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Reader Comments (41)

Posted: May 7th 2009 12:57PM zerokku said

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I think kotaku said it best -

"Perfectly understandable, and stupid of Microsoft to let one of their better studios get away like that. But, uh, why the deal with Activision, of all people? How can the publisher that makes exploitation of a franchise a core business aim be any better?"
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:08PM (Unverified) said

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Couldn't agree more. I do hope that eventually we see a new PGR. Although at this point it's unlikely.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:09PM SpacePenguinBot said

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It seems like the main complaint here is that MS wasn't exploiting PGR enough for their tastes.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:15PM zerokku said

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@ Waves

The same article on kotaku mentions that MS was pushing them to release PGR4 before it was ready.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:15PM Dr said

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Well, bend over and strap in, Bizarre, it's time to learn what 'exploit' means.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:20PM Cap Morgan said

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Exactly my thoughts. Lately Activision is just as bad, or worse than EA. While I love BC's games they don't have the power of studios like Bioware to truely maintain their identity in the corporate machine.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:26PM (Unverified) said

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uh, then the guys at Kotaku lack commonsense.

Like they explained with lots of details on the source article, Microsoft was treating them as the testing dummies, they weren't given a lot of freedom nor support, yet they were still expected to sale hardware units.

"We were there at launch for Xbox with PGR1, PGR2 was about the Live service, and that crippled us. Everybody thought, ‘I’m not buying that,’ because they promoted it as a Live game, but it wasn’t Live only. Then PGR3 was 360 launch game."

Not only that, but like they also explained on the article, Microsoft has been wanting to take down Sony, and so they put more focus on Forza, the sim racer, rather in PGR, the arcade racer, to fight Gran Turismo.

Seriously, go read the article, they actually explain in full length why they left, and why they decided to go with Activision.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:05PM Rocketboy said

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How Bizarre.... how bizarre...
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:26PM FraGNeM said

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Oooh, baby
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:32PM Ordeith said

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These comments are making me crazy.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:11PM Joeybeast said

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What's up with 4-letter racing games?
Dirt, Grid, Fuel, Pure, Blur what's next? RACE?
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:15PM Haon said

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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:39PM Rocketboy said

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I thought that was a war game?
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:41PM Dave Hinkle said

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Tire, featuring dynamic PSI-based action, where the player must maintain proper tire pressure or die in a fiery wreck!

Bump, featuring dynamic speed bump-based gameplay, where the player must properly navigate an endless mire of speed bumps, or risk damage to the car's shocks.

Rent, featuring dynamic rent-a-car-and-beat-the-ever-loving-crap-out-of-it action. Make sure you get the renter's insurance!
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:36PM Dirty said

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Boot - The driver must contend with a parking boot before they can go race.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 3:35PM RagingStormX said

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SKID, ZOOM, ROLL, TURN, RevX.....GO!! (lol) ....ok I'll stop now.

P.S - I honestly think SKID is up next though lol..
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Posted: May 7th 2009 5:00PM Joeybeast said

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We all missed the obvious FaST
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Posted: May 8th 2009 8:09AM KFelon said

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I'm still waiting on Ride. This time with less pimping and less Xzibit.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:13PM ExMcCloud said

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Soooooo.....They were mad because the better developer got more marketing? lol...They must be mad Bungie gets more money too?
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:25PM Vidikron said

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I disagree about the better developer.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:32PM (Unverified) said

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No, they were mad because they were never given the chance, despite proving that their games sell, hell, both PGR 1 and 2 sold better than Forza 1, despite the fact that Forza came out afterwards, not only that, PGR3, a 360 launch game, sold better than Forza 1...
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:48PM Snowblind said

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I think the main reason PGR3 sold so well though was because of the fact it was a launch game.. PGR4 sold very poorly, although it was a far better game. It's a shame Bizare are gone, but I'm sure they'll just get someone else to develop PGR5 while Activision get Bizare to pump out yearly updates.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:59PM spin cycle said

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PGR4 wasn't a far better game. They added only a little to it and what they added sucked (the bikes).

Also, if you read the messed up English in the menus it was clear it was mostly outsourced. PGR4 didn't sell well because it was a half-assed effort. That and because it was built on PGR3, which wasn't all that great to begin with. On a launch title scale it was great, almost off the carts. But that's a pretty easy scale, PDZ and Kameo got good grades on that scale!

PGR2 was the best of the series. The class racing system was a ton better. In PGR3 and 4 you just ended up driving the same car over and over.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 4:48PM Rokatoro said

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IMO PGR4 not selling well wasnt becasue it was a crappy game, it didnt sell well becasue MS sent it out to die. less than a month after the release of halo 3 with little to no marketing at all
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Posted: May 7th 2009 6:00PM ExMcCloud said

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Regardless Turn 10 made a genre defining racer....Its the best SIMULATION racer on the planet right now bar none....PGR isn't in my top 3 arcade racers...lol...Its no comparison. I love PGR but Bizarre's best game is Geometry Wars nuff said..
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:14PM Chibi Chaingun said

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Sounds like they are a tad bitter by getting "overshadowed" by Forza, due to MS's marketing decisions. I personally like PGR more than probably most racing games out there (including Forza), but that's the vibe I get from their comments.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 1:26PM Vidikron said

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The "vibe"? They came right out and said it.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:12PM Jack Tretton said

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Microsoft approached BC and asked if PGR 4 could be pushed up six weeks, BC said no and that was the end of it. That's the extent of "corporate and cocky" Chudley describes. Like, whatev.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:29PM Ordeith said

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Activision?

Are we going to see a Geometry Wars Hero Advanced Retro III sometime soon?

Maybe a week or so after Geometry Wars Hero II is announced?
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:35PM Ordeith said

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Also watignf rot he announcment that Blur is going to be renamed to Racing Hero
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:35PM Ordeith said

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Also waiting for the announcement that Blur is going to be renamed to Racing Hero
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Posted: May 7th 2009 3:43PM chex said

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normally i get mad and down vote when people have to make a duplicate post because they butchered the grammar or spelling in their first post, but, for once, i am actually glad you did correct your post. i literally could not figure out what you were trying to say at the beginning there.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 4:11PM Ordeith said

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I agree Paul, Down voted myself.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 2:40PM (Unverified) said

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Hey guys, its still not too late to bring Geo Wars to the PS3....
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Posted: May 7th 2009 3:45PM DethKenn said

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Call of Hero World Tour Wars
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Posted: May 7th 2009 4:52PM (Unverified) said

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They acquired the hit 90s Britpop band? Good move
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Posted: May 7th 2009 5:07PM Trojan said

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I gotta say, at this point I'm more interested in Split/Second. But Bizarre Creations has always done good work on the PGR series, so Blur could be great.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 6:53PM (Unverified) said

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Good to see this team grow up and move on.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 7:24PM jcar302 said

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If they put out a PGR5, i would buy it immediately.
The game was an all around good game, not weighed down by extra useless crap.

The different tasks they gave you in career kept it fresh and fun, you got to know the tracks without having to run boring lap after boring lap.

The graphics were pretty damn good.
Online play was awesome, until some jackass decided that only good players could play with other good players with the trueskill system. And from then on i couldn't find a damn game.

While you couldn't mod the cars, that was ok, because the playing field was level online, driver vs driver.

And lets not forget in career mode, they didn't make you run 30 races of 50 laps taking up half your life.

In all, pgr4 was a good mix of simulation and arcade.
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Posted: May 7th 2009 9:45PM BoBsS said

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All I really want is another PGR.
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Posted: May 9th 2009 2:29AM (Unverified) said

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Thought this was going to be Geometry Wars 3 news :[
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