe, Japan, and North America. Races will take place regardless of whether or not you're involved in them, and you'll have the freedom to compete wherever you're chosen career path should take you. Europe will offer a lot of traditional racing events with licensed cars and circuits (including the Nurburgring), while Japan will afford you an opportunity to enhance your reputation via semilegal street races and drifting events. In North America, you'll get to race muscle cars in San Francisco, Detroit, Long Beach, and numerous other real locations.

All of the vehicles in Race Driver One will, of course, be destructible. Having seen a very early test build of the game in action, we can tell you that parts of the environment are also destructible. For example, we saw a great-looking Aston Martin cruising the impressively detailed streets of Milan. After a couple of laps, both the car and a number of the crash barriers around the circuit had dents in them. The car, which rolled onto its roof at one point, was in bad shape by the end of the demo and had lost a door. In the finished game, thousands of modeled spectators will purportedly line the circuits and react realistically to whatever is happening in the race, which should make crashes all the more impressive.

In addition to the career mode, Race Driver One will support about 20 online players simultaneously, if everything goes according to plan. With a year or so left in development, Race Driver One is already showing a lot of promise. We really can't wait to see how the career mode pans out and how much more power Codemasters can coax out of its impressive Neon engine. We'll bring you more information on this game as soon as it becomes available.