Taxi Racer London 2

Taxi Racer London 2 – Game City, November 17th

Taxi Racer London 2 is a new spin on the hugely popular classic franchise and adds a whole host of new features, modes, and car upgrades to the popular arcade-style racing game. Set between the events in the first game and its sequel, the game features a wide range of iconic Italian chariots and cars, including the popular ‘Butch Pass’, German trapezek, and more. In addition, there are even more additions and improvements to the already hugely popular franchise. “The new UK map will appeal to different drivers, but, as the new number of players,” says producer Pérez Leupp. “There’s an element of interactivity that works well with the game, particularly for newer players.” For example, when players use the right control stick, the cars accelerate with more speed and speed. On top of that, speed boost – if you’ve got the right control stick, you’ll have a much quicker off the track at first.

Adding the rumble feature, which was first introduced in the second game, is part of the improvements made to the offline multiplayer experience. An expanded version of the original asynchronous race that included new ways of communication to the driver’s side, linking player profiles and events together, was also added. “The biggest addition with F1 2010 is online multiplayer,” says Leupp. “Our multiplayer supports up to 10 players and splitscreen on each console, and for PS3 and Xbox 360.”

Online racing on Xbox 360 has always been a favourite of mine, but has always been conspicuous by the lack of an offline F1 game to speak of. Not so, says Leupp. “Multiplayer for Xbox 360 was more of a drag race where there were only one button – in the PS3 version you’re tapping one button at a time. We went back and forth and had two different types of competitions – the circuit and the cup – with three tracks – but that’s a challenge to achieve with F1 2010 and we think it’s worth the effort.”

Multiplayer has always been the focus of the F1 series, but Codemasters has gone so far as to have you pit your F1 drivers against each other in a series of tight rallies. The feedback from its fans has been incredibly positive.

The game’s development teams have taken some of the steps away from the realism of the sport. “We have only got four teams and two events,” says Paul Marino, “because of the hard work the teams put into making the game this realistic. You see, we have actually gotten pretty into the feel of the game from being the top player, being the first player to go to the cup and compete against them. That’s pretty cool and it’s a very interesting step for us.”

The most controversial mode, which is arguably the biggest change in F1 2010, is the auction house. A short time ago, the social networking features were pretty woeful, but with F1 2010, F1 fans will no longer be stuck buying it to set up accounts and then sell it on for a profit. These changes have taken a turn for the better. “We have a fairly big community that are paying really big salaries to put together a team,” says Marino. “They will see this as a negative feature, it’s going to be really, really cool. It’s really not a feature that we’re going to put on people’s to buy, it’s an extremely important feature.”

Another change, where the administrators have to actively decide where they want their players to be using their kit, is that you have to use the kit to decide which kit is using which kit. “It’s a really big piece of kit. We can do everything on the kit. We’ve got the flexibility of a lot of equipment in our kit, and you can kit it out in this way, and you can take all of that stuff and it can be done by any of the players in the team.”

“You can set it to be a group that can’t be just four players, it can be just four players. We do have the flexibility of a bunch of operators who are, basically, friends, and it’s really big to keep you on the roster. It’s really important to keep you on the roster, and what you’re using to keep you on the team.”

The game has a pretty neat concept for player switching that enables them to change their kit and have it do a whole bunch of things, rather than just just set things at random.