I was tempted to say "here comes another Need for Speed game" but after reading the full article
Here this one may just have a little bit more to give.
Here are some of the Quotes I found interesting.
"Need for Speed Rivals, Gothenberg-based developer Ghost Game's debut effort, is bringing together Far Cry 3's lead designer with veterans from Bizarre, Black Rock and Criterion for a
new open world racer that's coming out later this year for the next generation of consoles."
"Sullivan is surrounded by a team comprised of experts in the racing genre. "We've got people from Bizarre, Black Rock, more recently from Playground and Turn 10"
"Rival's big new feature,
AllDrive, feeds into the open world design as it removes the distinction between single and multiplayer racing. "Imagine that you're playing Rivals, you're driving around as a cop or as a racer, playing through the progression of the game," described Nilsson."
"It's a feature that sounds inspired by Eden Game's much-loved
Test Drive Unlimited, and Nilsson acknowledges the debt. "Yes, we've obviously played Test Drive a lot. I'm a big fan of the earlier ones - I'm not sure about the later ones. But this is taking it further."
"There's going to be a bigger experience on the new consoles, simply down to the fact that there's more computational power - there'll be
more players and so on that you can support."
"The way I talk about this, to the team, is that I want the world to feel as alive as a game with pedestrians and stuff. Obviously there'll be no pedestrians - it's just cars driving fast - but the world you're seeing, the
weather effects, rain, snow, storms, it's going to make the world feel alive in a much bigger sense than any other Need for Speed game. That will be clear."
As one relationship falters, another is being rekindled as Rivals brings the Ferrari brand back to the Need for Speed series for the first time in seven years. The mid-engined F12 Berlinetta, last year's replacement for the Ferrari 599, will be featuring in-game, with other Maranello models set to join it.
Maybe it will be something different this time (I did play a lot of Hot pursuit)
One thing is for sure another game company dipping it's toe into the open world racing community, and this can only be a good thing in my opinion.