Autoblog

If you're a video game freak and a Mustang fan, chances are you're going to pick up Ford Bold Moves: Street Racing for the PS2, XBox 360 or PC no matter what kind of reviews it gets. Manufacturer specific driving games are not a new thing, even for Ford who is now on its third version of the Ford Racing series. Still, they can often devolve into extended digital test drives when there's only one brand to race.

Perhaps Ford Bold Moves: Street Racing is a cut above the rest, as it has some interesting features beyond the obvious draw of driving 18 of the greatest Ford vehicles of all time (see complete list of available vehicles after the jump). Gameplay is structured around short challenges, competitions and league play that takes place on 24 tracks based on the streets of L.A. Why video game makers insist on having us race the streets of the most congested city in the U.S. is beyond us, but we digress. In addition to winning cash to modify your Ford of choice, the game also goes the extra step to simulate real damage. The real hook, however, is a Maximum Team Control Racing mode in which players can control a team of up to three cars at once and can switch which car they're controlling on the fly.

With a name like Ford Bold Moves, we were hoping there'd be a management mode where we could swap out CEOs, bargain with teamsters and close plants, but it looks like game developer Razorworks is saving those features for its follow up, The Way Forward: Turnaround Xtreem.

[Source: Ford]

Ford's Bold Moves campaign just got a little bolder with the introduction of Ford Bold Moves Street Racing, a video game developed in cooperation with Eidos Interactive. Scheduled to hit a North American PlayStation 2, XBOX or PC near you this fall, the game comes packing 18 Ford vehicles and the option to switch among three of them at a time during a race, thanks to a function known as "Maximum Team Control." The game also allows the ability to crash and boom 'til your heart's content via the "progressive damage system" function, which, like most video games on the market, shows the damage done to your vehicle as you play.

Among the vehicles to choose from in the game are the 1968 Mustang GT, 1969 Mustang Boss 302, 1985 RS200, 1987 Sierra RS500, 1995 GT90 Concept, 2000 Ford SVT Cobra R, 2004 SVT F-150 Lightning, 2006 Ford GT, and 2007 Shelby GT500.

Our friends over at Joystiq aren't exactly enamored by the fact that the promotional-type game will be sold retail, unlike a game put out last fall by Volvo that was free to prospective buyers and showcased the safety features championed by the brand. We say that if other car manufacturers can spend millions of dollars ensuring that their vehicles end up in Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and Gran Turismo 4, Ford can spend millions of dollars playing in their own sandbox -- it's the quality of the game that counts.

[Source: Ford Motor Company via Joystiq]

Stefan Eriksson is the owner of the now famous Ferrari Enzo that was sliced in half last Tuesday after a high speed crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, CA.

Who is Stefan Eriksson? Apparently he's a businessman with ties to the Swedish Mafia and has a track record of destroying things with which he comes in contact. Eriksson was a top exec involved in the embarrassing failure of the Gizmondo, a handheld GameBoy-like device he helped develop that was ignored sold in both Europe and the U.S.

Eriksson was seen walking around the car after the crash that allegedly occurred as the result of a street race with a McLaren SLR and a better driver. The fact this millionaire mafia member is alive can be attributed solely to the live-saving properties of the Enzo, which stop just short of being able to raise the dead.

Eriksson told the police he was a passenger in the Enzo when it crashed and that the driver was a mysterious German fellow named Dietrich (no last name, like Cher) who fled on foot and has yet to turn up.

This sketchy story has the cops shaking their heads as if to say, “You really expect us to believe that?” and the rest of autodom shaking their middle fingers at the man who reduced the world’s population of Enzos from 400 to 399. 

Eriksson has only said “No comment,” or at least that’s what the security officer posted in front of his gated Bel-Air mansion is telling reporters.

Check out this mesage board for the best collection of pics from the crash we've found so far on the 'net.