When I joined Evo nine years ago, the first concept I worked on was for a racing game that was all about racing with friends. It combined the best cars (and they would have to be real ones), on the most breathtaking roads in the world, with gameplay that was totally focused on team-based racing.

I loved the job from day one.

The game was all about utter car passion. It was about connecting people who are as in love with car culture as we are, and creating a universe for these impassioned racers to all play together. We created web design concepts that showed how you could connect with people and access your club when you were away from the living room, and we created prototypes of the most immersive, detailed vehicle interiors and exteriors possible.

Except…they weren’t possible. Our concept was simple, but needed a socially connected network and audiovisual technology that wasn’t available.

When we knew PlayStation 4 was coming, we realised that the time was right to make the Driveclub dream a reality. It was time to combine nearly 15 years of racing game pedigree and a rapidly evolving, connected gaming landscape – this seed of an idea was ready to be realized and the buzz at Evo was unstoppable.

So what did we do?

We expanded our vehicle handling and design team so that together, we have over 50 years’ experience working on the most prestigious racing titles out there, including – WRC, Formula 1, Gran Turismo, MotorStorm, WipEout, Project Gotham Racing, GRID 2 and many more.

We used our PlayStation Vita launch game as a bridge between MotorStorm and Driveclub, testing our theories about connecting social networks with asynchronous challenge-based racing on multiple devices at the same time. It worked really well.

We collaborated with the best car companies in the world, working with them to create the most detailed and authentic car interiors and exteriors possible. The result is staggeringly immersive and visceral. This isn’t cockpit view; this is first-person-racing.

And now, almost a decade later, we’re finally making the game we’ve always wanted to make. It’s time to share our passion, to show you the first glimpse of Driveclub and we can’t wait to show you more.

Dive deeper into in the suite of diverse multiplayer and solo game modes, and learn more about the flexible, rewarding and entertaining game-play experiences Wreckreation has to offer – and watch out for new footage and reveals of some of the challenges, rewards and customisation features. ;-)

There is still a lot more of MotorStorm Apocalypse to uncover, and we’ll be sharing the second video diary on Wreckreation on the blog soon. In the meantime, we’d love to hear what you thought of this video and what you’re looking forward to from “the party at the end of the world.”

Finally – a demo is coming! Dates are very close to confirmation (it needs to be tested around the world just like the full game), but if you’ve seen any glimpses of a track called Mainline, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. As soon as we have a date we’ll share it.

MotorStorm Apocalypse will be shaking things up this April 12, and you can pick up some really cool exclusive in-game vehicles just for putting a few bucks down to pre-order.

Yesterday I paid one of my irregular visits to our research technicians in the building they share with our embedded testers and sound engineers. Once again they blew my mind with their staggering glimpses of tomorrow’s world. Videos of Sony prototypes such as the head-mounted display and the volumetric display cylinder show how exciting the exponential growth of technology for games really is. The Holodeck is closer than any of us could imagine!

About 5 years ago, at the same time MotorStorm was in pre-production, I shared a studio space with these guys, and they were adamant that stereoscopic 3D gaming was going to be far more compelling than 3D movies. To prove it, they built a 3D simulation of our local race track…and stunned us all. Politicians, senior execs and pro race drivers all secretly visited to see what the modest geniuses we hired from British Aerospace Engineering had achieved.

The culmination of that work can be seen in MotorStorm Apocalypse. It is now regularly described as the best example of stereoscopic 3D gaming you can get, so all that research and development looks like it was well worth it. Hopefully most of you will at least get to see the 3D, but even more than that I hope you get to play it. The video above is one we’ve made to showcase the tech on for the PlayStation.Blog, but the 3D version is now available for download from the PlayStation Store.

It’s so cool to see a ‘blue sky’ technology grow into a real game in this way. Maybe in a few years I’ll be back here with a video of something I saw yesterday, but till then, the 3D revolution will suffice! ;)

There’s a ton of unseen game footage in this video that I hope you like and also some glimpses into the recording of the original soundtrack. It features Paul ‘Rushy’ Rustchynsky, our Lead Designer and handling design guru, and Simon ‘Barlos’ Barlow, our invaluable Assistant Game Director who looks after big chunks of the gameplay features.

We call our more flexible free-play mode ‘Wreckreation,’ and it needs two video diaries to fully explain. They’ll follow soon. For now, enjoy our first video diary focusing on The Festival!

Here’s a recap of the new info we shared:

• Player customization: Perks enable full visual customisation and performance customization in the form of perks are both new features.
• Playable demo: A demo is being planned for 2011.
• Stereoscopic 3D: We showed Skyline in stereoscopic 3D, and pretty much everyone agreed with me that it sets the benchmark for 3D gaming. I hope you get to experience it in this way!
• Exclusive content: PSN avatars, dynamic themes, pre-order and PlayStation Plus exclusives are all planned and we’ll have specifics to share very soon.
• New Photo Mode: We’ve got a sophisticated Photo Mode that can capture gameplay images in ultra-high resolutions, as well as some easy-to-use tools that allow for fantastic post-effects – all of the Skyline screenshots were taken using Photo Mode mid-race!
• Post-release content: We have big ambitions to continue support for the game after it releases, and to develop some of the concepts we haven’t been able to find time for in development, including a special island track we’re hoping to be able to give away for free.
• New taunts and gestures: All previous versions of MotorStorm featured the ability to taunt other riders. This time, we have a set of insanely flamboyant gestures guaranteed to get your opponents fuming.
• New videos: The videos, including a series of developer diaries , will be launched on the PlayStation.Blog and PSN in the next couple of weeks.
• Release date: We don’t have a final global release date, but are scheduled to launch in Spring 2011.

We always try to release video and game information first on the PlayStation.Blog, but as some of you have already discovered we didn’t quite manage it this time. Here’s a quick round-up of some of the reaction to the unveiling, and some links to me talking and (more excitingly) videos of MotorStorm…including some play-through footage of the track.

• MotorStorm Apocalypse Preview “The special effects-strewn setting seems like the perfect complement to the impressive visuals and physics tech the franchise is already known for.”
• Exclusive MotorStorm Apocalypse Developer Interview Including New Skyline Footage “MotorStorm Apocalypse will leave your palms so sweaty there should be a warning on the box…”
• MotorStorm: Apocalypse’s Iconic “Skyline” “The folks putting out the party-at-the-end-of-the-world racer MotorStorm: Apocalypse vow that “Skyline” is winnable by all 16 vehicle classes.”

Jamie, our Community Manager who answered your questions while I was travelling back, has shared your reactions, feedback and concerns with me, and a great way to be in the loop on all things MotorStorm Apocalypse is to follow him on Twitter.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and your support. Speak soon!

It’s been a while since we’ve shown anything new from MotorStorm Apocalypse, we were planning on keeping pretty quiet while we work like maniacs to get the game finished. But when I was asked to skip over to New York for one last reveal of 2010, I couldn’t resist showing just one more track, and of course sharing a glimpse on the Playstation.Blog.

Let me introduce a track that has presented us with some of the biggest gameplay challenges we’ve ever had: Skyline, AKA ‘the Blockhopper’ AKA ‘Vertigo Redux,’ AKA ‘the one with a race where you get dropped from a helicopter onto a skyscraper that is already collapsing, and are expected to win against a pack of bikes and ATVs on rooftops and in offices that are falling to pieces.’

Making the track spectacular but also fun and winnable by all 13 vehicle classes has been a real test of everything we’ve learned.

For obvious reasons there are a lot of jumps and ramps as you pelt from one building to the next, and that means ensuring you can always make those jumps after bailing, even in a Monster Truck. The addition of in-air cooling (you can earn more boost if you release the accelerator in the air) means there’s another new tactical layer to the gameplay, as you can hunt out ramps to maximise the boost available to set world-beating times. It’s been an interesting track to get right!

We’re close to nailing it though, and hope people agree that there’s never been a race like this before.

We haven’t blown our load yet – there are a good few more surprise tracks in store from MotorStorm Apocalypse. So keep your ear to the ground for some more news in the next few weeks, I hope you can join us for the party at the end of the world when we launch next year!

Cheers and Happy Holidays.

Here are some of the headlines…

You May Have Heard…We’re Heading to the City!

But this is no ordinary city. In the same way that the first MotorStorm was set in Monument Valley, and MotorStorm Pacific Rift was set on ‘The Island’, inspired by Hawaii and other Pacific islands, we’ve set this MotorStorm in ‘The City’, inspired by the West Coast of America, and, in particular, the Bay Area of California.

MotorStorm’s brand of racing is not about ‘going urban’ though. We all know that the lunatic ‘Stormers would take every expectation about street racing and turn it upside-down. So this is what they’ve done. Welcome to Brutal Urban Off-Road Racing!

Post Apocalyptic? NO!

The city has been abandoned and somewhat damaged after a tremor. When the ‘Stormers find this out, they head straight in. Pretty soon, two things become clear: it isn’t completely empty and Mother Nature isn’t done yet!

Throughout the game the city will be ripped to pieces, in real-time, as you race. Routes will be affected, as will our emergent gameplay.

Buggies using collapsing walls as half-pipes. Big Rigs on the rooftops of skyscrapers as they collapse. Superbikes gunning into the basements of enormous rifts. Supercars flicking on their headlights to barrel through the subways and sewers. Multi-vehicle pile ups on giant bridges as they buckle and twist. Driving through someone’s office and smashing up their desks. It’s all there.

Two groups have also stayed behind, and neither takes too kindly to MotorStorm’s arrival. I’ll talk more about them another time, but for now I’ll say that when they realise there isn’t going to be much of a city left, they start to destroy it too.

This isn’t post-apocalyptic. It’s apocalyptic. You are there when it happens. It’s survival racing.

Variety, Chronology and Depth are King

We’ve listened to everything people said about our previous games and, as a result, one of our priorities is to make a more satifsying overall game experience. In our single-player mode, every race is unique. When a building comes down it stays down. When you race a track again, the buildings will still be down and the MotorStorm crew will have carved yet more routes into the ruined landscape. The only time you’ll see the same thing twice is when you choose to. Underscoring this chronology is the fact that you’ll get to see the game from three different viewpoints.

Nothing annoys me more than the notion that an accessible action racer must also be shallow or plain dumb. So once you have experienced the single-player journey, the true depth of our title will come to the fore. Our overhauled ‘Wreckreation’ mode has been heavily influenced by the best online titles: from shooters and action adventures, RPGs and platformers. It features:

• Sixteen player online multiplayer.
• Four player split-screen.
• Combinations of the two. Play with three friends in the living room against 12 more online.
• Massive vehicle customisation. Change vinyls, vehicle parts, vehicle shapes and more. Upload them to the community site and share them with others. They automatically work on all vehicle types, and include your PSN ID.
• Vehicle perks. Modify your handling, boosting and offensive abilities as you unlock new perks.
• A wealth of rankings to progess through online with associated rewards and recognition.
• Stacks of online rewards to earn and persistent progress giving the most determined and successful racers the status and recognition they deserve.
• Persistent matchmaking. Keep your party together throughout your gaming session.
• A Game Mode Creator. From a completely blank canvas you can design your own game rules and victory conditions, play them online, and incorporate them into tournaments.

Lots More

We’ve got a lot more to reveal too; things like replacing loading screens with cut-scenes that finally reveal what it’s like to be a part of the MotorStorm subculture, to changes to handling and boosting, to the five completely new vehicle classes making their way to this festival.

The end of the world…is just the beginning.

Let me know your thoughts.