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| Image courtesy of www.gta5-mods.com |
So I'm very much a guy who enjoys his video games and driving, that is more than clear after reading my blog for as long as many of you may have. As far as racing games go, I am more of a realistic driving simulator guy over the arcade-ish handling models on the majority of racing games, so this means I'm more of a Project CARS and Gran Turismo guy over games like Need For Speed and as much love as I have for those games, there is a gap in the market.
One thing we don't have in the driving simulator market is a free roam based one, that being one set on the open road. Having been playing GTA a lot and having the entire map in that game with all the fictional cars, I've realised how much I love driving on the open road and it got me thinking, why have we never had a realistic driving game set in an open world?
Nobody throw any of that crap at me like 'Forza Horizon', I haven't played but according to many people, it's not realistic because you can drive low riding sports and super cars across terrain and not be slow as shit. Anyway enough of this, allow me to get into the thick of this.
November 27th this year, I was reunited with an old friend, a gaming steering wheel. I had gone two years without using one since my PS3 wouldn't update Gran Turismo 6, and Assetto Corsa is currently my go to game for some driving and I cannot tell you how great it feels to turn the wheel and know where the car's tyres are placing themselves on the road, oh and my wheel has force feedback as well.
So I was driving the Ferrari LaFerrari around Nürburgring Nordschleife and I started to think about a few things, why have we never had a driving simulator game that is based on the open road as appose to race tracks? Also, why have we never had a free roam based driving game set in continental Europe? Since most of them limit themselves to America for the most part.
Hence this concept, Giro d'Strada. Roughly translated from Italian as Tour Of The Road, a very fitting name I believe for this concept that I am excited to share with you. I have had the strong belief that the developers of Assetto Corsa were more than fitting for this project, with the Assetto Corsa game titles making up the equivalent of the Forza Motorsport games and Giro d'Strada being the equivalent of the Forza Horizon titles.
Within the context of the game, you create your own custom character and once you buy yourself a house, you are then a part of a team initially that is pushing for an entry into the resurrected-named 'Grand Tour' that plays out like the old automobile Tour de France, Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Carrera Panamericana. This Grand Tour event is organised by the fictional Tour Auto Club, who could be the equivalent of the FIA within the context of this game.
You get to name your club and you can buy yourself a team base, design your team logo and name it, then you can hire other players to join you or you can join their clubs at any time. If you join someone else's club, you can park your active vehicle inside their team base exactly like how Motorcycle Clubs work in GTA, with your other members able to park their currently used motorcycles inside your motorcycle club base.
Drive to all types of showrooms around the map like on Test Drive Unlimited, pick car exterior colour, interior, wheel types, and use them in races and in free roam.
I haven't got round to certain other details, but it would all centre around a social aspect with the game encouraging you to gather your friends and do anything from cruising, interacting, competing against other player's clubs in many different types of challenges like racing, drifting etc. It would not be plot heavy and you would not have much of a character-based story that Pokémon Sun and Moon are being heavily criticised for having, when the thing that people want to do is focus on the Pokémon.
However I don't want Giro d'Strada to neglect anyone who doesn't want to play online in the same way a game like Need For Speed 2015 did where the game was always online, since I know some people can't use the internet. The gameplay will remain pretty much the same, with AI drivers being the competitors in the races.
GdS could also bring back popular split screen usage. If you have a minimum of two to four cars on your character, you can bring up split screens for you and your friends to drive both offline and online in the same game session. Exactly like Rocket League.
All of the races take place on public roads, some of which that have been closed off depending on what is being done, some races, time trials, highest speed challenge etc. and doing these challenges will result in money that you will be able to use to buy cars, houses, team bases, character visual customisation like clothes, plastic surgery, haircuts and so on.
In these events, you have coverage going on at every event, since the championship you're competing in is very high profile and prestigious. You have mechanics and engineers sorting the vehicle of choice for that particular event, a motor home, with the press looking to have a word with you so immediately, it's immersive like I requested from the F1 game developers Codemasters to go back to, with a paddock environment.
I am looking to try and incorporate a sponsorship aspect into the racing and for it not to be too overbearing, but it does allow your pay-outs in races to be increased should you achieve certain goals. After watching episode three of Amazon Prime's The Grand Tour, I learned that back in the old days of the Grand Tour, sponsors did apparently fund the people who did go, so making it a championship event on par with that of let's say, Formula One, Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, sponsorships seem appropriate.
But the main selling point of this game does come in the form of driving in free roam, and this originated from I think everyone's favourite free roam driving game, Test Drive Unlimited. This is basically the concept but turned up to 11, and with a realistic driving model and a much larger map, plus without the awful name for the racing championship that you compete in, which in TDU2 was the 'Solar Crown', fucking horrendous name!
As far as vehicles within this game is concerned, the possibilities are endless. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, you name it, and not just limited to modern performance cars, as you can also have classic cars and even off-road vehicles. The one issue though, I don't know if bikes would be a great inclusion as amazing as they are, because the reason I have been coming up with this idea is because I've been wanting this game to be compatible with a gaming steering wheel.
You can win cars whilst going through the game, like how you could win the Ariel Atom V8 if you completed the last competition race on Test Drive Unlimited 2. One thing though, all cars will not be upgradable like on that game, everything will be just like how they would leave the showroom in real life with changes to the setup if you wanted to, in the pause menu for example if you wanted to set your car up for drifting just like on Assetto Corsa.
With the entire map being centred around the mountainous and coastal parts of Italy and other parts of central Europe, the world is your oyster and you can go on the perfect road trips with your friends in tow. I for one know I'll be taking a LaFerrari Aperta across some amazing mountain roads with the roof off (Which by the way, all cars with a removable roof, you can do that by the touch of a button) and using my new Logitech G29, mashing the throttle and kicking the arse out in the exact same way I have been with the regular LaFerrari on Assetto Corsa.
A social aspect that I personally am not interested in, car meets. The people that I game with on GTA, they particularly like the idea of car meets so what I am thinking, you can send out a message to the server saying that you are instigating a car meet at a particular location. People can then turn up and you can inspect people's cars, challenge them to races etc.
Another small idea I've just thought of, a cruise control option when you're in a group of friends. Shout out to my friend Charlie who has been helping me out with many of the ideas for Giro d'Strada, he wants a game where we can cruise around in a group so a feature within the team tab if you're all in someone's particular team, the 'Cruise Control' option will allow everyone to stay within proximity of the leader. This is all mainly inspired from the Motorcycle Club formation feature in GTA, except unlike in GTA, if the leader goes full throttle, you have to make an effort to keep up.
If any of you follow my Instagram, you'll see that I posted a video of me on a moped with a friend of mine on a Tron bike from GTA keeping up with him because of this feature. It's hilarious, but it won't be the same exact thing in GdS, with only constant speed and braking being matched like a regular cruise control feature in regular cars.
Last thing I want to touch upon and this is something huge and revolutionary that I would love to see implemented, will be a first of its kind. A dedicated radio station made specifically for the game, which I along with a couple of friends came up with after we had concluded how annoying and repetitive it is having to listen to pre-recorded radio is on games like GTA and Test Drive etc., so hence Radio Giro d'Strada with live chat from a bunch of real people, doing a load of things to broaden the social horizon.
The custom radio station could have a routine presenter switch-around so the radio would be broadcasting constantly so to not provide Australian players for example with nothing to listen to should the radio broadcasting be done from somewhere in Europe. That necessity aside, the benefits of this custom radio station would be that you could request songs, they could have players on to talk about the game, they could advertise upcoming car packs and the best part, occasional randomly selected races could be commentated on. You could even have a studio broadcasting from Twitch.tv as well of the radio station.
Imagine that! You're listening to the radio station, and then you hear your username read out on the starting grid and you hear whoever will be the commentators talking over the race, I was thinking initially live but in hindsight, maybe not a good idea and instead gather some of the best races performed in the past two hours or something.
As for if someone didn't want to listen to the radio, there could be an original soundtrack on another option between radio on and turning the thing off. Drivers could skip songs if they wanted to by hitting L3 (I'm on PS4 so you other platform people can try and think of what is in the place of L3 on your controller equivalent).
I can already imagine the cover, credit to my friend Charlie as he helped me come up with it. We did try and replicate it using GTA and our Grotti Carbonizzare cars but I didn't quite get what I wanted so I'll just have to have you lot rely upon your imaginations. Picture a Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta driving on a road similar to that of the Stelvio Pass in Italy, that road that the three Top Gear presenters (Now The Grand Tour presenters) Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May travelled to in lightweight supercars that one time on good Top Gear.
Anyway I have digressed too much now, so a mountain road with a LaFerrari Aperta being driven with full opposite lock and a driver wearing shades and looking cool, and a European town seen in the background with the sea and other mountains. Then the Giro d'Strada logo, available for PS4, Xbox One and PC, developed by KUNOS Simulazioni.
It is to my understanding that a game of this size and a company as tight knit as KUNOS would be a huge task, but after playing Assetto Corsa, I know KUNOS is the best fit. Within days of when I have published this, KUNOS were acquired by Digital Bros so if it is time for KUNOS to expand, this would be the perfect game to tackle.
That will be it from me everyone. I have - despite my procrastinating - been pouring my heart into this, my Italian side coming out! All of my friends, many people from the Assetto Corsa forums and hopefully all of you gamers out there, will love this idea and I do hope this will cause a chain of events that leads to KUNOS announcing Giro d'Strada in a few years from now.
If you're new here and want to see more, follow on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or subscribe via email in the top right of your desktop page. Let's hope we can Giro d'Strada soon, on our own European road trip.
So until we meet again,
Luca.
So, TDU2 with more cars, better graphics and a better handling?
ReplyDeleteTo dumb it down, yes. But with many variables added to separate them.
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