The engine was internally made and it was ”really nice tech” but never saw the light of day, laments Christopher Davie. He released some footage of the unannounced racer, showing off Dubai.
The former art director continued working on the track despite already knowing the project was being scrapped. Davie wanted it finished as a final hurrah for the racer.
”This was the final thing being worked on at Bizarre Creations when the company was closed down,” he revealed via his Tumblr. ”We were using a whole new engine at this point that had been developed internally, it was really nice tech that we sadly never got to ship a game with.” The footage is of an Audi racing through Dubai’s streets and over buildings.
”When we were told the project was being canned and that the studio was facing closer, I bloody mindedly decided to keep working on the art on this track, so much work had gone into the game already, it seemed a shame that nobody would get to play a finished track, even the dev team, so my goal was to get this Dubai track as close to final as I could before the lights went out for good,” explained Davie.
”A couple of guys chipped in here and there and got some nice new bits for their (soon to be required) portfolios, and I started grabbing old assets from previous projects to fill in bits of the scene that hadn’t been started.”
The Dubai track reached ‘alpha level’, he said, but it still needed ”a load of destructible objects inside the shopping mall and tram station we drive through in the video, and inside the hotel lobby of the building we drive on the outside of here. More animated scenery like the trams too, but time just ran out.”
”It’s a shame this thing will never be played, but at least it still lives on in some way in these videos,” Davie added.
The footage is available through Christopher Davie’s Tumblr. Bizarre Creations closed in February 2011 as owner Activision was disappointed by the retail reception of Blur. The British development studio was responsible for Geometry Wars, the Project Gotham Racing series and 007 Blood Stone.
