Joel Szerlip caught up with Juiced Games' programmer, Jamie Campbell, to talk about their upcoming racer, Juiced for the PS2, Xbox and PC.
Hi first can you tell us your name and a little bit about Juiced?
My name is Jamie Campbell, and I am a programmer at Juice Games in the UK.
Juiced is the ultimate car modification and street racing game for PS2, Xbox and PC. Juiced is based around respect for skilful driving, and respect is what you'll need to progress through your career.
Can you tell us about some of the game's key features?
Juiced offers over 50 licensed cars and licensed aftermarket parts. This, combined with 104 tracks, several different times of day, and varying weather conditions, makes Juiced one of the most complete gaming experiences around. The game also offers many different online game modes, allowing you to go up against other Juiced fans and see who is the most skilled driver with the most tricked-out car. Juiced offers an in-depth career mode, but also a pick-up and play arcade mode, allowing you to get into some truly pimped machines and experience all areas of the city before you come across them in your career.
We have heard a lot about the ability to customize your ride in the game could you elaborate a bit on how the customization system works?
Juiced offers over 7.9 TRILLION combinations of cars and modifications. That means everyone can have a unique car that represents their unique personality both in-game, and also when they go online.
Visual Modifications include licensed body kits from companies such as Veilside and Bomex. You can change wheels (and paint them), spoilers, hoods, side skirts, fenders, and also add decals, which can be custom colored to match your car. You can vary the tint of your glass, and add or remove manufacturers decals, depending on whether you want to show off your mods or go for the 'sleeper' look. Juiced gives you the ability to add neons and customize the color of your dials. Gain respect points by upgrading your in-car entertainment system! You can even modify the sound of your horn! Juiced offers more customization options than you can imagine.
The performance mods in Juiced include: Induction Systems, Suspension and Ride Height, Exhausts, Gear Ratios, Brakes, Tires, Turbos, Nitrous kits and Super chips, and again, we have many licensed manufacturers for the authentic feel.
Remember - all engine mods and bodykits affect the performance and handling of your car.
A three pass paint job finishes the customization nicely, with a base color, metallic effect and a pearlescent layer. Choose any colors you like, and you'll have a Juiced car different to everyone else.
7.5 trillion combinations? That sounds very impressive. And how about this Crew Racing feature we've been hearing? What exactly is it and how will it work in the game?
During your career in Juiced, you will be approached by AI characters wanting to join your 'crew'. Having a crew allows you to enter specific events such as 3 against 3 team races. Each crew member has a skill and composure level. Skill levels increase the more races you enter the character into - composure affects the way they handle pressure whilst driving. Juiced's unique DISTRESS system (Driver Induced Stress) means that if drivers are harassed on the track, they can become stressed and make mistakes. The higher the composure level, the harder it is to stress them out. You, as crew leader, control the aggression level of your individual crew mates during races, telling them to push harder for the lead, or drive more defensively to protect their position.
Once you have mastered this, take your crew online and compete against other crews. Don't forget - Juiced has world rankings for crews as well as single players!
Great to know Juiced will feature online play. Mind elaborating on what we can expect to do online?
Juiced has loads of online game options, both instant races and events tied in with your career. You can race circuits, point to point races, showoffs, sprints and most interestingly, pink slips. Pink slip races mean you can gamble your best car against another human player online. If you win, you get an extra car for your collection. If you lose - your car is gone for good! Juiced offers vast numbers of stats such as laptimes, showoff scores and world rankings.
Online showoffs allow you to perform Tony Hawk-style driving moves (requiring skill and precision) to score points. Compete online in real-time against other players to see who can outperform the rest. This mode is also available in offline mode!
Cool. If you had to pick one car from the game to drive to work everyday, which would it be and why?
I think it would have to be the Viper, although I'm not sure what my insurance company would say about that. Its lines are just fantastic, and the sound of that engine! Can I also have an NSX for weekends please?
Great choices. Now can you tell us how the career mode will work?
There are 9 different areas of Angel City, and different game modes (attend/bet, race, pink slip and host) are unlocked in these areas depending on how much respect you have from the crew leader based there. You start of being able to attend races without taking part and bet on the outcome to earn cash. As respect for you increases you can race or send members of your AI 'crew' to race for you and gain experience. Increase your respect further and Juiced offers 'pink slip' racing with these crew leaders, the winner taking both cars, and the loser getting nothing.
The aim of the game is to achieve (and maintain) maximum respect in all areas of the city, allowing you to host your own custom designed events whenever you choose. The crew leaders aren't faceless, they are real characters you can interact with and they will let you know exactly what they think of your driving! Each crew leader respects a different aspect of gameplay, such as circuit racing, betting, pink slip racing, sprinting (drag racing), car collections etc, so you need to be skilled in all disciplines to achieve full respect. Events are accessed through a calendar, and you never know what events might be just around the corner! Don't forget that you can lose respect by performing badly, so just because you have 100% respect now doesn't mean you will have tomorrow…..
Sounds like a great incentive for gamers to be on their toes all the time. And what kind of impact does the damage system play into the game?
Damage is very important in the game. Juiced is based around precision street racing and respect. If you damage your car, you have to pay to repair it - just as you would in real life. If you damage someone else's car whilst racing, they might start to lose respect for you. No-one will respect you for driving around in a wreck, so if you damage your car, get it back to the workshop and make it look good again. While you're there, why not try a different color scheme, or visit the tuning shop and check out the results on the dynamometer?
What is your favorite feature in Juiced and why?
My favorite feature in Juiced would have to be the Sprint Racing. Manual gears, more tire smoke than you can believe, and a truly quick blast of adrenaline. A poorly timed gear change, or nitrous used at the wrong point and it's over. Get it right, and it's so satisfying to leave the rest behind!
I'm sure it will be a fun choice for others as well. What about the aural aspects of the game? Do you feature realistic sounds of the cars and in-game soundtracks?
For Juiced, we have recorded all of the actual cars in the game, to give a true sense of realism. Each car sounds as it would in real life. When you start adding some of Juiced's many performance mods, the sound of your car will change accordingly. A stock exhaust doesn't sound the same as a performance one, and this is reflected in the game. Add a turbo, and listen to the accompanying whines and blow off valves. All these effects add to the sense of 'being there' and really increase the feeling of speed and excitement.
We have a varied soundtrack consisting of over 20 licensed artists. There's something in there for everyone, whatever genre you like. Juiced also gives you the ability to de-select the tracks you don't like, so you only listen to the songs you want. Custom playlists are available on Xbox.
Being in the development team, what was your favorite part of working on this game?
Juiced has been a real challenge due to the vast amount of gameplay and customization options, and seeing it all come together is very rewarding. However, the best part of working on a game like this is being able to PLAY it! And that's something that everyone else will soon be able to enjoy!
If you had to give our readers one reason to go out and purchase Juiced what would it be and why?
It's like nothing you've played before. It's the accuracy of a simulator with the fun and excitement usually only found in an arcade racer. It's whatever type of game you want it to be.…put quite simply - It's Juiced.
Great. And when can we expect to see the game hit store shelves?
*VERY* soon.
Click for more info on Juiced for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
