PGR 4 has gone gold and is heading to the shops - bikes, weather effects and all - next month.
But even though the latest entry has only just fallen onto the production line, lead designer Ged Talbert is already thinking about where he should take the series with the inevitable Project Gotham 5.
"Obviously Gotham 4's about to come out and we're really happy with it, but behind the scenes we've already started ripping our game to pieces," Talbert told CVG yesterday. "We know where we failed in certain areas; for instance we wanted more trackside damage, more particles and smoke effects, a bigger damage system - and all of these things are being stripped out in a post-mortem."
"Next time it's more on the detail. That's what we think; we think the devil's in the detail. Anyone can make a good looking game but the top games blow you away by being super-realistic, adding things that you didn't expect and surprising you."
We got to travel down to Bizarre Creations' sweet-smelling Liverpool offices yesterday to take the fourth instalment for a spin - and it's looking and playing brilliantly. Beyond PGR 4, Bizarre seems to be considering worlds outside of its roster of cities, and might even take the Kudos racing into the desert...
"I personally believe there's a lot we can do by taking our vehicles we've already got and putting them into different, more interesting environments," said Talbert. "It doesn't always mean outside of the city, it just means getting lets say more elevation - somewhere we can finally do big jumps."
"That's what we're looking for in the next game; going to deserts - that kind of stuff. Seeing how they affect the gameplay, see if we can get Kudos working their as well."
As for vehicles, the designer's got plenty of ideas beyond the bikes and cars of PGR 4: "We could bring cruisers in, we could bring ATV-type bikes in. None of these are definite," he said, "but there's are whole world of things for us to do."
Look for our full interview, hands-on impressions - and a playable demo on Xbox Live Marketplace - shortly.
Erm can I have PGR4 before you start getting me excited about the next one please? Jesus none of these developers are willing to let dust settle a bit anymore
Erm can I have PGR4 before you start getting me excited about the next one please? Jesus none of these developers are willing to let dust settle a bit anymore
I see your point, but they're not just going to down tools for a year - as soon as 4's finished, most of the team will be beginning work on 5...
On the 'big jumps' front, how about including San Francisco as one of the cities? Could re-create the car chase from Bullitt...
So how about some post-sales care? A free downloadable patch that adds the extra smoke and environmental effects that they wanted to put in?
No, of course not. They'd rather get twice the money out of you for only 1.5x the work.
Of course those effects etc might not be possible with the current gfx engine, and you have no idea how much extra work it would take to put them in...
I cannot believe that Bizarre Creations are publically pulling apart PGR 4 and saying where it could be improved BEFORE the game has even shipped. Fair enough, they'll obviously be thinking about directions to take the series next but wouldn't it make more sense to keep a lid on it until after everyone has had time to play and enjoy their current game?
Silly devs... still I can't wait to play PGR 4 even if what I've just read makes it sound like the game I'm going to be buying wasn't finished!
I cannot believe that Bizarre Creations are publically pulling apart PGR 4 and saying where it could be improved BEFORE the game has even shipped. Fair enough, they'll obviously be thinking about directions to take the series next but wouldn't it make more sense to keep a lid on it until after everyone has had time to play and enjoy their current game?
Silly devs... still I can't wait to play PGR 4 even if what I've just read makes it sound like the game I'm going to be buying wasn't finished!
I actually think this shows them in a good light as they are obviously striving to out do themselves all the time. Its much better reading something like this rather than a developer coming out and bashing the media for giving their game poor reviews (ala Lair)...
I know what Darren means about it not sounding particularly encouraging when you hear Bizarre wording their press release/interviews using terms like "ripping our game to pieces", it just sounds like it needs rebuilding and wasn't quite right!
But having said that it looks awesome and everything I've read about it so far has been mega positive including the C&VG reviews so this and Halo3 are top of my "most wanted" list right now!!
I cannot believe that Bizarre Creations are publically pulling apart PGR 4 and saying where it could be improved BEFORE the game has even shipped. Fair enough, they'll obviously be thinking about directions to take the series next but wouldn't it make more sense to keep a lid on it until after everyone has had time to play and enjoy their current game?
Silly devs... still I can't wait to play PGR 4 even if what I've just read makes it sound like the game I'm going to be buying wasn't finished!
So you'd prefer we have to wait another 2 years before we get PGR5?, these next gen games dont get made over night you know! haha. I'm all 4 them cracking on i cant wait 4 PGR4....& 5!!
I cannot believe that Bizarre Creations are publically pulling apart PGR 4 and saying where it could be improved BEFORE the game has even shipped. Fair enough, they'll obviously be thinking about directions to take the series next but wouldn't it make more sense to keep a lid on it until after everyone has had time to play and enjoy their current game?
Silly devs... still I can't wait to play PGR 4 even if what I've just read makes it sound like the game I'm going to be buying wasn't finished!
So you'd prefer we have to wait another 2 years before we get PGR5?, these next gen games dont get made over night you know! haha. I'm all 4 them cracking on i cant wait 4 PGR4....& 5!!
That's not what I said though.
Everyone likely knows or suspects that now PGR 4 is finished that Bizarre are working on the next instalment, it doesn't take a genius to work that out, but surely no-one wants to hear them critising their game and saying how it can be improved when it isn't even out for another month yet! That's just daft. By all means tell us about PGR 5... a few months AFTER we've had time to play and digest the last game!!!
Since the sequel won't be out for the best part of two years anyway why bother saying anything about it now? I'd rather hear them talking about PGR 4...
Could be worse. He could have said they already have the plans for PGR5 & PGR6
We all knew there would be another one, it will be interesting though if they could squeeze the new effects , ATVs and all on a DVD since they were going on about that the other day
I cannot believe that Bizarre Creations are publically pulling apart PGR 4 and saying where it could be improved BEFORE the game has even shipped. Fair enough, they'll obviously be thinking about directions to take the series next but wouldn't it make more sense to keep a lid on it until after everyone has had time to play and enjoy their current game?
Silly devs... still I can't wait to play PGR 4 even if what I've just read makes it sound like the game I'm going to be buying wasn't finished!
So you'd prefer we have to wait another 2 years before we get PGR5?, these next gen games dont get made over night you know! haha. I'm all 4 them cracking on i cant wait 4 PGR4....& 5!!
That's not what I said though.
Everyone likely knows or suspects that now PGR 4 is finished that Bizarre are working on the next instalment, it doesn't take a genius to work that out, but surely no-one wants to hear them critising their game and saying how it can be improved when it isn't even out for another month yet! That's just daft. By all means tell us about PGR 5... a few months AFTER we've had time to play and digest the last game!!!
Since the sequel won't be out for the best part of two years anyway why bother saying anything about it now? I'd rather hear them talking about PGR 4...
I'm not sure he's publically saying PGR4 is flawed, more than likely he was being asked what Bizarre was working on now and this is the right time to start PGR4 post mortems before the start of the next game. Every game goes through this and once you've spent two years working on something I guess all you see is the flaws and how you could improve on them!
At least he isn't being like Peter Molyneux, "Sorry about this game being a bit s**t, BUT MY NEXT GAME WILL BE BETTER!"
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