Shaolin

On the training track on moto gp, on one of the buildings, you can drive right up to it, and even drive down into its car park!!!
Can you do anything else with this?
Was it Pete on here who done the bikes etc for this game??..............if so, you must know something about this.
Am i the first ish to do this, or is this old news.

Cheers.

Pete_UK99

There is a secret in there but you won't see it in till you complete the GP on the hardest level so on Champion. The building you're talking about is actually our office in Brighton which I had the pleasure of making. I was actually going to make my UK300 and have it parked in the gargage with the scoobynet sticker on the window but I just never had time.
So anyway keep playing and you shall see, what do you think of the game by the way?


Cheers


Peter

Shaolin

Once i finally got the game(my local shop couldnt even get a single copy)............i love it, and i have played alot of games, GAMES THESE DAYS REALLY HAVE TO BE GOOD TO IMPRESS ME.
Very impressed with the draw distance, speed etc.
And Pete, if you remember i asked you about the demo i played because the framerate was a bit choppy and the bikes sounded ****e.
But like you said, its different in the final game.....very nice.
Are you working on any other games?????
And now a serious question, im 27 years old and have zero experience in making games, but i have played games since i can remember and have owned or still own just about any system you can think of........from the really old atari, to the nec pc engine going up to the latest consoles.
I really feel that i could be of great help to a games developer, to make sure that their game(s) play "right".
You name a game and im pretty sure ive played it, is there such a job that i could maybe try to get, even a type of games tester or something like that????
I know that alot of people have played loads of games, and alot of people would like to get a job doing so........but i REALLY think i could help.

Or am i just dreaming.

Thanks.

Iain Young

From my experience salaries in the games industry for games testers are not good, and seem to be dominated by spotty teenagers (I know because before becoming a developer I used to be a professional software tester myself and thought about branching out into the games industry). The job can also be very monotonous. It would be great if every game was like moto gp, but imagine having to test a really naff game 7.5 hours a day for six months or so. The attraction would soon wear off....

From what I hear the real fun is in the design, coding and graphics departments so if you want to break into the industry I'd look there

IMHO of course

Iain

Pete_UK99

Yeah Iain is right, testers get really sh*t pay and it can get very boring from what I've heard. Sounds like you'd be best suited as a designer. To be honest I don't know the best way to become a designer, apparently they now do courses there's one in Bounremouth I've been told. I've just spoken to a few designers here, Richard one of the designers on Motogp started as a texture mapper but it's no longer a required job role. Your best bet is to either get some work experience in house somewhere or go do a course, Richards just getting some details for you so I'll post them up soon. Also have a look in the back of Edge they have a lot of recruiting agency's.

Pete_UK99

I'm working on another racing game at the moment but unfortunately I'm not allowed to say what it is till the publisher has officially announced it themselves

JackClark

Pete, how could I get something included in one of your games? Thinking of a competition prize or advertising.

Pete_UK99

Depends what you want, it would cost ya though

Big Goon

The replays are slow/jerky I thought ? US version btw.
Does play very nicely, plays MUCH better with a jap gamepad, that US/UK thing is terrible, I just finished Halo so I'm gonna get stuck right into Moto GP this week.

Pete_UK99

Cheers for the comments ptholt. The game was designed so that everyone could get into it. At first the physics engine was very precise and we felt that it distracted from the gameplay to much. Although we have had few people suggest that it would be nice to have the option to have a total sim mode and this is something that we may look into if we ever do another version.

Mr.M

>The same can be said if you go to hard into a corner, you can actually slam on the rear brake get the back end to slide round (thus moving the front round) then accelerate out holding the slide colin macrae rally style.....

You never seen Rosi powerslide his bike around corners then. That man is god. I watched him in Italy and he was riding his bike like it was a motor-crosser.

ptholt

If you check again, you'll see i was not saying they don't slide, i was saying they dont oversteer like a rally car!!

what happens is the rear wheel slides and usually (because of lean angle + weight dist) goes left or right and the rider will counter steer to compensate. what it doesnt do is make your corner like colin macrae which im finding is actually quite a useful tactic in the game

Pete_UK99

Ptholt how far in ahve you got, are you playing on champion level yet?

ptholt

I haven't been able to play it that much yet ill children and people being damned inconsiderate about needing work done have restricted me to the brief go above, will be revisting it this evening tho

ptholt

Right, started my first season tonight after doing my license type things and playing some arcade and single races when doing the above (man someone had imagine failure thinking of some of the licenses! hehe)

was getting spanked in practise and qualifying! But come the race started in 12th and had a 16 second lead by end of first lap lol (was playing first season on rookie) managed to win every race of the season usally 45+ seconds over second place, started taking the mickey and doing donuts before the line then wheelieing over

Though i have to say the more im playing the more enjoyable its getting, the control method is probably the best ive used for a bike game, though i find using an anolgue stick for brake/accel is a lot more 'powerful' than just using buttons....just harder to get to grips with.

Have now started pro season and have won suzuka at a comfortable rate (over 20 seconds)
tell me pete, are you the chap with the air horn or the chap rubbing his eyes in the game credits?

Also found a bug on suzuka, if you come off your bike on the top of the bridge section in the right place so you are above the track going underneath, you will fall through the bridge and come to rest on the track below hehe

DazV

That PTHOLT is sooooooo damn critical. He sounds almost like Alex from Big Brother!

Actually, I think a bike version of Gran Turismo would be a NICE idea. I can just see myself bolting on go faster bits to my Lambretta and taking on the Fireblade's and R1's

-DV

ptholt

I finally received my copy of this yesterday,
I have to admit that bike games in the past have always left me a little cold, they've looked nice, but to make it more appealling they have had to loose a lot of 'sim' virtues in order to make it generally playable, so far only the psx2 bike grand prix game being even remotely playable.

i don't know if it was due to what i'd read here or fom the video's i'd watched but I had a great feeling of anticipation and was really expecting this to become the deinitive bike game, the intro and the presentation are nice, but then a few little bits started disapointed me.

Watched the rolling demo a couple of times, VERY nice aesthetics, see subtle movements in riders wrist when turning throttle, progressively sticking his knee out as you lean, bike rising or lowering at front or rear as brake applied, all very nice.
One thing that was a little disapointing was the sound, just didnt sound ilke a real gp bike..... this is probably totally inaccurate as i can remember working on a rallying game where we sampled a real escort cosworth, but once digitised and put into the game sounded AWFUL and lots of work had to be done to get it right, the same MAY have applied here, and arguably gp bikes dont make the nicest noises (for bike noise please do an internet search on ducati )

onto a quick race and checking out the controls, VERY interesting to see there are front and rear brakes buttons, that was a nice (surprising) addition, bike games tend to just have 'brake' (which this also has) will be interesting to see if the front brake is more powerful than the rear as should be the case, rear brakes tend not to do a vast amount on bikes.

I have two slight complaints, one being the high speed blurring being employed to convey top end speed, not a big fan of that feature, first time it happened i thought wtf's going on here! half expected a solid line of colour to come out of the rear of the bike 'tron' style my second 'complaint' is that when accelerating when cornering or cornering hard the bike tends to oversteer which is a bit of an odd reaction, im guessing this was another gameplay over sim moment, but i found the psx2 game version slightly more realistic where it would spin the rear wheel a little more progressively but without altering the direction being steered in, which is a little more like getting the rear wheel spinning on a bike, oversteer just to my mind is not what i expected nor wanted. The same can be said if you go to hard into a corner, you can actually slam on the rear brake get the back end to slide round (thus moving the front round) then accelerate out holding the slide colin macrae rally style.....
Sorry to once again draw the comparision but in the psx2 game the rear would loose grip, not alter the front end but you could counter steer against the wheelspin which was a slightly more natural feel.
Braking has also been modified to make it user friendly, alllowing you (certainly at default skill level) to brake whilst cornering etc).

To be fair the above are fairly minor niggles, and you have to admit were necessary to make the game appeal to a wider audience (please just once can i have a bike game like geoff crammonds gp!)and although it detracts a little personally, the majority of players wont have a clue about the above and it wouldnt be an issue.

to put it in context it probably just shades 'best bike game' title over the older psx2 version on what ive seen/played so far, but gran turismo on two wheels it isnt, half decent above average game it is.



[Edited by ptholt - 6/12/2002 8:40:00 AM]