Some more GT4 screens

[Stevie]

You Like?

[Jacob Marley]

Actually, now its beginning to really resemble a PS2 game. Before, the shots looked 'real', now, the blurry textures and angular polygons are really becoming more noticeable.

I thought the initial pics looked a little 'too real' for a PS2 game.

[MidnightGamer]

hahaha, good one Jacob. Very nice pics, I like the one with the Mini Cooper, reminds me of "Shenmue Racing"!

[Shodan]

GT4 looks bloody spectacular - no doubt about that. But it has to be said that this game will push Ps2 to the absolute max, 100% of what it can handle. So this makes something like Project Gotham Racing even more amazing because that is a XBox launch title, and yet it still looks pretty close to GT4. PGR2 won't be pushing XBox to its full potiencial(still too early for that) and yet it already looks better than GT4. So I'm basically saying that its a shame the most popular console happens to be the worst performer - just imagine what Polyphony Digital can do with that level of mastery if they developed for XBox, which sadly is impossible as Sony owns them, pity.

Of course graphics is just one of many deciding factors to how good a game will be. GT4 will likely have more depth and feature heavily on simulation, while PGR2 will have more arcadey/immediate gameplay and hundreds of tracks all based on real cities, and both games will be playable online. So I for one, am very much anticipating these two cutting edge, stunning racers.

[shinneri]

Wow, that looks amazing. But my 56k connection is dying. TOO MANY PICTURES!!

[Stevie]

Sorry about that Shinneri.
I am dissapointed about the look of the game, but i'm
still looking foreward to it nontheless.

[ChaiOgawa]

The enviornments look amazing. Other than that looks like any other racing game.

[Jacob Marley]

The enviornments look amazing. Other than that looks like any other racing game.

Yes, they look amazing, but look carefully...notice how the distant backgrounds (like the canyon) are simply high-res photos/textures placed on a flat polygon? Notice how any of the backgrounds that you interact with are the typical low res/low polygon modelling that Sony games are known for?

The point is, much of GT4's realism factor is stemming from the high res pictures in the distant backgrounds. Sega's been doing that all along with any Model 2 or 3 game (all Model 2/3 games have some sort of high res skyline to boost the realism factor over the actual in game polygons). When you get down to it, this game will look similar to GT3, so the performance leap everyone is claiming is simply just hype.

[ChaiOgawa]

Yea I see what your talking about.

[goaliefrk]

Yea me too, but that Subaru shot with the bamboo in the background looks incredible.

[shinneri]

The enviornments look amazing. Other than that looks like any other racing game.

Yes, they look amazing, but look carefully...notice how the distant backgrounds (like the canyon) are simply high-res photos/textures placed on a flat polygon? Notice how any of the backgrounds that you interact with are the typical low res/low polygon modelling that Sony games are known for?

The point is, much of GT4's realism factor is stemming from the high res pictures in the distant backgrounds. Sega's been doing that all along with any Model 2 or 3 game (all Model 2/3 games have some sort of high res skyline to boost the realism factor over the actual in game polygons). When you get down to it, this game will look similar to GT3, so the performance leap everyone is claiming is simply just hype.

You make a good point, Jacob.

But to me, it doesn't really matter how the developers make a game look good. Resident Evil is a great example of this. Resident Evil (GC) utilizes pre-rendered backgrounds in order to take some weight off the system and allowed the character models look so amazing (or gruesome in the zombies' case). But that game looks astonishing even if they may have cheated a little to make it that way. Of course, those pre-rendered background may have hurt gameplay a little, but that's a different matter.

Anyway, I do see your point. The terrain on that second picture is Dreamcast quality at best. And I have a feeling that bamboo picture isn't an in-game shot. But for a Playstation 2 game, this looks quite good.

[Shotaro Kaneda]

The graphics are not that important, its the game physics, so the backgrounds are flat, so? You're meant to be racing, not looking at the scenery!

[Jacob Marley]

The graphics are not that important, its the game physics, so the backgrounds are flat, so? You're meant to be racing, not looking at the scenery!

Just playing devil's advocate a bit, that's all. When the first pics of GT4 were first shown, fanboys were like "whoa, those are the most incredible graphics EVAR...they really are pushing the PS2 to the limit...etc" When you get right down to it, the graphical leap isn't as great as everyone was making it out to be, and in most cases, the graphics are really just high-res photos used in a way to "simulate" a more advanced graphics engine like everyone first believed.

[kenshiro]

You are also forgeting that those are replay pics. The ingame graphics aren't as good. The game looks good, but not as good in real life. And those backgrounds are prerendered with a 3D foreground. Notice the discrepency in quality with the 2.

[shinneri]

The graphics are not that important, its the game physics, so the backgrounds are flat, so? You're meant to be racing, not looking at the scenery!

Just playing devil's advocate a bit, that's all. When the first pics of GT4 were first shown, fanboys were like "whoa, those are the most incredible graphics EVAR...they really are pushing the PS2 to the limit...etc" When you get right down to it, the graphical leap isn't as great as everyone was making it out to be, and in most cases, the graphics are really just high-res photos used in a way to "simulate" a more advanced graphics engine like everyone first believed.

They probably do push the power of the PS2 to the limit. The PS2 is an old system and those car models are very nice. But Shotaro's right. In the end, all that matters is the gameplay.