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Footage of cancelled racing game by Bizarre Creations

TimmiT

Member
Chris Davie, who was an art director at Bizarre before it closed down, posted footage of a cancelled racing game they were working on.

Here's the first video, which used the Blur engine and assets to try out new visual effects: http://chrisdavie.tumblr.com/post/39865111827/brighton-storm-prototype-this-is-part-of-a
Brighton Storm Prototype

This is part of a prototype from 2010 of an unannounced, unfinished project we were working on at Bizarre Creations when the company was shut down.

We took tech and assets from Blur, and used them to try out some new ideas.

This video shows us trying out some new visual effects, partly just because we thought it would be cool, and partly to see how more intense effects would effect the player’s experience (i.e. is driving through a storm shooting and dodging weapons fun and exciting or stupid and annoying).

So we built a load of big storm effects into the Brighton level from Blur and did some fancier animated turn markers.

The ‘Shunt’ power up also got an overhaul from the big red ball in Blur, to a big refractive energy pulse here. This new one would throw tear up the road as it homed in on its target, leaving a trail of broken tarmac and scattered, twisted lampposts.

We were pretty pleased with the results, some of the fullscreen effects when you were in the wake of the power up were a bit intense, but overall it was really fun.

Here's the second video, in which a new engine is used with a stage set in Dubai: http://chrisdavie.tumblr.com/post/39869032056/dubai-this-was-the-final-thing-being-worked-on-at
Dubai

This was the final thing being worked on at Bizarre Creations when the company was closed down, it’s the same unannounced, unreleased project from earlier, but approaching alpha.

We were using a whole new engine at this point that had been developed internally, it was really nice tech that we sadly never got to ship a game with. When we were told the project was being canned and that the studio was facing closer, I bloody mindedly decided to keep working on the art on this track, so much work had gone into the game already, it seemed a shame that nobody would get to play a finished track, even the dev team, so my goal was to get this Dubai track as close to final as I could before the lights went out for good.

A couple of guys chipped in here and there and got some nice new bits for their (soon to be required) portfolios, and I started grabbing old assets from previous projects to fill in bits of the scene that hadn’t been started.

By the end it had gotten to about an alpha level, there was some really nice things in there, though we still needed to add a load of destructible objects inside the shopping mall and tram station we drive through in the video, and inside the hotel lobby of the building we drive on the outside of here. More animated scenery like the trams too, but time just ran out.

I was pretty pleased with the way we got the glass looking using a nice normal map to give the surface some imperfections, the smashing effect when you drove on it was coming along nicely too.

It’s a shame this thing will never be played, but at least it still lives on in some way in these videos

Looked pretty cool imo. I guess it's a good thing it didn't get too far into development as much more work would have been for nothing, but still a shame that it got cancelled. (and that the studio got shut down of course)
 

Skyzard

Banned
Blur 2 looks amazing.

:'(

Blur was so much fun, had a lot of confidence in the developers after that game and would have picked up anything they worked on. That low camera angle on the Dubai track footage sets them back a bit though. Anyway, thanks for posting....sort of
 

jediyoshi

Member
My heart sinks a bit every time I read bizarre creations
And now Blur isn't even on Steam anymore, there's no justice
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
that looks awesome. bit split second-ish, but gorgeous
 

Shion

Member
Looks like a modern version of San Francisco Rush.

Oh Bizarre, you're still one of my favorite developers ever.
 
I see videos like this and it just makes me angry. Angry at gamers who don't buy racing games anymore because "they're boring," but will pick up another fucking Call of Duty piece of shit, and angry at publishers who's only bottom line is money, with little regard for the art or the craft. Publishers who have no business gobbling up developers they just just discard on a moment's whim. And angry at this generation of gaming, which had far more slippery slopes than it did anything else. RIP Bizarre Creations.
 

Slermy

Member
that looks awesome. bit split second-ish, but gorgeous

It bothers me to no end that we had both Blur and Split/Second came out a week apart. I personally bought both day one, but they really killed the market for both of them. Should have just come up with a gentleman's agreement to stagger the releases.

Not that it's related, but Stuntman is another racing-ish game that I would have liked to see more of. The current gen one was pretty awesome, and fixed so many flaws of the original PS2 game.
 

Flavius

Member
Why the fuck didn't Microsoft pick up these guys again?

Nevermind, pretty sure we've danced that dance around here several dozen times already. PGR4 still spins up in my machine every few weeks or so. Beautiful game that is a ton of fun to play, several years after release.
 

Soul_Pie

Member
This is just depressing to me.

Damn it looked good too, going on the side of the building like that was awesome.

Also, can I throw a "fuck activision" in here?
 

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Project Gotham Racing 2, and GeoWars 2, are amazing games. Damn you Activision/MS.
 
That plot twist in the second video :O

Is that the first time Brighton has been in a game? I was there a week ago, they nailed it.

My PGR nostalgia, hnnggghh.
 

Flavius

Member
This footage is very polished for being unfinished or a prototype.

The poster/ex-BC guy explained in his posts that he and a couple of other staffers went back and polished things up a bit, for both the sense of satisfaction in showing off their new engine (fuck!) and to add to their portfolios (double fuck!).
 

benzy

Member
That plot twist in the second video :O

Is that the first time Brighton has been in a game? I was there a week ago, they nailed it.

My PGR nostalgia, hnnggghh.

All of their cities are rendered pretty accurately.

from pgr3.

1137102836_comparison2.jpg


1137102943_comparison4.jpg
 

VariantX

Member
I see videos like this and it just makes me angry. Angry at gamers who don't buy racing games anymore because "they're boring," but will pick up another fucking Call of Duty piece of shit, and angry at publishers who's only bottom line is money, with little regard for the art or the craft. Publishers who have no business gobbling up developers they just just discard on a moment's whim. And angry at this generation of gaming, which had far more slippery slopes than it did anything else. RIP Bizarre Creations.

The death of the mid-tier developers and publisher just stings even more.
 

m23

Member
Damn, what a shame we'll never get to play this. Does anyone have any idea about how many people from Bizarre Creations joined Playground Games?
 

Jhoan

Member
The effects look pretty sweet in the first video.

I love the reflections in the second video and the driving on the side of the building towards the end of the video looks like it would have been exhilarating. The amount of work that he put into that last video really shows.
 

Vire

Member
Makes me want to cry. Honestly loved Bizarre Creations dearly...

That second video shows so much promise.

What a damn shame.
 
Graphics look great, gameplay looks like shit.

I'm sick of these straighline "racers" that have maybe 2 turns in the average race and roads wider than the the autobahn with cars that feel like they weigh 10 tons.
 

TimmiT

Member
Graphics look great, gameplay looks like shit.

I'm sick of these straighline "racers" that have maybe 2 turns in the average race and roads wider than the the autobahn with cars that feel like they weigh 10 tons.
The second video looked pretty open to me. Also note that this is very early footage.
 
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