PsEG's E3 Ramblings: June 16th, 2010
by trace
Well, now that we're out of press conferences, I'll have t-wait, Konami's doing a thing? Eh, let's forget about that. Please. Anyways, now that I can step back and pour over the slower trickle of game news emerging from E3, I think I can discuss my thoughts on certain titles more elaborately. Let's focus on the racing titles today, so that I can get them out of the way and move to other titles...
Well, now that we're out of press conferences, I'll have t-wait, Konami's doing a thing? Eh, let's forget about that. Please.
Anyways, now that I can step back and pour over the slower trickle of game news emerging from E3, I think I can discuss my thoughts on certain titles more elaborately. Let's focus on the racing titles today, so that I can get them out of the way and move to other titles in the days that follow.
Rather than a straight-out bullet point method of discussion, I think I'll hit upon each talking point as an idle thought or question.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Will the open world hinder Hot Pursuit's gameplay?
Personally, I'm a huge fan of Burnout Paradise's open world, even if I know it's not popular to a lot of Burnout fans. The game became less of a specific racetrack, and became a world in which it was much easier to be innately familiar with every bit of road and scenery.
Seriously, Hot Pursuit looks GOOD. Let's hope it plays well. Having over 100 miles of road will probably help Hot Pursuit remain fresh, but how all these roads connect is going to play a huge factor. If roads are too interconnected, any chase involving groups of cops and racers will make cops pairing off against specific racers a complete necessity. Otherwise, it'll be far too easy for a more innocuous racer to break away from the pack and sneak quite a distance off in another direction, making him or her potentially impossible to catch. For this reason, I'm hoping for more straightforward roads, with only minor branching paths. No excessive amounts of city blocks, please.Will the methods for arresting/escaping work as well as in past Hot Pursuits?
The demo of Hot Pursuit's gameplay at the EA press conference seemed a little awkward in how the cop had to take down the racer. There wasn't any technique to force the racer to an unwanted stop; rather, the cop just rammed enough times until the racer's car lost all its health and crashed. We also know through further descriptions that the racer's way of winning involves driving far away from the cop and keeping that distance for fifteen to twenty seconds.While it's acceptable, I can't help but wonder if it'd be more satisfying for a cop to be able to force a racer to a dead stop, much like in real high-speed chases. If a cop can trap a racer, that chase should be OVER, and that should be more rewarding than flat-out wrecking a car. The racers seem to have a pretty fair way of winning, though. I just hope it's not a situation where a speed differential in cars leads to easy wins because the cop can't hope to keep up.
Are the special powers going to hinder the fun of chases?
Cops should always have tools at their disposal for stopping criminals. Road blocks, helicopters, calling for backup, and spike strips are all wonderful for stopping a car dead in its tracks. In fact, I'll go as far to say that cops should have an advantage in this regard. They are the law, and they're pretty experienced at catching criminals. More often than not in a car chase, the cops should win.Sure, this is a video game, and in the entertainment world the anti-hero street racers can use their slick moves to evade the law and do what most drivers would only dream to accomplish. Still, giving racers radar jammers and decoys seems a bit silly. Let the crooks use their wits to escape anything the law throws at them, not unrealistic movie technology and cliches.
Hopefully these special powers won't be too blatantly crazy, though. I'm sure there's a way to go on their balancing and development.
How about the bounty and Autolog systems?
Those sound pretty standard to me. XP in racing, especially when it's handed out in some amount regardless of winning or losing, is a good mechanic, as it encourage players to work on developing their driving skills even when things don't quite work out. Autolog seems like a Hot Pursuit version of what Forza 3 tried with its season mode: Keep the player working on something to make progress in the game.Test Drive Unlimited 2
Will the driving have improved at all?
One can only hope. Test Drive Unlimited's driving did a lot to keep the player tense and on-edge, encouraging a fast-yet-cautious approach, but this was in part because all the cars felt ungodly heavy, with brakes made of cardboard and tires made of plastic. It was functional, but it sucked a lot of the fun out of the game.With even more of an emphasis on supercars this time around, I can't help but hope that Eden's made improvements on car grip. I don't need to swerve around like it's an arcade racer, but more grip would certainly help encourage more aggressive driving, especially if challenges requiring clean driving return in the sequel.
Will Oahu improve any, and what will Ibiza add?
Oahu had an impressive amount of enjoyable roads in the first Test Drive Unlimited. However, the island itself felt dead. Even Paradise City felt more alive, which is kind of sad when you consider no person should rightfully want to live in a city full of psychotic unmanned cars.
TDU's nature always looked nice, but the city bits could use some improvement. To improve upon Oahu, there needs to be more of a feeling it's lived in, and is a place you could potentially walk around if desired. I'm not saying this requires actually placing people walking around Oahu's downtown, but there were sections of road that felt placed upon textured GPS topography. This felt especially true near the freeway system, which didn't appear to have any detail to its on-ramps and off-ramps. Hopefully there's been improvements to this Hawaiian paradise, so that it feels more genuine.As for Ibiza, I haven't seen much of that island, but considering it's off the coast of Spain, there's a real divide between it and Oahu. Pictures I've seen show very narrow roads and off-road paths, and I do hope that it's not so narrow that racing becomes more of an annoyance than a pleasure. I also hope Eden hasn't stretched themselves thin working on two islands.
What could be done to make the player and home customization interesting?
While buying houses and clothing was definitely a thing in Test Drive Unlimited, it didn't do much, other than houses opened up more space for cars. The sequel promises more home customization, including changing the color of floors and furniture, which is great! That is, until you realize you're probably the only person that's ever going to see that crap. This is where TDU2 should really try to become more social.The only place for drivers to congregate in person in TDU was at clubhouses. Were you in a club? I was in one for all of a few minutes before realizing it was a waste of time. TDU2 needs to not only enhance the usefulness of creating and maintaining car clubs, but also focus on creating a social atmosphere for parties. Imagine getting seven friends together at your house, your personas fake intermingling while you set up a series of races or challenges across the islands.
Sure, it'd be snooty high-culture stupidity, but the TDU series seems to thrive on that sort of shallowness. Might as well embrace it and implement it as much as possible, right?
Gran Turismo 5
Man, how amazing are those graphics?
From the trailers we've seen so far, pretty amazing. It's definitely worth keeping in mind, though, that Polyphony Digital always releases trailers that look far more impressive than the final product. Just take a look at this retrospective trailer of previous Gran Turismos, and trust me when I say Gran Turismo 1 through 4 didn't look that good. Those were just intro videos, which were rendered at a much higher resolution.That's not to say Gran Turismo 5 will look bad. On the contrary, it'll look wonderful. Just know that Polyphony doesn't have a good track record of showing off footage that looks exactly like the gameplay.
Will we see any further changes to the Gran Turismo format?
It doesn't matter what I say. GT5 is going to be a tremendous success for Sony. I sure hope so. GT5 would be wise to rip off anything good Forza Motorsport's done. This includes allowing rewinds in singleplayer, adding assists to further help the driving-challenged player, and maybe...just maybe...do away with the license tests. At the very least, make the more advanced licenses optional so that I don't have to slog through dozens of dreadfully boring tests just to access the races I enjoy. Also, no locking desirable cars behind extremely difficult requirements. That's just naughty.In essence, Polyphony needs to realize that while they can create a very real driving sim, it shouldn't sacrifice fun for this reality. Failing to make changes in this vein probably won't cost GT5 any sales, but it certainly could keep people on the fence about this racing stuff from giving the game a try. Nothing wrong with growing an audience even further.
What does Sebastien Vettel's appearance in the latest GT5 trailer mean?
It means F1 cars are in the game, naturally.Well, OK, it doesn't necessarily mean that. I'm sure Red Bull Racing has a wealth of data they'd love to share with Kazunori Yamauchi and his crew, for the mere cost of promoting their drivers and brand. Seriously, though, GT3 and GT4 have quietly placed F1 cars of the past at the end of their career modes. Having a Red Bull F1 car, at the very least, would not be unusual. I can't imagine Yamauchi-san's going to Red Bull simply for his own interests.
Is Gran Turismo 5 really going to release in November?
Man, who knows. As my racing game pal pakx pointed out to me, it wouldn't be unusual if they missed that release date, even if it's very specific. That's sort of a thing Polyphony does. However, I think you're looking at GT5 coming out in February at the latest if it's delayed. At this point, there's a specific enough date where there's a definite light at the end of the tunnel, and the only thing that'll extend that release date is if Kazunori Yamauchi panics over the quality of a feature. That's why Gran Turismo games are always really damn good.What does Forza Motorsport need to do?
Pay very close attention to GT5 once it's out. GT5 is supposed to sport weather conditions, a dynamic day-to-night cycle, and 16-player multiplayer. If it pulls all this off on every track, and not just a few courses specially geared for it, then the bar for Forza Motorsport 4 will be raised to a very high level. If Turn 10 wants Forza to remain relevant as a legitimate competitor to Gran Turismo, they'll need to be ready to respond, and I hope they do. Having a good competition between top-level console-exclusive racing sims should benefit the racing game genre as a whole, and the better Gran Turismo 5 is, the better the whole genre will eventually be.Also, Turn 10 might want to wrap up their Forza Kinect stuff sooner rather than later. No need to devote too much time to anything but the head tracking capability. Just sayin'.