July 2, 2007 - Due for release this September is Fatal Inertia, a mixture of rally racing and demolition derby with vehicles sporting high-performance aeronautics. In development by KOEI for Xbox 360, Fatal Inertia promises to deliver combat racing in a wide array of environments spanning thick rainforests, canyons filled with jagged rocks, and immense glacier fields, with a total of six unique environments in which to race. Players will have access to crafts equipped with weaponry capable of manipulating velocity, force, and time itself.
"By designing Fatal Inertia's gameplay around a physics engine it not only allowed us to create a truly different driving model, but it also helped us create a set of dynamic weapons with multiple tactical applications," said Lead Game Designer Michael Bond. The design team at KOEI Canada, KOEI's Toronto-based development studio, also promises players several different tactical uses for each weapon, in addition to unique racing challenges and an intuitive control scheme with which to experience the mayhem.
"We've based many of the game's weapons on straightforward physical principles," Bond continued, "and by doing so we're giving players the freedom to come up with their own creative ways of using them- ways that even we are still discovering." Explosive magnets that affect stability and rockets that offset velocity and thrust are just some of the unique methods to ensure all opponents' destruction.
"KOEI has been at the forefront of creating the most engaging action games, so with Fatal Inertia we're now lending our action game talents to the racing genre to deliver an experience that is as fun as it is fast," said Senior Vice President of KOEI Corporation Amos Ip. "Armed with an eclectic variety of weapons and racing challenges, plus elegant and intuitive driver controls, Fatal Inertia is quite simply bringing high-speed fun and excitement back to the combat racing genre."
Led by producer Takazumi Erikawa, creator of the Dynasty Warriors series, as well as KOEI Co- Founder and Chief Advisor Yoichi Erikawa, who goes under the alias Kou Shibusawa and is widely regarded as one of the world's prestigious video game designers, Fatal Inertia will include customizable racecraft, eight different racing series, online multiplayer, and a single player experience. Powered by Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3, Fatal Inertia will carry a rating of "E10+" and will be available this September for the Xbox 360.
