GTR Evolution

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

WELCOME TO THE GREEN HELL!

- ‘GTR Evolution’ for PC from SimBin Delivers Horsepower-Heavy GT and WTCC Extreme Cars, plus Germany ’s Notorious Nordschleife Circuit -

SimBin Studios AB today announced the forthcoming release of GTR Evolution.  Developed by the multiple award winning Swedish studio SimBin Development Team and published by SimBin Studios AB, GTR Evolution takes GT and WTCC Extreme cars to the Green Hell of Nordschleife, the holy grail of racing.  Available as a stand alone game and also as an expansion pack for SimBin’s 2007 title RACE 07, GTR Evolution is scheduled for launch in 2008.

In addition to many other tracks, players of GTR Evolution will drive the modern version of the monumental track of Nürburgring Nordschleife along with the Nürburgring GP layout. Dubbed “The Green Hell” by racing legend Jackie Stewart, the track is revered and feared as the most difficult and treacherous track ever built.

“As the first PC game developer to get exclusive access to this track for reference, SimBin has been given a solid ground to work from and we hope that we will be able to give our fans a real hell, so to speak”, said Jay Ekkel with a smile, Producer at SimBin Development Team AB.

GTR Evolution for PC comes with 22 GT car models in 3 different classes plus a selection of exclusive production cars. Further to this SimBin adds WTCC Extreme, tuned concept cars based on the FIA WTCC cars.

“With rear wheel drive, extended body-kits and over 600hp the WTCC Extreme cars will give the GT cars a run for their money, said Diego Sartori, Creative Director at SimBin Studios AB.

GTR Evolution will be available as a stand alone game including all RACE 07 content, all in all 49 unique cars in 12 classes with over 500 variations and 19 tracks in over 40 different layouts including the new and legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. A GTR Evolution expansion pack for existing owners of RACE 07 will also be available.

“This is the biggest game ever from SimBin and a must have for all gamers and we hope that GTR Evolution will satisfy all race fans since it is packed with a broad variety of cars and new features that should attract the gamer that wants to have it all in one high quality game”, says Henrik Roos, CEO of the SimBin Group of companies.

 Scheduled for launch in 2008, GTR Evolution is distributed by Atari in Europe, Viva Media in the US and Akella in Russia . The release is scheduled for 2008 with detailed info to follow.


About the SimBin Group

SimBin Development Team AB is a Swedish game developer founded in 2003 and is a subsidiary of SimBin Studios AB. SimBin Development Team AB handles all the game productions in the group and develops racing games for all leading platforms.

SimBin Studios AB is the mother company, responsible for the publishing and IP rights for all productions developed within the SimBin group. SimBin Studios AB is also responsible for Business Development, Finances, Marketing, PR and administration.

 
The SimBin group is a privately owned group of Swedish companies that occupies a total staff of 70 people, consisting of 50 employees and 20 distributed consultant’s world wide.

In the SimBin portfolio you will find award winning racing titles like “GTR – The FIA GT Racing Game”, “GT Legends”,  “GTR 2 – The FIA GT Racing Game”, “RACE – The WTCC Game” and RACE 07 – The WTCC Game”. GTR and RACE are registered trademarks owned by the SimBin group.

For more info : http://www.simbin.com

Best Regards:
Mikkel Gram-Hansen

Mikkel Gram-Hansen
Web Manager
Mobile +66 87 28 38 945

E-mail: [email protected]

SimBin Studios AB
Stora Torget 4 | 534 31 Vara | Sweden
Phone: +46 512 819 70
Fax +46 512 197 39
www.simbin.com

So I guess this is GTR3.

[Simon Gymer]

That's a shame, they're basing it on RACE 07. Won't be worth it with that in mind as it's light years behind GTR2 for feel and gameplay so I'm not dropping GTR2 just for some new models when the game is not as good.

I'd really hoped GTR3 (Evolution as they're calling it) would be based on the GTR2 engine and not the RACE 07 engine.

Poop, looks like GTR2 will be the last decent GT racing game.

[Truetom]

I feel same as you, Sharky. 

TT

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I'll be waiting to try it before jumping to any conclusions. I still suspect that part of the problem in Race '07 is how the car physics are modelled - if this is partly a port of GTR2 cars plus some new ones it might feel like a totally different game.

[EdamSpeed]

Part of the reason for GTR1, GT Legends, and GTR2's "feel" was the prople behind it - Simbin as was, now Blimey.

The Simbin of now created Race07, and while I have to agree that Race07 doesn't feel the same as GTR2, lets not forget that the cars involved were wholly different.. Up until now that is..

I'm curious to know how the GTR cars will fit into the game environment that the new Simbin has created. You never know - they may be able to show us a thing or two, and if may offer a completely different feeling to the Race07 cars we currently have.

Remember that underlying all this, the game engine is essentially the same gMotor2. Provided they put the right figures into the game, it should feel 'right'.

And if this does well in sales, who knows - we might get another dose of the GTR series when Simbin move to the Lizard engine.

We'll see

[Mark J]

sounds interesting, wonder if they will release a demo of this add-on so we can try before we buy ?

I havent used Race enough to comment on the physics. Whats the problem with them then Simon? The few go's ive had with a couple of car types felt okay but not pushed anything hard and have got no comparison benchmarks for cars like caterhams, Rads etc. not having driven any of them. I thought you and DG tried them out at Brands before release? didnt you get an inkling then that not all was well? Are the WTCC cars very wrong then? Not even tried them.
I'm wary of slating the physics since thinking GTR2 was too easy when we first got it only to find the cars were easier to drive but not to drive very 'fast'.

[Simon Gymer]

The cars don't "feel" quite right and the ultimate test of what happens on the edge of grip is that they act oddly. Hard to explain, but there's something just not right about the physics and feel.

Sure I've had fun with RACE 07 (and will continue to do so), but it just doesn't feel right compared to GTR2.

The WTCC cars especially are odd. On the limit you seem to be able to do very unrealistic movements with the car that should be spitting it off into the gravel. It's like it's almost pinned to the floor in the middle of the car somehow and there's some canned extra grip somewhere that helps spin control. It's a little odd. The best feeling cars in RACE 07 are the Caterhams (once you've removed the understeer in the default setups). They are really the only cars in RACE 07 that makes me think the engine isn't as odd as I think it is.

[Mark J]

must admit when i tried the caterhams, they felt how i imagined they should. 

My big fear with Simbin, and its reflected with the interface and certain features of Race, is that they are steering towards the arcadey/games console market with these supposed racing 'sims'.
I know its all about shipping units at the end of the day to them, but they should at least provide a full 'simulation' or arcade option so we are all catered for, not a mish mash of the two.
Copping out on physics to enable a 10 year old to play is never going to guarantee continued success.

I hope the new release feels great, be cool to have a proper nordschliefe and use of the newer rain /graphic features with our GT cars.

[psuedo]

Strange, I feel pretty much the same with Race 07, something not quite right but nothing you can actually put a finger on. It does IMO feel a little more arcady than GTR2....as said above, so that the younger generation can handle it too.

So basing evolution on the race 07 game instead of GTR2 will be a mistake by Simbin as far as serious simmers are concerned. I would like to see them spend some time updating the cars, physics etc to represent the current GT championships....work on improving what they have already made sucessful instead of using time and resources to do something 'new'.

[Simon Gymer]

I would think the split between Simbin and Blimey (the coders of GTR2) means they either can't use the GTR2 source code to add on top of to make GTR3 or won't use the GTR2 source code to make GTR3.

[Tibernius]

I would think the split between Simbin and Blimey (the coders of GTR2) means they either can't use the GTR2 source code to add on top of to make GTR3 or won't use the GTR2 source code to make GTR3.

I'd bet on the first. If the coders leave the work remains theirs, so SimBin would likely have to pay royalties.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I'd bet on the first. If the coders leave the work remains theirs, so SimBin would likely have to pay royalties.

Most unlikely - an employer normally retains the retains all rights to code written by its employees.

[Tibernius]

Good point, I thought SimBin were the publishers but they aren't.

[spanner]

There has been no mention of official cars or if its based on a real life series so i'm more inclined to think they wont be espiecially with the logitech skin i've seen. Plus with the WTCC extreme class i think its going a bit console'y and they will make the wtcc extreme cars compete on track with the gt cars.

So they dont have the FIA licence then?

Err.. no'ones mentioned the fact they are going to model the Nordschleife which i would have thought people would rave about. Isnt that what people have been asking for, for so long?

[Simon Gymer]

Err.. no'ones mentioned the fact they are going to model the Nordschleife which i would have thought people would rave about. Isnt that what people have been asking for, for so long?

Zzzzz. Rubbish track for online racing. Ultimate real world track? I think not, it's just some fantastic B-Roads.