Gran Turismo 4 Finished, Sequel Planned

[i l l m a t i c]

According to Gran Turismo producer and Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo 4 is now gold and on schedule for its December 3 release in Japan.

 

In addition, Yamauchi revealed at a party held for the completion of the game that two new Gran Turismo titles are being planned.

 

The first, which he called "Gran Turismo for Boys" will be geared for children 8 years and under, and be either low-priced or just completely free--more as a way for kids to get into cars than to make a profitable game.

 

"For cars, if you're not exposed to them as a kid you just won't like them," said Yamauchi. "That's why we need to bring car enthusiast entertainment to kids--that's how we're thinking of using [the franchise of] Gran Turismo."

 

Yamauchi also commented on his vision for Gran Turismo 5, saying that damage modeling will be a "big theme"--and implied that the complexity of featuring it was a factor in its absence of previous installments.

 

"With Gran Turismo games until now cars couldn't crash or flip over. It is more difficult to faithfully represent this than to simple model a car running," said Yamauchi. "You have to bring to life all the secret factors in cars, as well as have the cars deform according to the laws of physics. But we'd really like to put this feature in Gran Turismo 5, and think it will be one of the big themes for the game."

 

Gran Turismo 4 is slated for release on December 14 for the PlayStation 2 in North America.

I hope Gran Turismo 5 is online and hopefully GT4 in on XLink

Edited November 18, 2004 by Xx1LLMAT1CxX

[Itachi]

o man i love Grand turismo i hope it is online i can play that for hours w/o getting bored...

[Inky]

I've never really been a big GT fan. and I gave it plenty of chances, I owned all of them including the gt 4 teaser. I guess I am just not fast or furious enough. I would like a GT type game with all old muscle cards and hot rods. not just a token mustang or vette. I wanna build and drag a rodded shoebox ford, or a chopped '32 5 window coupe. that soulds like a game I'd never get bored of.

[SlickDizzy]

I've never really been a big GT fan. and I gave it plenty of chances, I owned all of them including the gt 4 teaser. I guess I am just not fast or furious enough.    I would like a GT type game with all old muscle cards and hot rods. not just a token mustang or vette.  I wanna build and drag a rodded shoebox ford, or a chopped '32 5 window coupe. that soulds like a game I'd never get bored of. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The thing is, GT is a road racing game, not a drag racing game, and those cars you mentioned aren't exactly road racing cars (I could imagine an old like that having serious cornering issues). Plus, Gran Turismo hasn't jumped into the visual modifications on cars yet (except for wheels) so it'd be kinda hard to chop a car, regardless.

 

I'm looking forward to it. Shame it isn't online (and yes, I know about XLink, but I don't really count that).

[darkmage479]

Yes, the following cars need to be in GT5. They are examples of 50's and 60's sportsters that handle well. BTW, Kaz Yamauchi said he wouldn't rule out more historical or manufacturer-themed teaser discs in the future.

 

1964 Jaguar E-Type 4.2 Roadster

1971 Jaguar E-Type V12 Coupe

1966 Yenko Stinger

1963 Corvette Stingray

1968 Corvette with tri-power fuel injection and Muncie M-4 gearbox

1965 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa

1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk

1964 Studebaker Avanti X1 (twin-supercharged 575hp prototype)

1955 Ford Thunderbird

 

That would be great.

[OverlordMondo]

Funny, I wasn't exposed to cars as a child, so I think this game sucks. It's just like a racing game, only with even more normal cars than most racing games. Only 387 more left turns to go!

[Gryph]

Racing games are extremely boring if you aren't using a steering wheel. I feel no excitement when playing one on a controller (vibration doesn't simulate jackshit) or a keyboard.

 

All car games should include running people over.

[Inky]

All car games should include running people over.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And it should be like that old psx die hard game. when you ran fools over the wind shield was covered in blood then the wind shield wipers would kick in

[L.S.D]

Aren't we all vicious?

I still prefer underground racing like Shutoku series (which has a big following at Japan) and NFSU 2

[i l l m a t i c]

best racing game ever = Daytona USA (Arcades) Old skool drifting

[Daeval]

As far as racing games go, I'm the opposite of most previous posters. I get a kick out of wacky racing games, like Burnout or F-Zero, but I never really fell in love with a racer until Gran Turismo 3. I thought it was going to be boring because it was just even more normal cars, like what Kanti said. Once I made myself sit down and play it though, I realized the appeal is slightly different than most racers.

 

Most racers are just a series of powerslides, one turn after another, as Kanti said. If the cars and tracks are boring and "normal" in a situation like that, there's very little appeal. The difference in GT3 is that cars handle like real cars - IE, each turn has to be handled differently, and the power/weight/drive mechanism of each car makes a big difference. This makes you think about the actual handling a lot more than say Burnout, where corners are just a matter of how hard you should drift. Learning the nuances of each track, and then re-learning them with a new car or a new type of vehicle (rear wheel as opposed to front, mid-engine as opposed to rear, etc) became a lovable kind of science. I'm not some car nut, I never have been, but I found myself tweaking camber and gear ratios to pull the most performance out of my cars, and configuring them for certain types of tracks. It was the thinking man's racer for me, and for that I love it.