TGS 2010: Gran Turismo 5 Q&A

PS3 Feature | To keep you occupied during the next delay.

And to finish up our series on the Tokyo Games Show of 2010, roving PALGN reporter Kai Farrar attended the Gran Turismo press conference. This was probably the few games that he could have seen after the wonder of The Last Guardian, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, that wouldn’t have been too much of a disappointment. Speaking of which, anybody really surprised that Gran Tursimo 5 got delayed? Again… Anyway, we’ll let Kai finish this off with some of his observations from direct from the conference:

By Kai Farrar

The conference was just as packed as the last one, and thanks to being late from a quick toilet run, I only managed to get a spot up the back. Having already caught a lot of Gran Turismo 5 from the Sony conference I was keen to see and hear about with some English, as the TGS press conference was left mostly untranslated. Here are some quick notes of the things that I was able to pick up.

Gran Turismo 5 was meant to hit retail shelves in Japan on November 5. Unfortunately, we know now that this isn’t going to happen, and the release date is in limbo. Again. It was seen that the Trial Mountain track will be returning to the game. The game will have a feature called Gran Turismo Anywhere. It appears that you will be able to view and manage your garage, while also being able to view your friend’s garage, check out message boards and shared photos and organise B Class races with friends. It looked like the races were simulated based on your team and/or car statistics.

Bllllluuuurrrrr!

There will be a heap of special races feature as well. These include:

Karting events
AMG Driving School
The Stig Challenge
Jeff Jordan NASCAR School
Sebastian Loeb Challenge
Gran Turismo Rally

Just on the Rally mode, some rally races will be automatically/randomly generated, meaning you’ll have to depend on the co-driver’s instructions, rather than learning the tracks and being able to anticipate what’s coming up. Furthermore, this more will be playable online.

Weather is set to play a major role in the game too. Weather changes happen in real time, and when they occur they will affect the surface of the track dynamically as you race. So factors such as pressure changes, humidity and temperature will all come into play. Weather is random and the forecasts can be inaccurate (just like in real life!). Finally, the weather information will not be available until right before you race, adding a layer of unpredictability to your preparations.

While this may only be a small factor, the engine sounds are going to be better, more realistic and much heavier. In a racing simulation, you would definitely hope for this. The game will attempt to hold 60 frames per second as much as possible, though when the track does get filled with cars and weather effects such as fog and rain, drops may be inevitable. We weren’t able to find out how this was supposed to affect 3D.

Welcome to my garage...

Wrapping things up, there is supposed to be some sort of ultimate car in the game – the Red Bull Adrian Newey concept, which will be free of all technical limitations and make for the ultimate racing car. Finally, even though Gran Turismo 5 isn’t even out yet, work has begun on Gran Turismo 6 and it will supposedly be using many elements that did not make it into Gran Turismo 5.

To be honest a lot of the car stuff in Gran Turismo goes over my head, so it was a lot harder to follow what was going on this time and I was tired! Though from what I saw the interface looked slick and the game looked meaty and fast, with a certain ‘shimmy-ness’ to it that can only be had with Gran Turismo. By this stage I was really tired and headed out to grab some food at the completion of the conference and checked out the TGS floor one more time to grab some freebies and play El Shaddai once more to get one of the cool stickers that came with it!

PALGN would like to thank Kai for taking the time to share some of his experiences from Tokyo Games Show 2010, and Rebecca Rice from SCEE for organising the attendance to this event.

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14 Comments

light487

1 year ago

PALGN wrote

Finally, even though Gran Turismo 5 isnâ€™t even out yet, work has begun on Gran Turismo 6 and it will supposedly be using many elements that did not make it into Gran Turismo 5.

Indeed.. and so it makes you wonder why 5 keeps getting delayed if they're just going to throw the bits they couldn't fit into 5, into 6. They have really dug themselves into a tight hole because now if they were to release it with ANY holes the design at all or whatever, they are going to be criticised heavily. If they'd just released on schedule (the 3rd time that is).. and there were a few things that needed patching in a month or two, it wouldn't be so bad.. but now.. now.. people are going to be nitpicking it to find out if that extra 2 months of development was really worth making everyone angry "again".

I feel bad for them because they are making THE ultimate racing simulator and if it is indeed as good as GT3 was.. well.. it goes without saying that all will be forgiven.. but get it wrong and they will have more than egg on their faces. Delaying a project 4 times, after promising time and again on release dates, makes everyone edgy and overly critical when you finally do release it.

RXWAG

1 year ago

If the WRX doesn't sound like a WRX, or the Skyline doesn't sound like the Skyline etc etc I'll be pissed.

I agree they have made it hard for themselves. If it isn't the best racing game of all time they are going to cop it hard. I mean the HD demo came nearly 4 years ago.

Benza

1 year ago

ok sorry but

Quote

The game will attempt to hold 60 frames per second as much as possible, though when the track does get filled with cars and weather effects such as fog and rain, drops may be inevitable.

That's **** up. Frame rate problems are balls in a game with a normal development time, frame rate problems in a game this heavily delayed is just crap.

RichieT23

1 year ago

Gran Turismo 6?

Perhaps that's why GT5 has been delayed so long.

Priorities? Much!

bernietoast

1 year ago

Benza wrote

The game will attempt to hold 60 frames per second as much as possible, though when the track does get filled with cars and weather effects such as fog and rain, drops may be inevitable.

This game should run smooth as butter seeing as how long they have had to tweak the engine. Try Again GT5 you havent sold me.

light487

1 year ago

Indeed.. it is a muddy hole they have dug with slippery sides and yucky water in the bottom...

...I have no doubt it is going to be a killer game when it is finally released.. but I can definitely see it is going to get flamed for even the smallest of flaws.. for example, 59fps with 100 cars on the track in heavy fog and torrential rain

It's like a shiny new iPad/iPhone with an oily fingerprint on the front panel when you open it up.

arbok

1 year ago

RXWAG wrote

hmmm... seems so many people are wound up about it..... its just a game... if it sucks people are treating it like its the end of the world... not having a go at you RXWAG - but its the product of mass media hype and fanboys who need to just take a step back and look at the bigger picture. so many fanboys rage on comment boards because if they dont they dont get noticed or the reaction is not strong enough... thats why i like PALGN in a way because most of the comments are balanced and fair.

...u know Gran Turismo PSP was hyped and was a let down in the end.

the delay was a shock but there's still plenty of other racing games to play.

Benza wrote

ok sorry but

Quote

The game will attempt to hold 60 frames per second as much as possible, though when the track does get filled with cars and weather effects such as fog and rain, drops may be inevitable.

That's **** up. Frame rate problems are balls in a game with a normal development time, frame rate problems in a game this heavily delayed is just crap.

Kazunori has said that if you're at the back of the grid and there are weather effects its going to slow down cause the game is drawing 15 other cars accelerating at the same time affecting all those rain particles.

Again im not sure why people are being overly critical, they've gone above and beyond any other developer, this game is running at 1080p @ 60 frames. No other game released this year let alone a racing game has attempted that. Give them a break.

I agree the delay is crap and it sucks we have to wait... but i think people should see the bigger picture and not crap on polyphony when there's 200 ppl there slaving away for the last six months working 7 days. (not that im condoning that sort of work environment.) Sure you can have a development time of 1 year or even 2 years... but what will that get you - something like every other game on the market.

I think people should seperate the delay from the quality of the game - and judge the game on its merits and compare it to other games regardless of time frame... besides its believed that it was a manufacturing issue going to a different ps3 firmware rather than a development issue that has caused the delay.

RXWAG

1 year ago

^I am actually not to worried about the overall game. I just want the cars to have a similar sound to the cars they are supposed to be portraying. Other then that I am sure it will be still good.

Benza

1 year ago

Quote

Again im not sure why people are being overly critical, they've gone above and beyond any other developer, this game is running at 1080p @ 60 frames. No other game released this year let alone a racing game has attempted that. Give them a break.

No sorry, **** that. If they're so concerned that it runs at 1080p at 60 frames per second, cut down the details on the cars, or how impressive the weather effects are. If they can't get it to run at the frame rate they are aiming for they've had plenty of time to make changes to get it to run at a stable frame rate. That they're not doing that shows that they seem to be more concerned that the leather on the interior of there favorite car is rendered accurately rather then getting the game at a locked in frame rate. Which frankly is either lazy game design or suborn game design. Either way it's not good game design

Ciel

1 year ago

Realistically the delay isn't probably going to affect sales that much (I'm not saying it'll no effect) since the GT franchise already have their loyal fan base. Look at Final Fantasy for example, every year you have ppl complaining on one forum or another and how they're going to boycott it or just spread the general hate and yet the game still sells in the millions.

Unless this game turns out to be an absolute abomination, it will probably achieve the millions of copies sold (worldwide) and at the end of the day that's all it matters (to Sony/Digital Polyphony). If it turns out to be the most awesome racing game to date, these talks of delays will be well in the past.

fatpizza

1 year ago

Benza wrote

ok sorry but

Quote

The game will attempt to hold 60 frames per second as much as possible, though when the track does get filled with cars and weather effects such as fog and rain, drops may be inevitable.

That's **** up. Frame rate problems are balls in a game with a normal development time, frame rate problems in a game this heavily delayed is just crap.

When did anyone say these "frame rate hitches" were a problem? Does it really matter if the fps drops 5-10 fps when you're on the starting line? If it turns out it drops 20-30fps then I'll admit that's very disappointing and annoying, but until you can prove it actually hinders gameplay comments like your's just reek of hate-mongering. Of course I'd also prefer to have everything running smoothly 100% of the time but getting so worked up over something which is probably(hopefully) going to be completely inconsequential just seems completely pointless.

Just wait and see the final product before you start bashing it.

Benza

1 year ago

Quote

but until you can prove it actually hinders gameplay comments like your's just reek of hate-mongering.

And untill you can prove it doesn't, comments like yours reek fo blind fandboyisim (See I can do it too)

You can look at it as glass half full, I'll look at it as glass half empty.

john_solids

1 year ago

meh if its better then the prologue (as in more features) then im going to be happy.
loved the prologue, and i just cant wait for this.
gt fanboy hell yeah.

Windburn

1 year ago

Benza wrote

Quote

but until you can prove it actually hinders gameplay comments like your's just reek of hate-mongering.

And untill you can prove it doesn't, comments like yours reek fo blind fandboyisim (See I can do it too)

You can look at it as glass half full, I'll look at it as glass half empty.

The difference is, his glass half-full is far more moderate and considered than your off-the-edge glass half empty (in fact, it's more like a smash the glass on the ground and start stomping on it in a tantrum, half-empty).

If you look at the context of the framerate discussion, you'll see that the game ONLY drops below 60fps in limited conditions, implying that the drop isn't major and it will only be noticeable from a purely technical standpoint.

Do you honestly think they'd compromise on their quality for the sake of a few FPS in isolated circumstances? I'm actually glad they didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater in a hapless pursuit to get every single factorable scene at 60fps like you're describing. That's dedicated game design.

And before you go throwing around fanboy comments, I've never even played a GT game before!

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Gran Turismo 5

Pre-order or buy:
PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  25/11/2010 (Confirmed)
Publisher:
  Sony Computer Entertainment
Genre:
  Racing
Year Made:
  2007
Players:
  1

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