rec.autos.simulators

Hullo, Chaps!

In case you haven't seen it, here's Firing Squad's preview of GT4 for the
Playstation, due out in time for Kwanzaa:

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

The Sony wonks told me earlier this year that GT4 is seriously
Internet-enabled.  This preview sez only up to 5 can play at once
(presumably to preserve Sony's short-sighted commitment to dial-up ***).
Meow.

Rumor has it that the game will feature 500 fully-licensed RW cars.  Woof.

Enjoy!

Gonna head over there now and read it, while hoping for some new
screenies to drool over. :)

I wouldn't call it short-sighted. A lot of us are still on dial-up, so
we've been left out when a console requires broadband for online play.
Don't like it? Then I say go play something else that does require
broadband.

My business sense would tell me to make the game playable on both
dial-up and broadband, but include both options to connect as to not
leave anyone out. Yet just as it is now on PC's, I can envision seeing
the "elite" battle with those on DUN connections.

When broadband is available in every corner ***tore ($1 to Doc Brown,
slightly modded quote ;) and house, then it would be short sighted and
really unneeded.

I've heard about this. Sounds like we'll have a chock-full amount of
cars to play with.

Thank you for the post. Much appreciated. :)

-Will

"The artificial intelligence is supposed to be significantly different
in GT4 when compared to the older games. The AI-controlled cars will now
be more mindful of their surroundings, avoiding bumps and nudges where
possible. Hopefully this means that your rear won't get mindlessly
humped by the cars behind you they'll swerve and avoid if you enter a
corner too hot (but in the E3 demo this was not the case).."

Don't get your hopes up.  Polyphony made the same promises for GT3.

I've still seen no mention anywhere of including the dashboard and hood from
the***pit view.  If GT4 is still offering the "hood ornament view" as the
***pit view only, I'll be passing on it.  As cool as GT3 was in its driving
model (as apart from its brain-dead racing model), I tired of it much
quicker than I would have had I not felt like I was astral travelling
instead of driving a car.

Wait for the excuses:

AI will still be ***
Anti-aliasing blah blah blah
Too easy
Not realistic enough
No***pit view
It's no GPL

From all the people who don't play the game on principal, or tried it in a
store one day on easy mode ;-)

Nick

Unmodable shite it will be...

Alas, I've read some other reports/interviews that suggest the AI
hasn't really been that improved, and will still have some sort of
catch-up feature. Having said that, and noting that it won't have
a dash, still be confined to 6 cars on a track, have no damage ...

.. I'll be picking it up the first day of its release.  Folks, it
is still an amazing, beautiful game.  Stick with the same
graphics, but add a bunch of new cars (not just trim levels) to a
total of 500+ and add a bunch of real tracks (fingers crossed) and
it's a $50 well spent in my book.

It's primary value to any red-***ed driver will be its multiplayer
capabilities.  I mean, you can drone on all you want about how lame it is,
but it's sold more copies than all other driving games put together.  Even
if only 1 percent of the fan base wants to race online, that's an affinity
group 150,000 strong.  I wanna be at the first GT4 LAN party in Las Vegas,
fersure; it's gotta be like a Star Trek convention.

Those screenshots don't impress me at all.  Everybody drooling over the
previous ones were just drooling over rendered cars over 16-bit backgrounds.
Heck, GPL has the same backgound-quality (the user-mades) as the ones in
those screenshots.  Everything else, is crude polygonal track-shaping.
There's jaggies everywhere as usual for a GT-series game (but I'll just slip
this one and say it "might" just be the screenshots).

Ex:

http://www.racesimcentral.net/
That's crude.

http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Check out the poor polygon work at the corner' apex

5?  LOL that's laughable.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- http://www.racesimcentral.net/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

It's the Geoff Crammond of console games <G>

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- http://www.racesimcentral.net/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

hehe, forgot that one ;-)