Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

We've been waiting for it for awhile now, and now we finally have it!

PRESS RELEASE (PA Sprint Car News facebook)

The time is now, the time for a new beginning, the time for a revolutionary state of the art dirt racing game. With our friends in Australia, Big Ant Studio's, we have partnered to help build, develop and shape a new title called 'Dirt Track Racing'. We are thrilled with this partnership. We have been exclusively working behind the scenes on this project. Our logo will be incorporated into the game itself!

How is it revolutionary? Well for starters it will be the first dirt racing game available on next gen consoles such as, Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4. Along with that it will also be available on PC via Steam. They are redesigning the racing physics that will get it both a fun racing and a true simulation experience. Charles Henden, project lead at Big Ant and myself have been brainstorming on a feature that will be groundbreaking. For the first time ever full customization will be incorporated in a dirt racing game. Build a track, design a car, create drivers, events and your own series schedule.

We just need your help. I discussed with Charles that we have one of the most devoted fan bases in all of sports, let alone Motorsports. Game developers just won't commit to games like they use to. Big Ant has started a Kickstarter campaign. The more we raise the more we can put into the game. Sky is the limit!

Along with that, project lead Charles Henden will join Racer's Roundtable on Sunday night exclusively on racersroundtable.com . I'm so excited for this and let's start fundraising!

Kickstarter link --> https://www.kickstarter.com/…/big…/big-ant-dirt-track-racing

Dirt Track Racing Website --> https://dirttrack.bigant.com

Big Ant Facebook --> https://www.facebook.com/BigAntStudios/

I'll reserve my excitement until the game comes out. The last effort from Big Ant was absolutely terrible and the ones before it were even worse. Hopefully they get it right this time. The Ratbag World of Outlaws 2002 game is still the gold standard with console based sprint car games. In fact, I still own a PS2 just so I can play that game. 

Watched the video... Looks like its going to be like all the other ones except the best one... WoO 2002.  I'm on my 4th copy of 2002 and 2nd PS2.  Its the only game I play and has never gotten boring once...

Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's

Agreed. The latest one for PS3 wasn't good. The career portion is the worst. I want to pick my skill level, pick my series, and be able to start from the bottom and work my way up to the best cars, sponsors, and series. I'll wait for the review to see if I really need to upgrade to a PS4 or just get it for the PC or not at all.

Hopefully they can make a decent version. 

First time poster, long time lurker here. Hopefully they follow ratbag 2002 and get input from WOO, All Stars, NSL, Posse and other sanctioning bodies. I would even say get input from the top drivers and crew chiefs for setups and handling. Also send out to race tracks and advertisers. just my thoughts

Thanks Shane

I pretty much agree with everyone else.  We need another ratbag game, they had it down.   I see that some of the ratbag guys are consulting for this game, which is good!

Ideally, I want an updated 2002 game.  But who am I kidding, as awful as the latest PS3 game was.... I still played the heck out of it.  I just want a dirt racing game!  

Funny story about the Rat Bag game.  I had it on my computer in the basement.  I was just hanging out upstairs, it was a nice summer evening, windows open and it was about 8:30, 9.  All of a sudden, I hear what sounds like the feature at Wilmot taking the green.  (I lived within earshot)  I got all excited and thought, Man, I wish I was there.  I then realized that it was an aquaintance's son, playing the Rat Bag game.  I had the computer hooked up to a decent sound system and everything just sounded so real. Muffled from downstairs, it actually sounded like a real race from the distance.   I got worked up for nothing...

Yes the 2002 ratbag was sweet....... And there is nobody on this planet that can beat me at Eldora at that game

I would love to have a online version of 2002 ratbag and take you on. Not talking crap just love playing game. yep still got the game too

I used to play the 2002 Ratbag game so intently my eyes would dry out from not blinking enough. 

Sap, if you had said 'from not DRINKING enough' I would have believed ya'....

Yes sir we need a online version 

I know exactly what you are talking about. I couldn't wear my contacts while playing it. Had to wear glasses. 

 That's been known to happen too. 

I totally agree. If they could just basically update the Ratbag 2002 game, that'd be perfect. The sounds, the physics..... Everything was and still is by far the best that's ever been offered in a sprint car video game. I bought the last PS3 game and I played it some, tried to like it, tried to talk myself into playing it more but in the end, it sucked so bad I just couldn't do it. The graphics were pretty good but the sound couldn't have been worse. The cars sounded like a bunch of damn leaf blowers. The physics were terrible. They handled nothing like sprint cars and no matter what you did with the set up, it hardly changed anything. It always felt like you were just hovering. You never got that feeling that you were getting any bite. The tracks looked ok but every one of them were one grooved and had nothing even resembling a cushion and the AI cars were WAY too slow even on the hardest difficulty and all they did was get in the way. I'm glad however that these guys are still trying to do this and it seems as though they're committed to making this a success. That's a good thing and if they keep at it, eventually they'll figure it out.

playstation has been adding old ps2 games as digital downloads on the ps4. if enought of us contact playstation maybe just maybe they would add the 2002 ratbag game to the list. it might be a long shot but who knows

Hey guys, Charles from Big Ant Studios here. I've come onto this project after the previous games have been produced so one of the first things I did is play all the games. WoO 2002 by RatBag is a standout and forms the basis for much of the improvements we want to make.

We've got some of the founding members and key personell from RatBag on board to help steer us in the right direction for this game along with creators of the current SprintCar rFactor mods - DirtWorksDesigns.

You guys are right, some of the previous games are much too casual/arcade and don't pay any respect to what a real dirt track does. We want to do it right this time around which is why we've turned to the fans, teams, track owners, crew etc. We'll be making the design of the game open and allowing any backers to beta test the features we make as they are completed every month.

If you want to get to the heart of the current rFactor sprint car modding I'd suggest talking to a man named Bill Malicoat. He was the mastermind of the Boz sprints that are the root for all of the succesfull dirt mods for rFactor that have been released since, and he's an educated mechanical engineer with a degree from Purdue University. His importance to the PC dirt sim-racing community can not be over-stated. Not everyone in that community knows his name, but they should all be singing his praises.

...

Great info, will do thanks.