Gran Turismo HD - The biggest next gen rip off yet!

Yea - people buying into this micro-payment strategy legitimize it for the industry.

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http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/11/15
 
He can do whatever he likes, that's right. I can still think he's an idiot for giving in to Sony's bullshit. I loved the Gran Turismo series up until now. In fact, before Sony announced this crap about micro-transactions I nearly convinced myself to get a PS3 just for this game. No more.

I figure if enough people complain or don't buy the game, Sony will have to change their strategy.
What is the strategy then? Sony used the opportunity to test this micro-transaction stuff for the filler between GT4 and GT5. As I already said, GT5 will come as a complete game. If you don't like their strategy for GT:HD, just wait and buy GT5. What's the big deal?

GT:HD is a middle game, I don't see anyone buying GT:HD after GT4: Prologue.
Well, you can get away fairly cheap with GT:HD if you just ignore the empty GT4 part and use what comes with the game as GT5-Prologue. It may not be worth to buy a PS3 just for that, but if you buy one anyway, those few bucks won't kill you.

Yea - people buying into this micro-payment strategy legitimize it for the industry.
Correct. Nobody knows how many people will actually use this though. Personally, I think that many people won't buy GT:HD at all, some will buy it and play without upgrades, and a big part will buy it and set itself a limit on what to spend, based on the average price of such a game. Only a minority will actually generate money by buying pretty much everything. That said, I have serious doubts Sony will get away with this. As mentioned before, this is not the new business model that will replace the previous "all in one"-model anyway.

Regards
the Interceptor
 
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Correct. Nobody knows how many people will actually use this though. Personally, I think that many people won't buy GT:HD at all, some will buy it and play without upgrades, and a big part will buy it and set itself a limit on what to spend, based on the average price of such a game. Only a minority will actually generate money by buying pretty much everything. That said, I have serious doubts Sony will get away with this. As mentioned before, this is not the new business model that will replace the previous "all in one"-model anyway.

Regards
the Interceptor

What worries me is that the game is at least in large part marketed at kids and young adults, who already are dumb enough to spend $3 for a 20 second ringtone of their favorite song, when they can buy an entire track in better quality for 99 cents.
 
this just pisses me off, I bought GT4 and now they put Ferrari in? I don't want to buy the PS3. Damn! And I wanted online play, but the makers backed out of it, cause they had to do something with GT5...Fuck!
 
As a very experienced and long term GT player, not to mention experienced in the gaming industry and having been part of the two most skilled OLR (online racing) communities online for GT... I am ready to say that GT:HD is bad news for GT fans.

There are many reasons for this, firstly Polyphonys poor performance in their delivery of GT4, extremely late, poorly executed single player, lack of memory card battles, online play? heh... But the most scary part was their attitude over the whole thing, I was suckered in by it like many other hardcore GT players (I mean the guys that annihilate the gold license times in every single GT game). We expected the world from Polyphony in GT4 and what we got in many places was barely a step up from GT3, in some cases it was a step backward.

Polyphony has long had a license to do what they want and an arrogance that they can't fail. The unfortunate fact is that they can't, money wise, they wont fail financially even if GT HD is a complete flop, and even if GT5 is a total flop as well they'd still be making GT6 I guarantee. Those of you who feel we can vote with our feet, we sadly can't.

The online store route is something that was always going to come from them, it's probably the most perfect thing for them and I'm sure those that watch their figures are absolutely frothing at the mouth at how perfect it is for Polyphony. Unfortunately, it's not a good thing for most of their customers.

What this online store style of game allows them to do, is release an unfinished game (they have done this already without the store, but still). They can release a very patchy game and churn out car after car available for download. Per game on average they will make 50-100% more than they would adding everything to one game in a big release. It allows them to be slack and cut corners where they really need to be putting in the effort.

We were promised great AI in GT4, we got a minor upgrade on the old GT3 AI and there were many new flaws in this new AI. For example, the tendancy for four of the five AI to be absolutely terrible drivers, pushing out poor laptimes and not even taking the best line many times. Yet there will be one AI driver in every race who is setting good times, he's way ahead of the others in comparable skill and it is simply not as exciting to race with them.

I am a fan of Polyphony none the less, their track creation is brilliant, their version of the Nurburgring is sublime, the look of almost all the cars is wonderful and I've enjoyed countless hours in their games. But GT4 was the one I played the least, I expected more from it than any other game, truthfully however, I probably got more fun factor out of Prologue.

My post has been long, so I'll finish it up. I will likely end up with GT5 eventually, but the chances are slim if this online store stuff is included. It is very much a case of asking people to pay more for nothing extra. Unfortunately for all of us, it will only happen more on all platforms.

A final thought.. The idea of paying $1.50 for example per track in GT HD (or even GT5) is terribly offputting to us, yet at the same time people pay more for Ringtones, Pay Per View TV, Bus rides, Taxis, junk food... etc. We would get an awful lot getting the track for $1.50... maybe we are greedy and have got too much in many games over the years...? It's a fair argument in some ways :)
 
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They need to bring back the Pikes Peak Hillclimb. :p

GT2 was the best.
 
^ Funny thing is that i heard the Escudo didnt do all that great on the Pikes Peak hillclimb. Not sure if there is a video of it somewhere on the internet
 
The Escudo was hilarious in GT3. Anyone else remember that? You could tune it to eleventy billion horsepower and then put tons of downforce on the rear and very little on the front. As a result, you could get the thing airborne (wheelie) and do like 350 MPH. :lol:
 
The Escudo was hilarious in GT3. Anyone else remember that? You could tune it to eleventy billion horsepower and then put tons of downforce on the rear and very little on the front. As a result, you could get the thing airborne (wheelie) and do like 350 MPH. :lol:

350? i got mine past a 1100 if i remember correctly. Once the front started to lift, it did 300mph to 1000mph in like 5 seconds :lmao:
 
Oh, really? :lol: I couldn't remember.
 
The Escudo was hilarious in GT3. Anyone else remember that? You could tune it to eleventy billion horsepower and then put tons of downforce on the rear and very little on the front. As a result, you could get the thing airborne (wheelie) and do like 350 MPH. :lol:
That was a disappointment in GT4...I was hoping to put the turbo kit 4 in the Escudo and get 1845hp like we all did in GT3, but it only gave me a flimsy 1070hp...:cry:
 
:lmao: i never tried the escudo trick in GT4, mainly because i lost the save not long after i got the ecsudo and couldn't be bothered to play it again<_<
 
GT:HD has officially been canned because of too much work regarding the already in progress-development of GT5. As an alternative, Sony will offer a freely downloadable Demo called GT:HD Concept, available from December 24th. It will feature 10 cars, 1 track with 2 layouts, time attack and drift trial modes.

To the GT:HD micro transaction haters: happy now? :cry:

Regards
the Interceptor
 
More info on the cancellation:

Sony hits brakes on Gran Turismo HD
Polyphony Digital's PlayStation 3 driving sim will only be released in free downloadable demo form in Japan; no word on game's US fate.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Posted Dec 1, 2006 10:23 am PT

Last week, Gran Turismo fans might have been concerned by a change in an online retailer's product listing for the series' PlayStation 3 debut. Instead of the winter 2006 date Sony had originally pegged for the title, GameStop was listing Gran Turismo HD as releasing December 1, 2007.

Sony today updated the game's Japanese Web site with some good news and some bad news for eager fans of the game. The good news is that a free demo version of Gran Turismo HD with 10 cars and two layouts of a single track will be available for download in Japan from the PlayStation store on December 24, 2006. The bad news is that the full version of the game has been canceled, as the Polyphony Digital team is switching its focus to the next PS3 installment of the series, Gran Turismo 5.

"The Gran Turismo series will change its core principles," Polyphony Digital head Kazunori Yamauchi said about the next installment in the series, which was not given any kind of release window. As for what direction Yamauchi is taking with the series, Sony has only said it "will be a fully realized Online Car Life Simulation."

Back in August, Yamauchi confirmed in an interview with Famitsu that development on the next PS3 version of Gran Turismo had begun. "We are working on a version of GT that supports the full PS3 specification," he told the magazine.

Gran Turismo HD may not be the last downloadable demo edition of the popular racing sim. The Japanese Gran Turismo site says that Sony might be able to offer more "concept" versions of the series before the full release of Gran Turismo 5 arrives. However, any such editions would be included in the final retail release of Gran Turismo 5.

While the free downloadable demo of Gran Turismo HD was confirmed for Japan, it's currently unclear if it will make its way to the US. When asked for a status update on the game's domestic fate, a Sony rep said only, "As of today, there are no official announcements for a North American release of GT HD."

Source

At this stage the demo is only scheduled for Japan.
 
This news almost certainly means that GT5 will be fully utilising the online store method of play and likely a large number of cars, tracks and spares will be available online for a certain fee.

It should mean that Polyphony get the game out faster, but then you have to buy cars online as and when they add them later on.

I do hope I am wrong, but knowing Polyphony I am not.
 
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