Gran Turismo 5

[Charlie]

I regard realistic damage as a reasonably important feature as it discourages players from purposely driving into their opponents in the hope of taking them out - something that's all too prevelant in online racing. Play racing games without damage and taking eachother out is commonplace, but in games like Forza where damage effects performance, people are much more weary of employing such dirty tactics.

[englishbob]

Play racing games without damage and taking eachother out is commonplace, but in games like Forza where damage effects performance, people are much more weary of employing such dirty tactics.

Only in your private matches. All public matches have cosmetic damage AFAIK. Which is why Forza 3 is so **** online.

[Brats]

The problem with realistic damage is that you can be the innocent and unwilling victim of someone else's crap driving. There's nothing fun about being taken out of the race on the first corner by another driver smacking into the back of your car and flinging you into the barrier, just because they forgot about the brakes.

What we need is some intelligent AI to work out which driver had behaved like an idiot and penalise only them. It would be difficult though and I'm sure it would end in plenty of controversial decisions.

It's probably why the best online racers imo are the ones where causing damage is a part of the game (e.g. Blur).

[randombs]

I hardly notice damage in games as I almost always use the fullscreen in-car view. I'd be more interested in damage affecting the handling than the polygons. I can still see myself spending ages trying to recreate that Peugeot advert with the man, the car and the elephant

[Charlie]

Only in your private matches. All public matches have cosmetic damage AFAIK. Which is why Forza 3 is so **** online.

Nah, there's proper damage in Forza's public matches. I played a game recently on one of the high speed oval tracks, was involved in a colossal accident, and had to limp back to the pits with the steering completely shot and a top speed of around 40mph.

[Uli]

Sirs, could we please change topic? discussion about the pro & contra of damage simulation has been discussed to death in nearly every previous Forza or GT thread...

so, what about night races? or weather simulation? will this feature in the game or not? i have some feeling it wont...

[Number45]

I thought we'd seen footage of night races already?

EDIT: Here for starters. And weather changes.

[Wools]

The problem with realistic damage is that you can be the innocent and unwilling victim of someone else's crap driving. There's nothing fun about being taken out of the race on the first corner by another driver smacking into the back of your car and flinging you into the barrier, just because they forgot about the brakes.

That?s all part of racing though.

Although frustrating and a lottery, engine failure, driver error and damage is part of the sport and I?m glad this often forgotten part is being included to some degree by Polyphony.

[Charlie]

I was thinking of Vettel driving into Button in last weekend's Grand Prix when I read Brats' post and, I agree, being taken out because of driver error is part and parcel of racing at any level and I see no reason it shouldn't be included in a videogame. It's when people do it on purpose, Schumacher-style, when it takes the piss.

[Darwock]

Yeah but the thing is most real drivers will do whatever they can to avoid crashing into the back of someone. In a game the AI will generally just barrel into you if you brake any earlier than their coded braking zone. Like I said I think this will destroy any feeling of fun unless they sort the AI out first.

[randombs]

I take it we've all seen the video some pages back showing the AI car braking to let a car pass before it gets back into the race? If it's doing that, maybe it'll be a bit smarter about getting up in our behinds on the corners? Maybe the game projects a predicted course for each car and it uses that to decide whether it'll crash or not?

[Brats]

That?s all part of racing though.

Although frustrating and a lottery, engine failure, driver error and damage is part of the sport and I?m glad this often forgotten part is being included to some degree by Polyphony.

It might well be a part of real life racing, but that doesn't make it fun in a videogame, especially when it happens time and again.

And Vettel was penalised in the Belgian GP for causing the accident, even though it was unintentional. Where is that real life penalty in videoggame racing? That's the problem, that the penalty for ramming someone off the track is too light.

[englishbob]

It might well be a part of real life racing, but that doesn't make it fun in a videogame, especially when it happens time and again.

Absolutely. F1, MotoGP, TOCA racers. About 22+ racers on the track, all pros.

Gran Turismo 5 online - probably about 2 real racers per session and about 10 pricks who don't know where the brake is and think its destruction derby.

Don't forget Gran Turismo 5 is going to be quite a big release. The ratio of people who want to race versus the idiots, is far outweighed on the latter I'm afraid.

[Brad]

Don't be down on this game before it's even released! As with all GT games I'm not suppsoed to be disappointed with it until AFTER I've bought it!

[Number45]

I'm going to resist the temptation to quote myself here, and instead quote someone on GAF that said basically the same thing:

So basically, what GT5 should have had is:

Better crashes than Burnout paradise (which are predetermined btw)
More realistic physics than the best PC sims
Better livery than Forza 3
Better rally than Richard burns or Colin Mcrae
1000 PREMIUM cars

And should have been out last year. Yep, the media are going to annihilate this game.