Gran Turismo 4 Launch Date

Gamespot has the news that the much anticipated driving simulator Gran Turismo 4 releases on February 22nd in the U.S., while European drivers will be able to purchase the game on March 9th. From the article: "Before it finally launched in Japan on December 28, the much-lauded driving game had experienced delays of more than a year. Gran Turismo 4 will feature more than 700 automobiles from more than 80 manufacturers racing across new locales--including the city streets of the Big Apple and Las Vegas. Consistent with the series, drivers will compete in races to acquire various licenses and move up in the ranks. Unfortunately, the game will not include an online mode."

Comments

All this time,

[Anonymous Coward]

and still no online... Any word on when the online version is coming out? They delayed this game over 2 years, you'd think they would have SOME kind of online mode in there. Is choosing different angles on replays ("B-Spec mode") really as important to a game experience as going online in it?

Re:All this time,

[McKinney83]

Back when they were saying the game was coming out for Christmas (2004), there was a rumor that they were also going to release an online version of the game sometime in the spring / summer.

So now that the game is out in Feb, maybe they'll make an online one to compete this holiday season.
But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Re:All this time,

[JimmyGulp]

As far as I'm aware, there is a LAN mode to the game, meaning all you need is X-Link Kai to be able to play "online".

I could not be more excited.

[Leroy_Brown242]

In fact, I'm going out and buying a PS2 just for this game.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Neon Spiral Injector]

I bought my PS2 for GT3, got the bundled set. The DVD drive is finally starting to sound funny and my load times have increased. Maybe they'll do a PStwo + GT4 bundle and I'll get the new slim unit.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Anonymous Coward]

I might, except for a few things.

1) Racing games are stupid with an analog stick or keyboard.
2) Playstation graphics don't even remotely compare to the average PC videogame.
3) Racing against a computer is dumb.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[kg_o.O]

You gotta be kidding. NOW? Aren't you like 3 or 4 years late?

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Leroy_Brown242]

Eh!

Nothing has excited me until now.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Leroy_Brown242]

The official steering wheel and pedals are pretty wicked for GT4. I'm hoping they sell a package with it included.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Leroy_Brown242]

You should look into this game.

Many of the points you bring up are not valid any longer.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[jpmoney]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm in the exact same boat and the load times are driving me over to the Gamecube more and more. I did see a picture of a Silver slim PS2, so I'd buy that to go with the Platium Gamecube.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Masami Eiri]

1) You're using a Keyboard and mouse on your PS2? wow...
2) PS2 graphics, however, can, and often beat PC graphics.
3) Depends on the game.

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Anonymous Coward]

2) PS2 graphics, however, can, and often beat PC graphics.

What?

Re:I could not be more excited.

[Anonymous Coward]

lol hes smoking crack

What's the Big Deal?

[hoser]

Seriously, though.

I haven't played Gran Turismo myself -- I'm not a big racing fan -- but what is it that sets it apart from other racing games?

Personally I'd rather race around Liberty City or Vice City from the Gran Theft Auto games. I like the sense of freedom (and getting away from the cops) rather than the closed tracks of racing games. But what is it about the Gran Turismo series that's so great? All racing games are pretty much alike in my (admittedly somewhat ignorant) opinion.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[LordOfYourPants]

First off, I don't want to say "it's very realistic" because I will get annihilated, so I'll stay away from that word.

Instead, I'll say this: the steering system is a lot more involved. You can feel an actual difference in steering between cars with front and rear wheel drive. You can't just run every race by flooring the pedal and bouncing off of walls in strategic ways. Very detailed car data and the like. The cars look beautiful, especially during replays and have a lot of freedom for internal customization.

Honestly, though? I think the game mostly feeds on people's Pokemon "gotta catch them all" obsessions.

A lot of the time is spent not enjoying the races, but saving up for other cars which will let you enjoy the races. Even when you get the new car you are saving up for modifications that will further let you enjoy the car. After you get to that point the money you are making isn't enough and you go on to saving for the next best car.

After the cycle of wanting the best car ever is over, it's on to beating the game 100% and trying to get the best results on the license tests. The license tests basically let you run a part of the track in a certain vehicle in under a certain length of time. For example "ride your Porsche 911 through this S-turn in 11.7 seconds for bronze, 11.598 seconds for silver, 11.515 seconds for gold."

What I would be interested in seeing is how many people play the game for fun AFTER they've beaten the game 100% and acquired what they believe is the best car. ie: how many people play it for the sheer fun of it like someone would play Robotron or replay a Zelda game.

If you look at the FAQs you can see some signs of this. There are FAQs dedicated to showing you how to beat endurance races (some lasting 2+ hours) without you having to touch the joystick.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Moby Cock]

The Gran Turismo games really focus on accurate driving physics. Of course, the cars are indestructible which sort of throws a wrench in the accuracy. The GT games also focus on accurate upgrades to the cars. You can trick out your cars with all kinds of add-ons and such, not all of them will increase the car's performance either. The GT games are for gear heads and real race enthusiasts.

The GTA games are more hedonistic in tone.

For me, I could never get around the indestructible cars. It spoils the game, IMO. I know many people really enjoy the game, but for me the cars should have damage modelling. By focusing on reality physics the skills of driving are highlighted. This is cool, but cornering can also involve ricochets off of other cars, as a perfectly valid race technique (in game). This is totally outside the idea of simulation that the games attempts to acheive. And, for me, it spoils it.

I understand the reason for it. The auto makers want there cars to look great in the game. But I'm not so sure that damage modelling would adversely effect the marketing aspect of the car licensing.

I may rent GT4, but I won't buy it.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Seumas]

Yeah, I can see how the driving physics are really accurate, what with most cars in real life being driven with a tiny toothpick size analog stick.

My brother has a PS2. I was thinking about buying GT4 and having him bring his box over, but I just don't think I could get into a game that has PS2-quality graphics, is played with a silly console controller and I definitely can't get around the "indestructable cars".

I mean, really - do you need to market your cars as "indestructable at 300mph"? That's pretty lame.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[{8_8}]

The big differences, as I understand it, are the supposed level of detail in the simulation (authetic sound, handling, etc.) and the amount of customization you can perform on your car.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Headcase88]

That best explained why I played Gran Turismo 2 so much. IMO license tests are the best part of the game simply becasue you have a fixed time to aim for (ie, it's pure skill).

Problem with the main game of Gran Turismo 2 is that it started out painfully s-l-o-w, and all you had to do to win everything was save up 2 million and buy an Escudo Pikes Peak, simple as that.

The other problem is that the gameplay was just too realistic for my liking in some ways, and then painfully unrealistic in others. Call me crazy, I found Burnout 3 more fun (hopefully many will agree with me on that one), but moreover, I actually found it more realistic, well, at least in some key ways. Sure, you can steer the direction of your crash, but hey, at least you can crash in Burnout 3, something impossible in Gran Turismo games. Also, Burnout 3 has a more realistic sense of speed. Even compacts pushed to the max feels fast in real life, and Gran Turismo doesn't catch that sense of speed even with higher-end sports cars.

You can probably tell I'm not a fan of Gran Turismo. Well, I'll admit why, it's because that I suck at the turns. I will often fish tail or spin out or something, usually right at the end of the race. I know that's supposed to be the challenge, but I find it more frustrating than challenging. Heck, Burnout 3 is probably harder (IMO), but I find it much less frustrating. I guess one that is more obsessed with actual racing would find GT much more enjoyable, admittedly.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Headcase88]

I find it interesting that Sony is already talking about Gran Turismo 5, which might include damage models.

It's almost as if they have everything planned ahead of time, but they're holding out so they can sell each innovation piece-by-piece, in an overall quest to make more money.

If I were to be very cynical, I'd say they'll release Gran Turismo 5 with online play, but hold out on damage models until Gran Turismo 6. However, I'm not "very cynical", so I say that this scenario is (hopefully) unlikely. Besides, Sony needs a killer app to sell PS3s, right?

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[mchenrytl]

I enjoyed GT3 and I plan on buying GT4 when it comes out. For me, it's really down to eye candy. Sure I like passing cars and winning races, especially the Rally ones. But for me what keeps me coming back for more is the amazing graphics. The reflection of clouds and trees on an Aston Martin or the glare of the sun off a windshield. The graphics are what keep me interested after I've bought the cars, etc. -Troy

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Moby Cock]

An interesting theory about GT5 being the 'killer app' for PS3's. I had not considered that. It all may depend on how well gt4 sells. If they feel that the market for the series is dwindling, they may look elsewhere for the 'next must-have game'. It is interesting that there is really no 'killer app' on PS2 right now. The only candidate, I think, would be GTA:SA, and that is going to be ported to XBox and PC eventually. Halo2 is clearly the flagship for the XBox and we all know it isn't coming to PS2.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Reapy]

I agree 100%. I think gran turismo would be one of the ultimate racing games ever if it could include damage modeling so you could not play bumpper cars around corners.

Still, if you have a friend who is into racing games, the head to head can lead to some very great races and replays, given you can both stay on the track and race, and agree to avoid trying to hit each other.

Gran turmismo just feels right when you steer the cars. There really is no other way to explain it except, right. It's probably not realistic, but I don't drive at a race track so I would never know the difference. I just know that in a gt car I feel like i'm really driving that car.

Also, if you are a car lover, it is perfect for you. I wasn't really that much of a car lover until i picked up gt2. I was able to find my mom's subaru legacy station wagon and race it in the game. That was simply awesome to supe up my mom's station wagon and race it and watch it hammer past cars in the replays.

Driving is perfect, almost any car you could own on your own, ability to mod it, and great race tracks. All it needs now is damage.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Get the driving force pro.. 900 degree rotation.. Very nice.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[BigDogCH]

For real physics, real damage, and real fun (and real cheap), there are some great older racing games.

Anything made by Papyrus. Personally, my 2 favorites are Nascar Legends and Grand Prix Legends (now a free download from Blackhole motorsports). GPL has better physics, but NL lets you drive the old rear wheel drive boats that many of us grew up driving. Also, both games work great on old 300mhz systems that have a 3d card of any sort. Heck, GPL still has a HUGE following and is considered to be one of the hardest, but most realistic racing games of all time. And NL still rules. I am even still in an NL league!

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Napalm Boy]

For me, I could never get around the indestructible cars. It spoils the game, IMO.

Really? I always though that the game was better for not modeling damage. It's a driving simulation that lets you focus on the driving itself, rather than the repercusions of failure if you take a turn too fast.

For the purposes of the game, compare slaming to a full stop and having to regain 12 seconds to an automatic disqualification; the first is still a penalty for my mistake, but I can learn from it and immediately get back to the game. Stopping the race to tell me that I just totaled my car and I have to start over would get annoying very quickly. From a game design perspective, I think it's better to keep the player playing, and to treat the simulation as a simulation - it's not the real thing, but you can learn a lot from it if you want to.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Moby Cock]

Interesting.

Perhaps a hybrid of our arguments would make the game the most 'playable'. That is, model the cars damage, however, make it more of a cosmetic thing rather than affecting the handling of the car (unless the car is rammed head-on into the wall of a tunnel). What I mean is this, model the effects of a sideswipe with another car as cosmetic (requiring a fix after the race) but do not stop the race.

What about that?

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[atarrri]

I am a big fan of the series but I have to agree with this comment. It is too much of a valid strategy to slam into other cars during turns, something that should never happen in a simulation game.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Lord_Dweomer]

On the note of replayability, I would like to add that in GT3 I found a couple ways to make it fun.

I played against friends.

I pretended I was in Initial D with a 86.

And I figured out how to trick a car out to make drifting fun and easy. (Take a car, get it to about 300-500 hp depending on weight, turn off ACM and TCS all the way, and put on simulation tires. Go nuts)

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Lord_Dweomer]

Or even a simpler way would be to turn on a "Classic" mode where there's no damage modeling, or a "Simulation" mode where there IS damage modeling.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Napalm Boy]

Yeah, I think that would be okay. You'd have to balance the game's rewards (credits won) to account for the fact that you now have repair in addition to maintenance, but I think that could be done without too much difficulty. Otherwise, I'm fine with the car looking banged-up after I smash it into guard rails and whatnot. I might still disagree with stopping the race for a head-on into the wall of a tunnel, but at this point we understand each other.

Did you get to play Burnout 3 on X-Box? Not at all like GT(x), but a really fun game. In one of the modes, called Road Rage, you have to cause your opponents to crash without crashing yourself. You're only allowed a certain number of crashes before the game ends, and they represent each one by showing more and more damage to your car. By the end of the mode, the tail end of your car is missing, the doors are falling off, sparks are flying, etc. The car still drives as well as it ever does (as far as I can tell), so it's just the visuals that change. I'd be fine with that sort of implementation in GT3/4/5/whatever, but if I were on the team, I wouldn't want to make the decision to implement damage without modeling it in the simulation.

But yeah, I can see it going either way. Good idea.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[maddskillz]

Umm..Gran Turismo had the Nissan Skyline, the GTA series did not

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[snellyfox]

This is the classic racing game debate. All viewpoints are valid to me. What everyone should ask themselves...what do I want in a racing game? If you want damage(be carefull....are you sure?), I'm sure the lines you're using through the corners are damaging your performance more than you realize.;) I see a contradiction in the damage(lack of)fault some claim they can't overlook. Are you saying you want to run into walls, other cars(which is actually slowing you down(the bad slowing down)) AND drive 300 mph? Make up your mind! :) If you want damage, and you hit big heavy things, your car is toast. Isn't what you really want is to crash into things and not hurt the car? Isn't there already many great games already doing this? If you need to bounce off other cars to go fast(you're not, trust me), you will be oblivious to what makes this game so awesome. No secret codes to secretly unleash on other people, no turbo boost to make up for MISSING that car you were supposed to BOUNCE off of. Try discovering how to make your lap times 1/10 second lower! It's not easy. It takes time. The linux-ms argument comes to mind. ;) Knowledge&Thinking vs OOOOOpretty-prettyimboredthiscardoesntflythisgames ucks. If some really believe they want true damage, go play GPL(the game). I bet you won't be able to drive once around the track. And bouncing off other real people online.....well, I bet most can't control the cars in GPL even that much. All I'm saying is there is arcade racing and sim racing. Believe me, having a car that doesn't reflect how little you really know about driving a car fast is sweet. All the dents will do is remind you how much you suck at GT.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[GTRacer]

GT3 was going to be the PS2's killer app, back when it was called GT2000. There's an official demo floating around and I think the date was set for between the Japanese (03/2000) and North American (10/2002) launches.

But the Delay Demons got ahold of the team and it didn't come out until much later.

In a strange way, it seems each PlayStation generation is destined for two GT's, as Sony states GT4 is the last full GT on PS2.

It's perfectly reasonable to expect GT5 to be PS3's crown jewel, but they need to figure out how to balance Yamauchi-san's perfectionism (and frankly, odd directing) with timing and fun.

Also, IIRC, the GT series is the best-selling series on PlayStation, bar none. Personally, I'm not sure where the FF games fall, but I'd love to see real sales charts.

GTRacer
- Already at 24.4% in GT4

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Andy_R]

Indestructable cars are mandated by car manufacturers. Every racing game (perhaps excluding a few single marque titles?) has either licenced recognisable cars with no damage, or fictional cars with damage. Blame the auto industry for this, not the makers of GT4. The same also applies to cars rolling over - in all the Gran Turismo games, you can tilt a car to 89.9999 degrees but no further, the manufacturers will not allow their cars to be shown flipping over.

The good news is that in GT4 there is a slow-down penalty for collisions, so ricocheting off your opponents (or walls) is no longer a useful exploit.

The accuracy of the physics is not in the controls, it's in the acurracy with which the physics is simulated. In GT3, you get realistically modelled inertia, and you can save precious fractions of a second by getting the hang of weight transferrence over bumps, or by stiffening suspension, or altering toe-in... the attention to detail is really amazing, and when you make a change such as fitting a lighter racing clutch, you can really feel the difference in the responsiveness of your car, accurately modelled.

As for PS2 quality graphics, GT4 pushed the PS2 frther than any other game. Take a look at some of the screenshots before complaining.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[pezpunk]

Indestructable cars are mandated by car manufacturers. Every racing game (perhaps excluding a few single marque titles?) has either licenced recognisable cars with no damage, or fictional cars with damage.

this isn't true. The Test Drive series offered crashable versions of real cars, and Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed provided a very realistic body damage model. in fact, there have been a lot of games with real licensed cars that took damage. i think the GT people keep saying "it's the manufacturers!" as a cop-out.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[fyzixx]

Arggh. After the creator himself said the reason cars were indestructible was that for that to happen Polyphony would have to reprogram the basic physics of cars, NOT because the makers don't want their cars to break down. RTFM we always say, but you still don't care.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Every racing game (perhaps excluding a few single marque titles?) has either licenced recognisable cars with no damage, or fictional cars with damage.

Project Gotham Racing 2 has around 100 cars, all fully licensed, from big-name manufacturers. It has what it calls full damage modelling. Yeah, it'll make your car look like crap, but it won't affect performance one iota. You also can't flip either.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree.

With no damage modeling, you still have the option of reacting how you please.

That is to say, there are many people who find it a challenge to drive a track without hitting any walls, staying completely on the track, etc.

When they hit a wall or go off the track, they'll start over--which is their perogative, not something forced on them. It's something to keep the game challenging.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[Momoru]

Beyond what everyone else is saying about the driving feel of all the cars being similar to their real life counterparts, the thing I like about the GT franchise is the rediculous detail set to tuning cars. As a car junky myself in real life, its amazing to me that I can change a cars gear ratios to a 3rd decimal place with just a couple clicks, see what it does to the car, and then adjust again. Adjusting for aerodynamics and speed isn't just "put this bad ass spoiler on it" or "the magic scoop" like most car games...you really can angle a front spoiler 3 mm and changer the springiness of your suspension 1.45 nm or whatever to acheive a positive or negative. You can be an amateur car engineer with this game, although I don't think most people get into this aspect, thats one of the things I really like about it.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[beluv]

I'm a huge racing fan and I've played Gran Turismo 3 through to 100% completion. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what sets this game apart from other racing games. After playing this game, other racing games just feel cheap to me. Especially if you've played GT3 with the Logitech force feedback steering wheel. Except for Colin McRae Rally 2005 which is a much better rally experience than the rally mode in GT3. I think a lot of it has to do with the excellent car handling, sound, and the overall presentation (ie. menu layout, HUD). It's not so much the graphics as other racing games do have excellent graphics as well. I'm not saying this game is perfect though. Online play would be a great addition. As well as some other things I can't think of right now.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[beluv]

At first, playing the game was fun to me. I played it for the sake of racing. Towards the end it started getting rediculous though. By the time you get to the professionaly series of races you're doing 20 lap races on tracks you've already raced on countless times. They seem to be throwing the same races at you with slightly different rules and calling it something else just to make the game longer. By that time I wasn't playing for the sake of racing anymore. I was playing for the sake of collecting cars and finishing the game to 100%. Then there's that one endurance race where you have to drive around an oval for 2 hours. That's just plain wrong.

Re:What's the Big Deal?

[flewp]

Having good opponents makes all the difference in the world. Only 2-3 of my friends are as into the GT series as I am, and they're the only people I enjoy racing. 99% of the time we try to have for a clean race, but occasionally it is exciting and fun to try and take each other out, as it leads to some vicous battles.

online play through xlink kai

[supersuckers]

There is a lan option, according to the gran turismo 4 web site, and on the xlink kai site they list gran turismo 4 as being supported. Basically, this is tunneling software that let's you play the LAN mode over the internet.

What a coincidence....

[keiferb]

I've got three midterm failures scheduled for shortly after that.

Miami?

[Anonymous Coward]

We've got GT4: Las Vegas and GT4: New York. But where is GT4: Miami with David Caruso?

Re:Miami?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's coming right after GT4: Los Angeles with TONY DANZA!

Re:Miami?

[Poseidon88]

It will be included, but you can only drive a silver H2.

Online play later in the year?

[philiptan]

Talking with an EB games staffer (and GT fan), I heard there's an online version of GT4 slated for later in the year. While it's unclear whether it'd require you to own the non-online version of GT4 to play online (I'm guessing probably not), apparently it'll let you import your non-online GT4 data into the new version. Why would anyone want to buy the February version of GT4, then? Well, given that most of the modifications you can perform on your cars (and the cars themselves) aren't obtainable until you put many hours into play, this means that folks with the older GT4 will be hopping online with tricked-out rides while those just buying the online version would be racing stock cars. This won't make a difference in the long-term, but that would certainly suck for new adopters for the first couple of months. Sega GT did a similar thing, releasing an online version after the non-online game had been on sale for a long time, so even though this is hearsay, I'd be biased towards believing it. Not that this is necessarily a winning marketing strategy...

Re:Online play later in the year?

[realdpk]

I have no interest in online racing. The lag would make it less than fun. I can only imagine what sort of thing the people who brought you "bunny hopping" would bring to internet racing. LAN racing, on the other hand, would be interesting.

Re:Online play later in the year?

[Lord_Dweomer]

But its sure as hell a good money-making strategy.

1)Release single player version of game people were almost positive would have online gameplay.
2)Release "expansion" with online gameplay for full price or half price for existing owners.
3)???
4)PROFIT!!!

But nah....Sony Entertainment would NEVER do that.

Won't be fooled again

[warnerve]

With every new Gran Turismo relase I get caught up in the hype. I somehow forgot that I find that series overly complicated and too involved for my gaming habits. It's like I go brain dead the week of the release and go buy the game. I get home, start playing and yell "son of a bitch!".

If you've ever heard Louis Black's candy corn routine, it's pretty much like that.

Re:Won't be fooled again

[White Roses]

Agreed. My gaming habits are quite fulfilled with Burnout (2|3), with the occasional foray into Need for Speed Underground when I want some career play. NfSU 2 is pretty cool as well, with all the customizations you can do that, in the end, don't seem to make all that much difference, since the AI is evidently doing exactly the same customizations. Meh. The online play is fun though.

Only for forever

[Enevitable]

Have only been waiting 2-3 years for this game to come out, and hopefully all of the extensive modeling I have seen articles off them doing will be spectacular

Yawn

[Jim Hall]

I'll probably get modded down as flamebait, but I'm no longer looking forward to GT4. It's been hyped for so long, but delayed several times, and had features taken out. This is getting old for me. I've already moved on.

GT4 for PC?

[ShaggyB]

Does anyone have any info on the topic of GT4 for PC, or rather lack there of. I'm a heavy PC gamer and I really enjoyed GT and GT2. I wonder if Sony realizes the amount of money they could make selling the game for PC too.

No online? Big deal.

[mh101]

Am I the only one who doesn't get terribly excited about online gaming? I'd much rather play a game with a friend who's in the same room, than someone I've never met from some place I've never heard of.

The exception would be playing a multiplayer game with a friend over the internet, but I don't consider that to be "online gaming", no different than playing over a LAN (except the physical location, of course).

As the ad says:

[cluke]

http://www.sniffpetrol.com/AdGT4.jpg

Please don't have the tire melting option.

[Momoru]

I loved all the other gran turismo's but GT3 sucked IMO because suddenly midway through the simulation mode, tire wear came into play...ok that's fair real life car racing needs to take into account tires. But even if you had "medium slick" tires, which were about the bare minimum to simply keep up with cars less powerful then you, they would be glowing red by the 4th lap of a 10 lap race. This means the car is undrivable and you need a pit stop. This is NOT realistic! Gran Touring type races, especially ones with less then 20 laps do not generally require tire changes, and forget even using racing slick tires in the game, one lap and they are red. Anyways, if this is at least an option to turn off the game would have been great, but because they randomly left in this one aspect of realism the end of the game was never seen by me because its just not fun pitstopping every two laps.

Re:Please don't have the tire melting option.

[SavoWood]

This is part of the realism. True, you don't melt tires in a few laps, but, part of racing is tire choice. You have something like 6 different compounds of slicks to choose from. Depending on your course, you might like having a harder compound. It may also depend on the car.

I was racing the Mercedes DTA car for a little while and found it was just barely losing races. I had the medium slicks on there. Then, I switched to hard, was able to run an entire race on a single set, and took the lead usually around lap 5 when everyone had gone in to put on a fresh set of rubber. They'd usually pass me (the ones who went in on 3 or 4 laps) again around lap 7, but I'd be far ahead after their next pit stop. So, although I couldn't hold the turns nearly as well as they could, I burned through the tires more slowly and spent less time on pit road.

If you watch a Formula 1 race, you'll hear the announcers talking about the pit strategy of the different crews. The amount of time you spend in the pit can make or break your race. Taking this strategy and condensing it to a 10 lap race (instead of 60-75 laps) simply adds to the realism. At first, I was willing to up the ultra-soft slicks on the cars I was racing. Then, when I found out they'd burn through in 2 laps, I started developing my pit strategy for the different cars.

It's just good design.