Down at the races
Juice has taken their inspiration from the superb drift mechanics of Sega Rally and want to make drift racing fun, realistic and relatively easy to learn. In single player mode, drift racing will take the form of solo races, where we'll need to beat a high score to win the challenge or twin races where we'll compete against an AI racer. According to Juice, the physics model for drifting will differ between drift challenges and drifting in circuit races. Exactly how it differs I don't know yet, but we've been told that it will be a subtle change. Juice has promised a good variety of drift tracks to test out our skills, including a multi-story car park, named 'Vortex' and a ride around the Sydney Opera House. The visual and audio impact of drifting has been accurately captured, the front wheels point in the opposite direction of the turn, sparks fly when you scrape against barriers, skid marks appear on the road during sharp turns and smoke rises from the burning rubber during slides.
Circuit racing will be self explanatory to any fan of racing games. The nitrous boost will play a large part in Juiced 2, both offline, but more importantly online. Players will receive a full nitrous boost meter at the beginning of each race. Once the boost has been used, we'll then be able to fill it back up by power sliding. Due to the huge advantage of using the nitrous boost at strategic points on a track, power sliding will become a necessary skill to master if anyone wishes to compete successfully online and rise up the leader-boards. The best racers will need to know every inch of the track in order to maximise its use; make no mistake about it, strategic racing will be at the heart of Juiced 2's gameplay.
Click for larger imageFurther tactical elements come into play with the use of 'spook', a feature which is only available offline. 'Spooking' will involve driving into an AI opponent's slip stream for a set amount of time in order to fill a 'spook' meter. Once the meter is filled, the opponent will suffer car handling problems that may cause them to temporarily lose control of their car. 'Spooking' will be made more efficient when used on corners and, if timed correctly, could result in an opposition racer crashing into the barriers. 'Spooking' is an interesting addition which I'm looking forward to trying out.