Gran Turismo Online, what will it mean to GT fans?

GT Planet, hello again, and happy holidays!

After hearing that GT4 will feature online play, I had to imagine what it would be like to have road racing and rally fans go at it online. I will admit that being an online gamer, much less a multiplay player, is not one of my strengths, plus I'm more independent. However, GT4 with online play. I kind of want to clear something up first.

If a game wants to undertake or consider online play, a few factors will make it successful:

- a good game, first and foremost
- an exciting online experience
- (optional) tournaments and series
- has to be ultra-competitive

I'm not bashing on GT4 being an online game, I'm just saying that the first GT to be available online is groundbreaking. As I said, I'm not the online gaming type. However, I can imagine six racers going at it GT style. It would mean six racers of high caliber going at it against each other. Everyone has their style of racing and will show nothing less but the best. Everyone has certain tactics to ensure they will get victory. So obviously, GT fans will have plenty to love.

In terms of the impact of online racing, I think Gran Turismo is going to be more competitive than in single player. GT4 might just rank above some of the best multiplayer games for console OR PC. Those "best multiplayer games" you ask? Let me see if I can remember:

Doom
Duke Nukem
The Command and Conquer series
Unreal Tournament
Half-Life

Before replying that I have no originality in picking such games, I already notice that 4 of the 5 games are first-person shooters. But GT might be worthy of carrying such a status. UT and Half-Life got Game of the Year honors in their time, so I think GT4 might be "Best Racing Game of 2004," no questions asked. I'm not going to say "Best Game of the Year" because I don't think it's really fair. Everyone has their tastes in gaming, and just because a person would rather kill opponents with powerful guns than race a fast car, doesn't mean that it would be Game of the Year. But if it gets the nod for best game, than we should chant to Kazunori and the whole of PD:

"WE ARE NOT WORTHY!"

I've gone off-topic, but you can discuss the impact of online gaming for GT4. Obviously, I said it would be pretty cool, and there will be waves of PS2 racing fans that want to smoke someone from down the street or from the other side of the nation. So what do you think about online gaming for GT4?

I think the online mode will be an awesome addition to a GREAT game, however I'm afraid of the online cheating and horse playing that could cause the online experience to be a bad one. I hope the developers find ways of ranking players, as EA sports developers have for their online play, so that we can review other players stats to decide to invite or decline races with. If you are rear ended lots, that person rear ending you should tally up some kind of counter to let other players know what type of gamer he/she is, so that we can avoid playing them.

I think a way to avoid that is to maybe make up a room or gathering of fellow GTP members....since most of the members here, I believe, are clean, fair, responsible players....which will make the experience a good one....

Originally posted by codered_59
I think a way to avoid that is to maybe make up a room or gathering of fellow GTP members....since most of the members here, I believe, are clean, fair, responsible players....which will make the experience a good one....

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I bet within days of the release of GT4 a GTP league will have formed. Since GT4 will have people of all different types of skill levels playing, I predict there will be many people who have no clue on how to drive who will be playing GT4 online. But leagues like GTP and many others with similarily skilled racers (ex. pro leagues, noob leagues, etc) will start poping up everywhere, like acne on a teenager's face

And on the cheating issue, I know that PD wouldn't want cheats to ruin what is bound to be an amazing online experience. It just wouldn't be like them to allow something like that. But even if people do find a way to cheat, there are always the leagues!

Originally posted by Ev0
I bet within days of the release of GT4 a GTP league will have formed. Since GT4 will have people of all different types of skill levels playing, I predict there will be many people who have no clue on how to drive who will be playing GT4 online. But leagues like GTP and many others with similarily skilled racers (ex. pro leagues, noob leagues, etc) will start poping up everywhere, like acne on a teenager's face

And on the cheating issue, I know that PD wouldn't want cheats to ruin what is bound to be an amazing online experience. It just wouldn't be like them to allow something like that. But even if people do find a way to cheat, there are always the leagues!

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Why even discuss cheating when no one has been able to boot none sony signed codes online?

why have you all started talking about cheating before the game is for sale...........is it a matter of filling up the time that's left until the actual release?

Well until 'true Cheaters' (lamers) manage to hack the code, GT4 would likely have to contend with people ramming into each other off the track. As at the moment it sounds like car collisions are same as ever in GT (Correct me if I am wrong) but there are penalities for hitting walls. (Of course theres a good chance they'll sort this for the final GT4).

What I'd hate more than people smashing into me @ 130mph on a corner would be no car collisions whatsoever & racing with 'ghosts'. I've played other games where that happens & it sucks imo.

In the rally mode, there's a punishment for ramming into the walls....your car's speed drops drastically, and you cannot accel for 10 seconds....it is quite hurting

but for hte normal races, hitting of other cars is still allowed, just like before

this is what I have noticed from GT4P

I doubt for online gaming they'll have "ghosts" i think you will be able to actually hit the cars but to me the penalty system would be great if you hit someone you get a few sec. off and if you hit a wall it should be either less time off or none, to me if you hit a wall they should do something like you wont really bounce off the wall but actually stop, because i mean how many times in real life have you seen a car going 100mph...hit a wall.. bounce off.. and keep going? Id PD cant use visual car damage atleast make hitting walls realistic.. since it is supposed to be a realistic game, like I said have it so that if you hit a wall on a curve you hit it and spin out or just have the car come to a hault and you have to start from 0, its only fair, beacuse going 130 hitting a wall then keeping going at like 75mph is really unrealistic.. thats all my opinion of course but hopefully PD will deff sort this out... Some of are saying why talk about cheating blah blah, well when are we supposed to talk about it?? If sony or PD reads this just say it would be nice for them to be informed that we have concern for it and not have concern once the games releases beacuse that would be just dumb.. seeing that GT5 wont be out until the PS3 (2005-2006) thats another 2 years... So why do a sloppy job now and have us suffer for 2yrs with people cheating when they could just get it right the first time and have no problems.. To me I hope the put extra care into the online portion along with the rest of the game but deff online since it would be a new feature and will gain sony more money seeing how many people dont have the network adaptor, all I know is whn GT4 comes out i'll deff be playing online as soon as I get it in my PS2...

I think the online will be awesome. Like I have stated before I race via I-link every sat night with the wheels, cockpits, tv's (6 of each) and a group that ranges from 8 to 20 people most of which are like me, married have had some sort of racing back ground and play for the money. The racing is very very tight and once in a while there are people whom get spun around or ran off the track but it's not intentional. It's happened at every level of racing i have been in, real or sim there is no difference. I just hope they can rank people and keep out the rif-raf. I know I can depend on the guys at the MGTRA to race respectful and clean and I am sure the same goes for the guys at GTP forums.


P.S if anyone is going to be in the Nevada Missouri erea on the 20th of Dec. we are having a race night at the performance parts warehouse. The owners have invited us to set up all of the cockpits and such and have invited all of the local racers (real racing) from around the erea to come and challenge one anothe on the GT3 game it will be lots of fun.

Playing online now has anti-cheating technology so we probably won't be seeing anyone cheating in GT4.

if its great it will mean a similar experience to liveforspeed. but there we have 16 players online. and the online code is a masterpiece. simple as that. the definitive online racing simulator. im almost sure gt4 wont beat the online experience of lfs, but ill be here testing

Originally posted by kidcodea
if its great it will mean a similar experience to liveforspeed. but there we have 16 players online. and the online code is a masterpiece. simple as that. the definitive online racing simulator. im almost sure gt4 wont beat the online experience of lfs, but ill be here testing

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GT4 > LFS. Simple as that.

The online racing sounds all cool and stuff, but there should be some kind of way to distinguish the connection of the players...ppl that has cable, dsl, T1 or whatever wouldnt like to go race against a 56k guy..lag can be a serious threat for the fun of online racing, I hope the servers will be very quick too.

When GT4 comes up, I'll buy the stuff for online playing and of course, start kicking some ass

Well no racing game out there what ive seen for PS2 can use Dial up its all only Broadband (t1, dsl, cable etc..) and all new online games are all broadband too so I highly doubt GT4 would use dial up I think it will all be only Broadband which makes alot of sense seeing how SOny and PD might want a faster connection with a racing game...

As I said, I can care less about online play. Never really tried it or want to get into it. But for those that have the goods to play GT online, go for it. Gran Turismo 4 is likely one of the hottest games to come out in the future. As "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" is getting rave reviews, I'm sure Gran Turismo 4 will be a hit with online play.

Maybe I thought of a special system that I can recall from a fighting game. When I played Virtua Fighter 4 (before the hit "Evolution"), I'd get "advice" after fighting more than 10 rounds. It would tell if I am not blocking attacks often, or if I am not mixing my attack combinations correctly. It would then give me advice as to what I should do to improve my rating. This same system could be incorporated into GT4. Such a system in this game would reflect:

- driving skill
- offense (how quickly you move up the rankings)
- defense (how well you defend your position)
- recovery (how well you recover from spins/off-courses, etc.)
- special tactics (such as knowing when to pit)

There are more, but I haven't thought of any others. I think this online profile will allow people to choose players based on skill. See someone you like to race against, take them on. Of course, skills can be altered for better or worse, so this online profile will help filter out good racers from the not-so-good. I'm assuming that we are from amateur to veteran in racing this game, so many of us would make great challengers to each other. In any event, see you later.

Originally posted by Terran
GT4 > LFS. Simple as that.

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i wonder why you need to compare the 2. i wasnt making any remark towards that complex matter...

i feel fine having both thank you.
one for serious sim (lfs)
other for living room arcade fun (gt4)

I wouldn't call GT4 arcade fun, it's quite realistc thank you, the only thing with live for speed is the cars will flip over. Thats all I've noticed anyway, besides live for speed, as good as it is only now has 1 licenced car, all the others are'nt real cars.

Originally posted by kidcodea
i wonder why you need to compare the 2. i wasnt making any remark towards that complex matter...

i feel fine having both thank you.
one for serious sim (lfs)
other for living room arcade fun (gt4)

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Erm.... Arcade ?