It's taken more than a decade, but GTR 2, the game rightly lauded as one of the best racing sims ever, is getting a sequel.
The game's existence was announced via the Race Department forums (spotted by Eurogamer), and will launch next year for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While GTR 2 shot for accurate simulation, though, developer SimBim Studios UK is shooting for a broader audience with GTR 3.
Chris Speed, the CEO of SimBim's parent company Sector3, said the game will be a "proper simulation" but "needs to appeal to both sides" to succeed on consoles. Speed pointed to recent F1 games as an example of a way to appeal to the "hardcore racer" and the "casual gamer."
GTR 3 is only a few months into development and is being built on the Unreal 4 engine. Speed confirmed to Race Department that the game would feature a day-night cycle, dynamic weather and vehicle damage. Weather will affect the way cars drive, too: Dynamic water movement will allow rain to pool organically, which will lead to aquaplaning and other handling quirks.
Sector3 has been fairly experimental in recent years, toying with free-to-play models with RaceRoom, but with this game at least, it appears to be going for a more traditional release. Speed said that GTR 3 will not have RaceRoom's always-online requirement, which heavily implies it won't be free-to-play.
There are a lot of pieces left to put in place for Sector3 and SimBin. There's no publisher attached to the project; the FIA GT Championship that the GTR series licensed no longer exists; and the team that will build the game has yet to form. But knowing that a sequel to GTR 2 is at least in the works will please a lot of racing sim fans. Although the game isn't planned for release until 2018, Sector3 hopes to have a playable build within six months, so we should hear more about the game this year.