Roadsters '98

Titus slams on the brakes! Top French software house Titus, has announced a delay in the release of their forthcoming race game and potential Top Gear Overdrive rival, Roadsters ’98, pushing the title back from November to late December. Doh!

The game, from the people who brought you Automobili Lamborghini, offers you the chance to drive 20 different convertible roadsters at high speed around ten different tracks, including a tropical island, a busy city, mountainous countryside and a fast-paced racetrack.

Titus promises that Roadsters ’98 will feature ‘realistic special effects’ including skid marks, snow and smoke, with each track offering players new and different challenges. This will doubtless be welcomed by gamers who found Automobili Lamborghini’s tracks a little ‘samey’ and dull.

As with Lamborghini, Roadsters will allow up to four players to race simultaneously on every track, and an instant replay feature will allow you to view your driving mistakes in detail and thus learn from your errors. Let’s see that ag- [enough – Ed]

Another aspect which Titus have taken pains to perfect is the handling of each of the cars. To ensure that players won’t become frustrated with difficult-to-control vehicles, there will be the option to define the steering parameters yourself, presumably similar to the different steering set-ups you were offered in Top Gear Rally.

The most interesting of the tracks – at least in principle – has to be the city track. Titus describe it as featuring the “mad rush of downtown city traffic,” which suggests a tumultuous crush of assorted vehicles, although there are no screenshots as yet to illustrate this. It will be very interesting indeed to see whether the final game lives up to its advance propaganda!