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September 02, 2009
Forza 3 and GT5
The latest generation of console-based games feature graphics that are often hard to distinguish from reality. Sometimes I can't tell at a glance if I'm watching computer-generated game footage or actual film of a real race. This video features a look at the upcoming Xbox 360 game Forza 3, with a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how they manage to make the cars looks so realistic.
Although Sony's PS3 hasn't managed to loosen the Xbox 360s stranglehold on the hearts and minds of the vast majority of gamers, it too features a platform-specific racing game that has enthusiasts salivating: Gran Turismo 5.
Ignore the unrealistic pedestrians and focus on the cars and the scenery, the lens flares, the way light plays over the compound curves of the bodywork. It's almost impossible to believe you're watching a game.
And lest anyone tell you that this videogame stuff is for kids, think about this: the videogame business is generating profits that can only make movie moguls green with envy. According to the New York Times:
Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest iteration of the hit video game franchise, racked up first-week sales of $500 million, Take-Two Interactive, the game’s publisher, plans to announce on Wednesday. The report exceeded the sales expectations of analysts.
The company is expected to report it sold six million copies of the graphically violent game, 3.6 million of them on the first day.
Half a billion dollars in its first week of sales. That's some serious money, folks. With next to nothing spent on advertising, either.
Unfortunately, I don't own a PS3, so I'll have to get my GT5 jones out over at a friend's house. But as for Forza, it's time to get a four-point safety harness installed on the couch.
Posted by Mike Lief at September 2, 2009 11:13 PM