Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be dropping April 17th in the U.S., both as a downloadable game from the Playstation Store and on actual Blu-ray disc. We reported last week that damage modeling, long missing from the Gran Turismo series despite being featured in many of its competitors, was for the first time being considered, and today we have word from Gran Turismo head Kazunori Yamauchi that it could come as a downloadable feature for the game as early as this fall. Gran Turismo games have always set the standard for racing sims, but the lack of physical damage to the cars when buddy bumping on a back straight or flying grille first into a barrier have held them back. In fact, smart players can use the lack of damage to their advantage by heading into turns without breaking and bouncing off the wall. Hardly the perfect line, but it gets the job done on those particularly difficult courses. Thanks for the tip, Brad!
[Source: PS3 Fanboy]
REPORT: Racer dies in 24 Hours of LeMons crash
VIDEO: Danica Patrick hits crew member on pit lane at Indy
Nick Hogan sentenced to 8 months in jail
Pontiac El Cami-"NO"
Spy Shots: Baby Cayenne caught on 'Ring!
Future Classic: 1984 Chrysler Minivans
Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy
First Drive: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen
Project Track Slut, Part One: Pick a weapon on the cheap
By the Numbers: April 2008
_thumbnail.jpg "Lamborghini Reventon unboxed in Las Vegas")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Zeus.:God @ Apr 4th 2008 11:41AM
All they need is total customization for it to beat Forza 2, in my eyes.
why not the LS2LS7? @ Apr 4th 2008 11:41AM
Well, I know they had to do it because of all the rage on the internets. But it's pretty much a waste of time. Real racers don't run into things anyway. It's not how you finish first (which is the goal of racing).
I also sure hope they fixed the AI on GT. I mean, it sucked before, but the idiot moves of the AI in GT4 were bad enough, if it also causes damage to your when a computer car hits you from behind in the middle of a straight, it'll be incredibly frustrating.
Romeo @ Apr 4th 2008 12:23PM
They don't? That's pretty funny because I seem to see crashes all the time watching auto racing.
why not the LS2LS7? @ Apr 4th 2008 12:45PM
The winners don't crash.
The ones who crash, well, if it was a racing sim, they would be selecting "restart" right after a crash.
You can argue a sim should be completely real, and there are a few who do drive 24 hour races on computer sims. But most people require some amount of fun to come from the sim, and driving a broken car that can't win the race for 70 minutes is no fun, let along having to wait 70 mins "in the pits" while the race ends because your car is completely broken. Thus, sims usually compromise a bit and add things like "restart" even though they aren't actually realistic.
Mez Jr @ Apr 4th 2008 1:25PM
Well the thing about damage is it's more subtle then either wreck or not, if you get bumped or if you bump someone you will recieve some damage. Then part of it is deciding at which point you think you can continue with damage or if you've lost too much time and are no longer fast enough to compete, then you hit restart. But if you take some damage and can limp to the finish thats cool too.
The way Forza does it is every contact causes some damage, the cost to repair comes out of your winnings at the end of the race.
Basically the way damage adds value to the video game sim is that it gives a linear progression of penalties for driving poorly.
I don't see how tire wear is ok, but car damage is not. Especially since tire wear in any game is way off. Even the stickiest of tires don't warm up for a few laps, but they'll all last for several laps. In any of the games the super slicks barely last 4 laps.
George @ Apr 4th 2008 11:44AM
Haha I hope they call the download "Eddie Griffin Feature"
wengleung @ Apr 4th 2008 1:05PM
why?!
George @ Apr 4th 2008 1:55PM
Eddie Griffin destroyed his Ferrari Enzo. It was all over the news and is a wicked popular vid on youtube. They interview him after and he goes: "Brother can tell jokes, brother can't drive." Classic. With the damage feature we can have our own Eddie Griffin moment.
WillDaThrill @ Apr 4th 2008 10:58PM
That wasn't his Enzo, it was rented for publicity to advertise that fast car themed movie they did last year. It totally flopped and I think it was in theaters for like a week. I think it did so bad that they didn't even release it on video.
vintage @ Apr 4th 2008 11:58AM
You know, for a site that focuses on cars, I would think the editors would know the difference between 'braking' and 'breaking'. Then again, educational standards in America are dropping like rocks.
notYou @ Apr 4th 2008 4:21PM
Who knows whether Mr. Neff was edu-ma-cated in the US? I don't see a way to fact check his country (or educational) country of origin.
(that said, U.S. educational standards have already dropped like a rock - see political correctness and grade curving/inflation among other reasons)
mock @ Apr 4th 2008 12:01PM
Why does this site talk only about GT5P? Aren't there any other interesting racing games on the market? :/
JD @ Apr 4th 2008 12:24PM
Yeah there are. Want a few? GTR-2, Live for Speed, Forza Motorsport 2, but don't tell autoblog about them. Then they would have to acknowledge other racing games out there. And no, my list isn't complete by any means, but there are actually other good racing games.
why not the LS2LS7? @ Apr 4th 2008 1:02PM
JD: aren't you missing Super Sprint, Night Driver and my fave, Hard Drivin'?
You'll note that news sites tend to talk about things that are news, not olds.
JSM @ Apr 6th 2008 3:39PM
There are plenty of racing GAMES, as noted, there are no other real racing SIMULATORS. I'll tell you what, when professional test drivers and racers start talking about how they practice real life tracks on Forza or NFS, then I'm sure AB will talk about them, in the meantime, let's stay on the real stuff and leave the games for the kiddies.
eightyd @ Apr 4th 2008 12:10PM
This is one thing that forza has had over gta since forza debuted: realistic physics when crashing/colliding with walls and other cars. The GT series has always been bumper cars, where you can fling yourself into a wall without braking or letting off the gas, where as in forza if you plow into a wall, you are done. It is almost impossible to overtake the cars that pass you in forza when you screw up, as it should be
Seminole @ Apr 4th 2008 12:31PM
Actually you're wrong. While Forza has had damage models, they are not realistic. Each car has the same damage profile, so if you crash into a wall the same way with a Ferrari or a Honda the damage will be the same. That is why GT has not done a damage models until now. I'm paraphrasing what one of their developers said, but it was along the lines of, "We are so anal-obsessive about details that if we did damage we would want each car to have it's own unique damage profiles, and on top of that each crash would need to take into account the actual physics of the crash such as speed, direction, etc, to make that damage unique to that crash. So essentially, no two crashes would be the same."
No word yet on what kind GT is going to implement, but if it really does do true unique damage, then it will without a doubt be the best racing sim out there.
PauloBecker @ Apr 4th 2008 12:12PM
"Gran Turismo games have always set the standard for racing sims..."
Better make that "console racing sims". There are plenty of much more realistic racing sims available on the PC platform.
vintage @ Apr 4th 2008 12:19PM
Like?
why not the LS2LS7? @ Apr 4th 2008 12:24PM
GTR2.
Also, even on consoles TOCA2 and TOCA3 surpass GT and Forza in many areas for simulation.
I would still argue GT "set the standard" on consoles, since it is far more popular than most sims, and it came first and really created the tuning sim console racer genre.