Ever heard of a MMORG? Notice the missing P, MMORG stands for Massive Multiplayer Racing Game, and Project Torque is the first that I've personally seen in this new genre. Basically, in Project Torque, you race for experience points. As you get more experience, you can buy upgrades for your car. I've been spending some time playing this game, and at first glance, I think it's a great game. The controls are customizable and you can set your own music tracks to play while racing. I found the handling to be fairly realistic, but the internal view seems to handle better than the external view. Thanks to tbreeden for helping me to understand how to gain experience in the game:
For Project Torque generally the experience is based on difficulty of
the map/race, number of laps (distance), clean sector (no hitting other
players or objects), car odds, and what place you finish in. Amateur
races are ghosted (no crashing other players) and only receive 80% of
the xp that you get from pro vs rooms. Then there are the fun modes,
which do give points but isnt really the best way to get them. Also you
only get the points if you complete the race/game, if you quit a race
you do not get any points.
Project Torque has several features, some of which are standard for a MMO and some which are obviously specific to this interesting new category in the massive multiplayer game genre.
Game Features:
- MMORG (Massively Multiplayer Online Racing Game)
- Cutting Edge 3D Graphics
- Several Types of Game Modes
- 8 Player Races (Expanding to 32 Players per Race)
- Advanced Experience and Licensing System
- Online Community features like Chat and Email within the Client
- Shop and Item Mall for Upgrades and Car Customization
- Online Rankings
- Tournaments
Below is some screenshots I took in game. Setting are on 1280x1024x32, everything on high.
Project Torque is entering open beta soon according to their site (all closed beta accounts will be wiped so now is the time to practice). Here's the announcement:
The last full day of Closed Beta is 9/30. We will be bringing down our
Closed Beta servers on 10/1. We will then bring the game servers back
online on 10/5 for our Open Beta!
This weekend we will be having bonus XP running with some MASSIVE RP
giveaway events. Join us for our end of Closed Beta/start of Open Beta
celebration!!
To see what's in store for you, check out our production notes here.
There will be several new updates and additions in the open beta phase, some of which are in testing now.
CB testing:
- Explorer Mode - casual, open driving environment
- New GUI
- New game mode & lobby selection options
- Newsbar
- New Stock Car
- New Fantasy Car
- Many Bug fixes
- Several New Tracks
- Stock Car Mode: Thunder Alley - larger game rooms, Stock-Car racing tracks, setting, and rules
- New US Track - this track is amazing
- Test Driving
- Reorganized game lobbies based on player feedback
- Bug Fixes
Internal Testing:
- Various Bug Fixes
Current Development Schedule:
- Licensed Manufacturer Vehicles (There were hints about a couple of these vehicles in the game previously)
- Sponsor Girls
- New Consumable Items
- Lap Time & Race Rankings
- RP and XP balancing for all modes and tracks
- Girls everywhere!!!
- Progression modifications
- Competitive Seasons
- Elo competitive rankings
- Challenge Mode
- More to come
There you have it. I didn't have much problem getting into closed beta, so feel free to register here. If you already have an account because you play Last Chaos, then it gets even easier. Remeber, open beta starts on October 5th, so see you on the track!
Project Torque Official Site
