Operation Sports is proud to present our interview with Bizarre Creations. We'd like to thank Ben Ward, Chris Pickford, Mathias Grunwald and Sarah Chudley for taking the time to answer our questions.

Operation Sports: Besides the obvious graphical improvements, how else has this franchise moved forward?

Bizarre Creations: Well we’ve got plenty of new features making an appearance in PGR3, such as a refined Kudos system, a much-enhanced audio output, fully 3d-rendered crowd, brand new Xbox Live game modes, Photomode, a Route Creator, and much more than I could feasibly talk about in any detail in a single question! :)

Operation Sports: I'm a big fan of racing "the perfect lap" and in some videos, noticed Racing Line Accuracy Kudos. How often will we see that Kudos variant?

Bizarre Creations: Every time you take a tight corner at the perfect speed (or close to it), you’ll be treated to the “Good Line” Kudos bonus. There are plenty of new types of Kudos, as well as modifiers which can gauge exactly how well you are racing. For example, if you perform a particularly dangerous skid you’ll be given a “gutsy” bonus… rewarding the player for fast or daring racing like never before!

Operation Sports: The cockpit view in PGR3 is amazing. Online, can the host set up a race where everyone is required to race using the cockpit view?

Bizarre Creations: Yes, this is a feature we wanted to include, as it really levels out the playing field! However, it is a visible option (for the race host to set), so people don’t get unexpectedly forced to play in a view they don’t like.

Operation Sports: Is car damage going to be non-existent, or will it alter the cars handling in any way? For example, will extensive damage done to the car during a race affect its performance in any way, such as off-line steering, acceleration/braking problems, slipping gears for manual transmission users, among other issues?

Bizarre Creations: After looking into this and assessing how it would affect gameplay, we decided it was far better to have our damage as visible damage only. We didn’t want any damage you received to ultimately ruin your chances in the race – that’s just penalising you twice! You’d already have been slowed down by crashing into a wall or whatever, so adding on more slow-down by then making your tyres or engine defective would be really unfair.

And in addition, damage sometimes isn’t your fault anyway. For example, you could be involved in a collision with another player that was purely their mistake, and nothing to do with your driving. Slowing you down there would be just unfair. After analysing all of this, we decided that it wouldn’t fit with our game, and would be more suited to a ‘destruction derby’ style of gameplay.

Operation Sports: Will the current Xbox wheel, the Speedster 3, work with the new Xbox 360?

Bizarre Creations: Unfortunately, as far as we know, Xbox peripherals are not compatible with the Xbox 360. However, we do have full wheel support in there, and will continue to update when new hardware is released via online updates.

Operation Sports: Why the decision to go with only the supercars? Many of us really enjoy the highly competitive racing of the slower cars, as those cars tend to even out the differences of skill levels/practice time. Was this decision made solely due to short development time, or was there a more reasoned, philosophical justification?

Bizarre Creations: On PGR2 we found that the vast majority of the players only used 10% of the cars – the top end cars – and this was obviously down to the fact that these were most competitive in the game. So in PGR3, we decided early on that we wanted people to be able to choose any car and race it against other comparable cars without there being a clear “best car”. By taking the most desirable supercars in the world, categorising them into classes of similar ability and balancing them against each other over two years of continual tweaking, we are allowing players to use the entire spectrum we provide, rather than just the “dominant” car of each class.

Operation Sports: Clearly, the newest element in PGR2 that had the greatest impact was the inclusion of the Nurburgring Nordschleife. That inclusion had so much impact, in fact, that Forza and the upcoming ToCA3 include the majestic circuit. Can we expect any more such grand, long (10+ miles) circuits of the past to be included in this game? Many gamers would love to see the forgotten, long versions of such famous and important circuits at Spa Francorchamps, Hockenheim and others. Any chance we will see such things in the future, or is the only real and/or historical circuit in the PGR series to remain the Nordschleife?

Bizarre Creations: PGR3 contains city areas in London, New York, Tokyo and Las Vegas as well as the full Nurburgring – the Nordschlife INCLUDING an option to race the full F1 circuit as well this time! We don’t have other race tracks, but we do have some extremely long circuits, as our city areas are really big. For example, there’s a 6+ mile circuit in Las Vegas you can drive, and with the long bridges in New York, there’s plenty of opportunity to make the most of those supercars!

Operation Sports: Are there any penalties for online cheese, mainly unnecessary ramming and reckless driving? Many inexperienced racers won't be able to control a powerful car and will just play bumper cars en route to the front.

Bizarre Creations: We’ve tried to make the cheating prevention more transparent, and part of the gameplay rather than anything that would be intrusive. Probably the most obvious thing we’ve included is your car ghosting out (becoming transparent) if you stop in the middle of the track, or attempt to drive backwards. An example of a less obvious change would be the Nurburgring grass sections are now much more hazardous to drivers (no more corner cutting, or you’re almost guaranteed to spin out).

In terms of online play, most of the preventative measures are taken before you even get into a lobby with a bunch of losers. PGR3 uses the TrueSkill matchmaking system to ensure that you are matched with players of equal skill, and the platform filters those who are “hardcore” gamers, from those who are just playing for fun.

Operation Sports: Will it make launch and will there be any downloadable content?

Bizarre Creations: We can’t comment on the release date at this point, but yes, after the game is released there will be downloadable content.

Operation Sports: How much customization does the player have in the game? Could you give us some details?

Bizarre Creations: We have no car customisation (aside from choosing your colour). This was a conscious design decision made back in the days of PGR1, and has been stuck with in the latest instalment of the series. Our game is all about HOW you drive, rather than how you adjust your springs.

However, taking this ‘all about the racing’ theme forward, new to PGR3 is the route creator, which allows you to design your own custom circuits and point-to-point races through any of the PGR3 cities. These can be raced offline with AI opponents (or without, if you like!), in a time-trial, or online with friends or rivals.

Operation Sports: What is Gotham TV all about? How will this play into the game?

Bizarre Creations: Gotham TV is a new feature we’ve included in PGR3, and is based around the concept of making YOU the hero. The best players in the world will be broadcast over Xbox Live, and piped to tens of thousands of potential viewers. You can watch the world’s best, or just spy on your friends whilst you wait for the game to start.

A news ticker which runs whilst you’re in the game’s UI (and online) shows you what’s being going on on Gotham TV – Gotham Heroes racing, your friends achieving something new, a new lap record being set, etc – so that you can jump into Gotham TV and enjoy the action if you like.

Operation Sports: Would you describe PGR 3 more realistic or arcady? How do you balance the two?

Bizarre Creations: This is a very tough question, but I’d say the best way to describe PGR3’s handling type would be a realistic system in both look and feel, based on real physics, with arcade style control method and responsiveness. The cars move around the track as you would imagine them to in real life, with weight distribution, skid sounds, air time and other physics all moving in realistic fashion. However, if you hit the brakes, throw the car sideways and hit the e-brake, we’ve made the dynamics easier to handle, so that the average player can perform intricate manoeuvres without having to have superman’s reflexes.

Most people don’t have a Ferrari or Lamborghini, but they have a good idea what they would feel like to drive. We wanted to reinforce that feeling and give people a solid system to really push these cars to their limits. It’s all about empowering mere mortals so that they feel like Gods! :)

Operation Sports: How many cars, courses and modes will we see in PGR 3?

Bizarre Creations: There are 80 cars, 110 courses (and millions of possible combinations with the route creator), and 5 different race modes in PGR3.

Operation Sports: When playing on XBox Live and searching for a room to play in, can you tell on the search results screen if the game is in progress or not? In PGR 2 it was a little frustrating to join a room and they were already racing, then having to button out and search again and again until a room was open and not in progress.

Bizarre Creations: This is no longer an issue, as Gotham TV lets you spectate on matches as they are in progress, and . No more staring at a mini-map! :)

Operation Sports: Are there any real-time reflections on the cars? How many cars will be on the track at one time?

Bizarre Creations: Yes there are real-time reflections, obtained using a highly detailed cube map. This means that the whole scene is actually being rendered 6 extra times just to get realistic looking reflections!

There will be up to a maximum of eight cars in a race at once.

Operation Sports: How were the engine sounds sampled? Are they synthesized in any way?

Bizarre Creations: All the engines have been recorded from real-life cars, in unprecedented detail. We used original recordings of exhaust, engine and air intake noise, which are placed as 3D sound sources on the car model and mixed to 5.1 Dolby Surround in real time by the audio engine. There are no artificial or synthesized sounds for the cars.

Operation Sports: Will the Showroom and Test Drive track be included in PGR 3? I thought these features added a really nice touch to buying cars in PGR 2.

Bizarre Creations: We’ve expanded the car ownership big time, with the inclusion of fully modelled player garages. The players can buy cars with cash earned from winning events, and then place them where they want in one of 9 unique garages, based on the locations you play in PGR3. And of course, each car can be test driven on a section of the Nurburgring F1 circuit, specially chosen for its ability to give the car a really hard run!

Operation Sports: Could you give us more details about the in-game spectator mode?

Bizarre Creations: Gotham TV allows you to watch races as they happen in real-time over Xbox Live. The interface allows you to track any car, use any viewpoint, and generally control the action on screen without actually driving yourself. You can even use the in-car view, and see through the eyes of the best players in the world!

Operation Sports: How much has the driving model changed from PGR 2?

Bizarre Creations: From PGR2 we’ve added a lot more variables to our physics system. Our goal was to take the realistic, but easy to use, system from PGR2 and give the player more predictability and driving styles on the track. In PGR2 our Kudos system picked up you were performing a power slide, but in PGR3 we now know what type of slide you’re doing, be it a “Feint”, “Power Over” or “E-Brake”. And so we use our upgraded dynamics to give the player more options while they’re racing, and more ways of getting Kudos too.

Operation Sports: What's on the soundtrack?

Bizarre Creations: The soundtrack features a wide variety of genres, from Hip Hop to Alternative Rock, Electronic, Industrial, even unusual genres like Bhangra and Classical music. There are 9 different genres, each with their unique set of songs, totalling over 100 songs.

Operation Sports: Is there a custom soundtrack option? If yes, do radio DJ's still introduce the songs?

Bizarre Creations: The game supports custom playlists, which can be created and played from the Xbox 360 HUD. The game design did not include radio stations this time, as the game has taken a step towards real organised races rather than ‘unofficial’ street races. Because we have headed towards this realistic racing feel, there are no DJ’s introducing the songs, as it just didn’t seem to fit any more. However there will still be a small info screen displaying title, artist and more about the current song, very much like PGR and PGR2.

Operation Sports: We would like to thank you for your time with this interview, is there anything else you would like to add?

Bizarre Creations: Well, seeing as you seem to have covered it all, we just want to hope your readers enjoy the game as much as we do! See you online!