Previews// SEGA Rally

So far, so good, but this is all of course basic stuff. This is all the stuff that goes without saying. It’s a new generation racing game from Sega, so what does it have that Motorstorm or Colin McRae: DIRT don’t? And how can it possibly better those two finely executed off-road racers?

We were soon informed how. It is all about the ‘surface deformation’ technology the studio has built into the game. Pay attention at the back there. Stay with me on this. This is not merely another tagged on ‘unique selling point’ that a publisher has added into the game’s design document to put in an impressive PowerPoint presentation to then show off to press and retail. Oh no. This is the real videogame rallying deal.

‘Surface deformation’ is why the new SEGA Rally made my jaw hit the floor.

Sure, the original SEGA Rally was all about the ability to drive on different surfaces, with the asphalt, gravel and mud affecting your car’s handling properties, but the team has taken this idea and implemented it in a way that was previously just not (technically) feasible. Simply put, the surface deformation in the new SEGA Rally means that when the tyres of your car dig a groove into the track from sliding around corners and the like, that groove is a permanent fixture on the track for the remainder of the race.

On harder surfaces your car may only just scratch the track’s surface, but in wetter areas (or with wetter tyres) your vehicle cuts deeper into the surface, which permanently alters the way in which your car and the competing, cleverly-adaptive AI vehicles physically respond to the changing racing lines of the track. This can at times work to your advantage when, for example, loose gravel on certain corners of the track is cleared giving you a better grip on the following lap. It can also

We were shown a jungle-based track which was around 80% complete and made up of mostly fairly well-packed sandy track, though after two or three laps the surface, particularly in the wetter corners, has been churned up beyond recognition. So it’s less about the power-sliding this time around and more about being able to react to the changes happening in the different parts of the track as races progress.

The power-sliding is still a key feature in the game of course. The arcade purists amongst you can rest assured that, despite the impressively realistic physics and so on, the new SEGA Rally is still an arcade game, not (a la Colin McRae: DIRT) a rally simulation.

SEGA refers to this as ‘Hollywood realism’ – the meaning of which was made crystal clear to us when the game’s producer informed us that while the cars while the cars while look as if they are becoming realistically smashed to pieces throughout the race, the crash-damage will have no effect on your car’s handling. So it’s purely about quick-thinking and rapidly reacting to the changing track in front of you. And laughing loudly while powersliding past your mate as you spatter him with mud.

Look at the latest screens from the game right here and, like me, count the days until you get your hands on it. SPOnG should hopefully get another look in with SEGA Rally at E3 in July, when we’ll bring you a full hands-on update. In the meantime, check out our recent Q and A with the game’s creators here.