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The Project Gotham Racing Appreciation Thread

K

KingofGourds

Member
LTTP on this thread. I'm not much of a racing game person but the MSR/PGR series has been an absolute mainstay of my gaming diet since the beginning.

Maybe it was just that I got caught up in it at the right time, but it's MSR that I always go back to. I was in my mid-teens in the Dreamcast-era and that game just blew my mind. It was racing like I'd never experienced it before.

The cities, even though they were empty, felt real. Being a former Londoner it was such a blast to do the street-racer thing through streets I knew.

I know it's kinda not to everyone's taste, but Kudos was a great little addictive device. My custom Kudos word in MSR was "Genki Dama" which I realise is a bit lame now but hey I was heavily into DBZ at the time *shrug*

And let's not forget the brilliant music - from "Am I Only Dreaming" to that strange Will Smith knockoff. Also I think there was that buttrock-esque tune with some guy singing about his car.....ahhh good stuff.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
tasos said:
I'd hope they're working off an advanced PGR4 engine , it's a great engine that gives almost photorealistic results , especially the backgrounds are amazing .
Click to expand...
I'd prefer Lucid use the knowledge they gained from the Horizon engine that Blur used; this was a multi threaded rendering engine capable of 4xMSAA with 20 cars on screen back in 2010! From the interview with Digital Foundry: 'This new engine, which we've dubbed "Horizon", is what we're using on Blur. So, whereas on PGR4 we would generally spend 15+ms rendering on one CPU, with Horizon we now spend more like 5-8ms doing rendering across all cores/SPUs simultaneously, and we're rendering a lot more stuff than we ever did in PGR'. Imagine the same tech updated to run on the rumoured Durango specs. I think I'm going to need a dropsheet if I continue to think about the possibilities...

I had very little to no interest in the next MS console however if PGR 5 is announced and is being made by ex-Bizarre Creations staff (and hopefully it's Lucid at the helm) then I'm a day one buyer.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
So, I was bored this arvo:

7D7ckRJ.png
 
tasos

tasos

Member
TJP said:
I'd prefer Lucid use the knowledge they gained from the Horizon engine that Blur used; this was a multi threaded rendering engine capable of 4xMSAA with 20 cars on screen back in 2010! From the interview with Digital Foundry: 'This new engine, which we've dubbed "Horizon", is what we're using on Blur. So, whereas on PGR4 we would generally spend 15+ms rendering on one CPU, with Horizon we now spend more like 5-8ms doing rendering across all cores/SPUs simultaneously, and we're rendering a lot more stuff than we ever did in PGR'. Imagine the same tech updated to run on the rumoured Durango specs. I think I'm going to need a dropsheet if I continue to think about the possibilities...
Click to expand...

That's nice - Blur has an impressive check list : lots of cars , huge number of lights , great AA etc... but the thing is , when i see both of games on my big tv , PGR4 looks more real to me .
 
TJP

TJP

Member
tasos said:
PGR4 looks more real to me .
Click to expand...
I feel the same way 8) Blur was all about power-ups and neon lights so style wise it looks more cartoonish but the tech powering Blur is a lot more advanced than PGR, which was my point and I'm drooling at the thought of another multi-threaded engine with a more realistic style to the graphics.

Nice work on the PGR logo Shaneus! How you progressing with Blood Stone? I'm loving the cleaner visuals of the PC version and I'm already through the Siberia level - the driving feels a little off but I still managed to clear the race through the wharf in the old Aston in under 2 mins and 50 odd seconds on my first go ;)
 
S

state_vector_collapse

Member
TJP said:
I feel the same way 8) Blur was all about power-ups and neon lights so style wise it looks more cartoonish but the tech powering Blur is a lot more advanced than PGR, which was my point and I'm drooling at the thought of another multi-threaded engine with a more realistic style to the graphics.
Click to expand...

Is that a fact or just something people have speculated on? I didn't think Blur looked that great to be honest, even with

I'm sure I read somewhere that the engine running the PGR games was owned by MS - if that is true, do we know what else it might have powered?
 
S

Shaneus

Member
The thing is, it's technically more impressive than PGR4, but I think for the time it wasn't as innovative (PGR4 did a few things unique to console driving games, afaik) nor was it that outstanding given that games had caught quite a bit more by that point. And probably because Blur was seen as being more cartoony that it never really went under the microscope like Forza, PGR or GT did/would have.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
I think we should be posting more PGR pictures rather than worrying about whether Blur or PGR 4 is /was technologically better. Anyone know how to pull pictures off the Xbox HDD as I don't know if PGR Nations is still up and running - last time I was on the 'Nations website it was terribly flaky.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Great stuff derFeef. Were your pics taken off the Xbox HDD or from the PGR Nations website?
 
S

state_vector_collapse

Member
Interviews/articles...whatever. This game blows me away after all this time...Blur will never impress me in the same way. Mind you I wasn't a fan of it at all.

I'm surprised people are going back to PGR2 and enjoying it to be honest. It feels really understeery to me now. But one thing it did have, was the best implementation of custom soundtracks ever, mixing your songs in with the radio chatter. Why on earth did MS change how custom soundtracks worked with the 360.

Those pics above are fantastic, keep them coming :)
 
S

Shaneus

Member
TJP said:
Great stuff derFeef. Were your pics taken off the Xbox HDD or from the PGR Nations website?
Click to expand...
From memory, it can be done... but it wasn't easy. I wanted to get ones that I'd saved to the HDD but not uploaded, and I ended up connecting and formatting a vanilla USB stick to the 360, copying the "photos" over, browsing the USB via some decrypting thingy and copying the files over. It's been a REALLY long time, but I'll have a hunt around and if I can find the info, I'll post it here.

But I can confirm it works (unless MS have changed something in the last year or two.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Shaneus said:
From memory, it can be done... but it wasn't easy.
Click to expand...
Cheers Shaneus. I looked at PGR Nations yesterday and it's nothing more than a dead forum. The part of the website with global gameplay stats, links to uploaded pictures etc is no more.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
TJP said:
Cheers Shaneus. I looked at PGR Nations yesterday and it's nothing more than a dead forum. The part of the website with global gameplay stats, links to uploaded pictures etc is no more.
Click to expand...
Ugh, that sucks. Because it was still up and running as of a few months ago! Then I remembered that there was a script error on the page... and then nothing :/
 
S

Shaneus

Member
I mentioned it in the other thread, but I doubt that's anything to do with exclusivity. There are plenty of games that have been developed exclusively for consoles whilst the developer has released other stuff for other ones. Look at Rez on XBLA, Outrun 2 on original Xbox... there are hundreds more. Depending on if that's a list of devs for *only* PS4 or for PS4 and Vita, then it would cover that travelling game or whatever it was that they did for Vita.

I'm cool with it.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
I'm happy Lucid have work on at least one up coming console and hopefully cross platform development means PC too 8)
 
S

Shaneus

Member
True, stoked for the guys :)

Just looking at that... so... Carmageddon on PS4, no Bungie and more importantly... no SMS. VERY interesting.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Well, I missed this, but it was posted on another forum I visit. They probably got it via GAF, but I haven't seen the thread it was posted in, so here you go:
jptf6viudXdnx.png


This is the first thing we've seen in writing that there's definitely something on the cards. Kudos to whoever found it if you're reading this!
 
nikos

nikos

Member
I remember playing MSR, but don't remember which one.

PGR3 was amazing when it came out, I played it so much. PGR4 was short lived with me for some reason, think I had too much going on at the time. Think I'm going to pick it up so I can properly experience it.
 
bryanee

bryanee

Member
Does PGR3 have much of a online community these days? I bought PGR4 in the hope of having a few online games but its dead.
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
TJP said:
Arise ye olde thread of Bizarre Creations greatness...A very small collection of concept art from Blur: http://chrisdavie.tumblr.com/tagged/blur

Speaking of Blur, looked what just popped up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hf9cbffDlE&feature=player_embedded

A new top down racer called Blur Overdrive. My disdain for Activision has grown even greater...
Click to expand...

That's seriously fucked up, what the hell Activision?

I dare not imagine what they'll come up with next...a top down sequel to Singularity?
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Available now... on what? Is that for iOS? PC? Consoles?

And talk about COMPLETELY MISSING THE FUCKING POINT OF THE EXCITEMENT OF BLUR. Looks slow and crappy as hell.

And Davie posting more concept art from a game style/franchise we're unlikely to see from Lucid? Bastard :(
Edit: He posted that a year ago. There ya go.
 
X

xam3l

Member
Shaneus said:
Available now... on what? Is that for iOS? PC? Consoles?

And talk about COMPLETELY MISSING THE FUCKING POINT OF THE EXCITEMENT OF BLUR. Looks slow and crappy as hell.

And Davie posting more concept art from a game style/franchise we're unlikely to see from Lucid? Bastard :(
Click to expand...

These are the kind of trailers that makes me excited for a game. We need more of these. <3
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Shaneus said:
Available now... on what? Is that for iOS? PC? Consoles?

And talk about COMPLETELY MISSING THE FUCKING POINT OF THE EXCITEMENT OF BLUR. Looks slow and crappy as hell.
Click to expand...
Looks like an iOS game to me...

Shaneus said:
And Davie posting more concept art from a game style/franchise we're unlikely to see from Lucid? Bastard :(
Edit: He posted that a year ago. There ya go.
Click to expand...
Well, I had to post something about Blur ;) Davie took down EVERYTHING he posted a while ago too; I'm presuming he or Lucid received a message from the Activison legal team.
 
Jerry Orbach

Jerry Orbach

Member
Miles Quaritch said:
I dare not imagine what they'll come up with next...a top down sequel to Singularity?
Click to expand...

As a longtime fan of Raven Software, I just want to say a sequel to Singularity done in the style of their 1997 top-down classic Take No Prisoners is the kind of thing I would Kickstart in a heartbeat.
 
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