Gran Turismo 5 Delayed 122
RogueyWon writes "The Times is reporting that Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5, likely to prove a key title for the PlayStation 3, has been delayed indefinitely, despite an expectation that it would be released relatively early in 2010. The delay seems likely to impact Sony's plans to bundle the game with the PlayStation 3 console in time for the important spring sales period in Japan."
Gran Duke Nukem Turismo... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gran Duke Nukem Turismo... (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember reading an article, when the PS2 was in its infancy, that the three franchises it needed to have installments in to cement its dominance (the PS2 wasn't actually an instant mega-success) were: Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo. Now, you could argue that list is a little too exclusive, but there's certainly a nugget of truth in there.
And now this generation, the PS3 is in a less-than-commanding position, and despite now being several years into this console generation, gamers outside of Japan can only purchase one of those franchises for the PS3. For this reason, I suspect Sony are actually pretty nervous about this delay; you're by no means alone in having bought a PS3 primarily for GT5.
Of all the reasons for the delay, there's only one I can think of that makes any real sense to me. This is that Polyphony have taken a look at the recently-released Forza 3 and have, correctly, realised: "This has redefined the realistic racing-sim genre. Nothing we have put out so far has had anything like the feature set or the robustness of this. We need to match Forza 3's feature set, while going beyond it in terms of track and car selection if we don't want underwhelming reviews and sales."
Competing with Forza 3 properly would mean having a proper damage model, having opponent driver AI that is far better than anything we've previously seen in a Gran Turismo game, having all of Forza's advanced online options, such as the auction house, and allowing for the kind of visual customisation of cars that Forza 3 allows. Given that Gran Turismo games to date have basically been updates of the original with better graphics and more cars, but no changes to fundamental features (AI in particular), this may have been a bit of a culture shock for them. But then, Forza 2 and 3 have both come out since the release of Gran Turismo 4, and have provided Polyphony with the kind of competition within the realistic racing genre that they've never had before.
Fortunately for them, the genre is a bit sparser than the first person shooter market, so they probably don't have to fall into the Duke Nukem Forever trap of trying to out-feature a rapidly evolving set of competitors.
So these guys keep wanting to prove my point! (Score:5, Insightful)
For the past 2 to 3 years I have been harping on at numerous forums how I'm not entirely convinced that Polyphony Digital actually know what the hell they are doing.
GT4 was a splendid game for the time, the physics were great for a PS2 and 'semi' realistic racer (see: Proper PC Sims for insane physics but much much more niche) the menu music was nice and I liked how they didn't throw cars at you like dollar notes to a stripper, I had to 'bond' with my first car and work my way up with it. I had that MX5 for about 50 races.
Now, if you actually read any articles and interviews, the GT guys seem to want to add every single possible gametype to the game.
WRC, F1, Nascar, 'standard' racing cars and of course modified real cars too. Apparently they are going to be able to handle the driving physics and engines for all these types (oh and motorbikes in the latest news articles!)
I think they are diluting the hell out of the game just trying to throw anything and everything at it.
Forza has a few good things going for it, for one it has probably some of the best rumble and audio queues in a racing game since Rallisport challenge 2. As ridiculous as it sounds, you feel as if you really can feel the track / wheel traction just from a controller. The audio is very good at distinguishing traction, the rumble is just right and combined they work well.
GT however has been re-using the same 'arcade style' traction squeel which sounds like it came out of Outrun since GT3.
No, I'm not joking, go and play GT3, GT4, GT4 Prologue, GT5 Prologue, GT5 Limited Jap demo, GT HD Concept and finally GT Academy - the tire squeel sound is not only the same, it's just plain annoying!
While I'm at it, they keep releasing things like GT HD Concept, GT5 Jap Demo, GT5 Prologue, GT Academy (Europe series and Aus/NZ series!) and I believe I'm missing one of the GT5 demos too... can I just be blunt and say, where the heck is the game for goodness sakes? Now in the time that GT4 has shipped, Turn 10 under Microsoft have shipped Forza 1, Forza 2 and Forza 3, furthermore it's not like they "madden'd!" the Forza series, each game had quite a fair while between each release with substantial changes to them and improvements.
Example Forza 1 and 2 had crappy emo rock thrashy music in the menus which just got on your nerves, whereas GT4 - credit where credit is due had this very laid back elevator style music you could (and would) comfortably listen to all day in a 12 hour rainy Sunday racing and upgrading session. Now Forza 3 has some pretty relaxed menu beats, rewind feature (best thing EVER for anyone who isn't an extreme racer) You've got brilliant graphics, a car trading and buying system - etc.
Also if you listened to the 1up podcasts about 18 months back Shane Bettenhausen quoted the Polyphony GT guys as basically saying "we're the best, we don't care about the competition we literally haven't even seen Forza 1 or 2" this arrogance frankly pisses me off as I just want a good product from both companies. Forza 2 most certainly WAS worth PD looking at, there are several improvements. (FWIW They finally did sneak a peak at F3 mid 2009 if I recall, the game was delayed a few months later)
So why am I posting this? I'm basically sick of speaking to mates or anyone really about games and when GT comes up it's "wow, amazing, best ever, insane!" along with "GT5 will be best/better/amazing" along with "Forza is arcadey shit" (Me:) "Have you played it?" "Nah but I've seen it!" - that's a real conversation I've had with not 1 but 2 normally intelligent people.
I love my PS3, vastly more than my 360 and genuinely dislike the business model of XBLive Gold, dislike the nickel and diming, dislike the reliability issues and I still purchased a 360 JUST for Forza 3 and it was worth every cent.
I may as well get the whole rant out there.
GT5 Prologue, no car modding? for 60$ AUD (40$ US?) you have to be bloody joking!
Also, I may be called a heathen but between the good feedback audio, controller rumble
Re:Gran Duke Nukem Turismo... (Score:3, Insightful)
Every once and awhile there's a game that takes a long time in development that comes out really good, but in general, once they go past a couple years it is a good bet they are going to suck. There's just only so much time you can usefully spend on a game. In part this is because technology moves fast, so at some point you have to commit things and put together a final product. If not, you do get a DNF scenario where you keep spending time upgrading shit and not doing anything.
The problem is that game development usually happens in two stages. The first stage is the long one which is gathering things together. This is getting concepts, art, the engine, and shit like that all put together. More or less, getting all the ground work done that you can actually build a game. The amount of time that takes can be a bit indeterminate. However, then, when you are ready, you have something of a crunch time where you start applying that all to actually put together a game.
Well it seems that some devs have real problems moving out of the first phase in to the second. They want to perpetually be messing with designs and new technologies and such and never freeze things where they are, and crank out an actual product. They seem to think you can have both and you really can't. At some point you have to stop with trying to add things and get down to implementing what you've got. That also has to be done in a reasonable time frame, or your stuff will be stale by the time it gets out.
Re:Gran Duke Nukem Turismo... (Score:5, Insightful)
There's casual and there's casual. If you want an arcade racer, sure your money is well wasted elsewhere. However if you want to have a more simulation-like experience on specific known tracks with cool cars, but are a casual gamer in the sense that you don't want to invest a few working weeks to unlock those, the original comment stands. I kind of have the same gripe with local multiplayer games (like on the wii) that make you unlock the multiplayer fun in singleplayer. Don't know how GT works in this sense (never played it), but if it does, that sucks for those kind of casual players. Sometimes there are unlock codes, but not always.
Re:So these guys keep wanting to prove my point! (Score:3, Insightful)
For the past 2 to 3 years I have been harping on at numerous forums how I'm not entirely convinced that Polyphony Digital actually know what the hell they are doing.
I've been trying to explain this to my friends for the past few years, I loved GT1 and GT2, heck even GT3/4 were entertaining to a degree. But GT was never really a Sim, and with all the crap they are trying to throw into GT5, it won't be a sim either. It's just a fun racing game IMO.
Re:The next DNF? (Score:3, Insightful)
Did Not Finish? ;)