Game on for next Volvo S60

VOLVO says its innovative new PC-based racing game, dubbed Volvo – The Game and available as a free download, gives an insight into the driving characteristics of the S60 Concept it revealed at the Detroit motor show in January.

Expected to morph into the next generation of Volvo’s mid-sized S60 sedan globally in 2010, the S60 Concept was the subject of a slow-release media campaign that kicked off last year with interior images of the Detroit show car, before revealing its sleek new silhouette and then the real deal ahead of its worldwide premiere.

The drip-feed reveal continues this week with the release of the PC racing challenge, which was developed by Swedish compatriot and video game studio SimBin, and features six cars led by the S60.

Gamers can also choose to ‘drive’ the C30 currently competing in the Swedish Touring Car Championship (STTC), Volvo’s previous S60 STCC racer, the S40 contender in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), the Volvo 850 Estate that carved its reputation in the BTCC and a Swedish racing classic, the Volvo 240 Turbo Group A.

Volvo says The Game is the world’s only virtual racing game to feature the Ukraine’s Chayka racetrack outside Kiev, while players can elect to race at the Gothenburg Eco Drive Arena in Sweden.

It says the cars, each of which took about a month to ‘build’ by a team of up to 20 game developers who invested thousands of hours to create the game, possesses different driving characteristics, with one former racing car given a racetrack workout to record its full-noise engine notes.

Volvo – The Game can be played using a keyboard, gamepad or a steering wheel and pedals connected to a computer, and comprises three skill levels – ‘novice’, which engages all the driver aids such as ABS brakes, ‘semi-pro’ and ‘pro’.

It is available to download now for free from www.volvocars.co.uk/S60concept but be prepared for a long wait while it does so, with a file size of 570MB.

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