Feld Entertainment and Milstone announced that they’ve teamed up together to launch the new branded racing game, Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Video Game. The new racing title is set to launch this upcoming February in 2018 for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, and it’s scheduled to launch shortly thereafter for the Nintendo Switch.
Vicki Silver, the chief marketing officer at Feld Entertainment, stated in the press release that this was designed for fans of Supercross motorsports, and was aimed at those looking to compete against others all year long in offline or online competitions…
“The lifelike experience of the videogame allows fans to interact with Monster Energy Supercross, as well as compete with other fans around the globe, like never before,”. “Fans can engage in the sport all year long as they race as or against their favorite athletes on iconic Supercross tracks.”
The news was accompanied by a trailer, which you can check out below.
The trailer starts with live-action footage of a Supercross superstar gearing up to go out and ride the track in hopes of scoring a victory. It then switches over to the actual game and I have to say that I’m quite shocked at the quality of the graphics.
For a couple of scenes I genuinely thought that they were interspersing live-action footage with in-game play. The only way I was able to tell that it was actually gameplay footage was because the NPC crowd in the back gave it away with their low poly, cloned-attire.
As much as I would like to put on my cynic’s hat and rag on the game, I have to admit that it actually holds up under scrutiny as far as graphics rendering is concerned. The lighting in particular is top notch, and the use of post-processing effects like dithered DOF, and soft-filter afterimage for the bloom and blur, helps make the game look remarkably realistic.
The low-saturated range for the tone maps and the use of natural lighting with the shaders gives Monster Energy Supercross a very gritty and realistic look that matches the real-life sporting event.
HDR and specular highlighting maps are used sparingly, ensuring that only things like the shine on the metal pop with bright lights, and the soft shadows appear on the undercarriage and fender with appropriate spatial depth, offsetting the hard-shadows that appear on the ground under the bright stadium lights.
It may be a branded game, but Milestone put some serious work and effort into the visual effects.
The game will feature a full 2017 official season championship cup for players to race through, along with official bikes, tracks and athletes from the 250SX and 450SX divisions, along with full bike and rider customization.
The game will also be topped off with a track editor that will allow you to create your own tracks.
You can look for the game to launch on February 13th, 2018 next year, or you can learn more by visiting the official website.
