By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

TIMEZONE has unveiled its newest driving game at the recently concluded Celebrity Open held at the Trinoma Activity Center — Sega’s Ford Racing: Full Blown.

Here is a video interview I conducted with Timezone Philippines president and general manager Raffy Prats. The video also gives a sneak peek at Ford Racing: Full Blown.

The game features various cars from Ford Motors Co. These are categorized into Classic, Modern, Racing/Touring, Concept, and Off-Road. Examples of some of the cars included are the 1965 Mustang Mach 1, the Focus 2003, the GT 500, the Shelby Mustang Concept, and the Ford trucks.

Prats mentioned that they currently have eight units, with four tentatively going to the SM Megamall branch of Timezone. As of this writing, they are still determining whether the other four units will end up in TriNoma, Glorietta or the Mall of Asia.

Since hackenslash was there, we decided to give it a whirl after the celebrities had their fun with it. The game has the following controls: a force feedback steering wheel, gas and brake pedals, and a tiptronic transmission short shift knob, that is located on the seat for some reason. There are three buttons on the left side: Start, View, and Credit.

The gameplay itself took a bit of getting used to as with all driving simulators. But after I spun out with the GT 500 I realized that it might not be the machine, but rather my driving. So on my next go I got one of the modern hatchbacks of Ford rather than the GT 500 and soon enough after a rough start, I was driving pretty well. It was my driving style, my bad.

The tracks featured varied terrains and the great thing with the force feedback wheel was that whenever you hit a little dirt, the vibrations mimicked the real thing, and when you end up using the dirt as a shortcut, the effect on the car is the same; at a certain speed, you will spin out. And spin out a lot I did — my bad, trying to use a 500 horsepower machine like a tractor, plowing across grass at over a hundred miles per hour!

There is a left foot rest at the pedals. Those who drive an automatic know that this is a very important addition to the car when its transmission is automatic, as having a foot rest for your left foot which does nothing most of the time when driving an automatic, is actually relaxing. For those who don’t drive, it’s a rule for normal driving that the left foot is never ever used for stepping on the brakes.

The surroundings and background are pretty dynamic, and there is a feeling of motion as the tracks have great scenic effects including lens flares and sunlight reflecting on the cars themselves. Each car handles differently, which adds a certain amount of realism to the game. Cars that can handle rougher terrain don’t have problems when they slip out of the road a little, while the performance cars spin out easily on rough patches.

There is a single-player mode and the linked multiplayer mode, which as far as I saw can handle up to six linked units. The artificial intelligence of the game is relentless but not indestructible. What might be a difficult thing to master is the shift knob found on the seat. Not all these cars originally had tiptronic shifting and it felt strange to use it with the Mustang Mach 1, but it was all right with the GT 500.

As far as the roster of Timezone driving games goes, this is a great addition. Instant gratification is a good thing for those virtual drivers feeling the need… the need for speed.