Bizarre experiments underway -- PGR4 "looking good," but needs more smoke

Sweet.

Smoke is cool, but I want actual HD resolution next time. It just looks a little 'uprezzed' right now.

Don't flame out on me, you know what I'm talking about, true fans.

I don't disagree that PGR3 was not natively HD, but the graphics look better than any racing game I've ever seen.

I believe the the lower res graphics were used by choice to be able to draw in huge amounts of polys. Higher res probably means less polys.

I am just enamoured with PGR3's looks, and if they chose to keep the resolution where it is right now, I can't say I'd complain.

But I can picture it now. Some griefer continuously peels out in from of a hairpin turn to generate enough smoke to blind any racer coming into the area. What fun!

If they'd just add anti-aliasing, fix load times (off-load the damn game assets to my drive already) I'd be more than happy.

Either way - PGR4, I'm game.

While enhancements to visual elements of the game are nice, I hope Bizarre would spend more time on enhancing the gaming experience than tweaking the graphics.

Better online multiplay features, better stats (and with a web interface), reduce glitching (and get rid of shift-glitching already!), etc.

I would really like to see the next PGR be more dirty. Everything is sooo pretty and polished. Lets throw some grime and dirt in there.

It would be awesome to be able to see the rubber and break build up on the wheel wells and dirt and random track debris on the hood.

Basically, give it more of a gritty realism instead of the uber shiny look it has now.... thats just my thoughts.

I have to disagree, 'Need for Speed: Most Wanted' in HD looks better to me than PGR3 in HD. But I will leave it at LOOKS better, I still love the control in PGR3. It just bugs me to high-hell when the countdown beep starts and you get amazing quality HD shots of the race about to begin, and it just falls off and gets chunky when the race actually begins. The detail drops. The graphics are amazing; just not as amazing as the ones we see during the scenes before the race starts.

It's still shy of complaining about pre-rendered KILLZONE or Call of Duty trailers, but it's not real gameplay we're being shown in those opening seconds.

And since I'm on a roll and complaining, I didn't feel the courses were as enjoyable this time around. Looked better, but not as fun.

I really enjoyed PGR3, but if they can achieve the same sort of jump that they did with PGR to PGR2 on the original XBox, we should be in for a treat.

I remember after playing PGR2 for a while, I popped in PGR for kicks and couldn't believe how bad it looked in comparison.

What is this about the shift-glitching? I'm curious.

I don't notice a drop off in image quality at the beginning of a race at all. I'm not saying it isn't there, I just didn't notice it.

Good point about the grime. That would be cool.

Personally, I'm a HUGE fan of point A to point B racing. Like Patton, I don't like paying for the same real estate twice.

I'd like to see someone devise a way to keep the fun factor in racing while encouraging people to race fairly and sportsman like. I don't appreciate being used as a buffer between the guard rail by someone who doesn't care to break when going into a turn.

At the same time I don't want a nasty collision with a wall to keep me out of a race. Yes. I want it both ways.

What it needs ... is more COW BELL!!

I agree with the grime and dirt, but most of all, the damage! It could be much more realistic and how cool would it be if the stuff that breaks off would actually get on the track and get tossed around as the cars smash through it? I'd love to see pieces of rubber being flung about, hoods that come off being tossed in a corner, etc. etc.

The game needs more cowbell. Baby.

Thomas, shift-glitching is when you tap the handbrake when upshifting. If you time it perfectly, the car doesn't have the small drop in speed during shifts that it normally would. Has been in every PGR game and even in Forza (with a little bit of simple tuning) too.

Dear PGR Coders,

Please use these awesome smoke effects in a new and unique game. The world does not need yet another racing game.

And by new and unique, I dont mean go and make a FPS or a sports game.

Thanks yous.

one word: L O A D I N G . . .

Im enjoying PGR3 right now, but it feels like a step down from PGR2. If the car variety is stepping on Forza's toes, I can understand that. I may not like it since I see Forza as a distinct game, not a replacement for PGR, but its understandable not to dilute the market. But lots of handy features seem to be missing (like voice tags to tell whos speaking as well as rain to name a few), and it feels like the game was rushed.

I'd rather they spend less time modeling buildings that flash by at 100 mph in exquiset detail and get the frame rate up.

All in all PGR3 feels more like an HD sequel to PGR1. Hopefully PGR4 will be the true sequel to the top shelp PGR2

DOOF, I agree to a certain extent that there is some stagnation in game innovation. But racing games can always use newer/more cars, more tracks, better control, more interesting challenges. You can throw dirt on Bizzare for "making the same sequel over and over" but every time they do it they find something to improve. I may not agree with everything in pgr3 but to say that everything compelling in the genre of racing games has been done shows lack of imagination on your part. I suppose you think Top Gear can't be topped? Or maybe RC-pro am was the pinnacle?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(video_game)

DOOF, I agree to a certain extent that there is some stagnation in game innovation. But racing games can always use newer/more cars, more tracks, better control, more interesting challenges. You can throw dirt on Bizzare for "making the same sequel over and over" but every time they do it they find something to improve. I may not agree with everything in pgr3 but to say that everything compelling in the genre of racing games has been done shows lack of imagination on your part. I suppose you think Top Gear can't be topped? Or maybe RC-pro am was the pinnacle?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(video_game)

Bizarre should do what Bizarre does best, make racing games.

I personally like PGR3 the best. Mainly because I could drive any car out of the box and race any track out of the box without having to suffer through hours of play.

And I can chose to play generic races on-line or the on-line career mode. But I am not a hard core player. I beat the game in bronze (no hard feat there) and am working up getting all the gold trophies and that is damn hard for me, especially those pesky cone challenges.

Thomas a simple mental trick to cone challenges that I learned in pgr2: Cone challenges are more art than race. The more you think of cone challenges as a ballet with burning rubber than a race that you happen to connect all the dots on, the better youll do.