View Full Version : [PS3] GT4 HD and 'Micro' Transactions
Grandmaster
22-09-2006, 08:46
Surprised this hasn't been posted yet. Apologies if it has. I find it rather worrying and it's NOT how I want to be playing and buying games in the future.
Gran Turismo HD will be available for PlayStation 3 after all, according to reports from the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly, but it'll be more of a "Prologue" title than anything.
In fact there are going to be two separate game elements on one disc, released in Japan this December, one of which will use the E3 "Gran Turismo HD" demo as a basis for an online multiplayer showcase, while the other will offer a sample of content built to the Gran Turismo 5 spec.
Gran Turismo 5 won't be out until 2008, according to translations of the Famitsu piece, which features an interview with creator Kazunori Yamauchi. Sony has yet to comment on the details in the West.
The Gran Turismo HD "Premium" element will be the GT5 sample, and will include two new tracks and 30 cars that fully utilise the PS3's power. You'll be able to race both tracks using any car you like from the get-go, with arcade style races available.
One of the courses is Eiger Nordwand, while details on the other are scant, but Yamauchi reportedly says he'd like to experiment with changing weather conditions - rain halting halfway through a race, and so on.
Apparently the GT HD "Classic" element will be very bare bones to begin with - the idea being to buy downloadable cars and tracks to race them on, with some 750 cars and 50 tracks reportedly set to be made available.
Costs will be 50-100 yen for a car, or 200-500 yen for a course. That's about 22 to 45 pence per car and 90p to £2.25 for a track. Photo mode might also be made available as a downloadable.
OK, first of all. Does any one really want an HD version of GT4? A game you can already play in HD on the PS2? A title that gameplay-wise is well past its sell-by date? I am guessing that it's all going to come down to how good the online multiplayer is. But hang on - wasn't that supposed to be coming out for PS2 as well? Hmmmmm.
Secondly, in GT4 HD's case, to get the full game, you're looking at hundreds of pounds worth of downloads... just to get the same game you've most likely already bought for PS2, just for the opportunity to play online!
It's amazing that Sony on the one hand is saying that online gaming should be free, as it is on PC, but then turns around and wants to charge what will amount to a colossal lot of money for content - something that doesn't happen at all on PC, generally speaking.
I just hope that people be a bit savvy about this. I bought SF2 Hyper Fighting on 360 because the online elements added something that was worth buying. I didn't buy Pac-Man or Galaga because they didn't, and I won't be buying Lumines II either because of the 'premium' content that should have been part of the main game. Similarly as a matter of principle, I won't be buying an 'Horse Armour' equivalent downloads either.
Hopefully this kind of premium content insolence will quickly become a thing of the past.
So in GT4 you used money in the game to purchase cars.
Now with the added realism of GT4-HD you use your actual money to purchase cars..
Mm.
Costs something like £210 odd to buy all the cars! :nuts:
I saw it mentioned on another forum that they'll be charging a small nominal fee for demos as well. Had a Google and can't see anything so assume that's BS.
anephric
23-09-2006, 15:39
I pity the fools who have to unlock EVERY car.
Still, there's an easy answer - don't pay for it.
superstarbeejay
23-09-2006, 15:50
I saw it mentioned on another forum that they'll be charging a small nominal fee for demos as well. Had a Google and can't see anything so assume that's BS.
It's difficult to do this because you have to actually adhere to a load of regulations about quality control and the like for something you sell. Something you give away however is different. It would actually cost more to sell a demo on xbox live than you'd make back.
So lets get this straight.. They're planning to sell a game where *the whole point of it* is all the cars, and then they're going to ask you to pay more for all the cars. :nono:
I only hope consumers can see the absolute greed behind this, and give Sony the big FU. But I bet that doesn't happen.
The only thing that the PS3 has going for me at the moment is the prospect of GT5. If they carry on going down this route, they can go jump, and I'll settle for Forza on the 360.
Dno.
Savagexii
23-09-2006, 17:22
The Gran Turismo series was going just fine up until GT3, then they had to go and phaff it all up by releasing different versions and half finished products, and now this, IF there is any truth to it all then it's as if greed has totally taken over and enjoyment took a back seat.
Forza couldn't have arrived at a better time.
anephric
23-09-2006, 18:53
Well, GT2 was pretty darn buggy and only-sort-of-finished.
Savagexii
23-09-2006, 20:02
I must not have played much of that one then, so i stand corrected.
The Gran Turismo series was going just fine up until GT3,
GT4 seemed absolutely rock solid to me.. :?: Although, I'd missed out on GT3, so maybe any difference weren't quite so apparent.
anephric
24-09-2006, 15:09
It took Polyphony aggggges to sort GT4, though, and the Prologue build that Sony battered out of them was poorly received (and filled with tech deficiencies), and almost a "prologue" of this dire scheme (i.e., pay for a bloated demo).
This sounds like a really good idea to me as long as the initial disc is cheap. For those who HAVE to have stupid number of cars and tracks they can pay through the nose. The rest of us can pay less than normal for a decent game
Grandmaster
25-09-2006, 05:07
GT4 seemed absolutely rock solid to me.. :?: Although, I'd missed out on GT3, so maybe any difference weren't quite so apparent.
GT4 was stripped of a large amount of gameplay features - including the full online community that Polyphony Digital is now making you pay again for.
This sounds like a really good idea to me as long as the initial disc is cheap. For those who HAVE to have stupid number of cars and tracks they can pay through the nose. The rest of us can pay less than normal for a decent game
:lol: If you're happy with a "barebones" game, cynically designed to make you pay more once you've bought it, good for you. The problem will be of course that you'll never win a game online as the faster cars will inevitably be paid-for downloads. That's if you even get a game of course, as people will be bored of whatever default tracks you have with the initial disk and will be playing on 'premium' ones. If they are stupid enough to fall for this scam, that is.
This sounds like a really good idea to me as long as the initial disc is cheap. For those who HAVE to have stupid number of cars and tracks they can pay through the nose. The rest of us can pay less than normal for a decent game
:lol: - when did Sony hire you?
fivebyfive
25-09-2006, 08:52
There is no way I would buy a game like this, even if the "bare bones" disc is cheap as I'm betting the basic stuff is crap and you have to buy cars/tracks to get further into the game. I doubt they would put the best cars as the ones you get with the game. Also people who are renting or borrowing the game would to have buy the extras if they wanted to get further.
If you can buy the cars, suddenly there's no game there anyway. For me, the fun part of GT was competing for the cars, and the anticpation of what car you'll get out of the championship etc..
Can you imagine if this sort of crap took off? FIFA 08/PES 7 with no teams available at first and you have to buy the Teams to play as them?! :eek:
Indeed.. I'm not too keen on the idea of 'episodic' gaming either.. Both just seem like ways of getting you to pay more for less content.
I can just imagine HL3.. 'HL3 + Free crowbar!.. Additional weapons available seperately'
hopefully the game can be completed with a Ford Focus, or whatever car they start you with because I wouldn't be paying.
Grandmaster
26-09-2006, 14:36
The game is a "multiplayer arena" optimised for online, so you're going to have to hope that nobody else is paying either :D
This sounds like a really good idea to me as long as the initial disc is cheap. For those who HAVE to have stupid number of cars and tracks they can pay through the nose. The rest of us can pay less than normal for a decent game
Ah, but the question is ... will it still be a decent game with craploads of content missing? Methinks nay.
More on Gran Turismo HD (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=68001)
Due out this December in Japan, Gran Turismo HD consists of two game modes: Premium and Classic. The offline Premium mode will feature high-fidelity content - the sort you'd expect in a PS3 GT game - and will start with 30 cars and two tracks. Classic is a head-to-head online game, with no content at launch - the idea being to download the cars and tracks you want from the PS3's online shop. The team is aiming to introduce 770 cars, 51 tracks and 4,500 "items" on an ongoing basis for Classic, with 30 extra cars and one more track available to download at launch for Premium
That to me sounds like they will probably keep supplying the Premium content (offline play) for free, but just as downloadable updates, and the area you will keep paying for extra tracks and cars is for multiplayer only.
ryonhilluk
26-09-2006, 22:29
What a daft idea eh? (in my opinion). Idiots.
:lol: If you're happy with a "barebones" game, cynically designed to make you pay more once you've bought it, good for you.
Isn't it better than the situation now where you pay for something you don't use? I'd rather pay for what I use. I'll give you an example, I have PG and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on the xbox. If both games used this idea I'd be much happier. I could avoid paying for the large number of cars and tracks on PG and with the money saved, I could purchase all the maps on SC that came with the game and more. Ultimatly I'd end up with more content on a game I love and less on a game that I didn't. It could also force designers to come up with better maps/tracks knowing that they'd have to be good enough to convince people to pay for them.
The only proviso would be that purchases wouldn't be compulsary, so that you could complete all the "free" tracks with the "free" cars and if you chose to buy a new track any required car would come free with it.
will it still be a decent game with craploads of content missing?
Of course. Content just makes a game longer. A crap game is still that, regardless of the number of maps they shove in it
While I can see some potential merits for some games, I just don't see how it applies to GT.
The whole point of GT is that it's a borderline RPG with 100's of choices of both cars and races to do... Take that away, and it's just another racing game, and I believe other games do that better.
Dno.
The whole point of GT is that it's a borderline RPG with 100's of choices of both cars and races to do...
Are you sure? That just sounds completly dull. How many people end up driving all the cars and racing all the tracks?
Are you sure? That just sounds completly dull. How many people end up driving all the cars and racing all the tracks?
Not all the cars, but the point is that the choice is there.
As for the tracks, well yes..
Content just makes a game longer. A crap game is still that, regardless of the number of maps they shove in it
... and a decent game is useless without content.
If the Eurogamer details are to be believed, the game will come 'out of the box' with a premium mode featuring 30 cars and 2 tracks. Classic online mode comes with no content included at all.
Would you be happy forking out cash for 2 tracks and 30 cars? I'd feel completely ripped off if they expected me to pay even £10 for that. There are hints that this may be expanded with more cars and 1 track at launch, but will that also cost you? They should give the game discs away free if they intend charging extra for most of the content.
30 cars and 2 tracks is a glorified playable demo.
fivebyfive
04-10-2006, 16:51
EA must be taking the **** for the "Premium" DLC
300 pts for each Stadium and 160 points is a joke for the "Strategy" videos
http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/10/04/Madden-Content.aspx
That's about £2 ish for a stadium isn't it?
The usual analogy is "well it's almost a pint" but I'd rather **** £2 up the wall than spend it on a Madden stadium! :lol:
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