Details on car damage, updated AI, and more!
by Anoop Gantayat
September 23, 2006 - For our 30th Gran Turismo story here at TGS, we've got quite the update courtesy of Japanese site Gpara.com. Series producer Kazunori Yamauchi held a talk event at the show in which he revealed a number of new details on GT HD and the future of the series.
Yamauchi provided a summary of what's known about GT HD so far, including the split in modes between classic and premium. Just to avoid confusion, we'll repeat the details here. Classic mode is GT4 in high definition and with a few additional visual enhancements. The mode will be playable exclusively through downloadable cars and tracks. Premium mode is a single player preview of Gran Turismo 5, featuring a full-fledged PS3 graphics engine and detailed tracks and car models.
Yamauchi also touched upon the new Ferrari license that came to light earlier this week. Ferrari cars will not only appear in GT HD, but starting half a year from now and continuing for a period of a year, Polyphony Digital and Ferrari will engage in collaborative marketing efforts.
The focus of Yamauchi's speech was on GT HD's online aspects. "GT HD is an online game," said Yamauchi, " and a large scale one at that." While we've already written about the game's online features, from online races to car and track downloads, Yamauchi today hinted at deeper plans. "We'd like to offer users the freedom that was only available to developers," he explained, without going into further details.
While GT HD's reliance on micro transactions came to light earlier in the week, Yamauchi let slip a few specifics regarding Sony's download plans for the game and, potentially, other online PlayStation titles. Sony will host a PlayStation Store service, Yamauchi revealed. This store will be accessible from the PlayStation 3's main menu. For GT-HD, this is where you'll be able to purchase new cars and tracks.
Downloads will be included in both the premium and classic modes of play. The premium mode, as we mentioned in an earlier article, will include 30 cars and 2 courses from the start. Available for download at launch, according to Sony's official press materials, will be one new course and 30 additional cars. Yamauchi revealed at the talk event that premium-grade cars and courses will continue to be added in the future for download.
For classic mode, the number of potential downloads is staggering. Users will be able to download 770 cars, 51 courses and 4,500 items. These numbers are end targets though. At the start of service, only 51 "items" will be available for download. Yamauchi did not give specifics on how this number breaks down.
Car damage will at long last make it into GT-HD, Yamauchi revealed. However, this long sought-after feature won't be available from the start. Polyphony plans to make it available as an update some time in 2007.
Also set to become available through an update is opponent AI. Polyphony will make updated opponent AI routines available for download in the first half of 2007.
Yamauchi also commented on a mysterious new feature that was noticed by some in the GT HD demo on display in the Sony booth. The demo offered players a choice between "normal" and "professional" driving models. Professional, will offer a more realistic driving experience, explained Yamauchi.
IGN attempted to test this feature out on the show floor, but found it difficult to notice the difference due to the choppy frame rate resulting from the early state of the game. We look forward to trying out the feature in the final version.
So why are we getting this fragmented download project instead of the real GT5? Yamauchi discussed some of the logistics behind making the next Gran Turismo. "Creating a car for GT4 took approximately one month. This time, it takes half a year," explained Yamauchi, referring to the development of a car for the premium mode of GT HD (that is to say, cars at the GT5 spec level). "The amount of data for each car is approximately 20 times that of GT4."
They could have still given the game the GT5 name, of course. Yamauchi addressed this as well. "We feel that game play style is changing these days. For the first Gran Turismo, the total play time was over 100 hours. However, GT HD will probably be played around 10 to 30 minutes a day. In other words, rather than concentrating play on a single game over 10s of hours, people will play a little bit each day.. We realize that this is the type of play style that meets current needs, and hope to offer it to players."
There will be a Gran Turismo 5, though. "It will definitely be released in the future," said Yamauchi about the next numbered GT game. On separate occasions, Yamauchi has said that GT5 will be available in 2008
by Anoop Gantayat
September 23, 2006 - For our 30th Gran Turismo story here at TGS, we've got quite the update courtesy of Japanese site Gpara.com. Series producer Kazunori Yamauchi held a talk event at the show in which he revealed a number of new details on GT HD and the future of the series.
Yamauchi provided a summary of what's known about GT HD so far, including the split in modes between classic and premium. Just to avoid confusion, we'll repeat the details here. Classic mode is GT4 in high definition and with a few additional visual enhancements. The mode will be playable exclusively through downloadable cars and tracks. Premium mode is a single player preview of Gran Turismo 5, featuring a full-fledged PS3 graphics engine and detailed tracks and car models.
Yamauchi also touched upon the new Ferrari license that came to light earlier this week. Ferrari cars will not only appear in GT HD, but starting half a year from now and continuing for a period of a year, Polyphony Digital and Ferrari will engage in collaborative marketing efforts.
The focus of Yamauchi's speech was on GT HD's online aspects. "GT HD is an online game," said Yamauchi, " and a large scale one at that." While we've already written about the game's online features, from online races to car and track downloads, Yamauchi today hinted at deeper plans. "We'd like to offer users the freedom that was only available to developers," he explained, without going into further details.
While GT HD's reliance on micro transactions came to light earlier in the week, Yamauchi let slip a few specifics regarding Sony's download plans for the game and, potentially, other online PlayStation titles. Sony will host a PlayStation Store service, Yamauchi revealed. This store will be accessible from the PlayStation 3's main menu. For GT-HD, this is where you'll be able to purchase new cars and tracks.
Downloads will be included in both the premium and classic modes of play. The premium mode, as we mentioned in an earlier article, will include 30 cars and 2 courses from the start. Available for download at launch, according to Sony's official press materials, will be one new course and 30 additional cars. Yamauchi revealed at the talk event that premium-grade cars and courses will continue to be added in the future for download.
For classic mode, the number of potential downloads is staggering. Users will be able to download 770 cars, 51 courses and 4,500 items. These numbers are end targets though. At the start of service, only 51 "items" will be available for download. Yamauchi did not give specifics on how this number breaks down.
Car damage will at long last make it into GT-HD, Yamauchi revealed. However, this long sought-after feature won't be available from the start. Polyphony plans to make it available as an update some time in 2007.
Also set to become available through an update is opponent AI. Polyphony will make updated opponent AI routines available for download in the first half of 2007.
Yamauchi also commented on a mysterious new feature that was noticed by some in the GT HD demo on display in the Sony booth. The demo offered players a choice between "normal" and "professional" driving models. Professional, will offer a more realistic driving experience, explained Yamauchi.
IGN attempted to test this feature out on the show floor, but found it difficult to notice the difference due to the choppy frame rate resulting from the early state of the game. We look forward to trying out the feature in the final version.
So why are we getting this fragmented download project instead of the real GT5? Yamauchi discussed some of the logistics behind making the next Gran Turismo. "Creating a car for GT4 took approximately one month. This time, it takes half a year," explained Yamauchi, referring to the development of a car for the premium mode of GT HD (that is to say, cars at the GT5 spec level). "The amount of data for each car is approximately 20 times that of GT4."
They could have still given the game the GT5 name, of course. Yamauchi addressed this as well. "We feel that game play style is changing these days. For the first Gran Turismo, the total play time was over 100 hours. However, GT HD will probably be played around 10 to 30 minutes a day. In other words, rather than concentrating play on a single game over 10s of hours, people will play a little bit each day.. We realize that this is the type of play style that meets current needs, and hope to offer it to players."
There will be a Gran Turismo 5, though. "It will definitely be released in the future," said Yamauchi about the next numbered GT game. On separate occasions, Yamauchi has said that GT5 will be available in 2008