Yep. Forza has always felt a little too 'Microsoft Racing Simulator' to me. It's definitely been improving though as the series as progressed.
But, I like my games to have 'soul' too
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PGR5 speculation thread Lucid dreams with Rare side effects?
- Thread starter TheOddOne
- Start date
Yep. Forza has always felt a little too 'Microsoft Racing Simulator' to me. It's definitely been improving though as the series as progressed.
But, I like my games to have 'soul' too
I agree. You either have to go one way or the other, though... look at something such as Wipeout. Different style of game (obviously), very clinical and I wouldn't say it has a soul, but it sticks to a very specific, identifiable theme that's unique. The problem with FM and even GT (each to different extents) is that they both have fairly interchangeable components that would never look out of place in each other's games. That can be said for almost all semi-serious driving games to the hardcore sims.Yep. Forza has always felt a little too 'Microsoft Racing Simulator' to me. It's definitely been improving though as the series as progressed.
But, I like my games to have 'soul' too
What PGR always seemed to pull off well, from the *very* beginning in MSR, was that it had a very distinct, clean style that made you feel like you were someone who owned these cars that you were about to take for a hoon around in (almost like a Sultan or something, in that you'd never really *want* to tinker with them, just take them for a spin around whatever road you could find without tinkering with what made them unique). It's aesthetic always just made driving seem cool and kinda suave but not in a tryhard Top Gear-"powah" way... more with a James Bond vibe, I guess (if that makes sense). Or maybe like a Hollywood superstar who has a shitload of cars, but less Jay Leno, more Patrick Dempsey.
Gah, I'm gushing again. I just miss the style of that game
Yeah, Horizon did alright, but I guess their setting kind of overdid it a little bit in that they had to bro it up to suit the theme.
The ideal setting would be for something like, say a Gumball Rally-type thing that kicks off with some kind of a car "festival" (with a few bands or whatever, but obviously a core focus on a number of different kinds of races... say, at a race track where different events can occur on inner and outer circuits) that lasts a few days. Move onto another some distance away (as per the Gumball) where you stay for a day or two and do another series of races around a particular track (say, a TT or two, drift comp, drag race). Repeat for another five or six (or more) locations before crowning a winner at the end. Could be easily implemented online, it would retain the festival atmosphere yet still be able to forgo that whole douchey dance music festival thing.
The ideal setting would be for something like, say a Gumball Rally-type thing that kicks off with some kind of a car "festival" (with a few bands or whatever, but obviously a core focus on a number of different kinds of races... say, at a race track where different events can occur on inner and outer circuits) that lasts a few days. Move onto another some distance away (as per the Gumball) where you stay for a day or two and do another series of races around a particular track (say, a TT or two, drift comp, drag race). Repeat for another five or six (or more) locations before crowning a winner at the end. Could be easily implemented online, it would retain the festival atmosphere yet still be able to forgo that whole douchey dance music festival thing.
Big Takeover
Member
Ironically, FM1 had the most fun and inviting vibe to it and it got progressively more clinical after that. FM4 brought it back a little though.
I want PGR5 to have lots of bokeh and colour. Gimme.
The lack of soul has a lot to do with the environments I think. Forza and T10 are really focused around realism and striving for the most realistic shaders, etc. While I don't think that PGR will be super stylized next gen, and will certainly move things into being more realistic too, there's a certain dash of flavor the aesthetics had that give it that feeling of soul. The colour saturation was always a tinge up from competitors and sims, and they were never really afraid to use bright colours either. It just made the arcadiness look that much more fun and inviting.
The environments in particular had this sort of beauty and art to them, and though understandably a sim racer doesn't care for environments much when they've got to put resources elsewhere first and foremost, even when you look at the NYC tracks it just feels drab. They remedied a bit of this with 4 but doing cities is a whole other deal. Having the right environmental artists who can convey the right vision is key for PGR5.
God, even just thinking about how they'll change PGR5 to keep it fresh makes me consider so many possibilities. Will they remove guard rails and the international professional racing aspect to make it take a more street-level competition? Will they continue the international series kind of favour? Will they take the franchise to drastic new places like fantasy worlds a-la PGR4's trailer and the Rare concept art? Will they make it an open world experience in London/elsewhere as possibly the biggest modeled individual city in a racing game? Will they focus on a few, big cities or several, relatively more limited ones?
There are so many possibilities, but they don't have to be limited to locations or that framework, it could be in gameplay too, but they're going to need a way to justify this alongside next gen to gamers like PGR3 did with GothamTV, track maker and all that, and I don't think anything is off the table considering the state of the franchise.
The lack of soul has a lot to do with the environments I think. Forza and T10 are really focused around realism and striving for the most realistic shaders, etc. While I don't think that PGR will be super stylized next gen, and will certainly move things into being more realistic too, there's a certain dash of flavor the aesthetics had that give it that feeling of soul. The colour saturation was always a tinge up from competitors and sims, and they were never really afraid to use bright colours either. It just made the arcadiness look that much more fun and inviting.
The environments in particular had this sort of beauty and art to them, and though understandably a sim racer doesn't care for environments much when they've got to put resources elsewhere first and foremost, even when you look at the NYC tracks it just feels drab. They remedied a bit of this with 4 but doing cities is a whole other deal. Having the right environmental artists who can convey the right vision is key for PGR5.
God, even just thinking about how they'll change PGR5 to keep it fresh makes me consider so many possibilities. Will they remove guard rails and the international professional racing aspect to make it take a more street-level competition? Will they continue the international series kind of favour? Will they take the franchise to drastic new places like fantasy worlds a-la PGR4's trailer and the Rare concept art? Will they make it an open world experience in London/elsewhere as possibly the biggest modeled individual city in a racing game? Will they focus on a few, big cities or several, relatively more limited ones?
There are so many possibilities, but they don't have to be limited to locations or that framework, it could be in gameplay too, but they're going to need a way to justify this alongside next gen to gamers like PGR3 did with GothamTV, track maker and all that, and I don't think anything is off the table considering the state of the franchise.
You're a good man, Charlie Brown. I was only taking the piss though, this thread can be for anything remotely related, I guess.Edited becuase of shaneus getting upset
Here's something to cheer him up
There's movement at the station...
Their employee numbers have gone up as well:
(It was bouncing between 35 and 36 only a week or so ago, but that might've been a weird cookie thing)
Best I can tell (without paying for LinkedIn, damnit) is that the new people may be adminny-type folk. Based in the US, which is odd. So it's probably nothing (and certainly isn't as major as any of the other hirings) but they've had the same number of employees for a while so at this point I'm jumping at anything that twitches even a little bit.
brotkasten
Member
If I was working for Lucid, I think I would be creeped out by now. :lol
e: I didn't want to come over as offensive. Seriously, good work, Shaneus.
e: I didn't want to come over as offensive. Seriously, good work, Shaneus.
what is soul? you mean fun?
Kind of very aside, but I would say that WipeOut actually lost its soul as the series progressed.
Also known as personality or character.
Agreed, but I still think there's something in it's clinical look that gives it personality. FM has none, really. Well, more than GT but that's not saying much.
I think 2048 maybe goes a little bit of the way of coming the other direction, but
Haha, it's all good... not offensive at all. I'm used to it by now... after all, I was the first guy that Lucid singled out for being in full-creep mode
Um... do you think they're talking about me?
I know who works there, I just want to know what they're doing!
Pretty much. The thing that struck me as odd about PGR is that there was never a specific avatar as such (you choose your racer at the start, but that's almost literally the last you see of them), at least not as much as GT5 or any of the other racing games that have progression... yet it's very much a distinct game that (to me, at least) has a defining look and feel to it. You know there'll be slick menus (PGR3 and 4 stepped it up massively in this regard... and nothing's come close to matching it since IMO), great videos and a good selection of music. Little details are never overlooked either, so you'll hear squeaky windscreen wipers, aquaplane across puddles (in)conveniently placed around corners and crack rear-vision mirrors when tussling with opponents.
Oh, and that Kudos "click".
RobotRocker
Member
We're going all Clarkson Island in here
Forza 4 is Sheer driving Enjoyment...And I hate every single second of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMuO-8S_0Wg
I loved the "PGR Nations" aspect being conveyed in the crowd and the crowd shrinking and wearing different outfits depending on the weather. It made it feel like a hi-octane racing event and you were representing your nation as the better you were doing, the more of your countries flag showed up. I'd love if they expanded it in PGR 5 to have bloc's of the crowd turn to more of your nation's colours like travelling football fans and when you roll by those guys during a race, they get loud and you hear airhorns.
Now I'm fired up to play some PGR. Thanks thread!
Hmm quite interesting that PGR 1 and 2 are featured quite prominently on Xbox.com's Next Xbox Reveal page in their achievements timeline...
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hub/reveal
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hub/reveal
TwiztidElf
Member
Just went through that Xbox timeline, and damn, things really went to shit from 2010 onwards.
No mention of either PGR3 or 4.
No mention of either PGR3 or 4.
eso76
Member
also interesting is the fact neither PGR3 and 4 are...
Anyway guys, we're still talking in "maybes" and "wouldn't it be cool if's"
isnt' the ROAD OPENS 2013.jpg eloquent enough ? PGR5 is coming.
Hay guys.
Not sure if this is new or not, but it's interesting that they're getting in people who didn't wind up at Lucid after the dust had settled. Leaves it open that we *could* see Stephen Cakebread there maybe, I guess.
And I'd say this almost confirms that they're working on something for the Nextbox:
Not sure if this is new or not, but it's interesting that they're getting in people who didn't wind up at Lucid after the dust had settled. Leaves it open that we *could* see Stephen Cakebread there maybe, I guess.
And I'd say this almost confirms that they're working on something for the Nextbox:
Hay guys.
Not sure if this is new or not, but it's interesting that they're getting in people who didn't wind up at Lucid after the dust had settled. Leaves it open that we *could* see Stephen Cakebread there maybe, I guess.
And I'd say this almost confirms that they're working on something for the Nextbox:
Aren't these guys from Israel in charge of MS R&D for Kinect/motion technology?
PGR5: Kinect Edition confirmed!
I wouldn't go that far... remember, they made Travel Bug for Vita. It's not a bad little bit of software, but it isn't a driving game!
It's a single dude, I'm pretty sure "freelancer" means it's just him. At least, his real name didn't look at all familiar.
Edit: Actually, you're not far off I don't think. He was previously employed at N-Trig as a software engineer. Have a look at their bio:
So perhaps he's doing some coding for Smartglass/Surface integration? Or could quite possibly be Kinect 2.0 (head tracking, movement/gesture recognition or even just API expertise) given all that stuff would be fairly similar, I'd imagine.
Edit: This was his bio from N-Trig as written on LinkedIn, worked there until Jan this year. Started working for Lucid in Feb.
And what he's written as his bio:
Well, here's what Lucid have been working on
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=55605836&posted=1#post55605836
Probably a side thing along with PGR..
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=55605836&posted=1#post55605836
Probably a side thing along with PGR..
Big Takeover
Member
Arkam
Member
All the people with car game backgrounds at Rare can mean only one thing.... A spiritual successor to Diddy Kong Racer!
I am calling it now a Banjo Kart racer from Rare!
Though I do hope to god someone is out there making a QUALITY PGR sequel. As much as I love Forza (and i LOVE Forza) it doesnt entirely fill that driving urge the same way PGR did.
I am calling it now a Banjo Kart racer from Rare!
Though I do hope to god someone is out there making a QUALITY PGR sequel. As much as I love Forza (and i LOVE Forza) it doesnt entirely fill that driving urge the same way PGR did.
ElzarTheBam
Member
Damn it! This is what I REALLY want.
Stop stalking me.
ElzarTheBam
Member
Wait, what? I thought I turned that off. No joke, really. Was playing Dishonored DLC too.Stop 'appearing offline' you douche!
ElzarTheBam
Member
Oh but you haven't...not at all.
I just feel like them doing a large budget AAA title (let alone helming it) with such a large team while doing side projects is unlikelyYou're having trouble mustering it? I'm having trouble containing it!
Miles Quaritch
Member
I just feel like them doing a large budget AAA title (let alone helming it) with such a large team while doing side projects is unlikely
Rare and Team10 are probably pitching in as well.
Miles Quaritch
Member
As do we all. Arcade racers have become a rarity and it's upsetting how quickly and unexpectedly it happened on consoles.
VVV Mars VG
Member
The only rarity is full simulation on consoles, everything else is based on degrees of 'arcade' (I say the word in the loosest sense) style handling that attempt to attract a wider audience.
This is true, but there's a pseudo-"sim" filter to everything. The thing I enjoyed about PGR which doesn't seem to exist for any other console racer (at least, one that has realistic car models) is that it wears it's arcadeness on it's sleeve. You drift or take a corner well, you get points and you know about it right away (but it still feels kind of like a real-life racer (albeit dumbed-down, obviously)). FM and GT remove things like that from view in an attempt to make themselves more serious, but it just comes off as some awkward hybrid most of the time when comparing it to "actual" sims on PC.
PS. Good to see you in this thread! You can rest assured that if there are any solid leads about a potential PGR game, you'll see them here first
So, PGR5 at the reveal then..?
PLEASE GOD MAKE THIS HAPPEN