PGR4 can record every race ever

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 July, 2007

If you click yes, it's all there.

Halo 3's Saved Film feature received glowing reports at E3 last week, but just you wait for Bizarre Creations' PGR On Demand service - a database with the potential to store every race ever played out in PGR4.

That's "every race in the game ever" in the words of Bizarre's Craig Howard, demoing to Eurogamer at E3 last week. "You can be in a world cup tournament - it gives you a nationality, so you can go and prove that you're the best American racer or whatever. And you can watch the whole world cup. If you get knocked out, you can watch the people who beat you, and watch all their races too. It's just all there. We're trying to create a base for all racing enthusiasts."

You can watch every race that's ever taken place in the game? "Yep." Right. "It's not our server," says biz director Brian Woodhouse, with a grin.

"When you get to the end of a race," Howard explains, "you can choose not to upload it, if you really want to." Right, so it's opt-out. But who would? Especially if the file-sizes are kept to a minimum, which - given the volumes they're talking about - you'd have to say they will be. "You're not uploading an actual AVI," Howard confirms.

"Plus you can use keywords like 'crash' or 'slide' or 'Macau', if you want to," he says, "so when people do a search they can find you. You can rate them too - 'that's a wicked crash' etc."

It's all part of PGR On Demand, mentioned during last week's Microsoft E3 conference, which will also allow you to share photos ala Forza Motorsport 2 and Halo 3. The online video-sharing stuff is quickly becoming a must-have feature for Xbox 360 games, having first - to our memory at least - appeared in the 360 port of Burnout Revenge.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #1 5 years ago

    Sounds interesting but I think that with the massive amount of races it will be hard to keep up quality. When I search for a race and the 5th one I watch is just bad but labeled as "great crash" by someone who just started playing the game I think the feature will be done for.

    Cannot hurt to save races of tournaments etc. though.

  • playgen #2 5 years ago

    These sort of features are just so lame I think, sure you can share videos of your races, but who really wants to watch them?. Watching other people play is boring.
    Edited by 1 at 19/07/07 @ 14:08

  • Darren #3 5 years ago

    Clever feature but hardly the sort of thing you'd spend valuable gamin time using, is it? I think I watched one PGR3 GothamTV race solely for the achievement and never bothered with it since. I buy games to play not watch someone else play! ;)

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #4 5 years ago

    I'll have you know that watching Ellie play Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles with the Wii Zapper is extremely entertaining!

  • Dizzy #5 5 years ago

    >Watching other people play is boring.

    Watching the few uber best in the world is not. And maybe some YouTube like weird movies will become popular as well.

    This seems a new feature on Live games...

  • el_pollo_diablo #6 5 years ago

    Wow. That sounds like a really boring feature.

  • Darren #7 5 years ago

    P.S. Is this game really out in September as announced by Microsoft at E3 2007 or was that a mistake? Gameplay.com have it listed as 9th November... :?

  • The-Bodybuilder #8 5 years ago

    PGR is the only racing resies I've liked in the past few years, since MSR even (baring PGR3).

  • Overlush #9 5 years ago

    The gaming equivalent to train spotting.

  • lambtron #10 5 years ago

    Holy fook. How is this possible?

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #11 5 years ago

    "P.S. Is this game really out in September as announced by Microsoft at E3 2007 or was that a mistake? Gameplay.com have it listed as 9th November..."

    Asked Microsoft. Their response: "September 2007".

  • Avenger1324 #12 5 years ago

    Watching the top few racers for each track might be good, but I wouldn't want to look through the mountains of crap results that most people will upload.

  • Monkey_Puncher #13 5 years ago

    Sounds clever but I doubt I'd ever use it, a feature like this in a game like Crackdown however would be most excellent!

    Did anyone ever actually watch Gotham TV other than to get the achievement?

  • alpha-0ne #14 5 years ago

    To clarify theses races are viewable on the web youtube style not just ingame...

  • penhalion #15 5 years ago

    it depends how they do it. If it's just storing arbitrary data about where the cars are on a track, velocity and direction etc. etc, then you can let the game simply re-play the race just as most games do with ghost cars.

  • killyourtv #16 5 years ago

    sounds boring; i couldn't care less about watching some random persons race

  • Kon #17 5 years ago

    I guess boring really sums it up. I already spend quite enough time watching game videos on the web to go and do the same when i sit down in front of the TV with a gamepad in hand. Still i guess it can't hurt to have it there should other people find it interesting.
    Edited by 1 at 19/07/07 @ 15:06

  • BrokenSymmetry #18 5 years ago

    Why all the negativity? I think it's a great feature. You can watch the tournaments without having to be on at the exact time of the tournament, you can watch the leaderboard leaders in their races, watch all your own races ever, etc. Sounds great to me!

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #19 5 years ago

    "To clarify theses races are viewable on the web youtube style not just ingame..."

    I asked Brian Woodhouse to clarify this and he said "PGR On Demand is not available to view on the web". Sorry!

  • SBfistfun #20 5 years ago

    "WOW, big deal!" said me yesterday

  • Freek #21 5 years ago

    Every race, ever?

    /disconects Xbox from internet

    No you can't ;p

  • Razz #22 5 years ago

    REAL TIME WEAPON CHANGE

  • The-Bodybuilder #23 5 years ago

    I wish you could add commentary to replays. Atleast it'll give you an incentive to watch stuff.

    "woah, look at that powerslide".

    "yeah, but he's gay though".

  • playgen #24 5 years ago

    "Why all the negativity? I think it's a great feature"

    Because if this is one of the main features of this new version, they will have spent valuable development time on it that could have been spent elsewhere. I know I'd prefer some extra crazy stunt tracks with jumps and stuff in it than some boring replay feature thats no doubt going to be almost entirley populated by dull races.
    Edited by 1 at 19/07/07 @ 16:47

  • rudedudejude #25 5 years ago

    Replays in Pc RTS's work really well, you can watch them while you're having a bite to eat and it's fun watching world tournys on replay format so you can switch player perspective etc, and for tips and stuff.

    I thought it would originally be lame but it can be helpful

  • The-Bodybuilder #26 5 years ago

    >"I know I'd prefer some extra crazy stunt tracks with jumps and stuff"

    You're playing the wrong game then.

  • Benno #27 5 years ago

    i like how these youtube style video sharing features and been gradually added to live games

    i feel its an important step forward towards e-sports becoming a spectator sport - xleague anyone? CPL?

    i myself would rather play than watch people, but some videos are very interesting - like the best players in the world competing as well as people pulling off funny stunts and glitches

  • Xerx3s #28 5 years ago

    REAL TIME WEAPON CHANGE

    Yeah but saving every weapon change you ever did is the real next gen.

  • playgen #29 5 years ago

    ">"I know I'd prefer some extra crazy stunt tracks with jumps and stuff"

    You're playing the wrong game then. "

    No reason why you cant have fun stuff in a serious game, the original version of the game MSR let you drive silly vehicles, buses and the like.

  • Wyrm #30 5 years ago

    Wouldn't ever use it ever.

  • smelly #31 5 years ago

    *snore*

  • Kostabi #32 5 years ago

    PGR4 will have Macau?

    SOLD! Excellent if true.

  • SomaticSense #33 5 years ago

    Doesn't Forza 2 already do this exact thing anyway? So why the big deal?



    And yes, Macau will be in PGR4.

  • TheCooler #34 5 years ago

    I'm amazed at all the negativity. I think this is a very cool new feature.

    But then again; i'm one of those who used to watched lots of live races on Gotham TV :) I watch some on Forza 2 too, but the replay angles there are a bit boring.

  • paulf #35 5 years ago

    only need to show who gets to the first corner first, sure this sounds newsworthy yet they need to fix some of the fundamental flaws from pgr3 before worrying about this sort of stuff

    improve race restart time
    fix online racers so people who crash into you on corners get no benefit for a start :)

  • Overlush #36 5 years ago

    Bikes, replays - how about addressing the REAL flaw of PGR3 - track design. PGR2 STILL rules in that respect.

  • MARKIV #37 5 years ago

    PGR4 looks likes it's gonna suck big time, first it was about the weather, the E3 demo showed that look pointless. Then it was about the bikes - like we give a s**t !
    Now it's about save replays..

    Bizarre, all we ever wanted was new tracks, you said that wasn't worth the cost for PGR3 as downloadable extras! Yet with PGR4 your just gonna give us 2 new tracks. Are you trying to milk us what!

    So now you can just get stuffed! The last and only game I'll ever buy on the 360 is Halo 3 and that's just for the multiplayer, why they even bothered with the single player I don't know..! That's if my 360 survives the RROD..!!
    Edited by 1 at 20/07/07 @ 00:24

  • Azazel #38 5 years ago

    >Watching other people play is boring.

    Unless it's quakeworld.

  • moggsy #39 5 years ago

    To clarify theses races are viewable on the web youtube style not just ingame..."

    I asked Brian Woodhouse to clarify this and he said "PGR On Demand is not available to view on the web". Sorry!

    That'll be because it uses the game engine to render the replays - they aren't just 'movies' - they're data files built from the position of the cars etc.

    The Halo 3 replays work in the same way (hence why you'll be able to change camera angle etc).
    Edited by 1 at 20/07/07 @ 09:44