http://spong.com/x?art=4591 Speaking to assembled press in Tokyo recently, Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi made some explosive comments about what might be found within the top secret online racer Gran Turismo 4.
“Some improvements were made in Gran Turismo 3 but many ideas still weren’t implemented,” he said. “In Gran Turismo 4 we want to fully explore the simulation aspects of the series.” Exactly what this means was not explained, though it’s thought that deeper attention to direct car-track interaction and its shifting dynamic throughout a race is occupying a lot of time at physics-fetishists Polyphony HQ.
“A wholly redesigned gameplay system has been proposed, including new modes of play,” Yamauchi continued. “Network compatibility for example, is a major step in development and something we’re exploring.” This comment can be pretty much overlooked as Sony insiders for the past six months or so have openly confirmed that GT4 will be online-heavy.
Then, daring to mention a subject widely ignored in the series’ history, Yamauchi said, “We’re still interested in vehicle damage modelling, but that issue has caused some arguments with auto manufacturers.” At first, this brings joy to our hearts, as we imagine superb Burnout 2-style hyper pile-ups. But given the reticence of the manufacturers to allow this in previous versions of the GT series, it is more likely that we’ll see small damage acting cumulatively as a handicap to careless drivers. It’s time that the car manufacturers realised that being able to snap their cars’ chassis in massive million-mile-an-hour smashes wouldn’t prevent us from buying their cars in future… in fact, it would encourage us.
If Gran Turismo 4 is at E3 this year, we’ll find out then.
