The Italian Job (2001 video game)

The Italian Job is a video game based on the 1969 film of the same name, developed by Pixelogic and first published for PlayStation to European markets by SCi and Sold Out in 2001, and to North American markets by Rockstar Games in 2002. A port of the game for Microsoft Windows was released in Europe by the then-rebranded SCi Games, and in North America by Global Star Software, in 2002. The game features a story mode based on the film, and a multiplayer "party" mode where players compete through several different circuits in London and Turin, as well as a single player practice mode where the player can develop skills needed for completing the story mode. The game features representations of London and Turin that the player can drive around freely within a sandbox mode, in a range of cars including the Mini.

The Italian Job
Developer(s)Pixelogic
Publisher(s)PlayStationWindows
Director(s)Bryan Reynolds
Producer(s)Peter Hickman
Designer(s)Kris Gormley
Programmer(s)Chris Butler
Artist(s)Richard Richter
Composer(s)Allister Brimble
EngineRenderWare
Platform(s)PlayStation, Windows
ReleasePlayStation
  • EU: 5 October 2001
  • NA: 3 May 2002
  • AU: 19 September 2003[1]
Windows
  • EU: 12 April 2002
  • AU: 19 April 2002[2]
  • NA: 14 August 2002
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Production

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The game was developed in conjunction with Pixelogic's Continuous Ordered Scenery Streaming (COSS) technology. This allowed designers to plan and design the "vast environments" required for effectively recreating complex scenes from the film, notably "The Escape Route". The city layouts were modeled using 3DS Max. Phil Cornwell impersonated the voice of Michael Caine as the main character, Charlie Croker.[3]

Reception

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The Italian Job received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[4][5]

References

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  1. ^ "The Italian Job". Game Nation. Archived from the original on 26 August 2003. Retrieved 26 July 2024. Shipping date: 19 Sep 2003
  2. ^ "The Italian Job". Game Nation. Archived from the original on 8 May 2002. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  3. ^ Li, David (August 14, 2002). "Postmortem: Pixelogic's The Italian Job". Gamasutra. UBM. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  4. ^ a b "The Italian Job Critic Reviews for PC". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  5. ^ a b "The Italian Job Critic Reviews for PlayStation". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
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