Interview: Fabio Paglianti on WRC

We met with Game director Fabio Paglianti to get more details on the first WRC game in a long time to find a home on platforms outside of the Playstation family.

WRC is obviously a very sophisticated game in terms of realism - you are doing a simulation. How many players can take such a level of realism? Isn't the game automatically a niche product?

No, I don't think so. We created a physical simulation engine for the car. All the real reactions depending on the surfaces, the bumpers or the grip are there. But we also created different layers of aid, so everyone can experience a rally game. For example, the stability aid helps you to do a powerslide without any problems. When you play the game with a steering wheel is gets more realistic of course, you can feel the gravel and hearing the skidding sound of each different wheel so you can understand when start loosing grip. But nevertheless, the game has been created with the idea of aids, which allow every player to be a rally driver. To drive a rally car it takes a completely different style compared to a normal car. We also have a brake assistant, which brakes for you and you will learn to understand when you need to break and you can then reduce the power of that aid or completely shut it off. It's up to the player to choose the individual driving style.

Can we choose between all cars right at the start of the game?

It's not a must for the player to play everything in the career mode, but if you want to unlock everything in the game you have to do this. It's your choice. But at the start of the regular game everything is available: all the cars, all the game modes, all the teams. Only in the career you start with a local class car and work your way up.

How far away are you from finalizing the game?

We are almost complete, about 90 percent. We are fixing some bugs along the tracks, some bushes that are still in the way, some trees that don't load properly, some buildings that are not realistic enough. We are polishing, that is the main focus right now. We also put more crowds in there, more animated objects.

Having tried all the steering wheel options for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 I have realised that they all play a lot differently...

It depends on the different models, their presets and their individual characteristics.

But can you modify and adjust your very own steering wheel?

We created a system inside the controller options where you can setup the steering wheel. You can not only customize the buttons, but you can define the deadzones for the steering and the pedals. It works fine with all the steering wheels, but obviously there are some models that work better than others. Also there are some models like the Fanatec for Xbox 360 that do not allow the game to set the Force Feedback because it's defined by the steering wheel itself. But in general we have a lot of sliders to set up the steering wheels properly. We support about 40 steering wheels for all platforms. We cover the market very well.

Do you offer dynamic weather effects?

No, for this year we have presets. We decided to put the locations in the weather conditions they are in when the rally takes place. So it's fixed, but each location has a very unique lightning and weather condition. The tracks look very typical, very characteristic. Grass, trees, bushes, monuments, landscapes, environment - the idea is to recreate an area and give is the look the driver has when he actually takes part in the rally.

How come the German rally doesn't look like as if would be in Germany but like in Italy?

That area is very, very strange where the rally is in Germany. It's the only area in Germany that I know where there is wine production in the countryside, a military base you have to cross and a city track close together. So in Trier (name of the City) we have these three locations in one rally, that is very uncommon, but it looks very similar to the original. We also included the Porta Nigra, the famous monument.

Do you have any guys in-house that have actual rally experience?

Absolutely, yes. Irvin Zonca, who is responsible for the gameplay experience, was a driver and also followed a friend as a co-driver. Also we all had some rally experience as co-drivers with pro-drivers - and this was very, very exiting. They worked us through everything: handbraking, counter-steering and extreme speed, it was terrible, very terrible, because you are completely shocked by the car. A very different experience.

Is there a focus on PC or on consoles, because the old WRC games were all published on consoles?

No. We want a rally experience for everyone, so everyone gets the same experience. Our steering wheel support will most likely be most appreciated by the PC players because it's very complex and they are more used to tweak the sliders on their way to become a pro driver. But a console player can now tweak the steering wheel in the exact same matter.

If you look at the F1 2010 from Codemaster - they try to add more RPG features to the game. Is that something you have thought about?

Yes, we did at the very beginning. We also thought about a rewind feature. But for the first year we want to stay realistic, maybe we add some of that stuff later. We want to give a complete, realistic and accessible rally experience to the player, that is enough for this year. Next year we work hard to add more stuff like that, we need to improve with more complex layers we add.

Did you think about using 3D tech at all?

We start to think about that, it's a new feature in video games, so maybe you will see that next year.

About the licences, the Gran Turismo 5 makers are also telling everybody that they hold a WRC-license...

Their content is old, limited to everything until three years ago. They have a different rally experience style too and also the general Gran Turismo driving style is very different. The feeling of Gran Turismo 5 is not one of rally. We also have the official license with all the recent cars, drivers, locations. But most importantly: WRC gives you a true rally driving feeling.