Way back in 2015 R8 Games launched Formula Fusion into Early Access on Steam. Over the course of two years they worked on the game and then eventually it exited Early Access in 2017. Since then the developers have been hard at work on a home console rendition of the game, as well as an overhaul of the PC version. To go along with all of the new changes they made to the game since 2017, they decided to give the futuristic racer a name change from Formula Fusion to the more mundane and less descriptive, Pacer.

Niche Gamer picked up the news from a press release and accompanying Steam post on April 4th, 2019, where R8 Games announced that they’ve removed the purchase option from the Steam store page for now in preparation for the relaunch of Formula Fusion as Pacer.

The full version of the game will launch this summer on PC, PS4, and Xbox One with a higher price tag than what it had when it was in Early Access. The full version will feature 14 playable tracks, six of which will be new, along with five different racing craft to choose from and fully customize. There will be 10 weapons to unlock (four of which are new), and a complete overhaul of the handling, weapons and cosmetics. They teased some of the new features in the 42 second re-announcement trailer that you can check out below.

The game was always billed as a Wipeout inspired futuristic racer. You can definitely see the similarities. It’s also gorgeously designed with some truly breathtaking environments. The developers have also been working on optimizing the content so that Pacer runs smoother on more cards, including topping out at 200fps on a 1070 GTX.

Dedicated servers will be available along with eight new music tracks from Cold Storage and a few more licensed songs from DubFX. They’re implementing a spectator mode for the multiplayer, along with a tournament and ranked mode for online play. And they also completely overhauled the game’s physics systems and the way the vehicles handle, along with gutting and re-implementing the AI with all new machine learning capabilities.

If I didn’t know any better I would say that this sounds like a brand new game for all intents and purposes.

Anyway, you’ll be able to play the all new and completely reconstructed Pacer during various events leading up to its release this summer, including EGX Rezzed, Insomnia64, Play Expo, MCM Comic Con, and finally E3 just before the full launch. For more info feel free to visit the official Pacer website.

(Thanks for the news tip EvaUnit02)