I'm just out of a very quick meeting with Bizarre (thanks again for cutting short your meal time for us!) about PGR3. Impressions inside, with a nice video of the track editor.
The version we got to see was about one month old now (latest "stable" build) and it was already much better than what I got to see in Leipzig. This time the game seemed mostly content complete and needed only a lot of small touch-ups everywhere.
Firs we got to see the menus and options, especially for the Career and online career modes (seems a bit like Forza's). We then gpt to see the track editor (see video) and then we finally saw the game itself running.
This build was running at 30 fps but sometimes it was difficult even for trained eyes like mine to be sure it wasn't 60 fps thanks to the excellent motion blur. Most visual effects were included and except for the building textures being still in low resolution (needing some streaming fixed first) it looked just great. It looked exactly like the screenshots, except it now moved very nicely. The sound was also really good now, with big differences between the inside car view (also great) and outside.
The Kudos system has been refined and now reflects your actions more accurately. Using or not the handbrake will change your kudos score accordingly for example. Mostly it's now easier to understand why you get Kudos for something or not.
We could not stay long but we finally got to see the photo mode, lots of options there (camera shutter, focus, sepia color, you name it) for a very cool looking final image you'll be able to save on the hard drive of the console.
The Bizarre team seemed very confident about the game being ready for launch, and it also seemed that the game running at 60fps is still very much possible.
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All comments (39)
Commented on 2005-09-17 08:26:29
Commented on 2005-09-17 08:30:35
Commented on 2005-09-17 08:30:53
Commented on 2005-09-17 08:36:42
Commented on 2005-09-17 08:37:27
Commented on 2005-09-17 08:50:13 In reply to rjcc
Commented on 2005-09-17 08:59:06
Commented on 2005-09-17 11:42:09fault of the 360, because if they had more time they would get it running at
60fps. It's MS fault for releasing a console so prematurely. I've
known this was a mistake for months, and now we are seeing real evidence of
this straight from the devs. "If we had four months we could get it running
at 60." Christ, i would certainly wait 4 more months in order to get twice
the framerate. A lot of games are going to suffer this fate because they are
rushing the 360 to market too fast. WE are going to be paying money for
half-assed games that could be running smoother and more optimally, with
better visuals, if only they would have given developers enough time to
finish the games. There will be bugs, there will be unfinished looking
games, and games running at half the speed they could be because of this,
and it pisses me off. I feel that this first wave of games really will not
be worth paying hard earned money for, and then having to think that they
could have been better if only they had had more time.
Commented on 2005-09-17 13:15:24
Commented on 2005-09-17 13:26:38It has always been like that and it will be in the future as well!
Saying that launch games are not worth the money is kind of ridiculous, because launch games NEVER have been at a consoles maximum! That´s the nature of development. PGR on Xbox can not keep up with PGR2, but it was damn fun playing it on release!
If you want to wait for a game to be (really) finished, you can quit gaming as well!
Some japanese programmer (can´t remember or spell the name!) once said:" A game is never finished. The longer you work on it, the more enhancements come to your mind, and the better you get to know the machines capabilities. But there has to be a release some day!"
Commented on 2005-09-17 13:33:28This track editor is just one of MANY reasons to buy PGR3!
Commented on 2005-09-17 13:57:42I've pre-ordered.. I'm getting one on day #1 (UK release) .. but I'm now going to turn more of my attention to the PS3 and hope that things are better on that unit.
To sum it all up .. this game is crying out for 60fps .. and anything else will leave it wide open to critics. It's far better to hold it back and prove that the hardware can delivery a game of this quality at the right frame-rate. We would be more than willing to wait a few more months! Better than 2 years until the next PGR ..
Commented on 2005-09-17 14:18:32
Commented on 2005-09-17 14:23:46
Commented on 2005-09-17 15:02:37
Commented on 2005-09-17 15:28:50 In reply to Goat
Commented on 2005-09-17 16:43:53Blim or snoopers: you have actually seen the in car view this time?? i mean, with dashboard, wheel, and hands? how did that look like?
Thanks in advance, and keep it up!
Commented on 2005-09-17 17:24:09What's coming, the PGR3 gameplay video?
Commented on 2005-09-17 17:55:03 In reply to vspectra06What's coming, the PGR3 gameplay video?
Commented on 2005-09-17 18:23:42 In reply to SlabsI think Xbox 360 won't be able to fight against PS3 in terms of hi-tech-graphics and physics power - it can barely top the latest PC games. Xbox 360 doesn't even have an innovative new controller like Nintendo, which makes me think whether people really need Xbox 360 when there are PS3 and Revolution on the market. Well, I guess it depends on games. The portfolio must be much stronger than Xbox'.
Commented on 2005-09-17 18:34:51
Commented on 2005-09-17 19:20:16 In reply to SlabsAll I can say is take a look (as I did yesterday) at the PS3's GranTurismo5 video now circulating on the net and compare those visuals to anything PGR has thus far delivered. I am far more 'blown away' by that demo alone. It is by far more visually breahtaking in its ability to deliver almost photorealistic visuals and certainly puts PGR in the shade.
I still firmly believe that if any AAA title is not able to give the larger user-base 'confidence' in the consoles power - then why on earth bother? We know that the lesser developers out there are going to struggle even more to get 60fps if the guys developing PGR already are.
Commented on 2005-09-17 19:30:57
Commented on 2005-09-17 20:13:13 In reply to HakkizImagine FNrd3 will be a PS3-launch game...how disappointed people will be if it doesn´t look a single pixel better than crappy 360-version...! ;o)
Commented on 2005-09-17 20:18:08In the meantime PGR3 will be the best looking driving game available anywhere on any available format. I fully expect the team to get the 60fps when running on final hardware spec and after the last of the QA and certification testing. This track editor is also a fantastic addition, details like this on launch software show that great games can be made within an amazingly short time, though I hate to imagine how much this is costing to develop.