Previews DRIFT21 slides onto Early Access, first look gameplay

The announcement of DRIFT21 caused a bit of a stir and was keenly sought after by the drifting community. It promises to be the ultimate drifting simulation from building your cars to scanning a wide range of legendary locations that perhaps haven’t featured in a gamer before.

Developed by ECC Games S.A and now available on Early Access, the game aims to capture the culture of drifting, with the various cars and locations that make up that automotive heritage in the drifting community.

In terms of content, the initial selection is as follows:

• Car tuning garage, over 750 parts, including 300 decals, and extensive paint shop mode.
• Three exciting licensed cars to choose from.
• Three tracks available – EBISU Driftland, EBISU School and EBISU Minami
• A training mode that allows you to practice your drifting skills.
• More than 20 challenges in various game modes including Time Attack, Solo Run and Free Ride.
• Steering wheel support for Thrustmaster, Fanatec and Logitech

Now I’ve mentioned on several occasions that drifting isn’t exactly my forte, so to get a better understanding on how the game is progressing we handed it to our resident drifting expert Ed Dyer.

The video is largely uncut, making for a natural learning process in which you can see Ed’s entire gaming session, gradually understanding the mechanics of the game and learning it’s various nuances. Ed does skip the Tutorial; however, you are strongly advised not to do this as the information given can be critical for those new to the world of drifting.

So, it’s fair to say there is potential here, the content is there, the graphics are surprisingly good and the mechanics of the cars appears comprehensive. However, the cars on this first build was lacking some feedback and clearly there is a lot of room for improvement. Getting that ‘feel’ right will be critical for success and we look forward to testing a later build to see how the game evolves.

Indeed since the production of this video, extensive work has already taken place with a wide range of fixes and improvements including the addition of the EBISU North track circuit (screenshots and changelog below). DRIFT21 is available to purchase on the Steam Early Access program now for $24.99/£22.49/€24.99.

Changelog

New content

• Added new track – Ebisu North, also known as Kita
• New Time Attack challenges – designed specifically for Ebisu North
• New Solo Run challenges – designed specifically for Ebisu North

Fixes

• Fixed button sizes not scaling properly in various places in the game, such as Warehouse, Paint Booth, Settings, Driving Setup, Car Shop)
• Fixed an issue where body kit parts for Subaru BRZ were not correctly registered in Stages window (Car Parameters menu)
• Fixed a bug that forced steering assists even after turning it off
• Fixed Minami challenges where players could pass through certain props and concrete walls
• Fixed an issue that resulted in players getting stuck on certain parts of each track

Localization changes

• Small localization changes, mainly to texts used in challenges

Other changes

• Adjustments to CR. prizes for each Minami challenge

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May 15th PATCH rev_13440

Fixes
• Fixed a bug related to the FFB invert function for some Thrustmaster steering wheels
• Fixed a bug where the engine sound did not turn off despite the ignition being turned off
• Fixed a bug where footstep sounds were inaudible
• Fixed a bug where in certain circumstances tooltip icons were missing
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to mount rims with unsupported sizes
• Fixed incorrectly displayed in-game currencies
• Fixed a bug with some in-game windows and sprites showing improperly on unusual resolutions and screen ratios
• Fixed incorrectly displaying tire sprites in Warehouse
• Fixed a critical bug that prevented players from finishing the tutorial
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to access and spawn non-purchased parts from Warehouse

Localization changes
• Small changes to texts in Paint Booth and during Tutorial
• Added missing translations to challenge result screen and Driving Setup subwindows,
• Changes to texts and font display throughout the project

Other changes

• Small changes in the way the game saves are named
• Changes to the handbrake range based on input type and connected controller
• Rearranged result screen window to always show information crucial to the challenge
• Changes to decal history in Paint Booth
• Changes to Warehouse content (removed obsolete car parts)

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