New Kazunori Yamauchi Interview
Alot of repeat questions and answers, but IMO the most noteworthy Q&As of the interview
Kikizo: Could you give us your opinion on Forza MotorSport 2 for the Xbox 360, and in particular, the ability to reskin your car in very great detail - are you going to have this degree of superficial car customisation in GT5?
Yamauchi: Straight off the bat, I think that in terms of feature sets, Forza is ahead of us. They have more options, you can do basically anything. We take a different approach obviously - we try to concentrate on what are the core values for a racing game, and we try to elevate those standards up as high as we possibly can. I am having difficulty trying to explain the differences, but one way you can look at it is, you can buy a watch that is super multifunctional, but economical, or a watch that is reduced in functions, but premium - higher end.
Kikizo: This must reflect strong relationships with the manufacturers - so on what level will you be incorporating car damage? Forza has fairly extensive car damage; they told us they were able to achieve this because they have particularly close relationships with the car manufacturers. What would you say to this?
Yamauchi: I think they have different levels of damage, perhaps depending on their relationships with each of the brands. What I mean is, there is still a limitation that still exists within the agreements that we have with car manufacturers, even with the example of Forza; one car will be more damaged than another, and that is probably because they are limited with that brand. And that would apply to us as well. To clarify, our main objectives are to raise the bar for AI, physics, car modelling, sixteen cars on the track, 1080p, 60fps, these kinds of things - the core of the racing game category, we want to bring the standards to a high level. Of course, on our road map, yes we have damage, we have changing weather etcetera, but we will get to that once we build our pillars first; those are details that you can add afterwards.
Kikizo: Does the AI make mistakes now? Or is there a dynamic element to the AI opposition drivers, now that you have more power with PS3, so that it is more authentic in a race?
Yamauchi: The simple answer to that is yes. But in reality when you design the AI, the most difficult part is to make sure that all of the opponent cars are driving and trying to keep their positions without bumping into each other, or destroying the race. It is actually easier to incorporate, for example, what a driver would do under pressure and things of that nature, but we need the core bit done first, to allow for that. The AI has also been redesigned completely; it had to be; the new AI drives the opponent cars more smoothly throughout the track.
- but there might be in GT5 and surely on GT6.
+REP for new source of info.
