Why I think PD could NAIL a free roaming driving game.

[MarchingSaint]

What's the point in having PD make a free roam game if they can't even release a 'complete' game at launch? Hell the Course Maker STILL hasn't been released yet and it was vaguely stated by KAZ himself that it was in 'beta form'... That's right, three whole years and it ain't done people. They can't even finish anything on time and are so darn slow at developing GT, as well as adding features which some of the important ones will probably won't be at launch and will take 10 months or more for said features to be added. So, with this idea (as much as I love it and wish it could happen) is only a dream I'm afraid, just like how GT wanting to be a true racing simulator will never happen.

Ugh, and they could've just hired someone extra to have it done.
Altough this could be applied to every aspect missing from the original game, i guess.

 

[Marqus]

And I want to go to the moon

Well you're in luck. GT6 has just the thing. How's THAT for arcade and pointless?

 

[UKMikey]

I love to play solo, but if every game makes online MP mandatory like FH2, this would be a huge disgrace for those who only play solo and never had experience online gaming like me.

I don't know whether you've experienced FH2 but it's definitely not geared towards online MP only. That sounds a lot more like The Crew.

 

[Imari]

GT is already such a mediocre racing simulator that I really don't see why some are getting all up-in-arms over the mere suggestion of a free-roam version. It's a different approach, sure, but it's no less about the "love of the automobile". Personally, I'd be overjoyed if PD modeled a few dozen kilometres of the roads around some of the bigger tracks in the game, and let us drive around them as well as onto the track. How cool would it be to experience some of the roads surrounding the 'Ring, only to then pop unto the track itself for a drive?

Are free-roam driving games less serious than circuit-racing-only ones? Perhaps, but they don't have to be.

My dream game has all the circuits on a scaled down version of the globe with roads in between. Say ~10 minutes to drive around the entire world. When you have a race to do you can 'port straight there if you just want to get on with it, or you can drive your car from wherever you are.

I think it'd be good fun driving from Silverstone down England for a bit, through the Channel Tunnel, out into France and up to Germany and the Nurburgring. Gives all the tracks a bit more presence and teaches people roughly where they are in the world. All the countries would have to be quite stylised and tiny, but it's the sort of thing that I think PD could do really well.

 

[alexnipi]

My dream game has all the circuits on a scaled down version of the globe with roads in between. Say ~10 minutes to drive around the entire world. When you have a race to do you can 'port straight there if you just want to get on with it, or you can drive your car from wherever you are.

I think it'd be good fun driving from Silverstone down England for a bit, through the Channel Tunnel, out into France and up to Germany and the Nurburgring. Gives all the tracks a bit more presence and teaches people roughly where they are in the world. All the countries would have to be quite stylised and tiny, but it's the sort of thing that I think PD could do really well.

i really can't explain more better +1:tup:

 

[djm99]

open world, please no. stick to trying to nail racing on tracks with excitement and no rubberbanding.

 

[Dan]

My dream game has all the circuits on a scaled down version of the globe with roads in between. Say ~10 minutes to drive around the entire world. When you have a race to do you can 'port straight there if you just want to get on with it, or you can drive your car from wherever you are.

I think it'd be good fun driving from Silverstone down England for a bit, through the Channel Tunnel, out into France and up to Germany and the Nurburgring. Gives all the tracks a bit more presence and teaches people roughly where they are in the world. All the countries would have to be quite stylised and tiny, but it's the sort of thing that I think PD could do really well.

This would be incredible! I just wouldn't want the distance to be that short. I know it would be convenient because no one likes to spend three hours in a video game to get from point A to B. I would just want it to take a few minutes longer. Say, fifteen minutes to get from Silverstone to the Nurburgring. That's about the same time it takes to loop around San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto V from one location and back.

 

[Imari]

This would be incredible! I just wouldn't want the distance to be that short. I know it would be convenient because no one likes to spend three hours in a video game to get from point A to B. I would just want it to take a few minutes longer. Say, fifteen minutes to get from Silverstone to the Nurburgring. That's about the same time it takes to loop around San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto V from one location and back.

From a design perspective, I'd be inclined to lean towards making it too small to start with until I was sure that it was a feature that would be used. 15 minutes is enough to do a decent race, whereas one or two minutes is time that would be eaten up in menus selecting a race and loading anyway.

I think it's a balancing act between making it short enough and fun enough that it can be used as a viable alternative to menus and loading screens for those not really interested, and still big enough that people that really want to go for a cruise can. Probably the best way to ensure that is to make sure that there are quick ways to get from point to point, but plenty of roads outside that which can be used just for free roaming. Include free roam only "driving roads" that are off the transit routes. For bonus points they could match up to excellent real life driving locations, like the Transfagarasan or the Great Ocean Road.

It would be interesting to design the road network to optimise as many aspects of that system as possible: user friendliness, speed of travel point to point, and total length of available (and interesting to drive!) roads.

 

[gregorius93]

stop dreaming fella or you will be the first person who feel so disappointed

 

[alexnipi]

i would be happy with a map like the one in ets2 with tracks on the real locations like @Imari say

 

[Imari]

stop dreaming fella or you will be the first person who feel so disappointed

I've been disappointed for a long time now. I'd almost be disappointed if I weren't.

 

[gregorius93]

I've been disappointed for a long time now. I'd almost be disappointed if I weren't.

wow really? so, you have decided to spend your time for nothing

 

[TuomaZ]

I'm just leaving this here.

Yamauchi wanted to implement a “free roam” gameplay mode in GT5, where players could drive around, respecting speed limits and obeying traffic laws, and even exit the car to walk around and explore the environment on foot.

http://www.examiner.com/article/gran-turismo-5-getting-damage-update

 

[CBH]

My dream game has all the circuits on a scaled down version of the globe with roads in between. Say ~10 minutes to drive around the entire world. When you have a race to do you can 'port straight there if you just want to get on with it, or you can drive your car from wherever you are.

I think it'd be good fun driving from Silverstone down England for a bit, through the Channel Tunnel, out into France and up to Germany and the Nurburgring. Gives all the tracks a bit more presence and teaches people roughly where they are in the world. All the countries would have to be quite stylised and tiny, but it's the sort of thing that I think PD could do really well.

You can dream for the next 20 years and beyond about what you are saying Imari, this will never happen because players want to race at a racetrack.

 

[vr6cas]

You can dream for the next 20 years and beyond about what you are saying Imari, this will never happen because players want to race at a racetrack.

Speak for yourself. Sometimes I wish people like you would keep comments like this to themselves. What's wrong with him dreaming or having a vision. I to would like what he is describing as many other cruisers. Read my first comment, I'm sure Imari loves racetracks as well as I and many others, but like I said there is nothing wrong with options, the option to race on racetracks and the option to cruise in a realistic environment and not round and round on a racetrack, simple.

 

[JHB434]

They'd have to fix the clutch first. Maybe see how ETS2 does it.

 

[Imari]

You can dream for the next 20 years and beyond about what you are saying Imari, this will never happen because players want to race at a racetrack.

That'll be why Test Drive Unlimited and Forza Horizon were so massively unsuccessful that they didn't bother to make sequels.

People enjoy different stuff. Learn to get over it.

 

[Cowboy]

I'd like a map like the ones in tdu2.

Especially Hawaii

 

[ironman44321]

If PD had 1200 people and all of the resources they could ever want, sure. I'd love to see an open world mode in GT where the physics weren't neutered and some real off-roading and such. But considering PD don't have anything like that, I'd rather them focus on perfecting the GT we know and love.

 

[John_Marsten]

You can dream for the next 20 years and beyond about what you are saying Imari, this will never happen because players want to race at a racetrack.

I assume you know all the players in the world hey?

 

[CBH]

I assume you know all the players in the world hey?

👍

 

[TuomaZ]

It'd be great to have an island map, like in TDU games, or just the ETS2/The Crew sort. The Crew map is especially nice, as you can access all the major tracks (like Laguna Seca) by just driving there. I love the idea.