Preview
Vin Diesel’s Wheelman: First Racer To Include Punching And Torture
May 02, 2008
Get ready to tear Barcelona a new asshole. The chance to write that kind of thing doesn’t come along very often. But, with Vin Diesel’s new title, Wheelman, set in the historic Spanish city, it kind of works.
If you haven’t heard yet, Wheelman is an arcade-style open world game that will serve as a prequel for a flick by the same name coming out from MTV Films. Diesel plays undercover cop Milo Burik in both projects. And, according to Shaun Himmerick, executive producer of Wheelman at Midway Games, anyone who doubts Diesel’s acting abilities doesn’t have anything to worry about when it comes to his credentials as a gamer.
“The interesting thing about working with Vin is that he really understands games, and he especially loves fighting games,” said Himmerick. “He’s a game geek really. He said he’d really like to have a punch aspect to the driving and that’s where the melee came from.”
Wheelman will offer an open world with over 25 story-based missions and another 80 side missions. The game allows players to take control of any car they see and finish off enemies in a variety of ways like pulling a 180 to shoot your pursuers in the face before peeling out.
“One of the cool things in this game is that we give you a lot of choices of how to destroy the enemies,” explained Himmerick. “You can shoot from the car–we have a much more advanced aiming system than any game has ever had. You can choose to melee them or shoot out their tires to slow them down..”
Himmerick’s favorite mission in the game involves torturing a bad guy named Philippe for information. He’s hanging to the hood of Burik’s car and there’s a scare-o-meter that measures at what point he’ll talk after the jumps and other maneuvers that have him flailing and screaming. If Diesel had a sense of humor you could just show Phillipe a screener of The Pacifier to get the job done.
Wheelman hits shelves this fall on next-gen consoles and PC.
–John Gaudiosi
Tags: Midway, Vin Diesel, Wheelman
