Gran Turismo 4 to Make Holiday Release...Offline

sm4kxd writes "EuroGamer is reporting that in a press conference at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony representatives stated that Gran Turismo 4 is still on schedule for release. They're looking for a December 4th Japan release, followed by a near December 14th release date in both the states and Europe, but it will be exclusively offline. There is to be a follow up GT game with online capabilities that has a speculated release sometime in 2005."

Comments

Re:what's the point?

[blueZhift]

True fans probably will buy the online version too. But my guess is that they'll have to wait until the PS3 comes out for GT 5. Why? Because I think the online play was dropped because the PS2 doesn't have the horsepower to present the photorealistic GT we're all spoiled with now, and handle online multiplayer. There are other online racing games for the PS2 like NASCAR and Midnight Club. But those games have far less overall modelling detail than GT, and even at that you're talking about 4-6 car races with 4 being the best you can do performance wise generally.

So I'd say look for GT 5 to a PS3 launch title in late 2005 or early 2006. If they do it right, it should blow everyone's socks off!

Makes you wonder about the netcode

[llevity]

Something must be seriously wrong with it to push it back this far. I mean, they've known from the beginning that they wanted to make it online, so it's not like it's been a last minute hustle to try to shoehorn the game online.

The game has been already oft delayed enough as it is. I could understand if it were delayed to add more track, cars, or improve the AI, but to this news implies that the major delay has been related to the online piece of the game. Considering that GT4 Prologue edition has been released in Japan and Europe's markets earlier this year, it's obvious that the engine is done.

I am now having my doubts on how well it will perform online once the online version comes out if they haven't been able to nail it down after all this time.

Great!

[contagious_d]

Am I the only one that thinks this is a good thing? The Gran Turismo games are, IMHO, the best thing since Tetris. If I want to play against a bunch of assholes, I will just invite my friends over. That way, when they park their cars sideways on the corkscrew in Laguna Seca, I can kick them in the nuts instead of yelling/typing at them. Seriously though, I have always enjoyed single player GT more than multiplayer, and I am kind of glad that they are releasing these as different games. I doubt I will buy the online version.

convergence

[eamonman]

It would be very cool if soemone would combine the photorealism of the GT models, the terrain maps of the world (see today's worldwind program), and finally the online road DBs of mapquest into one uber driving sim game. I know there's a lot to be desired in terms of terrain height maps (above a certain resolution is probably not available to the public), but if someone could just add details to high density areas, it would be worth the trouble.

Just think, if the PS3 had this game, they could put to use the BD-ROM's storage capacity to store the US (or wherever)'s road data. And with an internet connection, you could download the weather and maybe even traffic conditions of whatever town you are driving in at the moment. I know it sounds silly, but just think; I wouldn't mind practicing a drive in some town that I would be travelling to for business. I'd even do it for town I'm probably never going to but would be curious to 'see' (Barrow, AK in the dead of winter comes to mind).

Yeah, I know True Crime SofLA tried some of that, but all the models were rather low in resolution (cars, streets, and height maps).

Too bad the costs of such a project would probably be massive, but I would certainly 4-5 times more for it than a regular PS2 game.