Over the last number of years, iRacing has been growing further than its titular Pc sim racing services towards other forms of racing online games on home consoles. In late 2021 the company obtained Orontes Online games, the creator of a futuristic off-road racer termed Drag: Outer Zones, followed by Monster Game titles, previously the maker of the NASCAR Warmth franchise. On Tuesday, iRacing announced that its next transfer for PlayStation and Xbox gamers will be a detailed update to Drag, bringing a new identify: ExoCross.
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This is not a enormous surprise: Drag became a element of iRacing’s portfolio when it acquired Orontes two yrs back. That said, it is nonetheless stunning to see the iRacing label on a racing match that is about as significantly away from iRacing (the sim) as you can get. Drag is now obtainable in early entry on Steam for Laptop gamers, but come this tumble, it’ll relaunch as ExoCross on contemporary consoles, way too. From iRacing’s push launch:
The rebrand of DRAG: Outer Zones to ExoCross is the end result of numerous gameplay and production advancements just after iRacing acquired Orontes Games in December 2021. Each Orontes Games and iRacing have collaborated to establish the title. With prolonged updates throughout the board, the iRacing and Orontes teams sought to develop branding and a backstory for the futuristic new sport highlighted in the sport. The identify ExoCross was picked out as a reflection of the rugged, quick-paced, other-earth off-highway racing present in the recreation.
To finish ExoCross, the Orontes crew has grown with new committed roles in design and style, motor, artwork, gameplay, and AI progress. Improvements to the on-monitor working experience include things like physics updates, balance and traction manage, and the addition of the game’s increase mechanic to solitary-participant perform. Updates to the recreation interface include things like anything from a new onboarding movement to new pre- and put up-race presentation sequences. The match has been ported efficiently to PlayStation and Xbox to allow for for simultaneous Pc and console launch.
If you’re acquainted with Drag, you know that although it is dependent on a decidedly unrealistic, fantastical concept of off-roading — imagine Sony’s MotorStorm, but in the long run — its physics are nonetheless quite sophisticated. Drag’s celebration piece is its “four-way call patch traction technological know-how,” as Orontes describes it, and soft-entire body tire model all developed on the team’s proprietary sport engine. That is a rare detail in 2023, when damn near all the things, even automobiles, runs on Unreal Engine.
Even the least grounded arcade racers benefit from a cautious, meticulous technique to physics — anything that turns into straight away crystal clear the instant you attempt Drag for oneself. There is a demo available now on Steam, which I fired up shortly in advance of creating this to acquaint myself with the activity. The environments are a very little sparse in this previous develop, but there is a gratifying physicality to the managing below that makes executing appropriate drifts a blast. It serves strong Wreckfest vibes, and any comparison to Wreckfest is no little praise.
iRacing suggests that those people who already personal Drag in early access —it presently costs $29 — will obtain the update to ExoCross for free of charge on the relaunch. It’s nonetheless unclear what 2023 will finally provide for racing sport admirers, as Forza Motorsport’s start date stays TBA, Codemasters and EA’s inadequately-kept solution of a WRC recreation has surprisingly yet to be unveiled and Exam Generate Unlimited: Solar Crown nonetheless amounts to a CG trailer and some screenshots. ExoCross could quite nicely be a sleeper amid even larger names.