Grand Theft Auto IV without friction becomes Carmageddon

Jan. 13, 2011 (5:35 pm) By: John Brownlee

With graphics having reached a degree of realism that advancement is subtle and no one’s really clamoring for photo-realism anymore, ultra-realistic physics engines have become the next holy grail of gaming.
Not that that’s really a new thing, necessarily: developers have been struggling to come up with working physics simulations since Looking Glass Games’ classic titles, System Shock and Ultima Underworld, and way back in the late 90s, devs were pimping their supposedly realistic physics models in the press for games as execrable as Jurassic Park: Trespasser.
It’s kind of funny, then, to see this incredible video making the rounds, in which Rockstar Games’s Grand Theft Auto IV is played with one major physics element turned off: namely, the friction between the wheels of a car and the road.

The result? The most insanely fun, cartoon-style freneticism Grand Theft Auto IV has ever seen. I only got halfway through GTAIV, so it’s ironic to me that for all the care that Rockstar put into the game to make it as detailed and realistic as possible, the simple flipping of a physics switch to the off position immediately makes the game a thousand times more fun.