So there’s this game that came out in 2008 for the 360 and PS3 called Fuel. It’s a racing game with generic rules and gameplay, but what’s so interesting about it is it’s size.
The entire game map itself is 14,000 square kilometers.
Just a little smaller than the state of Conneticut. 14 times larger than Just Cause 2 and even more than WoW.
Normally that’d be way too big to fit on a single DVD, but the way they managed it is through procedural generation; algorithms inside the disk that generate the world when you load it in your console.
Obviously this is nothing compared to games like Battlescape or Kerbal, but i still find it interesting that other developers managed something so amazing. I’m sure i heard somewhere the two use the same method for there planets and size, but i forget.
That is how Inovae pulled it off, right?
Unfortunately the game didn’t do so well. Apparently even though the technology was amazing the game itself was underwhelming, but I’ve managed to have a great time playing it so far.
Good catch. I find it interesting that Star Citizen has great gaming ideas but are technologically challenged, while Elite Dangerous has the technology but suck at gaming. It is my sincere hope that I-Novae can get the combination right. Because great graphics with little to do is just as bad as great gaming but a ridiculous cap on players and never ending engine problems.
I played that game when it came out, it’s one of the worst racing games in existence. Let me explain how the actual races work, you are given a random track somewhere in the world, that track is separated into sections that are timed. The problem comes in with other racers, basically at every checkpoint some random person that played online or even yourself from the previous lap is spawned as one of the racers. It’s not a single AI that races against you, it’s AI that is stiched from other people and yourself for that particular section of the track. The horrific reality is that if you play the track a few times or even less you could end up racing against yourself from the previous laps. I had races where 4/5 other AIs were me from the previous race, you won’t believe the frustration that comes from racing yourself, especially since the best time for the sections is usually when you overshot the checkpoint and crashed immediately afterwards, but the AI would take that run and pit it against yourself.
/rant off
Huge premise, could have been revolutionary, horrible execution, RIP.
Its a shame, I wanted to get the game, but it was already nowhere to be found. Theres a mod for the pc version, which might mitigate your ai problem: http://www.moddb.com/mods/fuel-refueled
