Damage

Polyphony Digital have conveniently published their own independent and specific confirmation of the features we’ve been learning about via media outlets over the past two days, thanks to one big update to their official site. In addition to what was already discussed here and here, this is what’s new:

EuroGamer has shared their detailed hands-on impressions with the latest E3 2010 GT5 demo, and it’s full of quite a few interesting and revealing tidbits of information. While I have covered the main points below, the full article contains more detail and is very well written, so head on over there for more.

In an interview with Japanese show “Love Cars!”, Yamauchi hinted at updates to GT5’s damage modeling:

Kazunori Yamauchi was (and actually still is, thanks to Iceland’s volcano) in the UK this past weekend to meet with the GT Academy 2010 winners at Snetterton. That went well, but the first interview to emerge from his visit (which appears to have been removed from AutoBlog UK) has already caused a great deal of teeth-grinding in our forums. Here’s the problem:

As we’ve known for a while now, Gran Turismo 5 will include two different damage models – one for production cars, another for “race” cars. “Race” cars will show significant deformation and will have detachable hoods and doors, while production cars would show little more than paint scratches.

First things first: two independent sources have privately confirmed to me that the GT5 Demo Collection is real, and the original whistle-blower lherre has backed up his announcement with more screenshots. This collection is also providing a closer look at things we only got to peek at during the shows where these demos were originally featured.

Here’s an example of when bad driving turned out to be a good thing, as it provides a quick (very quick…as in 2 seconds) but somewhat interesting peek at the scaled-down production car damage in Gran Turismo 5. As you may recall, there will be two types of damage models in the game: one for racing cars and one for standard, production cars. While the damaged Subaru WRX WRC car, with missing bumpers and doors, has become a rather familiar sight, the less aggressive damage modeling has remained a bit more mysterious.

A writer with the Globe and Mail, Chad Sapieha, got the opportunity to try out the Gran Turismo 5 demo (the one that’s been shown off at shows, not the one we’re getting next Thursday), and he’s shared a fascinating conversation he had with a “Polyphony Digital delegate”:

GameInformer magazine’s interview with Kazunori Yamauchi (a small part of which was quietly posted on their website back in September) was just included in their latest issue, and is now, of course, getting quite a bit more attention. Here’s what Yamauchi had to say regarding damage in Gran Turismo 5:

After spending some hands-on time with the Gran Turismo 5 demo at the Tokyo Game Show, IGN editors got the chance to speak with a “Sony rep” who was able to clarify some of the questions about the differences in vehicular damage. Concerns were first raised when Yamauchi specifically mentioned “damage to racing cars”, leaving the door open to speculation that “street cars” in the game may not be so fragile. This notion was reinforced when only Subaru’s WRC rally car showed damage at GamesCom.

One of the developers behind the latest iteration of Need for Speed, NFS Shift, commented on the Gran Turismo 5 damage engine shown off at GamesCom last month. Obviously, his words weren’t exactly glowing, but you’ll find he provides interesting insight into the creative restrictions placed on racing game developers:

While most of us are still getting over the shock of seeing a damaged car in Gran Turismo, many others criticized Polyphony Digital’s work for not showing over-the-top destruction found in other, often more “arcade” racing games. Apparently, Kazunori Yamauchi himself responded to critics in his latest French interview with GamesBlog.fr, but we missed it the first time around without a full English transcript.

IGN editor Ryan Clements entered the GamesCom show floor this morning, and headed straight for the Gran Turismo booth.  After admiring the game’s new damage features, he got to talk with Kazunori Yamauchi and asked him to clarify some of the questions that were raised yesterday.  As many expected, not all of the cars in the game will feature damage:

Taken from the first Gran Turismo 5 trailer, just shown at E3!  We’ll have the full video up soon.