1. Competitive Localized Leaderboards
When a gamer who has opted to “Use Location Data” posts a lap time to the Leaderboards, that time is connected to their current location. Gamers can personalize their location names (i.e., My Home, My Work, Mark’s House Where I Always Win, etc.) for easy reference. These times become part of the Local Leaderboards which gamers can use to compete in a fun arcade-style atmosphere.

Gamers can also select one of their saved locations and view other competitors’ times that were earned nearby. For example, if I earn a great time on “Construction Mayhem” while at “Mark’s House,” I can check my rank versus other gamers’ local times and more importantly, my friends…including Mark. The game would find the 8, 24 or 48 closest gamers to “Mark’s House” who posted local times for “Construction Mayhem.” This means you’ll have an ever-expanding level of challenge through asynchronous competition to play instantly when and where you want!

2. Continual Match-Making, Ghosts and Time Trials
Where ModNation Racers for the PS3 automatically matches gamers against one of the most difficult lap times in the community, ModNation Racers: Road Trip instead matches you against other gamers’ Ghosts who have set times which are competitive to yours. This continual match-making and the shorter play time of a single lap competition makes for a fun and constantly challenging online gaming experience. For those of us who are competitive with our friends, we can select a filter to race against friends’ ghosts.

An option on the Vita even allows you to receive a push notification whenever your time is beat or to boast to your friends when you beat theirs—I believe I will use this feature plenty with Mark once ModNation Racers: Road Trip goes live next month.

3. Travel Points: Time For A Road Trip

The first time a gamer checks-in with Mod Explorer the game will recognize their location. Every time a gamer checks-in at any location after that they will earn Travel Points based on the distance from their last check-in. Individual gamers will then unlock additional parts for Track Studio when they reach certain amounts of Travel Points. There will also be an in-game leaderboard ranking gamers by the amount of Travel Points they have earned.

3a. Global Travel Points: Help Us Help You
Travel Points earned by every gamer are added together to form Global Travel Points. When the community of gamers reach certain distance milestone amounts of Global Travel Points everyone who uses Mod Explorer will unlock new track creation parts! This could be how world peace starts. Don’t you want to be a part of it?

4. Destination Check-ins: Better Than A Passport Stamp
Mod Explorer contains 45 featured cities across the globe–each city with three distinct destinations. When a gamer checks-in at a destination that they can find using PS Vita’s GPS functionality, they will unlock unique creation pieces to use in the creation studios.

In addition, the entire ModNation Racers: Road Trip community is further rewarded when parts associated with the destination are unlocked for the global community of gamers. For example, if you check-in at Navy Pier in Chicago, you will unlock associated parts for your use. When the predetermined threshold of player check-ins at Navy Pier has been reached, a unique part is unlocked for ALL gamers. Other parts associated with Navy Pier will be unlocked for all gamers as the number of unique player check-ins increase there.

Finally, when a gamer checks-in at a destination, they are prompted to take a picture and modify it using their Mod and Kart. This is done with ModNation Racers: Road Trip – Mod Postcards feature (See last week’s blog.)

5. Ad-Hoc Play: It’s ModNation Party Time!
For those racers looking for that head-to-head experience with your friends, Ad-Hoc play is where it’s at. Up to four gamers can race simultaneously on any San Diego Studio track or choose from over 500,000 user created tracks from the ModNation Racers community. That ought to keep you busy for a millennium or so.

6. Race, Create, Publish and Download!
As you’d expect from a ModNation Racers game, you have incredibly strong creation studios literally at your fingertips to create anything in your imagination. Publish your creations for the entire community to enjoy. And if creation isn’t your thing, enjoy downloading anything published by the entire community. And to sweeten the deal, you have full backwards compatibility to download any of the over 3 million creations from ModNation Racers PS3!

I know there are some of you that are disappointed that ModNation Racers: Road Trip doesn’t let you play head-to-head online other than ad-hoc. But we really wanted to evolve online functionality and take advantage of the PlayStation Vita’s unique feature set in new ways. If all we ever did as developers is rehash features that have been done in previous games, we’d still be entering passwords instead of using save files and you’d have to start the entire game over after you lost your three lives (extra 1-ups aside). While online head-to-head has been a mode used in many games in recent years, we focused on making a game that is crafted for how portable games are most often played—in quicker “pick up and play” sessions multiple times in a day. Your online interaction, competition and socialization will always be when it’s convenient for you. I hope that all of you are as interested to check-out the robust online features that ModNation Racers: Road Trip has as we are to see you enjoy them!

ModNation Racers For PS3

Hot Lap Track of the Week: Twilight Seidenstrassen by big-village_920_

Hot Lap Tracks of the Week:
Monday: Cathedral Of Tundrith by John31269
Tuesday: @ the lost city by marusarusa
Wednesday: They Took Our Town! by MrDufus
Thursday: Mod Canyon River Tour by ArgorokX
Friday: Crystal Waltz by marusarusa
Saturday: Twilight Seidenstrassen by big-village_920_
Sunday: Hiyazaki Point Raceway by atheistsw

2. Describe it in five words or less.
Cooler than a pet monkey.

3. What did you do on this game that you couldn’t do on another platform?
Thanks to the PS3′s cell processor, NBA 08 runs in Full HD — 1080p and 60fps. Not up-scaled to 1080p. Not a choice to run at 1080p OR 60fps. True Full HD. At the same time, we have detailed sweat that you can see rolling down players’ faces, head and eye tracking and facial animation for all 10 players at once. Additionally, thanks to the cell processor, we simulate cloth not just for the 10 players on the court but the bench players for each team as well. We also have such a variety in our arena crowds that you’ll only see 2 in every 2048 crowd members with the same model, wearing the same clothes and doing the same animation. And we do this from our “Behind the Player” cam which is more demanding on performance (because more is being drawn) than the sideline or broadcast cam you will see in other basketball games. There is also a lot of new ball physics that has been added to NBA 08 as well as a total of 2,000 unique animations within the game and 4 times the amount of AI routines for greatly improved variety of gameplay. With art assets created with native 1080p in mind as well as audio, we also have more data than can be stored on a dual layer DVD.

4. Do you have any “firsts” in this game that have never been done before?
NBA 07 was the first BluRay title at 1080p and 60fps. It was also the first sports game to offer new content the Friday of each and every week during the NBA season (6 months) through our “Games of the Week” feature. Both of these are available in NBA 08 as well as a new level of play control fidelity in a basketball game through the use of the SIXAXIS controller. We’re tying animation to SIXAXIS functionality and going beyond jukes, cross-overs and spins. You’re able to rock the SIXAXIS controller back and forth to dribble the ball between the legs. You’re able to move the ball around while in a “triple threat” situation to help keep defenders from stealing the ball as well as improve your chances of a successful pass. Along with this, you can select between bounce passes, chest passes and lob passes. Conversely, on defense you’re able to get high or wide by tilting the SIXAXIS controller forward or backwards. By widening the defender’s stance and arms on defense, there is a greater chance in deflecting a bounce pass or closely defending the ball handler to keep them from successfully executing a juke move (although this will fatigue your player faster). By putting the defender’s hands straight up in the air, there’s a better chance of tipping a lob pass and the shot percentage of a shooter is reduced.

5. What do you think is the coolest aspect of this game?
I’m very excited about what NBA 08 offers and it’s hard to nail it down to one aspect. The game looks and plays even better than last year but our “Games of the Week” feature is what provides our fans with new playable content each week involving games that just took place in the NBA. For instance, the week after Kobe went on a 4-game streak of scoring over 50 points, we dedicated that week to fun segments of each of those games for gamers to play while sports shows were still talking about it. Our progression system would be a close second. Did I mention how good our game looks this year?

6. How does this game use the PS Network?
Other than some of the fastest, smoothest and most authentic game play you mean? We’ve got a lot going on this season. Aside from great head-to-head play online, we’re incorporating the comprehensive SportsConnect system from our MLB franchise. You’ll also be able to earn goals toward your progression system created player – have I told you about our Progression System – more to come on that later. We’ll also post complimentary weekly content every Friday along with leaderboards for you to post your accomplishments.

7. If you could sit one person in front of your game for an hour, who would it be?
Eva Longoria. I would play against the Spurs and abuse Tony Parker. As the hour progresses, Eva would lose respect for the real life Tony and become enamored with my game playing skills. It’s the kind of special story we’d later be able to tell our children. There’s no “off” on my genius switch. But seriously, I’d love to play with Maurice Lucas. He’s my all-time favorite NBA player and was instrumental in the Trail Blazers winning it all in ’77.

8. What game do you most want an hour to sit in front of yourself (besides your own)?
SingStar on the PS3. I absolutely love that franchise. I hope the booth is sound proof though because I hear neighborhood dogs howl whenever I bust out the microphone.

9. How many E3’s does E3 2007 mark for you?
I’ve been to every single E3 sans one. Even the two E3′s in Atlanta where I thought I lost my liver in Buckhead. I’m not sure how many that makes…eleventy?

10. Describe the pre-2007 E3 experience in five words or less.
Much better than last year.

11. Most over used phrase or expression during E3 season.
There are a couple of overused phrases heard during E3. A couple include, “Never before has a game….” or “this feature offers a whole new level of….” but the most often heard phrase at E3 has definitely been, “Hey, can you get me a party ticket?”

12. You are asked to make suggestions for an E3 survival kit- what three items HAVE to be included?
Dr. Scholl’s inserts, Chaser and talcum powder.

13. What advice would you have for someone who has never experienced E3?
I’m not sure how the new format will change things but for any video game fan, attending an E3 is a must. It’s sensory overload and there just isn’t enough gameplay time over the three days. I would also recommend that you stuff yourself before attending because there isn’t a food cart or restaurant in a 3 mile radius that doesn’t have a half hour line attached to it. Oh, and you should check out NBA 08 first.

14. Describe what you anticipate from 2007’s newly formatted E3 in five words or less.
Serenity by comparison.

15. What’s your favorite part about developing games for a living?
Developing games for a living is unbelievable. Other than a little male pattern baldness and a sun tan that mostly comes from the monitors in my office even though I live in San Diego, I’m very lucky. Not just because I get to make games for a living but that I get to combine my passion for games with my passion for sports. It’s like combining chocolate and peanut butter–the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Except for the last few weeks of a product cycle when we’re trying to ship the title and everyone has to respond to last minute issues that arise, most of the year is a blast. The NBA 08 team is filled with characters who are a lot of fun to work with. There’s one guy on the team who can be a little managerially intensive by the name of Igor. But he’s a good guy at heart and a talented programmer and as long as I buy him ice cream when he’s working late, he’s pretty happy. Now I realize that most of the public reading this has no idea what I’m talking about but the opportunity to zing a team member in a public forum is pretty priceless.