Videogame Sales plummet

[Woolie Wool]

MajorRawne said:As for Gran Turismo 2, you can take a Nissan Primera 2.0 estate (wagon) and turn it into a 300bhp BTCC car, capable of outrunning 500bhp muscle cars across the Seattle sunset. Try using the same car in GT3 or 4... oh wait no sorry, anything that isn't some form of Skyline was dropped from the lineup... skip ahead to GT4, purchase a Peugeot 406 V6 which is about as close as you're going to get to a mainstream mid-sized car, modify it to its peak, then see how many races you can win in it. You get consistently thrashed by little Renaults as your cheese-handling, understeering goliath completely fails to behave anything like its real-life counterpart. (Trust me on this, I own a 406 V6 and it handles pretty well in real life and it is very quick.)

You do realize that those "little Renaults" are mid-engined V6 monsters that are in a completely different league of performance than a rather cushy mid-size family car, right? The Clio Sport V6 doesn't resemble a Clio in anything but outward styling, and something like a Peugeot 406 is completely out of its depth against it. Also, NA cars have always been limited in their tuning options. Turbo is the way to go in GT.

[MajorRawne]

You're on about the Clio V6, I was on about the GT turbo. I realise the weight of a car has a significant impact on performance but I don't get the point of being able to enter a competition with a car that has no chance of winning. I did try something a bit smaller, can't remember what it was now, probably a Xsara or something, and still couldn't win.

When you take a car to its fullest on GT, you have basically made it a racing car. The stats for weight and bhp for a BTCC car (for example) in GT2 (for example) are very close to the real thing, eg around 300bhp with approximately 1200kg weight. Bearing in mind I've got documentation from Renault and Vauxhall which state their 1998 touring cars both did 0-60 in just over 4 seconds, I would expect to see a huge performance advantage by modifying a car to its BTCC standards in GT4.

Unfortunately they wheelspin like complete bastards, handle like shit even when you tweak the camber, ride height, brakes and tyres. In GT2 you can have all sorts of fun with any light and powerful FWD car, even the big ones.

As I said I drive a V6 coupe in real life and I can assure you that unlike its GT4 counterpart, my 406 does not spin its wheels the entire way through 1st and second gears like a mindless automaton (unless you want it to of course) and the car does not appear to drift from one side of the road to the other while spinning through 1st, nor does the rev counter bang relentlessly against its limiter.

[Woolie Wool]

MajorRawne said:

You're on about the Clio V6, I was on about the GT turbo. I realise the weight of a car has a significant impact on performance but I don't get the point of being able to enter a competition with a car that has no chance of winning.

There is an old saying, "Weight is the enemy of performance". Excess weight severely impairs every aspect of a car's performance. Also, in reference to wheelspin, what controller do you use? Gamepads and cheaper wheels don't have dick for throttle control and even a real expensive one doesn't give you the same feel as an actual car.

[Phobus]

MajorRawne said:

For me the joy of GT2 was taking an average, disadvantaged car, then turning it into a racer in its proper, real-life racing colours

I still remember going through the entire of Need For Speed: Underground 2 with a Vauxhall Corsa. Fun as it was, I still think that it just makes the game look far too easy. Trying to drive that Corsa now though... seemingly impossible. I have no idea how I ever got that thing round races. Must have been seriously good back in the day or something!

[Doom_Dude]

GreyGhost said:

I have a soft spot for the Bard's Tale and Apshai trilogies, along with some of SSI's gold box RPGs.

Same with the SSI stuffs. I played the hell out of Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds and Secret of the Silver Blades back in Commodore 64 days. haha I just remembered that I used to map all the dungeons out on graph paper... Oo