A challenger to GT5? Answer to my prayers. I'm planning on buying GT5 because it's hobson's choice. There's nothing else to touch it on PS3 but if they got a good physics system, decent graphics and maybe switched the emphasis from cars to tracks (500 cars, 150 tracks) I'd jump ship in a second. Wouldn't matter if the graphics weren't quite as stunning as GT which, after all, is about the only area they would be competitive if a challenger did materialise.
You obviously haven't played Prologue or the Time Trial demo.
Any company, Konami or whoever, who had been researching hundreds of cars and tracks would have been noticed years ago. And it would have taken years to do the kind of research Polyphony or even Turn 10 have done. So we can forget Enthusia 2, unless Konami is just now starting to work on it. Which if it is E2, they'd better do their homework because I hated Enthusia with a passion. It's absolutely
nothing like its opening cinema or so called "demo vid." There was no comparison, and I felt about as disconnected from the car as I can remember any game being. After just experiencing Prologue, an E2 had better give me some sense of handling a car, rather than an out of body experience.
Codemasters could come back to their senses and make a serious game again, but with the NFS kids glomming onto Dirt, I'm not sure they have much incentive to refine the series into a proper Toca 4. And NFS... ugh. I forget the company who made Shift, just mentioned... Criterion? If they want to make a serious game, they need to run screaming from EA, because they screw up everything they touch even worse than T10 does. TDU2? Whatever...
A SIMBIN title would be okay, though they tried this with Race Pro, and it was just decent for a PC sim. The GTR series is reasonable, but any racing sim is very restricted in what it offers. Less than 100 cars to choose from, often just a few dozen, and only a few classes of racing. Not much variety. And this is why these PC sims are such a niche market. The flavor of these games is small and dry because of the limited scope and technical aspects prioritized over more involving aspects such as graphics and variety of racing. I have the GTR series and rFactor, and I keep going back to GT4 and Prologue for my racing fix.
Eutechnyx could work something, but they seem to be in the same boat as the PC sim guys, with limited scope - to date, just supercars, mostly Ferraris, and a decidedly Forza flavor to the games - which they do seem to be using a retooled Forza engine, even though they never address it.
All these games have said "Hi" for years, and the world mostly shrugs. The only series which has done well is Forza, and that says as much about the patience of the fans as the game, because Turn 10 always rushes it out the door, and there are always glaring, annoying issues with them.
I'll give any racing game a fair shot. I played Ferrari Challenge for about a month solid until I got sick of being banged off the track in the rain by the Forza-like bots. I played Forza 3 for two months straight, until the bugs bit me one too many times. I ran through weeks of my GTR games. But like many of the people here on Earth, the game series I can't tear myself away from is Gran Turismo. A new game? Great, let's see it. But even if it's as good in some ways, or better, it still won't be as good a game. There's just no substitution for Gran Turismo.
As for the above post by jujub:
" Eutechnyx - Future Plans
The role of a video game developer has always been to create experiences – brilliant elements that stick in players’ minds long after they’ve run through all the features of a title. Eutechnyx is working right now on creating new ways of expanding, even obliviating, the experience parameters. We feel there should be no boundaries beyond a simple edict: make it real and make it fun.
Ehh... they came close, nice try. Maybe they'll find the magic next time.
But hey... if you want Forza on the PS3, Ferrari/SC Challenge is waving at you.
It would force PD to hurry up and get their act together, also if it would feature things GT lacks, it would also force them to implement them faster than they usually do(snail-pace style). There's nothing better than some good ol' competition on the same console!
