Just got back from a Sony showcase a few blocks from Kotakuâs NYC office. Heading back over there post-haste. Had a few minutes to try to wreck a car in Gran Turismo 5 and learn about the gameâs head-tracking.
A Sony representative was showing Polyphony Digitalâs upcoming PlayStation 3 racing game, and let me drive a couple of laps around a city track. What does me, a non Gran Turismo player do? Fall into last place and start bumping into walls.
My Audi TT took no damage even as I bashed it against the wall. The Sony rep explained to me that damage for that car wasnât in the demo. Damage was being shown on a Subaru WRC Impreza, the same virtual car McWhertor wrecked in Germany.
https://lastchance.cc/gran-turismo-5-hands-on-doin-damage-aint-easy-5343282%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
And itâs not just cosmetic damage, I was told. The carâs performance will be impaired if the vehicle is roughed up. Gears might not shift as well, for example.
The other stand-out feature I was told about was head-tracking. The game will support the PlayStation 3 camera, the PlayStation Eye. While one wasnât hooked up at todayâs event, it was explained that the device will track a playerâs head movements. The goal is for the depth-of-field focal point far down the track to shift, matching your head movement. What you look at will be appear more clearly, in theory. So as you look a little to the right, the right part of what you see beyond your car may come more sharply into focus. But the car itself wonât turn with your head, of course.
The Sony rep explained that Polyphonyâs goal is for players to feel like they are experiencing what real racers see. He noted that the feature was still a work in progress and couldnât offer more details about how it works. From his gestures, I suspect the head-tracking will be responsive more to leans than to head turns, the latter of which obviously would make it hard to see the TV.
With neither the head-tracking incorporated into this demo nor the performance effects of the car damage evident to a series novice like myself, I canât judge either feature. But they sound like the attention to deal the series is respected for.
Gran Turismo is slated for a PS3 release some time next year.
