I can't wait
I can't wait
Lefty righty, righty wrongy!
Aahhhh, thats where that biggish mall is isn't it? Bought my current watch there a couple years ago when we were at Surfers for two weeks (then went back the next day to get the dead battery replaced...). Would have told ya's on here, but didn't know where we were going until we arrived at the airport thanks to a sneaky wife.
Wonder if there will be recognisable things. Since i'm guessing these games are based on real places surely they must add in a few iconic buildings etc.
I recognize a few of the buildings in a very brief view of Surfers from the trailer. A BMW drives under a monorail looking north. The monorail itself is actually in Broadbeach (4km south of Surfers) but the buildings just beyond it are definitely in Surfers. It looks like they've just condensed all of the main high-risey parts of the GC into one little area. In the map I can see a very rough collection of roads that resemble the old street circuit, so you might be able to relive your mid-90's Champ Car fantasies on XBoneS if you want.
I'm surprised they didn't go for Sydney with the bridge and the Opera House to make it much easier for players to recognize iconic buildings.
I was thinking similar. Maybe that's still to be shown? Maybe licensing concerns?
I really doubt there are any licencing problems to be had with things like scenery, including buildings and billboards. There might be rules around limiting how much a product purports to represent an entity, for example the Lego Sydney Opera House set wouldn't call itself the Official Lego Opera House, it would just be a model of the Opera House made by Lego, and it's a sure bet that it would be for sale in the gift shop. I mean, you can take photos of nature or a cityscape, and publish it for money, and nobody is entitled to royalties except the publisher and the photographer.
Regarding FH3, it's probably just a choice that the developer made about Surfers Paradise being a better fit for the vibe of the game than a major city is. There's Surfers, there's Byron Bay, the Twelve Apostles (now nine, thanks to erosion), Yarra Valley, etc. A bunch of stuff that's never really been featured in a video game or any worldwide mass media, whereas Sydney or NY or London, Paris, LA and so-on are constantly featured in big movies and TV shows. Interesting unrelated side-note; Vancouver is a location that is used quite a lot as a filming backdrop for other cities, but hardly ever is used as a backdrop for Vancouver.
Anyway, onto a bit of sleuthing that some people might find einteresting. Or not...
Here's the shot I mentioned earlier. Apologies for the poor quality, it's a screenshot from my phone:
And behold the monorail in Broadbeach from Googly Maps. More like, mono-d'oh! The monorail connects a shopping centre on the right to the casino, out of shot, back-and-to-the-left.
And here's the backdrop of buildings much further up the road. The pair on the left with the angled roofing is Circle on Cavill and the pair on the right with the curved sides is the Hilton Apartments. Circle was built in 2006-7 and the Hilton was built in 2012. As you can see the road in Surfers is largely taken up by the light rail service, which was opened in 2014.
I know I'll play this no matter what, so pre-ordered it. Nice to see that a single pre-order buys it for both XB1 and Windows.
Thinking the same. I usually wait a bit so they can announce special editions and whatnot, but IIRC that didn't happen with FH2 so maybe it's not worth delaying this time.
Edit: Oh, I see, they already have preorders for Ultimate. And Amazon Prime is good for $20 off. WIN.
Last edited by thesameguy; June 22nd, 2016 at 04:23 PM.
Nice, I'm gonna get on that. Looks like the discount is on the disc version only, which kinda sucks, but oh well. What about the Windows version, amazon says nothing about it. Is that just standard for the game no matter where you buy it?
And how does early access work for the disc version (I assume that's what "Buy New" entails.)
Disc is release day delivery, so, like, whatever.