Be Excellent To Each Other

Have you seen the photorealistic mod for GTA4?

Hang on, I'll find a link


iCEnhancer, it's called.

Oh my. WANT.

I'm installing the bugger now

NOW I'm interested

Bleurgh!

I may take a look at this over the weekend.

Is that a mod that some guy has knocked up himself? It looks awesome!

There are several videos of awesomeness on YT.

I can't believe that the first proper 'next gen' thing I've seen is a mod made by some guy.

That looks incredible . Kind of surreal, it's so realistic-looking. Which is a bit of a contradiction, but shush.

Just a pity he chose such a boring game

How do the explosions and gunfights and that hold up?

Without wishing to go there, I got GTA4 for my PC yesterday.

It's a much better game.

I wondered about the car damage...

I'd be curious about the damage too, as lovely as the shinies are in that mod, one of the most compelling elements of the 'car based action' of GTA4 is the car damage, whether it be dents and dings, or bullet holes, or blood smears, being on fire, entire sections of the car being fucked etc.

He does have a couple of scrapes in the video, and the car models seem untouched.

All that said, if you want to know what the 'next-gen' of console games are going to look like, the PC is there already. (Note it's not just the cars that are modded there, the roads are, the buildings are, the lighting and shadow models are etc, the whole game, basically.)

I reckon GTA5 on the XBox720 will probably be close in graphical terms to what you can see there in the modded PC video, if we're to assume that the specs of the next wave of consoles are being nailed down about now and will be based on mid-high end PC technology as it is now.

Kinda looks like Split/Second, except in colour and with less explosions.

Split/Second is sooooooooooooo good.

Did you get it working, AE?

Ironically, in the videos of the newer version, it looks like his PC can't cope with the higher settings and he gets the hazy distance affect as seen in the 360 version.

Nothing a new rig can't fix.

Or a new router.

Or some Cibrushsille.

I'm not even going to bother trying, quite apart from the fact I might break my GTAIV install and saves, which would be annoying as I'm near the end of the game, I think it'd be a downgrade to lose vehicle damage, bullet holes, smashed windows, blood smears and all that stuff. (Plus I actually quite like the default GTAIV cars, and I know them all so can tell in advance how any given car will handle.)

If I wanted to look at beautifully rendered cars trapped inside an artificially sterile world where nothing I ever did seemed to have any merit or consequence, I'd buy a PS3 and get Gran Turismo 5.

After I've properly finished with the game I might have a go with the mods just for curiosity's sake.

Well this is the point. On the current gen consoles, you can have maximum shinies (sort of) but limited to standard racetracks and closed arenas, or you can go open world but be severely restricted in terms of resolution, framerate, detail, textures etc.

The next-gen will most likely deliver graphics on a par with GT5/Forza/Burny Pee along with the 60FPS framerates, but also the richness of gameworld, variety and all that other 'GTAIV goodness'.

What that fully modded GTAIV video running on the PC gives you, is a sneak-peak at what the next-gen consoles will be able to manage in GTA5.

Isn't it just?

TBH I remain gobstruck by what Rockstar managed to squeeze out of the 360, but when you play the PC version it's like, 'Ahhhh, so this is how it was supposed to be.'

While I take your point about it being a superior game on the PC now, just remember that most of us were playing it over three years ago when it first came out. I remember people saying it was a shonky mess on PC at the time, and that was after I'd finished the whole thing on the 360 and moved onto something else.

No need to do it on my behalf.

Yeah I remember JC ranting on about it, not sure if it was before he came here or back at the last set of forums we both frequented, he had a pretty uber system for the day and it ran like shite. Indeed, Custom PC ran a double-page feature on how to get it up and running in some sort of vaguely acceptable manner. I did the sensible thing and didn't even try

Two things have happened since then of course, Rockstar have patched the game up, and PCs have moved on by leaps and bounds. So a PC that'd cost £600 now will outpace a PC that cost £2500+ three years ago.

TBH it's always been that way to an extent when it comes to PC gaming, I remember when Deus Ex first came out and I had to fiddle around for ages to get it (a) not looking like shit and (b) running properly (that was the first time I ever overclocked a graphics card), and it was certainly a long way off being on the top settings. (I clearly recall the same 'payne' with Max Payne, ha ha lol, funnies. And then Max Payne 2, whereby my graphics card of the time couldn't even render the reflections in the mirrors.)

In this regard the long tenure of the 360 as the 'top console' has been a blessing for the PC, as the 360 is basically a six year old PC in a small box and the specs haven't changed in that time, whereas the PC has evolved as it always does.

Since all console games are developed on PCs anyway, and then scaled back for the restrictions of the 360/PS3 hardware, what developers are able to do for the PC version is leave all the stuff they've had to trim back/leave out/scale down as options on the PC version. A really good recent example of this is DiRT3. (And by all accounts the coders are flexing their muscles for what they'll be wanting to do on the next generation of the consoles, it's just that PC owners can see it now.)

In the case of GTAIV, PC tech has 'caught up' with the game as it were, so even a relatively mid-range PC can run it at maximum loveliness. (And my PC is no ninja system, I could build a brand new PC to match mine for about £650 from overclockers).

Add in the fact that games are often dirt cheap on the PC (the recent Steam sale being a fine example) - and there's a lot to recommend the platform as a games machine, especially since XBox Live and Games For Windows Live are now essentially one and the same thing.

EDIT - And in fairness to Rockstar, they did say at the launch of the PC version that the PC to run GTAIV properly maxed out didn't exist yet.

EDIT2 - Also posted this to the PC hardware thread, kind of says just what I did in many ways http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/egtv-pc ... -1?size=hd

I'm not paying £650 to play a nice looking but quite boring game on a PC that I finished 3 years ago.

And that's the thing, we're three years down the line now, so new game releases that are clearly being nobbled for the consoles, now run on that same £650 PC at the loveliest settings straight out of the box, and that situation will only get more pronounced as the 360 and PS3 limp on.

Fine by me. The graphics arms race was always a massive con. Plus it makes the PC a more tempting option for developers anyway if they can do more with it, whereas if another console comes out, they'll stick with that instead.

This has happened before and will happen again

Also, having a go on the Mods doesn't come free.

I don't see what the con is in all honesty, if you've wanted all the shinies you've always had to lay out big cash.

The difference now is that the 360 has kind of drawn a baseline in the sand as it were, which means relatively modest PCs can now max games out, which they never could do in the past.

I keep thinking this another BETEO games night

This doesn't make sense to me. Why bother making a game with all the whistles and bells on, knowing that you're going to have to take most of that stuff out to get it to the mass console market?

Because it's a damn sight easier and long term cheaper to make something better and scale back than make something less good and then make it better.

The art assets etc etc made by the team will be times better than what ends up on the disk. Because they're not limited during creation by disk sizes and loading times.

http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/egtv-pc ... ial-part-1

http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/egtv-pc ... ial-part-2

Multiple developers say exactly the same thing dude, the PC is their 'dream' platform, then they have to fuck games up to get them running on the 360.

And we're not talking mega-bucks here, you can build a 'dream PC' for around £650.

Which is the cost of 5 or 6 xboxes, and much more than one was in 2005.

I think your idea of cheap is windsurfing off, somehow.

I think your phone's autocorrect is windsurfing off, myself.

Surf you, you muddy windsurfer!

Did spot it before I hit post, but it amused me and I was due to leave for work, so I left it.

I applaud this decision.

I thought he meant it, and that it was an awesome phrase. Now I'm disappointed, so my impressedness is windsurfing off.

I'm afraid that not even in am awesome enough to come up with a phrase like that.

Remember Beexbot? I want a version of that, but it consists of Mr Dave retyping posts really fast and always accepting the autocorrect suggestions.

I generally don't bother fixing autocomplete errors in her meaning I obvious. Because phone keyboards are a pain in her rear.

Exactly.

Does anyone think damnyouautocorrect.com might just be real? That's a couple of decent ones we've had at BEEX in the last week alone......

I don't remember saying that £650 was 'cheap', however, if we're to assume that pretty much everyone needs a PC of some description these days, and that sooner or later an old one will break or simply not be up to the task of even day-to-day stuff any more, then £650 isn't an unreasonable amount of cash to pay for something that will 'do the PC stuff' and be an awesome games machine as well.

Plus there's the fact that games are an awful lot cheaper on the PC too, so over time it starts to balance out.

No, because all the ones at damnyouautocorrect.com are either really stilted, or the wrong way round (as in they 'autocomplete' into swears, rather than from swears into normal words).

Dave's are just surreal.

It could be Drunken Mimi continuously hijacking his account.