Recently an interesting item appeared in the news. The Reddit community found a mention of an interesting patent by Take-Two, a game publisher and owner of Rockstar Games. The Internet immediately started talking about a new part of the adventures of the “Great Car Theft” (for the hundredth time). But it became obvious to me that a revival of the series was on the horizon Midnight Club.
A little about the series and genre
Like many arcade racing games, The Midnight Club gained popularity on PlayStation 2 consoles. The arcade became so successful that two sequels followed. And that’s not counting Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix – a re-release of the third game with a new city – the capital of Japan, Tokyo. In the third part you can literally fly kilometers in the air and choose a “high-altitude” route, jumping from the roof of one building to another (I haven’t played the first two).
Only one game was released on the next generation of consoles – Midnight Club: Los Angeles, plus the PSP portable was visited by its port – Midnight Club: LA Remix. I tried the older version: less arcade-like compared to the trilogy on PS2, but just as exciting, and what is the view from the cabin worth (this option doesn’t surprise anyone now).
The reasons for the disappearance of the genre are obvious – arcade racing games have moved to mobile devices, where they are a huge success. And the Asphalt series is a great example of this (you can try the PC version – you don’t need an emulator). The mobile franchise combines the best of NFS and Burnout. There was even a spin-off, Asphalt Xtreme, the spiritual successor to the crazy off-road racing series MotorStorm.
Dream race
But let’s return to the patent https://monsinocasino.co.uk/games/ from Rockstar specialists. The authors of the innovations are David Hind and Simon Parr. New technology should provide realistic AI behavior behind the wheel. Let’s go through the text to draw conclusions and assumptions:
AI reacts to the environment, for example, driving more carefully (slower) on busy streets and single-lane roads to avoid collisions when performing maneuvers.
This can give us the feeling of a real nextgen. That is, not a cardboard city with high-resolution textures and ray tracing, but a living world with natural movement.
The technology can adjust the skills of each NPC to the type of vehicle being driven, speed limits and even weather.
In Midnight Club, vehicles are divided into many types: tuning, sedans, muscle cars, supercars, SUVs, choppers, sports motorcycles. And now computer intelligence can become smarter, wisely using the advantages of its transport. It will also be cool to see abnormal weather effects. For example, a tornado burst into a race, forcing riders to change routes on the fly.
Plausible traffic distribution mentioned. So, in the central part of the city there should be more traffic than in residential areas and surrounding areas. In addition, traffic in the center may be stopped due to traffic jams.
This should introduce an element of strategy into the race: drive through the city center, risking an accident or getting stuck in traffic, but cutting down the mileage? Or he can choose a detour – a safe route through the expressway, but increasing the distance to the finish?
NPCs are able to engage in chases by taking into account information such as the distance between two cars, relative direction of travel, and speed differences.
The police were never a threat at Midnight Club. But the first thing we try to do in every new part of GTA is to break the law and try to escape from the cops. I think the technology will “pump up” the AI of police officers so that chases become exciting and challenging at the same time.
More new games from Rockstar!
Gamer Jason Schreyer talked about the new GTA in the spring 2020 news feeds. But Rock Stars has so many divisions that it wouldn’t be difficult for them to develop more than two games at once! We can only hope that they don’t go the way of Ubisoft, trying to cram as much content onto the disc as possible. I have enough transport and one large city with its surroundings. This allows you to study and memorize the virtual world so that in online tournaments you can use not cheats, but your memory and intelligence, plotting the ideal route to the finish!
