NeoGAF

chubigans · 10:02 PM

From the devs that helped bring Gears of War and Unreal to consoles comes...SUPERSONIC ACROBATIC ROCKET-POWERED BATTLE-CARS! Woooooooooo!

NOTE: Huge new patch available! Find out all the details in the new thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=370264

Quote:

Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars is an arena-based online vehicle sports game. The game features vehicles with incredible physics-based maneuverability, including boosters for launching high into the air or accelerating at break-neck speed on the ground. In the air, cars can roll, flip, jump, dodge or spin. In this team-based soccer-inspired game, the vehicles maneuver to perform breathtaking saves, awe-inspiring shots on goal, and gruesome demolishes of opponent cars. These abilities, combined with the players' own creativity, create a unique and thrilling experience every time. Wide-ranging community involvement is supported through team and league play, as well as extensive statistical tracking, rankings, and rewards for individuals and teams. The game features mini-games and single player matches as well as team and league matches and scrimmage matches online.

Release date: Available Now, $9.99
Developed by Psyonix (assisted in deving Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, and UT2004. This is their first in-house game.)
-4 player local splitscreen/8 player online/4 player local splitscreen online
-Free DLC maps coming soon
-Custom Soundtrack support
-Online leaderboards/voice chat
-YouTube Uploading
-Trophy support
-Demo Available

More info straight from the PS Blog can be found here.

The FAQ/Interview with Psyonix:
http://winbreak.com/2008/09/13/wbx-s...per-interview/

More details/forum/video:
http://www.battle-cars.com/

There are 14 trophies available:

Champion
Beat the Tournament Mode.

25 Stars
Earn a total of 25 stars in single-player.

50 Stars
Earn a total of 50 stars in single-player.

75 Stars
Earn a total of 75 stars in single-player.

100 Stars
Earn a total of 100 stars in single-player.

Ace
Score your first goal in an online ranked match.

Natural
Win an online ranked match.

Rookie
Play 10 online ranked career matches.

Showoff
Score a goal while reversing in an online ranked match.

Hat Trick
Score 3 goals in an online ranked match.

Hot Shot
Achieve the Most Valuable Player award in an online ranked match.

All Star
Earn all the stars in single-player.

Victorious
Win 50 online ranked career matches.

Striker
Score 500 goals in your online ranked career.

...

If you want to game with the devs, add the PSN name CapitalistDog!

SuperSonic1305 · (10-09-2008, 04:00 AM)

$14.99 is the new $9.99

chubigans · (10-09-2008, 04:01 AM)

Originally Posted by SuperSonic1305:

$14.99 is the new $9.99

And I welcome it. Braid, Castle Crashers and now this game will strengthen that. :D

rollingstart · (10-09-2008, 04:01 AM)

It won't hurt to try the demo, so why not.

DMPrince · (10-09-2008, 04:09 AM)

thank god they said Free DLC. it should make up for the high cost.

Loudninja · (10-09-2008, 04:11 AM)

Originally Posted by DMPrince:

thank god they said Free DLC. it should make up for the high cost.

Thats cool, and this game has the best name I ever seen :0

Corrupt · (10-09-2008, 04:41 AM)

Coming Soon to Europe? :( I suppose I'll have to play the NA demo until it comes.

Pretty psyched about 8 player online matches though, that should be awesome.

sykoex · (10-09-2008, 04:45 AM)

Unless there's a demo, this thing better get fucking 9's across the board if they expect me to shell out that money.

rollingstart · (10-09-2008, 04:46 AM)

Originally Posted by sykoex:

Unless there's a demo, this thing better get fucking 9's across the board if they expect me to shell out that money.

Check the OP.

shagg_187 · (10-09-2008, 04:46 AM)

Quote:

4 player local/8 player splitscreen/4 player local online

What? WHAT? I don't get it!

sykoex · (10-09-2008, 04:48 AM)

Originally Posted by Linkzg:

Check the OP.

Yay!

I looked through their recent PS.Blog post and saw no mention so I was getting worried.

chubigans · (10-09-2008, 05:06 AM)

Originally Posted by shagg_187:

What? WHAT? I don't get it!

You can play four player split screen online with another PS3 that has four player splitscreen. :)

edit: wait that doesnt make sense, your right. :lol edited!

shagg_187 · (10-09-2008, 05:08 AM)

Originally Posted by chubigans:

You can play four player split screen online with another PS3 that has four player splitscreen. :)

edit: wait that doesnt make sense, your right. :lol edited!

Thanks! i thought i was going crazy :lol

DarkKyo · (10-09-2008, 06:09 AM)

I can't find the demo. It's really out?

Pai Pai Master · (10-09-2008, 06:10 AM)

Originally Posted by Dechaios:

I can't find the demo. It's really out?

Er, probably with the update today. Not now.

DarkKyo · (10-09-2008, 06:13 AM)

Originally Posted by Pai Pai Master:

Er, probably with the update today. Not now.

Ah... Damn you, misleading bullet.

Dizzan · (10-09-2008, 06:26 AM)

Wow, colour me very interested.

I wish I wasn't inundated with assignments right now ugh

Tntnnbltn · (10-09-2008, 06:34 AM)

Originally Posted by chubigans:

From the devs that helped bring Gears of War and Unreal to consoles comes...SUPERSONIC ACROBATIC ROCKET-POWERED BATTLE-CARS! Woooooooooo!

Release date: October 9th in NA (today wooo!)

Wtf, where did this come from??

Fake edit: It was even listed in Tanod's threads and still I've never seen it before. :o

chubigans · (10-09-2008, 02:41 PM)

Originally Posted by Tntnnbltn:

Wtf, where did this come from??

Fake edit: It was even listed in Tanod's threads and still I've never seen it before. :o

Yeah, it's gotten very little coverage. I hope it does well.

Cromulent_Word · (10-09-2008, 02:44 PM)

reminds me a lot of the tribes 1/2 mod Team Rabbit except involving cars with jet boosters.

AndyD · (10-09-2008, 02:51 PM)

Originally Posted by DMPrince:

thank god they said Free DLC. it should make up for the high cost.

This.

borsdy · (10-09-2008, 02:52 PM)

Looks priddy sweet.

vercity82 · (10-09-2008, 02:54 PM)

I will try the demo and see what i think as $14.99 seems a lil bit of a pushed

ickingfudiot · (10-09-2008, 03:07 PM)

I can answer some questions now and when I get into work (just got up, release date, woo)!

- There will be a demo up as stated whenever the game goes up, which is this evening I believe

- There will be a free DLC map *soon* - it's already done, just going through the pipeline - and we will continue to support the game via patches/DLC, I can't promise all DLC will be free but we're going to play it by ear

- The Europe version is unfortunately COMING but because we are self-publishing we just didn't have the resources (among other problems) to handle SCEA and SCEE cert simultaneously. We're currently in the process of getting all the various European rating board approvals and as soon as we have a Europe date set we'll let you guys know, all I can say is ASAP.

- To clear up the splitscreen issue, the game is max 4v4 (8 players total) but supports up to 4p splitscreen both locally and online, including ranked matches.

I'll say one thing about the price just from my perspective (not my company's, disclaimer, yadda yadda) and never again since I've read the price debates about Braid on here and I know what dark road that leads down. As a consumer I feel the pull of $9.99 too, but I think the graphical quality/feature set we're offering justifies a higher price point. You may not agree, there's a demo with both local and online play to better inform you about the purchase, I hope it's helpful.

Features we support that I don't usually see in a $9.99 title:
- Full fledged online ranking/matching/party system support with leaderboards, different skill rankings for each bracket (so you can become the top 2v2 player, make a registered team and become the best 3v3 team in the country with your PSN or local friends, etc)
- A really powerful replay saving and editing tool. You can save a replay after each match of the entire match and later re-watch it with full camera controls (free cam, focus lock, slow motion, etc etc etc) and even edit it ingame and upload the new clip directly to YouTube or export the thing to your XMB and do your own video editing in higher quality.
- Unreal Engine 3
- Support for every new Sony feature - YouTube, custom music tracks, Trophies
- We're planning a lot of active community support features like organized tournaments with real prizes, and patch support. We're the #1 fans of this game, we play it every day at the office, and we're most looking forward to just getting online and playing new people. To that end we have full intention of supporting whatever the community asks for within reason.

Anyway, enough price discussion, I'm sure people will have a lot to say about it but going to stay out of it from now on.

To sum up: game and demo available later today, demo has online and local play, free DLC map and Europe versions coming ASAP, hope you like it!

shagg_187 · (10-09-2008, 03:09 PM)

Originally Posted by ickingfudiot:

Features we support that I don't usually see in a $9.99 title:

To sum up: game and demo available later today, demo has online and local play, free DLC map and Europe versions coming ASAP, hope you like it!

So its 9.99 and not 14.99? If so, ill get it if demo is good.

chubigans · (10-09-2008, 03:09 PM)

Originally Posted by shagg_187:

So its 9.99 and not 14.99? If so, ill get it if demo is good.

No, he's saying $9.99 games don't usually support those features, which is why it's $14.99.

levious · (10-09-2008, 03:10 PM)

Originally Posted by ickingfudiot:

- A really powerful replay saving and editing tool. You can save a replay after each match of the entire match and later re-watch it with full camera controls (free cam, focus lock, slow motion, etc etc etc) and even edit it ingame and upload the new clip directly to YouTube or export the thing to your XMB and do your own video editing in higher quality.

that's really great, hope more games do this with future youtube support.

AndyD · (10-09-2008, 03:12 PM)

How many maps come with the game to begin with? Do all three shown in screenies above? And how many cars? And are they customizable?

Edit: 3 maps to start.

Does it have friend invites?

Sean · (10-09-2008, 03:15 PM)

I haven't heard of this title before today. Looks and sounds very promising, I will definitely check out the demo at least.

ickingfudiot · (10-09-2008, 03:18 PM)

Originally Posted by andydumi:

How many maps come with the game to begin with? Do all three shown in screenies above? And how many cars? And are they customizable?

Three by default. I know, I know - we basically had to make the decision on whether to polish up and make those three really great, or churn out a bunch of not-as-good maps, we chose the former. The fourth map as stated is already complete and is slated for free DLC as soon as possible, and we've got more in progress, so it won't stay that way for long. We also felt like with most good games people tend to stick to a couple maps anyway, though I realize it goes against the general idea in games of bigger numbers = more value.

Seven cars with two skins each, not customizable beyond that. We really tried to make the game as "pure" as possible from a gameplay perspective and that's why you don't see any crazy customization or variation in the cars. If purely cosmetic customization is a big feature request we can certainly look into it for future DLC.

Edit: Yes, friend invites into unranked matches. You can also form a "registered" team which is basically a persistent way of registering a unique name for your "party" to play under, and serves as a separate ranked bracket (so there's basically solo ranked and team ranked, and then unranked games that you can invite friends into). You can then invite other PSN users to join your team and you play together, and you can also have your splitscreen players join in in lieu of remote players.

TheMissingLink · (10-09-2008, 03:21 PM)

Looks sorta cool, and the online sounds superb. A dev that actually "gets it" - NICE!

atomico · (10-09-2008, 03:22 PM)

$14,99? yikes

might try the demo, but I don't really see myself buying this

Tntnnbltn · (10-09-2008, 03:32 PM)

Originally Posted by ickingfudiot:

[Awesome dev comments]

You sir have my $15.

bryehn · (10-09-2008, 03:32 PM)

$15? No thanks. Woulda bit at $10.

chubigans · (10-09-2008, 03:36 PM)

Originally Posted by bryehn:

$15? No thanks. Woulda bit at $10.

Serious question: Why is $5 more too much?

AndyD · (10-09-2008, 03:37 PM)

Originally Posted by ickingfudiot:

Three by default. I know, I know - we basically had to make the decision on whether to polish up and make those three really great, or churn out a bunch of not-as-good maps, we chose the former. The fourth map as stated is already complete and is slated for free DLC as soon as possible, and we've got more in progress, so it won't stay that way for long. We also felt like with most good games people tend to stick to a couple maps anyway, though I realize it goes against the general idea in games of bigger numbers = more value.

Seven cars with two skins each, not customizable beyond that. We really tried to make the game as "pure" as possible from a gameplay perspective and that's why you don't see any crazy customization or variation in the cars. If purely cosmetic customization is a big feature request we can certainly look into it for future DLC.

Edit: Yes, friend invites into unranked matches. You can also form a "registered" team which is basically a persistent way of registering a unique name for your "party" to play under, and serves as a separate ranked bracket (so there's basically solo ranked and team ranked, and then unranked games that you can invite friends into). You can then invite other PSN users to join your team and you play together, and you can also have your splitscreen players join in in lieu of remote players.

The MP sounds fantastic in terms of the variety and complexity.

Three, or I guess 4 is great. This may become the new game for my friends and I to play all the time in our living room. We play Calling All Cars and that only has a few maps as well, but they are well done. Too bad the online is virtually dead for that game.

As to cars, 14 choices are also great if the "Stats" are all the same.

All in all, looks and sounds good. And thank you for being responsive to both criticisms and praise as well as real questions.

Could we get a screenshot or hint as to what the 4th map environment will be?

BeEatNU · (10-09-2008, 03:40 PM)

Originally Posted by chubigans:

Serious question: Why is $5 more too much?

because people are cheap asses and they want their big mac meals.

on side note, I will be buying this game.

Dizzy-4U · (10-09-2008, 03:42 PM)

I'll buy it. I need more local multiplayer games and it also looks very good.

Riskbreaker23 · (10-09-2008, 03:55 PM)

do you need to download the demo first then purchase the game (unlock key) or are they two seperate downloads?

ickingfudiot · 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by andydumi:

The MP sounds fantastic in terms of the variety and complexity.

Three, or I guess 4 is great. This may become the new game for my friends and I to play all the time in our living room. We play Calling All Cars and that only has a few maps as well, but they are well done. Too bad the online is virtually dead for that game.

As to cars, 14 choices are also great if the "Stats" are all the same.

All in all, looks and sounds good. And thank you for being responsive to both criticisms and praise as well as real questions.

Could we get a screenshot or hint as to what the 4th map environment will be?

We're really hoping it will do well with the local multiplayer segment, we've had a ton of fun with it internally. We'll also probably be on tonight and for the next few days so hope to see some of you online, I think we'll all have Psyonix- tags in front of our PSN names.

I'm not sure what I can disclose about the fourth map, I'll check and see if I can give you a description or a screenshot.

Edit: Ok, I've been cleared to say it's "out of this world" but that's all I can give you =p

ickingfudiot · (10-09-2008, 03:59 PM)

Originally Posted by Riskbreaker23:

do you need to download the demo first then purchase the game (unlock key) or are they two seperate downloads?

They are separate.

ickingfudiot · (10-09-2008, 04:35 PM)

Our Playstation.Blog post is up with some info on our trophies:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/...morrow-on-psn/

Firestreak · (10-09-2008, 04:45 PM)

Conflicted here. I kinda wanna buy this game. But I feel a bit hypocritical, having called Braid and some of the other recent XBLA games over-priced. Then again this feels like a bigger budget game to me, that as a concept could work as a full title. Maybe I should just buy this and Braid, lol.

levious · (10-09-2008, 04:59 PM)

wow, the demo has online play too?

ickingfudiot · (10-09-2008, 05:01 PM)

Originally Posted by levious:

wow, the demo has online play too?

Yessir. It is limited to one map and you only get to play for a couple minutes (not a full match) but can do that as much as you want. We wanted to offer online play without it turning into a UT2004 situation where everybody plays the demo and doesn't buy the game.

xero273 · 05:51 PM

will try the demo

gbovo · (10-09-2008, 05:20 PM)

game looks nice. demo will decide whether or not I buy, though 3 maps is kinda small.

Annihilator · (10-09-2008, 05:26 PM)

definite try with the demo. will see if its a buy after that...

evilromero · (10-09-2008, 05:30 PM)

I definitely dig the look of this one. Big open tracks? Yes please.

Dante · (10-09-2008, 05:47 PM)

WOW this kinda came out of leftfield! Might be getting it depending on how good it is :)