Volvo is giving an insight into the driving characteristics of its S60 Concept with the release of an innovative new PC-based racing challenge called Volvo - The Game. Available to download free from www.volvocars.co.uk/S60concept. The game features five of Volvo's racing legends, as well as the new S60 Concept. It was developed between Volvo Car Corporation and multiple award-winning Swedish game studio, the SimBin Development Team.
The six cars include the new Volvo S60 Concept, the Volvo C30 currently competing in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, the previous Volvo S60 that competed in the STCC, the Volvo S40 that notched up many notable successes in the British Touring Car Championship, the Volvo 850 - a racing wagon that became legendary in the BTCC - and finally a true racing classic from the past, a Group A Volvo 240 Turbo.
Players select their favorite Volvo to test their skills on one of the two highly authentic tracks. The tracks are the Gothenburg Eco Drive Arena in Sweden and Chayka outside Kiev in the Ukraine - making this the only virtual racing game in the world to feature the Ukrainian track.
A team of 15-20 people worked together to create Volvo - The Game with the aim of making it as realistic as possible. The game developers have invested thousands of hours to get all the details exactly right. Just "building" a car for a racing game takes about one month. As is the case with the real cars, the six in this game each have different driving characteristics. The classic Volvo 240 Turbo, for instance, handles very differently compared with the latest newcomer, the Volvo S60 Concept.
In order to recreate the older cars' interiors as authentically as possible, the designers visited the Volvo Museum to study the former racing legends. To add further authenticity, game engineers also pulled one of the racecars out of hibernation and gave it a full-speed workout, recording the engine sound at the race track.
The two tracks have been reproduced with detail and immense precision. It takes about 1000 hours to create a virtual track. Even the curbs are exactly the same height as the real track.
Volvo - The Game can be played with a steering wheel and pedals connected to the computer. It is also possible to operate the car via the PC's keyboard or with a game-pad. The game offers a choice of skill levels: "novice" with all the driver assistance technology activated such as ABS brakes, the next level up is "semi-pro", and finally "pro" where there is no assistance whatsoever.
The team from SimBin Development had previously been responsible for such games as "GTR - The FIA GT Racing Game", "GT Legends", "GTR 2 - The FIA GT Racing Game", "RACE - The WTCC Game", "RACE 07 - The WTCC Game", "GTR Evolution" and "STCC The Game". So they are very experienced at creating authentic racing games.