Now that I am rediscovering this little gem of PGR3, mainly because I tried to compare the sensations the cockpit camera can produce to those of the Forza 2 and its bonnet camera, I'd like to take a look at the past of this series, specifically the aforementioned PGR3.
It was my first Xbox 360 game, I've had a lot of fun but I missed the perfection of that masterpiece called PGR2. Anyways, the graphics were truly great, even at 1024x600.
Here are some real life vs PGR3 comparisons:
http://www.playfeed.com/blogimages/PGR3comparison4_thumb.jpg
New York's fire brigade building (real life - PGR3):
http://www.bit-tech.net/news_images/pgr3_textures/fstexture.jpg (real life)
http://www.bit-tech.net/news_images/2005/07/pgr3_textures/article_img.jpg
The controversy of those Playstation commercials using PGR3 images (the game is that worthy, isn't it?):
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.xbox360fanboy.com/media/2007/05/pgr3-sony-whoops.jpg
Tokyo at Night (real life vs PGR3):
http://img1.imageshack.us/img1/7638/up813491io7kn.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/6747/japaobruno2lr.jpg
Vegas:
http://xs63.xs.to/pics/06023/vegascomp1.jpg
http://xs63.xs.to/pics/06023/vegascomp2.jpg
http://xs63.xs.to/pics/06023/vegascomp3.jpg
And, finally, a couple of cars:
http://home.comcast.net/~chlovinka/Yellow_Enzo.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~chlovinka/Lambo.jpg
I can't wait for more of these real life - PGR comparisons when PGR4 comes out.
Why do I look to the past showing these pictures? Well, PGR3, for its time, was really something. PS commercials, among other things, are very representative of this fact.
I still remember some people stating that X360 was an Xbox 1.5. They didn't look favourably on it, but it was so evident with games like PGR3 that next gen has started long ago, from the very first day. Time told they were wrong but there were doubts at the time about the console ability.
Regarding PGR3's dashboard camera, I love it. You can feel every bump and dip on the road, you can look at 3 mirrors -two at the same time- like a real car and it's just awesome for an arcade game. It's at the same level of GTR's cockpit camera or Live for Speed in that regard.
I know we'll see this feature in Forza 3 when it comes out. It will add a lot to this series and it would strengthen the personality of the game.
Games like PGR have that something special, a strong personality that, sadly, games like FM2 currently lack. It has yet to find that *sweet spot* both as a game and as a racing sim (they are in the right track, though) :smile:
Anyway, this is not a comparison post, just a thought. I am so looking forward to PGR4, specially after that craptastic FM2 career mode, but I'm the slave of my words when I wrote Forza 2 would, most probably, my last X360 game -not taking into account XBLA games like Final Doom-, but, you know, people change
and PGR4 looks somewhat special, too.
Peace