Posted by Deus -
"Call me a lucky bastard, but right now Im in London, on ECTS and PlayStation Experience event.
To cut the crap, two hours ago I have played the latest build of GT4, toghether with 2 new tracks: Italy Track and Fuji Speedway track. The game looks great, fast and detailed. Trrack in Italy is a freakin surprise: its narrow, narrow, narrow, you just cant imagine, and its a pure 1,5 minutes of driving pleasure (drove it with Mazda RX8 LM), while Fuji Speedway looks cool and itll definatelly be one of the greatest competition tracks in game.
EDITED: Didn't see any new cars so far, there are like 20 cars to choose and all of them were seen before.
I had a chance to drive that sweet Subaru simulator on hidraulics - IMpreza on Smokey Mountain - and feeling is GREAT! If it would only went on sale...
As it was announced, this build was brought yesterday by Kazunori himself, so later on I'll now more about the game (see last paragraph).
As for graphic, its still much of GT Concept - no exhaust flames, no noticable upgrades in reflections - but the enviroment looks great due to usage of real photographs in background - the replay of Italy track looks stunning.
New wheel is much better that GT Force, but its not good as Thrustmaster Force Feedback wheel - in terms of build quality. Howerver, the buttons are much better placed, the pedals are great, the shifers are OK and FF is little bit better so overall opinion is that new wheel is in "must have" category.
And for release date, the December is like 100% sure - which is a bit of surprise -0 and thats a date for PAL territories.
Right now, Im waiting a 4pm to held an exclusive interview with Kazunori man for my mag and I hope he will have an half of hour for me, so when I come back, expect some of the greatest questions to be answered.
Stay tuned. "
"Hello again.
Yesterday was a big day - I met a Kazunori San for the first time, I actually saw him driving and then we went to a interview that lasted for 45 mins.
Some facts: The new Italy track (I couldnt rememeber yesterday) is called Citta di Aria ("City of Song" or something) and it's by far the most complex and intriguing course ever in GT Series. It's a unbelievably narrow track, and it's some kind of asphalt rally course with ups and downs and unexpected bends. Duels on that track (and right now I did't see a two cars option on the track but I hope it'll be possible) will be crazy. After I get to see Kazunori drive it for himself (and nobody didnt know who he is; he even get to be pulled away from the driving seat by the staff when show was ending, and it was very funny to watch the situation - he didnt say anything, he just smiled, get up from seat and then we went for an talk), I was amased: he drove it with Nissan Z LM Edition with ridiculous speed and accuracy - later on I'll foind out that CItta di Aria, by his words, will be the most difficult time-attack and Gold Licence in GT4. So, get prepared
After the interview I spent some time driving GT4 on controller in room where was much less people, so I could even watch some replays. The Grand Canyon Tuweep looks freakin great, NYC track is stunning to drive, and replays are fabulous. Tsukuba will be heaven for memory card battles and duels.
Now the interview. Kazunori have a little knowledge of spoken English, so he used a translator, very cool japanese guy with the red hair.
FACTS ON GT4 BY KAZUNORI YAMAUCHI ON 28-8-03
- the game will be realeased towards the end of the year. He dont know when, but he knows that he will give away the final code to Sony when he'll be totally satisfied with the build
- the bulid shown here is the latest build interms of car handling. However, he stated that it's not the final graphic build so maybe that picture with the exhaust flames isn't mockup. Unfortunatelly, when I asked him about the flames he said that they're still working on lots of effects at this time and trhat everything is possible
- no Ferraris (diplomaticlly answered off course). He even said that he doesn't care much of Ferrari or other expensive sportcars being in the game - he loves the usual cars much more because the wider audince can be more drown into game. However, he was postive about Donkevort and Morgan. A sentence about "being still in talks with many manufactorers" was also said
- NO F1 cars, but "the cars similar to F1 cars" will definatelly be in the game
- LM cars (prototype and LMP 900) class will be in the game. He didn't stated which cars, but he said that we can expect LM cars from different years. However, LeMans circut will NOT BE IN GT4.
- He STATED that ALL OF THE TRACKS from previous games will be in the GT4. I even asked him about High Speed Ring and it' s similaritiy to Fuji Speedway and he said the High Speed Ring is the great learning track, while Fuji is more complex and by that suited for much experienced drivers. He wasn't positive about the rumor of "track 5 times longer then any other previous track" but he said that he and his team are always working in finding a new way to upgrade the game code into that direction. Intresting was the sentence in which he said that there'll be minor changes on some old tracks in ways of configuration and surroundings.
- no real time weather effect, but he said that there will be more time of day vatiations and that maybe more tracks will have a wet option
- they've been working on AI and he hopes we will be satisfied. Although, the main issue in GT games is to have real people competing with each other and in GT4 and online option thats even more obvious
- As for driving model, he told me a whole story about his philosophy of driving model in GT games. As to GT4 there was only one philosophy - to find a parameters that will ensure that player can think that he is driving exactlly that vehicle - in GT4 he come up to another philosophy (and he didnt want to talk about it) which he combined with previuos one - the result is a much responsive driving model, and I can tell you taht car handling on the code showed here is GREAT. Turning into corners is different, you must brake like you've never brake before, the rear end tends to go away while breaking in high speeds, and driving on grass or sandtraps is now much more unforgiving. However, the steering on high and low speed is great and I just cant wait to get my hands on the final game.
- as for tyre marks, they exesit, but they are not real time
- as for sound, the LM cars sound like the devil himself made them. In the noise of fair you cant hear a lot, but form what I've heard, some improvements were made. I didn't have time to sak him about the sound, though.
- As for GT5 on PS3 ("or whatever the new hardware will be called", he said, which is intrigiuing) he said that we can expect a major improvements in terms of graphics. He stated that so far the players had a tendency to compare the visuals of the game to the real world and that on GT5 that need will be neutralised. He also said (but not directly) that his team is already working on some aspects of GT5.
- damage will not find it's way in GT4
- not sure for dead spot on new wheel cause I had a chance to drive only one race with new wheel (only two are displayed and row for them is like 100 m long)
- that's it. We shake hands, I thank him, he smiled and then gone away. It was a day to remember.
So, still not 100% sure to Decemeber release although people on UK Official PLayStation 2 Magazine claim that Decemeber release is certain. I'm staying here till sunday, so later today I'll try to grab my seat in GT4 configuration with seat, pedals and wheel and to drive all tracks without being pushed by people around. Expect more info soon.
Stay tuned "
"- the demo showed in London had kph, not mph, and the official press DVD ROM from SCEE had stated that game is out in "Q4 of 2003"
- there's no streaming data in GT games codes so far, and I guess there will never be. The both processors are occupied with calculating many things during the game, result of which you can see in replay. If you remeber, in GT and GT2 you cuold watch replay for as many laps you wanted - I tested it in arcade mode and watched replay of my race with a friend that lasted for 99 laps (max in settings). In GT3 you can only watch like 30 laps. GT loads all of the track and then puts cars on it and calculates everything in real time, while storing data for replay. Guess that someoone with better techical knowledge of PS2 coding could explain this better.
- I actually mentioned F355 Callenge game and it's "magic weather" option, but the answer was "that we can expect to see many surprises"
- as for AI - the whole new code was written during the time of codein GT Concept game which we could actually seee in GTC. The GT4 will have the final AI code. The same goes for car driving model.
- as for driving model - when you come to the grass, the car tends to oversteer as ##### and there's pretty no contact with surface at all; you have to drove out in low revs and low speed. As for sand, it basically stops the car. I see it as "much more unforgiving" and I can't see what is contradictory there
- and related to the the game modes: he didn't want to talk about it, between many things he didn't want to talk about. He just kept saying that "there will be lot of surprises".
And one thing is not being kept in mind while discussing: take in consider that code shown here and in E3 is from arcade part of the game - I pressume that code in simulation part will be even more difficult to handle.
When I finish the interview fr the mag, I'll translate it and put it here, so you can read all the info I've got.
And just one more anouncement - yesterday I've got a copy of the Mercedes Benz World Racing game for PS2 - graphic is far more **** then on the Xbox, but the driving model is the same and you should all try this game if it ever comes to your hands - IMHO, it's one of the best racing games ever made. And it's got 100+ Merc inside, AMG CLK GTR included "
Originally posted by fozzyuk
"The Italian street track is stunning.
The brakes seem to lock up easier.
When playing the ai seems improved a little, the opposing cars seem to try and avoid you rather than bang-bang into you.
the reflections in the car paintwork and the building windows seems to be better
the drivers in the open-topped cars are animate.
the grand canyon track does look really nice, but it seems to all go out the window when instead if driving through longer grass at the trackside, you bounce off it.
the car models seem to be much like the ones in gtconcept, with either higher res textures or simply more textures than before."
Originally posted by ShinKarasu
"I have a subscription to Wired magazine and in the recent issue they had a nice little article on drifting. Toward the end of the article they have a small section on KY and GT4. I will type out some of the more interesting details.
"On paper, physics dont' make sense," KY says. "So our engineers couldn't understand it enough to make a formula." In theory, a car can no more drift around a corner than a bumblebee can fly. And yet in the real world, it happens...
"We cannot ignore physics," he says. "If GT has a realistic enough physics engine, a player will be able to accurately drift a car, whether the enginners understand why it slides or not. It is the goal and the proof." When drifting happens in the game, KY's enginners call it "the miracle."
Which is why KY has come to E3 this year: to announce that GT4 will have a new physics engine - the first overhaul since GT2 came out, in 1996...But for KY , the answer is clear: The game is better because it drifts better better. So much beter, in fact, that GT4 will have a brand-new Drift Battle mode: a D1-like event, with virtual judges scoring the contestants' competence and flair. "Drifting exists in the world, as do competitions," KY says. "Not including them in GT4 would be unnatural."
So there you go. It is a little new info and good news to all of us drifting fans. I am personally very excited about the presence of a D1 type of competition. All of you drifting fans should check out this new issue of Wired. "
