Street Racing Syndicate Update

We recently had a chance to check out Street Racing Syndicate, the multiplatform street racing game that may be released this summer. 3DO reps brought the E3 build of the Xbox version by to give us a better look at it and shed some light on the game's status. For those unfamiliar with the game, Street Racing Syndicate sets out to provide as accurate a re-creation of the street racing experience as possible through the use of licensed cars, locations, and models such as Sasha Singleton, Francine Dee, Natasha Yi, Cheri Roberts, Flo Jalin, Kaila Yu, and Aiko Tanaka, who are well known on the street racing scene. The game is being developed by UK-based Eutechnyx, which cut its teeth developing a host of racing games for the PC and PlayStation. Most recently, the developer shifted its focus to the latest batch of consoles with titles like Street Racing Syndicate and Big Mother Truckers.

Street Racing Syndicate will feature an assortment of modes for you to race in, with the street mode serving as the game's centerpiece. The street mode will put you in the role of a new racer easing into the street racing scene and trying to make a name for himself. The mode will play out over the course of several virtual months and challenge you to enter races in Los Angeles, Miami, or Philadelphia and earn cash, prestige, and new cars on your way to the top.

The game features a scalable racing model that will offer an accessible arcade-style experience or a more sim-oriented, technical race, depending on how you tweak settings. The tracks will be open-ended and let you take whichever route you'd like to the finish line.

The graphics in Street Racing Syndicate are coming along, and they feature a nice amount of visual polish on the licensed car models, which will reflect any damage sustained while racing. The city environments are large and offer fairly accurate modeling of their respective streets. You'll see lighting put to good use during the races, which take place at different times of the day. Although the build we saw was early, the game's frame rate is running at a respectably smooth and speedy pace.

While development on the game is still progressing, the big question now is its future. Eutechnyx is continuing its work on the game, which should be completed this summer, but 3DO is no longer in a position to publish the title, so the UK developer is currently looking for a new publisher. We'll have more information on the game as it becomes available.