DazV

Burn Out - touted as being close to the original (and classic) Need For Speed game, but sporting some lovely visuals, this comes out in November on PS2:





check out the draw distance and detail:




BURNOUT - Criterion (PS2)

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

Looking good hopefully it will see the light of day in time for Christmas

DavidBrown

I loved the original NFS, which some may remember first appeared on the 3DO

Outrunning police while weaving through traffic added a fun dimension

DazV

David, me too - the original Need For Speed (3DO) was really really good. Not one of the sequels to it ever got close to the original.

Edge Magazine took a look at this new game, above, and said it was one of the most promising racing games to have appeared in a long, long time.

roadrunner

From the screens shots it does look good. It's just a shame that FSAA isn't being utilised. With the power of the PS2 developers should be able to implement FSAA......especially when the games are in such low resolution compared to PC's. GT3 would be less arcadey if it had FSAA, don’t get me wrong...GT3 are excellent, but not earth shattering. If you want excellent graphics have a look at project gotham

DazV

Roadrunner, GT3 does employ a form of FSAA, but not the official version from Sony, which takes a big hit in CPU cycles apparently.

FSAA is one of those 'low priority' features developers are loathe to turn on. Look at the PC - whenever you turn it on, it gives you such a hit in performance.

Project Gotham will be cool, but they'll have to change the core game as Metropolis only pulled me in for a couple of levels on the Dreamcast then I got bored.

roadrunner

Davz, your entirely correct with FSAA being a performance hit - the higher the FSAA the more cycles the graphics chips has to redraw (in basic form ) But with consoles running in such a low res they should easily be able to implement FSAA without losing too much performance. Take the GF2/V5 for example. They both can easily run smoothly quake 3 which is a high memory bandwidth sucker in 2x FSAA in 640X480 32bit. Isn't the PS2 meant to be more powerful that them???

Suppose at the end of the day it comes down to coding and the memory bus on the PS2. As I've seen some great games on the PS2 that do have it...

I'm not sure, MSR did keep me entertained for soem time. I just hated the fact the CPU cars ie standard 206 could easily race at 190Mph down the straights.

DavidBrown

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by DazV:
<B>
Edge Magazine took a look at this new game, above, and said it was one of the most promising racing games to have appeared in a long, long time.

[/quote]

It was that review that made me rush out and buy the ill-fated machine (which I still have)

In fact, the 3DO ruled..

o 24-bit graphics.

o Controllers which daisy-chained rather than needing a multitap

o Controllers with headphone jacks (so not to wake the missus)

o Built-in swirly graphics for CD playing

o Dolby surround.. the list goes on..

I played NFS to death (oh, and Road Rash)

There was a cheat where you could add ice to the roads.. the Diablo was a giggle to drive on that !

[This message has been edited by DavidBrown (edited 09 August 2001).]

DazV

Roadrunner, yeah, its not so much the graphics chip that can't handle FSAA, its probably more to do with FSAA being a bandwidth hog, so other features can't get a look in.

I'm expecting Digital Polyphony to announce they've familiarised themselves with the PS2 that much they can include FSAA properly for GT4 and that the track and car models are even more detailed!

Not sure of the specs on GameCube, but all the footage I've seen so far seems nicely aliased. Its funny but the PS2 always looks the worst for aliasing artefacts, even compared to my Dreamcast! Wonder if we've got any pro game developers on here that can explain that ?

[This message has been edited by DazV (edited 09 August 2001).]

DazV

David, the thing that stands out for me when I recall the original Need For Speed was the Dodge Viper - what a car, and even its handling seemed spot on (I guess!)

It reminded me of the original Test Drive games that started on the Amiga I think. I loved them too! Test Drive II had a Porsche 959 and an F40 to choose from, amongst others, and the interiors when driving were really faithful to the real-life counterparts.

Blow Dog

I agree, the Panasonic 3DO NFS was probably the greatest driving game ever. None of this race track nonsense, these were real roads with proper 2 way traffic. And some of the most fantastic crash scenes ever.

I bought a 3DO based purely on that game, like GT3 and the PS2.

Do you remember the live FMV biog's of each car? And the voice over text which told you about the cars? Then there was the sound of the cars in game (something I feel is ommited by GT3). That Ferrari 512TR sounded fantastic.

I bought a 3DO for £30 not long ago and found NFS at Computer Exchange for a tenner. A friend then went and lost the fricking whole lot in a pub!

cem

DazV

Cem, I think you could get it on the PC as well. Not *quite* as good, but still excellent. A *mear* identical conversion.

Original Need For Speed demo (PC):

DavidBrown

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Blow Dog:
<B>
I bought a 3DO for £30 not long ago and found NFS at Computer Exchange for a tenner. A friend then went and lost the fricking whole lot in a pub!

cem[/quote]

Ahh, the beauty of