Empire Officially Announce World Sports Cars

For those of you who have been following WSC development over the past year or two it comes as no surprise that a publisher has finally picked up this title. What is somewhat surprising with the announcement is that Empire plan to port the title to PS2. The title is currently scheduled to release on PC and PS2 later this year.

Full press release:

World Sports Cars
London, England, 19th April 2000

Empire Interactive gets its motor running with an all-new racing simulation for the PC CD-Rom and is being prototyped for Sony PlayStation 2®.

Empire Interactive is pleased to announce that it is developing World Sports Cars for the PC CD-Rom and prototyping for the Sony PlayStation 2® . Designed and programmed by West Racing , World Sports Cars promises to inject more realism into the racing genre than you ever thought possible. Scratch the surface and you’ll only see a super-charged simulation of high-performance speedsters, its cars, tracks and physics model accurately modelled to almost invisible detail. Look a little closer, however, and you’ll find that where other games simulate the adrenaline-rush of the ‘race’, World Sports Cars simulates the sights, sounds and the emotions of ‘racing’. One look at World Sports Cars and you’ll soon discover that there’s so much more to ‘racing’ than just the ‘race’.

Two years in development, World Sports Cars promises will feature up to 12 different race vehicles and a selection of world-renowned tracks to drive them around, all faithfully recreated in high-resolution 3D. What makes World Sports Cars different is the level to which West Racing has modelled the physics. Consequently, all aspects of each car model are dealt with in a physically correct manner. Suspension geometry is modelled so changes in camber are real, while the tyre model uses the latest information from the Society of Automotive Engineers. West Racing has spent a great deal of time recreating the cars both inside and out – i.e. if there’s a panel on the real car that opens or detaches then it does so on the game’s spectacular 3D model. This ‘panel’-based system not only allows World Sports Cars to simulate some superbly realistic damage, but it even allows the player to customise their favourite speed demons. Taking the system to an extreme, it’s even possible to remove all of the car’s body panels and drive it around with no bodywork.

“The emphasis in World Sports Cars,” says co-designer Chris West, “is on totally immersing the player in everything that goes on at a race weekend. So they will be able to unload the car from the trailer, drive it into the pit and then take it out on the track for a shakedown. We leave everything up to the player – if they so choose, they can even drive their car around the track to line it up on the grid before start.”

With planned Simulation and Arcade modes, realistic weather effects and a freedom of movement that will allow you to drive whichever way around the track you like, World Sports Cars pushes the boundaries of realism in the racing genre. Boasting a full range of visual effects (fire, smoke, burnt rubber), World Sports Cars takes the pursuit of realism to such great lengths that West Racing even hope to include motion-captured drivers and fully-interactive pit-stops.

“I don’t know if you remember Pitstop II many years ago,” continues Chris West, “but that had a great little pit-stop section which we want to bring up to date and enhance. In World Sports Cars, the car will pull up an the player will have to attach the air hose to jack the car up. To change a tyre they will pick up an air wrench and use it on a wheel nut, before picking up a new wheel and fitting it to the car. Even when that’s done, you have to pick up the air-wrench to re-attach the wheel nut. The player will be able to perform all manner of tasks in the pit-stops such as change fluid levels, refuelling, swapping drivers and replacing disk pads. There is even a bucket of water and a sponge to allow the player to clean parts of their car, if they wish.”

World Sports Cars is scheduled for a Q4 2000 release on PC CD-ROM and Sony PlayStation 2®.