{"rewrite":{"id":"r_c277353146644362bd6c4e1f","clusterId":"c_8867623f52f00ec4077d4b8f","slug":"game-spark-reports-hands-on-with-clutch-from-former-forza-horizon-5-director","model":"deepseek-v4-flash","headline":"Game Spark Reports Hands-On With CLUTCH From Former Forza Horizon 5 Director","summary":"At gamescom 2026 in Cologne, held from August 26 to August 30, Game Spark played CLUTCH, a racing game in development at Maverick Games. The studio is led by Mike Brown, who was creative director on Forza Horizon 5. The demo opens with a cutscene that hands control to the player across a police chase, a lavender field run, and a circuit race.","whyItMatters":"The play report shows Maverick Games building its own open-world racer around a split between official circuits and a night street gang, which is the structure the studio's Forza Horizon veterans are asking players to judge on its own terms.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eThe demo build moves between two faces of the same map. One is the professional circuit, the other an underground street racing group called the Midnight Collective that appears at night. The setting is an open world modeled on the French Riviera, with an area built as an expansion of Monaco that mixes underground tunnels and elevated roads. An opening cutscene runs from nighttime streets to a Jeep crossing a lavender field to a circuit race, and control passes to the player inside each sequence.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"CLUTCH hands players control across a police chase, a lavender field run and a circuit race. Maverick Games is building a racing game where the transition between cutscene and driving is the design problem, not the track list.","twitterPost":"CLUTCH drops players into a police chase, then a lavender field run. Maverick Games treats the cutscene-to-driving handoff as the thing to solve.","threadsPost":"CLUTCH opens on a cutscene, then hands control over mid-police-chase, then through a lavender field run into a circuit race. Mike Brown's Maverick Games is designing around the seam between cinematic and driving, which is where most racing games lose their rhythm.","newsletterBlurb":"Game Spark played CLUTCH, the Maverick Games racer led by former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown, at gamescom 2026 in Cologne. The demo opens with a cutscene that hands over control across a police chase, a lavender field run, and a circuit race. The open world is modeled on the French Riviera, with a dense Monaco area and a night street racing group called the Midnight Collective.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"Game Spark\",\"url\":\"http://www.gamespark.jp/article/2026/09/10/172072.html\",\"title\":\"A gorgeous racing experience that makes full use of its South of France setting. A play report of 'CLUTCH,' the new title from the director of 'Forza Horizon 5'\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4694,"outputTokens":579,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1789031671,"createdAt":"2026-09-10T09:09:41.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-09-10T09:13:23.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-10T09:13:23.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_8867623f52f00ec4077d4b8f","canonicalTitle":"南フランスのロケーションを存分に生かした華麗なレース体験。『Forza Horizon 5』ディレクター新作『CLUTCH』プレイレポート","representativeArticleId":"a_19e981e61ebc79bbbf07cdec","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"CLUTCH\",\"Forza Horizon 5\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"review\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-09-10T08:30:03.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-09-10T08:30:03.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-10T09:13:20.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"Game Spark","url":"http://www.gamespark.jp/article/2026/09/10/172072.html","title":"南フランスのロケーションを存分に生かした華麗なレース体験。『Forza Horizon 5』ディレクター新作『CLUTCH』プレイレポート"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["CLUTCH","Forza Horizon 5"],"studios":[],"people":[],"type":"review","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}