General

BHMS: Let's start off with an introduction. Tell us who you are and your job title? I am sure our visitors would also like to read a bit about the company history, its games and basically what drives Milestone to continue producing racing titles.

Milestone: Hello, I�m Simone Bechini, producer of SCAR at Milestone, which is an Italian game developer based in Milano, Italy. Milestone has ten years history in the industry, during which it produced several successful racing games as Screamer, Superbike and Racing Evoluzione. More detail about the company can be found on our website.

BHMS: What audience are you targeting? What genre of racing will SCAR represent? Will SCAR be orientated to the (hardcore) sim- or more to the arcade racers?

Milestone: SCAR is an innovative racing game that aims to introduce some new issues in the genre. We focused on the driver psychology, both simulating emotions and mind dynamics and advanced AI behaviours.
For sure SCAR is not designed for hardcore simmers, like, for instance, GTR. BTW, as I�m an hardcore simmer myself, along with many of our developers, we spent a big effort on the game physics and handling, accurately modelling each and every car in the roster (there are 25 Alfa Romeos available) with appropriate behaviour in accordance with drivetrain, suspension stiffness, tires type and time of production.


BHMS: Is there a difference between the console and PC version? Are they developed independently or is one ported to another?

Milestone: There are specific PC enhancements, as well as unique features as the support of force feedback steering wheels.

Gameplay

BHMS: Tell us something about the game, how many tracks will it include? Will these tracks be fantasy tracks and/or real life tracks (if so which one)? What about the number of cars? Can we race different types of cars against each other?

Milestone: SCAR features 25 different Alfa Romeo models, ranging from current road vehicles to GTA �tuned� versions to real race cars, as the 156 racing in the touring car championship.
We also included a few historical models, including the most successful Alfa Romeos of the racing history of the company.
Talking about tracks, SCAR includes more than 20 courses of three different types: real tracks (as Laguna Seca, Donington Park, Hockenheimring and Valencia), road courses set in Italian locations (Toscana, Veneto, Sicilia and Campania) and city tracks set in Milano and Firenze.

BHMS: What can you tell us about the damage model? Does it include both visual as well as mechanical failures?

Milestone: Damage is visually displayed, and there�s an indicator that shows the amount of �car condition� � once it gets to zero, the car is wrecked and race is over.


BHMS: What kind of game modes can we expect?

Milestone: Normal races, special races with unique, fast and challenging AI opponents and a few challenges that offer to the player a different than usual drive modes. Finally, SCAR features a Time Assault mode with online access to best time boards, where players can see their best performance published and share ghost laps with other people.

BHMS: Will there be dynamic weather and/or day/night transitions?

Milestone: Nope.

Graphics

BHMS: Graphics are an important factor for a lot of gamers, what can you tell us about the graphics engine and detail of the graphics in SCAR?

Milestone: Our graphic engine is based on Renderware, which allowed us the parallel development of the PS2 and XBOX versions. The graphics engine supports variable resolutions with high frame rate, and a number of light effects like specular, real-time environment, glow, particles and so on.


BHMS: We receive a lot of questions from our visitors, who would like to know if the game will have a cockpit view? What can you tell us about the camera modes?

Milestone: No cockpit view, unfortunately, but we have two �first person� cameras from bumper and bonnet and two external cameras, with different sound effects.

Hardware/Controllers

BHMS: Can you tell us something about the hardware requirements to run this game? Will it be DirectX 9 complaint?

Milestone: SCAR requires DirectX 9.0c and a 3D Video Card with at least 64 MB.

BHMS: How does SCAR handle the configuration of hardware devices, such as wheels, pedals and other controllers?

Milestone: We support all DirectPlay compatible peripherals, including steering wheels and force feedback devices, a special feature of the PC version.

BHMS: Will there be native support for peripherals such as TrackIR and Ivibe?

Milestone: Nope.

Multiplayer

BHMS: Will SCAR feature multiplayer racing over the Internet and LAN? Realistically, how many clients per server will SCAR support and will it have a dedicate server feature?

Milestone: No online game is available in SCAR, only split-screen mode and the online board of best times on each track, which publishes the best performances and makes the ghost laps available for everybody.

Physics

BHMS: Blackhole Motorsports� visitors are mostly hardcore sim-racers, who are very interested in the physics of the game. What can you tell us about the physics of the game?

Milestone: The physics are absolutely accurate. We spent an awful lot of time in developing and constantly improving our driving model, BEFORE putting in any RPG issue. SCAR features an accurate simulation engine, and each car has been accurately modeled from a technical standpoint, so each and every car offers different handling and reactions, according to suspension stiffness, tires performance, drivetrain and so on.

BHMS: Will each car have its own physics?

Milestone: It does, for sure. We spent a huge effort in tuning each and every car in the game, and to make it feel appropriate and different from each other.

Sounds

BHMS: What can you tell us about the sounds? Did you use real life samples for engines?

Milestone: We had the opportunity to record each and every single engine we put into the game: I think the engine sound is very important for a racing title, so we paid a lot of attention to this issue, and we�re very satisfied with the result we achieved.

Modding

BHMS: An important factor in racing games nowadays is the option to �mod� the game? Will SCAR support modding and to what degree?

Milestone: SCAR will not support modding, even if we�re looking with growing interest at the modding community, and we�re looking to introduce an �open� architecture for our next titles.

BHMS: We would like to thank you for speaking with us about your upcoming game. We would also like to thank our visitors for submitting their questions to us.

Milestone: Thanks to you, nice talking with you! Bye!