We recently had the opportunity to speak with Felice Standifer, producer of SCEA's newest racing title, ATV Offroad Fury. Here's what she had to say.

FELICE: I felt that Rainbow Studios had made some really outstanding titles, including the Motocross Madness series and was really impressed. I researched them thoroughly and approached them with an offer.

FELICE: After making Rainbow an offer, we collectively felt that ATV Offroad Fury would be a great title to launch in the first year of the PlayStation 2. We believed that the massive environments and intense ATV racing would play well to the PS2 audience. From initial reaction, I think we're being proved correct. I've worked on several titles prior to ATV, including Jet Moto and Twisted Metal 2 as an Associate Producer.

FELICE: As a producer, I have to be involved on every end of the project - from developer relations to legal to knowing what marketing is doing for the game. It really involves getting your arms around all parts of the development process and making sure you know what everyone else is involved with.

FELICE: We all have a huge interest in offroad racing and love to ride. Robb Rinard - the game designer at Rainbow - has lots of friends in the motocross world and used many of his contacts to assist us in producing the game. I think the results have been fantastic.

FELICE: We really didn't feel any added pressure, other than the usual pressure of making the best title we possibly can. The pressure really came from within on this title...we're all perfectionists and wanted this game to really utilize what the PS2 has to offer. The development guys really did a great job.

FELICE: Originality was a big part of our design plans for ATV Offroad Fury. We wanted to provide gamers with a new type of racing experience. Rainbow's talented staff of artists came up with the graphics for the environments and added a great dimension to the overall gameplay.

FELICE: There are approximately 20 people on the team, including programmers, artists, a physics person, an AI person and production staff. The evolution of the gameplay really involved by just building on what each group accomplished. The gameplay came together and we're very pleased with the result.

FELICE: I think there will be a few things that surprise people. First, the game is not like your typical 'offroad' game where players are required to stay on a narrow dirt path. This is a true offroad game where players can competitively race anywhere over environments as large as 1-2 square miles in area. Another thing that might surprise consumers is the level of detail that Rainbow has placed in the game. It allows players to see objects far in the distance at low poly counts and as players race closer to the object, a higher poly model streams in, unnoticed by the player. This also helps keep the frame rate up at a high level. It's amazing to see.

FELICE: Well, this is my first game as a producer, so obviously it's a proud moment for me personally. Seeing all of the work come together into such a fun game has been very rewarding.

FELICE: As the producer on the game, I have to give it a 10+ on the fun meter! I really think the game just offers such a tremendous amount of variety for the racing fan...if they enjoy racing, we have more than 20 massive environments to race through. If they enjoy stunts, they can enter the Freestyle Stunt mode to pull off awesome tricks. The overall experience is just a blast.

FELICE: ATV Offroad Fury is really more of a pure racing game. We do have a few secrets within the game, but you'll have to play it to find them out!

FELICE: The team did an excellent job of beginning the game development from a simulation point of view and then tweaking the gameplay to add in arcade-like elements. It makes the game that much more enjoyable.

FELICE: The ATV licensees helped us throughout the process by providing their bike models and specs for us to model, as well as safety mandatories for us to follow. We have been very careful to include all necessary safety requirements...what can be done in the game should not be done at home! Wes Miller from H-Bomb Films was our consultant during the development cycle and really helped make sure that we were working with the right companies within the industry to achieve realistic gameplay.

FELICE: ATV Offroad Fury has a Waypoint Editor which allows players to redesign Enduro races to their own liking. This is, in effect, a track editor, as players can mold their races to how they like to race.

FELICE: We hope so! It really depends on how well ATV Offroad Fury does, but we'd love to work on a sequel.

FELICE: The Sony connection helped in some cases, but it was really more a function of me sitting down with Chuck Doud, our music director, Brian Fukuji, our legal contact who handles music issues, and John Koller, our marketing product manager to determine what bands and songs work given a certain flavor of gameplay. The resulting soundtrack really works well with the overall feel of the game.

FELICE: ATV Offroad Fury really stands out by itself from an offroad racing perspective. No other racing title offers the true offroad racing that ATV provides, nor do they offer ATV-only competitive racing. I think ATV's graphics stand out above the pack and, in the final analysis, racing is all about control, feel and speed of the vehicle that you're on. ATV Offroad Fury does as good a job as any other title in that area.

FELICE: Nothing that I can tell you now, but the tidbit that I would offer would be - buy ATV Offroad Fury!