IGN’s Martin Robinson wrote a report in regards to EA’s stance on single-player only games. In his article, he quoted EA Games’ label president Frank Gibeau stating “online is where the innovation, and the action is at.” You can really see that Ea is focusing in on their online offerings, especially with the work being churned out of their DICE studio.
DICE studio was the lead team behind Battlefield: Bad Company 2, created the multiplayer for Medal of Honor, is the main focus of EA’s Gun Club, and was the mastermind’s behind Autolog, which is what single player gaming is soon to be all about; enhanced leaderboards.
Autolog is built on the idea of updated and consistent competition. While you are in the single player career mode, you can choose which events to participate in, and on every event, it will show you the times of other players on your friends list. This is a meta-game of leaderboards that will allow you to not only aim to succeed in the race, but continue to improve your times and compete with your friends.
This “connected” approach is not only a great improvement over traditional leaderboards, but also an excellent way to add replayability to a game without adding superfluous material. Previous games have relied on collectables or hidden items to appease the completionists, but this is an experience that is ever-evolving. This game is actually getting better with time due to more players and more leaderboard updates.Autolog will also offer recommendations of races where your times have been beaten, or your friends have just posted time for you to go up against. They even have a suggested friends section so that you can connect with other games to see where you stack up.
It’s surprising to think that in a year that saw so many other racing games fall short of hype, Hot Pursuit was able to feel fresh, new and innovative.
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