About "The Getaway"

[overclocked]

If you didn´t like GTA3-Vice city or should i say got borred after about 5-hours in the game, it don´t just appeal to me..
However a friend of mine dropped The Getaway to me and said i should give it a "try"..

I just wonder if someone that didn´t like ViceCity found The Getaway too be something different, good..

 

[Tagrineth]

I've been enjoying GTA3 thoroughly on a friend's PS2 recently... and I played the The Getaway (that sounds awkward doesn't it?) demo... mmm... seems like The Getaway puts a little more emphasis on the driving element to me, but it's overall the same thing. Oh and The Getaway has a stronger story element.

 

[overclocked]

So in other words i should just skip this one..

The driving elements i enjoyed in the beginning of VC esp the bikes but i just got tired after a while.
The gfx should be great i heard and if i lived in London i would surely liked it.
Does it use MotionBlur as VC or is it free of it(plz).. :?

 

[marconelly!]

No, there is no motion blur, and technically it's surely better looking than any GTA game, but still nothing special.

Btw, you can disable motion blur in GTA3 and VC if you want - it's in the options.

 

[iscariot]

but it's overall the same thing.

maybe it's me but the 3D GTA's feel nothing like Getaway. They're almost two completely different games afaic. I enjoyed GTA so I really can't help you but imo, you should give it a try. They feel quite different actually...that's not to say you'll like it, but try it out.

 

[overclocked]

Ok the thing really is i have had Splintercell XB untouched lika a month or so and i really don´t want to play more then one game at a time as i feel that in "most" the games i have played you spoil the game. I mean of course games with an intressing story, it´s like you hire two movies and first see half of the first then takes the other and se half of it and so on i´m sure you know what i mean.
But i will give it a try then.

Still there is none that didn´t like VC but feels totally diff about The Getaway?

 

[Tagrineth]

Actually I like the 'trails' feature... it masks small frame rate fluctuations VERY well. And it looks good IMO. I played GTA3 for half an hour with it on before messing with the options, turned it off cos everyone says to , played for fifteen minutes, and Stacy and I then agreed that it just looks better with them on.

This is on a PS2, by the way. Don't know whether they look worse on the PC version or anything like that...

edit: italicised clarification. Why wasn't that in my original post? Blarg.

 

[marconelly!]

GTA:VC looks *much* better with 'trails' enabled. Without it, the game loses half of it's lighting and glow effects. It just doesn't looking like shiny, greasy 80's anymore.

 

[Vince]

And it looks good IMO. I played GTA3 for half an hour with it on before messing with the options, turned it off cos everyone says to , played for fifteen minutes, and Stacy and I then agreed that it just looks better with them on.

I can't agree more. At fist glance with the trails on, you kinda have this "Eww.. nasty" reaction, but after you become accustom to the look and after a certain point, turning it off is just unacceptable.


Back to The Getaway - it's nothing like the GTAx series. Dispite the small problems, I think it's pretty darn good overall. I'd compare it to HEAT the video game, as opposed to the more cartoony GTA.

Does anyone else find that music with the heavy baseline in the Yardie House (like level 8) addictive.

 

[Phil]

Personally, I really enjoyed The Getaway. It's quite buggy, but the realism makes it quite an experience. Add to that the authentic representation of London...

 

[London Geezer]

Personally, I really enjoyed The Getaway. It's quite buggy, but the realism makes it quite an experience. Add to that the authentic representation of London...

yep. quite buggy. put it on Progressive Scan and u'll get some weird white artifacts sometimes.... looks gorgeous and they're not very noticeable most of the time... but they ARE there... if only they cleaned it up before release... all that money and time spent on it and they rush it for a xmas release...

 

[London Geezer]

RIGHT, i just finished the game and i have to say that this game is by far the best looking game out now on PS2. the interiors are absolutely amazing with little details replicated perfectly... even a dirty empty Pizza Hut box on the floor with a whole lot of other stuff is modeled in 3D convincingly... really, the interiors are what really shine about this game. the textures are amazing for a PS2 game and the poly count is also pretty high from what i can see. the smoke effects are particularly realistic. probably the most realistic i've ever seen in a PS2 game, especially the smoke coming out of the cigar and the boss's mouth... it really looks amazing. the lighting in the interiors is also what gives the atmosphere of the game... of course its not a beautiful unified shadowing system like SH3, but it does look pretty good. especially since 99% of the surfaces are only single textured (only thing that comes to mind is the reflections on the cars and the shiny effect on Yasmin's top)... Detail textures could add SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much to this game its unbelievable but i guess they're not even thinking about letting Ps2 dealing with that at the moment even tho i don't really see a huge preformance impact if they were used (a LOD system would take care of that, only putting detail textures on surfaces close to the camera, which are not that many) but maybe its just me......
the picture quality is unarguably the best picture quality u will find on any console in europe since it's one of the few games that support progressive scan for the only console able to output it here in europe.
the game is obviously unfinished. its particularly noticeable by the fact that even some cutscenes's facial animations look MILES better than in other cutscenes in the game. for example the scene where *someone* is imprisoned with *someone else* and the *other guy* comes to resque them looks absolutely amazing. much better than many of the other cutscenes.
and of course it looks highly unfinished just for the fact that the controls are embarrassing sometimes... at a level that sometimes u push *right* and the guy goes left....... how buggy is that now....
but we're only talking about graphics so....
well, The Getaway 2 is already in development and i'm pretty sure that one will be the REAL game, i feel this first one was just an appetiser for what's to come. Fix the control, make the framerate SLIGHTLY more stable and qrite a more interesting and involving story and u have one of the best games ever... some of the missions are really fun and not as frustrating as some missions in GTA3 (which BTW i could never finish, gave up after 3 months of playing....)

 

[Phil]

Couldn't agree more with you london-boy. Personally, the game and textures look amazing - people who think CT looks better are obviously kidding themselves. I wouldn't go as far to say it's the best looking PS2 game though. Perhaps technically (although I still think J&D is among the finest together with a few others), but visually, I think games like GT3 (wet track) or MGS2's stylish look are unrivaled. The effort team Soho put into Getaway is certainly visible though...

BTW; what part did you enjoy more? As Hammond or Carter?

Oh and another BTW; might want to place a spoiler warning for those who haven't completed the game yet...

 

[London Geezer]

Couldn't agree more with you london-boy. Personally, the game and textures look amazing - people who think CT looks better are obviously kidding themselves. I wouldn't go as far to say it's the best looking PS2 game though. Perhaps technically (although I still think J&D is among the finest together with a few others), but visually, I think games like GT3 (wet track) or MGS2's stylish look are unrivaled. The effort team Soho put into Getaway is certainly visible though...

BTW; what part did you enjoy more? As Hammond or Carter?

Oh and another BTW; might want to place a spoiler warning for those who haven't completed the game yet...

ooops.... i enjoyed a lot more playing as carter, just get in a police car with sirens on and u're off, cars pull over to let u pass and no one coming after u (well apart from the gangsters)...
i know that gt3 and mgs2 look good and everything, but the detail in the interiors in The Getaway is REALLY rare for ANY game. even MGS2 interiors look WAAAAY bland compared to this.... of course MGS2's animation and gameplay is on another planet but we're talking graphics here....
also, did u notice how the lighting changes outside if u stay out for a while.... there's no transition between day and night but if u stop for a couple of minutes when u're on foot on the steert u can see the slight change in the lighting...... that is SOOOOOOOOO realistic and is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO london!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! really, i can notice the same effect right now looking out of the window... it gets slightly darker and the goes back a little more lighter... thats the way it is in london when the sky is covered with clouds (which means 364 days a year )... that really left me gobsmacked....

 

[Phil]

ooops.... i enjoyed a lot more playing as carter, just get in a police car with sirens on and u're off, cars pull over to let u pass and no one coming after u (well apart from the gangsters)...
i know that gt3 and mgs2 look good and everything, but the detail in the interiors in The Getaway is REALLY rare for ANY game. even MGS2 interiors look WAAAAY bland compared to this.... of course MGS2's animation and gameplay is on another planet but we're talking graphics here....
also, did u notice how the lighting changes outside if u stay out for a while.... there's no transition between day and night but if u stop for a couple of minutes when u're on foot on the steert u can see the slight change in the lighting...... that is SOOOOOOOOO realistic and is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO london!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! really, i can notice the same effect right now looking out of the window... it gets slightly darker and the goes back a little more lighter... thats the way it is in london when the sky is covered with clouds (which means 364 days a year )... that really left me gobsmacked...

No, didn't notice that with the light thingy... but I'll be sure to check it out. As for the detail, you're right, it is amazing what effort went into it. If you think about it, it's quite astonishing that they managed to capture London that well, or at least, that's how it looks like. And it also feels much more like a city with all the traffic and traffic jams than I ever experienced in a Grand Theft Auto. The facial expression and the detail is also incredible - probably better than what you'll see in MGS2 (although, Konami hid it very well thanks to art-direction and realistic blur effects). Surely though, a game like Getaway shouldn't even be compared to MGS2 (my mistake), I just ment to say that I still look at MGS2 as graphical superiour to most games thanks to the art and that alone.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I also enjoyed playing as Carter, although that part was done much faster than with Hammond. When I think back at when I played Getaway, what stroke me as most impressive is the realism of escaping for the first time (after setting the gallery on fire) and you see this cop car sliding around the corner and blocking your way. The fact that the car didn't try to colide head on with you and instead turning the car to block you stroke me as being very impressive. Also, one part where you have to kill the police guy and then the SWAT team comes after you using stun grenades (and the way the glas of the windows shattered as the grenade exploded) was... WOW!

 

[London Geezer]

ooops.... i enjoyed a lot more playing as carter, just get in a police car with sirens on and u're off, cars pull over to let u pass and no one coming after u (well apart from the gangsters)...
i know that gt3 and mgs2 look good and everything, but the detail in the interiors in The Getaway is REALLY rare for ANY game. even MGS2 interiors look WAAAAY bland compared to this.... of course MGS2's animation and gameplay is on another planet but we're talking graphics here....
also, did u notice how the lighting changes outside if u stay out for a while.... there's no transition between day and night but if u stop for a couple of minutes when u're on foot on the steert u can see the slight change in the lighting...... that is SOOOOOOOOO realistic and is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO london!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! really, i can notice the same effect right now looking out of the window... it gets slightly darker and the goes back a little more lighter... thats the way it is in london when the sky is covered with clouds (which means 364 days a year )... that really left me gobsmacked...

No, didn't notice that with the light thingy... but I'll be sure to check it out. As for the detail, you're right, it is amazing what effort went into it. If you think about it, it's quite astonishing that they managed to capture London that well, or at least, that's how it looks like. And it also feels much more like a city with all the traffic and traffic jams than I ever experienced in a Grand Theft Auto. The facial expression and the detail is also incredible - probably better than what you'll see in MGS2 (although, Konami hid it very well thanks to art-direction and realistic blur effects). Surely though, a game like Getaway shouldn't even be compared to MGS2 (my mistake), I just ment to say that I still look at MGS2 as graphical superiour to most games thanks to the art and that alone.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I also enjoyed playing as Carter, although that part was done much faster than with Hammond. When I think back at when I played Getaway, what stroke me as most impressive is the realism of escaping for the first time (after setting the gallery on fire) and you see this cop car sliding around the corner and blocking your way. The fact that the car didn't try to colide head on with you and instead turning the car to block you stroke me as being very impressive. Also, one part where you have to kill the police guy and then the SWAT team comes after you using stun grenades (and the way the glas of the windows shattered as the grenade exploded) was... WOW!

yeah its like in one of the missions u start in the car with carter and as u drive u can see that there was an accident with a bus and smoking coming out of it and stuff like that.... and also how other cars have little accidents (typical *city* accidents) and all is handled so realistically.... i dont know why but that left me in awe... it felt like this city is living...
as i said, the smoke effects are really really good, and there's lots of it
also another truly impressive aspect is the physics of the cars, the way they handle and especially the way they behave when crashing, from the balance of the cars to the nice damage system...
they could have put more *noticeable* reflections though. leave them at the same resolution and framerate but made them a bit darker so they are more noticeable... i think it would have looked a bit better but u never know

 

[Vince]

I also think the decision to limit the weapons and not tell you how many bullets you have left in the clip was brilliant. Instead of collecting weapons or micro-managing the number of rounds you have left - It intices you to just blast away and when you're out to pick up more and do it again. Yet, there are certain indoor times when you question how many rounds are left in the clip, adding an element of suspence, and it makes you think twice before going postal - I think thats cool.

Not to mention the shootouts in a crowded London street with oncomming traffic stopped and lined up after you've crashed or were stopped by the cops are just too damn cool.