Project CARS

We're a fussy bunch, really. Soon after a game's release and public forums become autopsy slabs, full of should have, would have, could have. It's at this point in a game's life cycle, once the hype has blown away and after the controller's been put down, that everyone becomes a game designer; everyone knows how to make a game better.

Project Cars, Shift developer Slightly Mad Studio's latest project, inverts the process. Here, it's those suggestions, that nitpicking and those moments of fan inspiration that are being harvested for a game that's bravely decided to do much of its growing up in public.

It's all quite simple; sign up to WMD, the somewhat unfortunate acronym chosen for Slightly Mad's World of Mass Development platform, and you're granted access to regularly released builds of the game, which you're then free to pick apart in the official forums. That feedback then gets absorbed by Slightly Mad Studios, a simple loop that means that, when the game is eventually released, it'll be as much a product of the community as it is of the studio.

"The whole point of WMD was creating a game where you're listening more to the fans than you are to the publisher," says Slightly Mad's creative director Andy Tudor - and it's hard not to start wondering how working with EA on the ever-shifting Need for Speed brand may have provided the catalyst for such an open-armed approach to development.

"I don't want to suggest that publishers are evil," Tudor continues, "but we'd rather ask the community what cars they want in the game and what tracks they want in the game, and then we know that the game we're making is the one that these people want to buy."

While Watkins Glen in C.A.R.S. isn’t laser-scanned, the title will be treated to some laser-scanned circuits soon as the company has announced a deal with Motorsport Vision, allowing the studio to scan four of the company’s iconic British tracks for usage in C.A.R.S.

STONDKIWI wrote:If this makes it to the 360 i will put Forza in a shallow unmarked grave in the wood and piss on it

1. The community - racing online wouldn't be the same without decent people to race with
   
2. Triple screen support - I don't know why more games don't do it...
   

sillybilly77 wrote:Looks pretty good, but can any serious simulator have the tacho / speed in the corner of the screen?

In my opinion the HUD in Forza Motorsport 2 with the combined large centre Tacho and smaller offset speedo was probably the best interface designs in video games. It was better than those other games that have a pair of equally sized offset gauges. I am still shocked they changed it...

FrankTank wrote:
And what's even cooler:

sillybilly77 wrote:Looks pretty good, but can any serious simulator have the tacho / speed in the corner of the screen?

STONDKIWI wrote:If this makes it to the 360 i will put Forza in a shallow unmarked grave in the wood and piss on it

the cars have received comprehensive physics updates based on the feedback of our Physics & Handling consultant, former Stig, Ben Collins.

Envy The Best wrote:Sounds like its living up to the hype