New Photo Mode Location: Cambridge Circus, London

[MasterGT]

The recent Prologue E3 info includes a sample of what looks to be a new Photo Mode location in the west-end area of London, near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road, at Cambridge Circus. This is probably what was rumoured to be the "missing" GT4 track we heard about just before its release.

It also looks as if the new GT5 Photo Mode will have a panning video feature, too.

A main feature of this location is the Palace Theatre, along with the beautiful Shaftesbury Hotel. Large productions, such as Les Miserables and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White, which opened in September 2004, are put on in this theatre. The hotel is now one of the Best Western chain.


Screenshot of Palace Theatre from E3 video

Screenshot of Best Western Shaftesbury, Hotel Piccadilly, London

Screenshot of Skyline Posing. Notice the cross-hatching on the tarmac.

The real Palace Theatre

Google Earth's view of this new location. Arrow points to the Palace Theatre.

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[JohnBM01]

I saw that in the trailer and thought it was New York or San Francisco. But I believe this is the first time a real-world location within the United Kingdom in the GT series. I'd certainly love a location with Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, or any other famous locales in London to serve as Photo Mode or even racing venues.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Muzaffar]

Wow....i do hope Photo Travel would return to GT5 (and hopefully all the maps could be downloaded)It looks stunning how they are going to feature european locations this time.

Yeah,it does looks stupid (bad photoshopping!).But i hope the photo travel could be this realistic in any sense.Edited the photo but the lighting is still bad....

 

[V1P3R]

Lighting and shadows don't match up... That's what hurt it.

 

[MazdaZXi]

The Skyline screenshot uses a bit of artistic licence. The details on the right of the Best Western hotel and Odeon cinema next to it are right, but the stuff on the left is wrong, because there is no Underground station at Cambridge Circus. In real life, there's a fire station opposite.

That Underground subway is like the access at Picadilly Circus.

Looks good, though.

 

[Touring Mars]

That Underground subway is like the access at Picadilly Circus.

It must be, since Piccadilly Circus is the only station where the Bakerloo (Brown) and Piccadilly (Dark Blue) lines meet... Strange though, I can't picture where that entrance is supposed to be either.

 

[MazdaZXi]

I can't picture where that entrance is supposed to be either.

There's one outside Lillywhites on the Eros side of Piccadilly Circus and another on the opposite side of the road near the Trocadero. Come to think of it, they're at the opposite end of the stretch of Shaftesbury Avenue that Polyphony have used for the GT-R shot. Maybe they're location scouts have got confused...

Oh, and I'm no tube anorak or anything, I just drive thru there most weekday evenings...

 

[Robin]

What I really hope is that London has is more than just a photomode location and actually has a raceable circuit, as of yet the GT series has not had any tracks from the UK.... isle of man would also be great!

Looks great!

 

[MasterGT]

Before GT4 was released, there was a rumoured London city course, but it never made it out.

Now, with evidence of a London PM location, maybe the rumour was a bit inaccurate, as not too many city "locations" also have city race courses. Tokyo is one.

Watching the video again, I noticed that in addition to camera panning, city sound effects were added as background noise, so maybe the PM mode features have new features.

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[JohnBM01]

I know I say that Australia needs to be represented in GT with a premier race track (preferably Bathurst or even Surfer's Paradise or Eastern Creek). But if any real-world location needs to be represented in Gran Turismo, it's the United Kingdom. Don't some of you folks in the U.K. find it a bit strange that the United Kingdom has never been represented with a true race track in over four GTs? Only thing close to a British track is when you did the British Nationals in GT2 with the event taking place at Trial Mountain. But nothing along the way of Brands Hatch, Donnington Park, Silverstone, Mallory Park... I mean, NO real-world British venues for what I know until now.