November 14, 2001

Interview with Ric Keen of Terminal Reality on subject of new 4X4 EVO 2 game.
by Ovaldog

Well Ric, the new game runs great and has some fantastic new graphics. It also has all the tracks from the first Evo game but with some new updates, new approaches to the jumps, new banked turns, can you tell us about some of those changes and why they were made?

Ric:  We have changed many things in the simulation and with the physics to help give you better perceptions of speed and to decrease hang time, etc. Because of these changes, we needed to change the tracks a bit while keeping the new physics in mind I also wanted to make the tracks more fun to race on I just love banked corners and long jumps. We were, at first, just going to have the old tracks be hidden and unlocked with cheat codes. But, after we worked on them, they felt so different from the original tracks (possibly because of the 20,000 trees and new vegetation system) we decided to incorporate them into the full game. We also figured that many of the Xbox owners had never played the original 4x4 Evolution, so it was an easy task for us to put them into the game to make it even more expansive than we had originally designed. The goal at the end was to give the Xbox owners and PC owners a very compelling and natural off-road racing experience.


Now back to those great graphics, I saw that almost all the vegetation has been replaced with new models and they all look great and much more realistic. Will the maps and trucks from Evo1 work with the new release?

Ric:  Both the tracks and trucks from Evo1 will need minor modifications, but we are planning on releasing the editor some time in November. This will make it easy for track makers to modify their tracks for use in Evo2. At the same time, we will also release the instructions on what minor modifications that will need to be done to tracks and trucks to make them work in Evo2 - although the 4x4 Evo community has already figured this out ;-)

Terminal Reality has also added some new tracks to the Evo2 game. What was the inspiration for these new tracks, are any of them based in reality?

Ric:  Most are loosely based upon real places in the world, but we didn't try to recreate them stone for stone. We took some general concepts and turned them into some great tracks. Some tracks like the Baja tracks I created are just tracks. I mean, they are not really from a real place but loads of fun to race on. The mantra for the level designers for this version was “Make It Fun”. We just chanted that over and over again, until John O’Keefe (our producer for Evo) came into the room and yelled at us to stop chanting and get to work. lol

I also noticed that you changed some of the drivers views in the new game, replacing the chase cam with a new Momentum view. Why the change from the old views?

Ric:  Actually, all of the old views are still in there, we just added a bunch of new views. If you pause the game, the menu that appears allows you to select your three different camera views for during the game. The selection is from a large variety of views ranging from a view inside the truck with the hood showing, a view that resembles hanging your head out the drivers side window, to a camera that is wheel level, to a chase far/near cam, to a blimp camera! That isn't all, so we have really expanded your choices of views for driving the trucks.


I noticed on the 4X4 Evo2 website that you and some of the others actually went 4 wheeling (see website for the pics), did any of that experience translate into the game and if so how?

Ric:  A few members of the team, myself included, are “real” off road maniacs. As a matter of fact, you can see my truck in many of the photographs on the web site (www.4x4evo.com). Because 4x4 Evo2 isn’t like the original (which was all racing), we got the chance to give something to the off road enthusiasts. 4x4 Evo2 has a ‘roaming mode’ that allows you to go off-road and tackle obstacles at your own pace. There are also missions to complete in career mode. We wanted to bring the off road rock crawling aspect to the game because many of us enjoy doing that here in our off time.

This is definitely a cutting edge racing game for the PC. What other platforms will 4X4 Evo2 be released on?

Ric:  Right now it is out for PC, and it will be an Xbox launch title. There has been some talk about porting it to the PS2 and Gamecube for release in the spring of 2002, but none of that is confirmed as of yet.

I know this is a little off the subject, but can you tell us how you came to be employed by Terminal Reality? It is kinda the gamers "Cinderella" story and I'm sure others would love to hear how an average guy gets to do what you do for a living.

Ric:  My life as a topnotch track builder started in Terminal Reality's Monster Truck Madness 2. I was building tracks for the add-on world in Monster Truck Madness 2 for 3 years, then when 4x4 Evo was to be released, Terminal Reality asked if I would help test out their new track editor. Of course I said yes! I found that the new 4x4 Evo game and editor could do more than I was used to, I picked up how the editor worked quickly and made some of the most unusual tracks for the 4x4 Evo add-on world. About 6 months later I saw a post that Terminal Reality was looking for a track designer. They asked if I would build them a test track. After this, they asked me how I would feel about moving to Texas and the rest is now history. What was once my hobby is now my job. The key here was to be good at what you do and take the time to learn all you can. Think out of the box (never assume you know it all) and try to produce greatness. I feel like I have the job of my dreams and have tried to help take Terminal Reality further in their dreams also. I am known for trying to push the limits of level designs to try and create the best game for the gamers.
Working for a game company is great fun but lots of hard work. In July 2001 alone, I had over 370 hours for that month and loved every minute of it!
I am still learning new things everyday and stay open to new ideas, the #1 thing that helped me was being able to think out of the box.

Is there anything else you would like to add about 4X4 Evo2?

Ric:  4x4 Evo 2 had much more room to advance due to the massive power of the Xbox. We could add and make much longer tracks. We upped the model count to 3000 while Evo 1 was limited to 600. We also added the 20,000 trees and new vegetation; the ground textures were far better this time.  We used real pictures to model from when we could. Likewise, lots more elevation was used this time. Overall a ton of new things were added to Evo 2 thanks to the power of the Xbox. The company was very impressed with Microsoft's platform and I am excited about the possibility of pushing the system to the limit even more. And for all my fans, yes, even a skull or two my trade mark as “Team Death” can be found within a few of the tracks. For anyone that didn't know…track builder Team Death means ‘we kill the competition’.

What new projects is Terminal Reality working on at this point and do you have any release dates?

Ric:  We have a character based game going on right now, and another car/truck based game about to start production, and the prospect of making an Evo 3 is very high - but I can’t divulge the release dates or titles of the product or our VP will have me hanging from the flag pole by my …. errr…. toes. ;-)


Well, Thanks for your time Ric! We are all looking forward to much more from you and the gang at Terminal Reality in the future. Your games are great, Keep up the good work!
 

Find Ovaldog's Review of the PC version of 4x4 EVO 2 here: http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r18141.htm

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