By John Walker on March 19th, 2008 at 6:56 pm.
Cor blimey, this looks a bit realistic. [rubs eyes in disbelief]
Jump in our car, Gametrailers.
Wha? Is it five years in the future already? I hope Race Driver: GRID has a game to go with these pictures.
There seems to have been a sudden improvement in graphics, by about 720 times, since the trailer released last month. Compare and contrast:
As Kieron says, cars are easy. But still. Flipping heck.
19/03/2008 at 19:02 UncleLou says:
Looks great indeed, and not that improbable considering how good DiRT looked. Now please, don’t screw up the driving model, DiRT-style.
19/03/2008 at 19:11 NM says:
I don’t think the graphics have improved between the two previews; I just think that the second preview is more selective of the standout sets.
19/03/2008 at 19:54 Mike says:
That looked amazing! Sure thy’re pre-rendered videos but the actual game shouldn’t be to far off them. I’m amazed at how games have improved over the last 10 years or so. And does anyone else think the name is crap, maybe GRID, but not race driver:grid.
19/03/2008 at 20:56 Fang says:
The in-game one does looks loads better than the pre-rendered cinematic. Loads more atmosphere in every shot. Don’t know why people still bother with pre-rendered stuff nowadays.
Love being able to smash up cars and barriers and if DiRT was anything to go by, this’ll be even better.
19/03/2008 at 20:59 Theory says:
The first video has precomputed motion blur that makes it appear smoother. That always helps makes things more attractive. I can’t actually tell the difference in quality between this and the last Colin McRae…
The pre-rendered one has a little blur, but it’s not as well done.
19/03/2008 at 22:53 Jim Rossignol says:
Cars are clearly Easy Mode for graphics technologists.
19/03/2008 at 23:00 Chutn3y says:
This isn’t so much about the graphics, but the blinding framerate. I’ve never seen a game run as lickety-split as that, and that’s where the sense of realism comes from. I want this, but I have performance anxiety…
19/03/2008 at 23:07 Caiman says:
Yes until the real world starts to drop frames and thrash its hard drive, PC games will never achieve true realism.
19/03/2008 at 23:18 John O'Kane says:
Don’t underestimate the power of good camera direction.
20/03/2008 at 00:40 Ben Abraham says:
I agree with Chutn3y, the frame-rate makes it seem eye-bleedingly fast, not to mention smooth. I wonder if it will keep it up that high throughout…
20/03/2008 at 00:41 yxxxx says:
Drools. Thats looking good! wish they had kept the toca thought :(
20/03/2008 at 01:52 Duoae says:
I just don’t want another American-ised McRae game… CM2 was the best IMO…. this… this is just treading on traditional NFS and Burnout territory and those are the two franchises i thought of when watching this.
20/03/2008 at 09:06 Optimaximal says:
To be honest, i’m glad they dumped the TOCA name… The last 2 games didn’t have an ounce of touring car racing in them!
20/03/2008 at 09:07 Joe says:
Don’t forget that this is a pc only game (last time I checked), so it won’t have been hobbled by console development. DiRT was multiplatform, causing 2 of the versions to be ported (I assume). This is better than NFS and Burnout. This is racing, rather than pretending to be some gangster. I hate that whole vibe, just give me cars and tracks, and something to compare GT5 to, thats looking sweet aswell.
20/03/2008 at 10:53 Mike says:
GRID is multiplatform. It’s coming out on the 360 and PS3.
20/03/2008 at 12:21 Rich Tysoe says:
>> The last 2 games didn’t have an ounce of touring car racing in them!
er, DTM? V8 Supercars? both were touring car championships, just not the BTCC. but yes, the TOCA name was increasingly inappropriate so it’s been dropped.
20/03/2008 at 12:25 Clicky says:
I loathe racing games that I can’t play on my keyboard, but the graphics sure look purdy. But these screens:
http://www.ufxcomic.com/EverybodySucks/2008/03/18/gran-turismo-5-prologue-vs-reality/
made me really wish for a PS3