Community Review: Gran Turismo 5

49 responses to “Community Review: Gran Turismo 5”

1. 

   asimovy

   November 29, 2010 at 11:12 am

   If you can find a good group of people online that can do some decent racing with evenly matched cars or if you like trying to beat your own times with an interesting car/track this game is amazing.

   The AI is still totally crap and provides very little challenge.

   The gap between the standard cars and premium ones is huge and quite annoying. A new R34 Skyline GTR is a premium car but if you buy a used one it’s a standard car with low res model and no cockpit view. Why?

   Reply
   1. 

      5footassasin

      November 29, 2010 at 2:39 pm

      Because it takes a lot of time and skill to make ONE detailed car in 3D. Let alone 200. Let alone 1000! 🙂

      Reply
2. 

   Jesse Anger

   November 29, 2010 at 11:18 am

   Personally I believe that an incredible amount of detail has went into Gran Turismo 5, they have really made an exhilarating driving experience. The amount of attention they gave towards detail has really paid off in terms of how cars are handled as well as all of the minor touches visually.

   In terms of driving, there is still the same “pinball to victory” collisions, but when the game is played as it should it really is good and it really pays to learn the proper way of racing early as the pin balling doesn’t work later on.

   I guess the people should stop looking at the negatives of it and should actually look at the multitudes of positives in this case.

   Reply
3. 

   The Cracks

   November 29, 2010 at 11:19 am

   No PS3, so no GT5 🙂

   However, I think I’d stick with my arcade racers, anyway. NFS Hot Pursuit is pretty awesome so far (been too busy playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, though).

   Reply
4. 

   Garrick Bortignon

   November 29, 2010 at 11:25 am

   Initially when i booted up the game i wasnt all that impressed (perhaps sucked in to alot of the negative comments about the game, and Forza 3 fanbois).

   Gave it a whirl for around 1 hr and then put it down. Thats when things got interesting.

   After around 30 mins i wanted to go back and play it. Just one more race, just one more challenge, just one more licence test.

   I understand alot of the criticism people have been giving it, but it really is a terrific racing Sim, and if youre after something more realistic than Forza 3 and NFSHP its basically your best choice

   People should note that until you get to ~lvl 20 races, they are pretty easy.

   Also this game is 100x better if you have something like a G27 Racing Wheel, the force feedback is amazing and really makes the game more immersive.

   Reply
5. 

   Michael Barnes

   November 29, 2010 at 11:36 am

   Im having fun working through class a still. The low res cars arnt nearly as bad as people b*itch about, but are noticable compared to the premium ones.

   Reply
6. 

   Kris Butler

   November 29, 2010 at 11:55 am

   I’ll upset a lot of fanbois… but yeah… GT5 isn’t that great.

   Forza leaves this game for dead and anyone that says “forza isn’t a sim” is talking crap… Call me a Forza Fanboi if you must, but when you compare feature for feature between the 2 games… you’d be stupid not to agree with me…

   Yes GT5 has more cars and maybe more tracks… but a VERY large portion of them are half arsed… Forza… they’re all done well with the same amount of detail across the board.

   Camera views… forza wins again IMO… I like to look at my car when i’m racing… the GT5 rear view is horrid… its too fixed to the rear of the car and whats with not being able to move the camera around the car? I use the bonnet view in GT5 mainly because of this… but it feels more like a roof view to be honest and its incredibly inconsistant… for example… SLS AMG Stealth… looks great, nice and centered on the screen… Evolution X… takes up the whole bottom of the screen and looks hella odd..

   Car tuning/modification… forza wins again!… GT you just chuck the same old boring mods on all cars… no detail or thought has gone into it at all… u also can’t purchase brake upgrades? WTF! you throw more power at a car you should upgrade the brakes to handle it! GT5 = Realistic? I don’t think so! Forza is much better with detailed upgrades and even engine swaps, realistic aspiration conversions and so on…. also… you can mod visually mod any car… where GT5 restricts you like mad unless you’re using a “premium” car… LAME!

   apart from the above complaints… its a solid driving game… and the entertainment value certainly picks up when u get to using faster cars… but at the end of the day if you’ve got a choice you’d b mad to go with GT over Forza… or just do what i did and get both… best of both worlds 🙂

   Let the flaming begin! lol

   Reply
   1. 

      Rob

      November 29, 2010 at 12:10 pm

      I prefer Forza 3 over GT5, not to detract anything from GT5, elements of it are exceptional. My biggest problem is the elements that aren’t exceptional are poor and for a game so long in development it makes you wonder just what they spent all that time doing.

      Reply
      1. 

         Andrew

         November 29, 2010 at 12:40 pm

         Trying to catch up to the bar that Forza set!!

         Reply
   2. 

      John

      November 29, 2010 at 12:49 pm

      You listed *all* the things that Forza has over GT5.
      But not what Forza *doesn’t* have.

      Like Weather/Day Night Cycles which have a far bigger impact on your driving experience then putting flowers on your Veyron.

      Forza had its fair share of ‘half arsed’ areas, when it was released there was plenty of photos around showing bugs and innacurancies.

      GT5 isnt perfect, but it doesn’t seem like a grind like F3 did, within 1 or 2 hours in F3 you could have some stupidly quick car and be blitzing everything, the ‘career’ mode felt like arcade mode, there was hardly any structure.

      GT5 Forces you to become a better racer, unlocking various aspects of the game to enhance it as you go along.

      Shadows look horrible, but i’m not looking at the shawows when i’m belting around a track at 100mph in the rain.

      standard cars are less then desirable, some are better then others for sure but they still add to the game, *most* of my time in the game thus far has been behind the wheel of a standard car.

      i feel the urge to play this game, whilst i really enjoyed Forza it got old fairly quickly.

      Reply
      1. 

         Kris Butler

         November 29, 2010 at 1:17 pm

         i agree… the weather elements in GT are great and it certainly adds to the game to mix things up a bit… i really hope turn 10 introduce something like that in F4…

         one thing i like about GT is the used car market… although in saying that it can be a right pain in the arse trying to find a car for certain races… like early on i still can’t find a car for the classic euro race… i’ve got a 1958 Fiat 500 with like 17HP and i just refuse to spend any money on it as it just will not compete in that race… lol

         a few ppl have blasted me about putting flames or in your case “flowers” on cars being stupid… and really… i couldn’t give 2 shits about that… its more the mechanical mods, wheels n tyres (GT5 wins on tyres tho i’d say… not wheels however) and perhaps colours (unlocking car colours in GT5… wtf? just give us a bunch of standard ones lol)

         Reply
   3. 

      Alex Lisyak

      November 29, 2010 at 1:23 pm

      Umm.. You can buy Brake Upgrades hahahah

      Reply
      1. 

         John

         November 29, 2010 at 1:31 pm

         Theres deffinately room to move in the modification department, Forza gives you a lot more to do, and its more in depth.

         not just ‘Stage 1’ .. ‘Stage 2’ but the end result is the same.

         I’d love Forza 3’s customisation options in GT5, but fortunately its not something that has a big impact on play time 😛

         Reply
   4. 

      Justo11

      November 29, 2010 at 1:30 pm

      Yep I got both, but for me it’s the opposite, gt5 wins hands down. Racing in gt5 is actually fun, I get bored of forza….

      The customization options in forza is nice but very commercial, gt5 is all about the cars. In races you don’t actually notice the lower res standard models, they still look great, and only just bellow forzas. But the premium ones are absolutely astonishing, especially in photo mode.

      Gt5 is for people who love cars, forza is for people who like nfd

      Reply
   5. 

      Justo11

      November 29, 2010 at 1:31 pm

      Yep I got both, but for me it’s the opposite, gt5 wins hands down. Racing in gt5 is actually fun, I get bored of forza….

      The customization options in forza is nice but very commercial, gt5 is all about the cars. In races you don’t actually notice the lower res standard models, they still look great, and only just bellow forzas. But the premium ones are absolutely astonishing, especially in photo mode.

      Gt5 is for people who love cars, forza is for people who like nfs on tracks.

      Reply
   6. 

      5footassasin

      November 29, 2010 at 2:48 pm

      Few little points just to fuel the flames:

      “I like to look at my car when i’m racing” – In that case I doubt you were ever going to be the kind of person that likes a serious game like Gran Turismo.

      “you can mod visually mod any car… where GT5 restricts you like mad unless you’re using a “premium” car… LAME!”- I think drawing custom paint jobs on a car is lame 🙂

      “and the entertainment value certainly picks up when u get to using faster cars…” – If you only find the ‘faster cars’ entertaining then you have missed the entire point of the game.

      Reply
      1. 

         Kris Butler

         November 29, 2010 at 3:07 pm

         1. bullshit
         2. read what i said… i don’t care so much about the crazy custom paint jobs…
         3. sorry but if anyone finds it entertaining or enjoying to drive around in a fiat 500 they’re bloody sad!

         i can go all day with this… but at the end of the day some people will prefer GT5 *cough* fanbois *cough*… some will prefer Forza *cough* more fanbois *cough*… some like me will like them both for certain things and hate them for others… i don’t think forza is perfect by any stretch of the imagination either… i just feel that purely based on development time alone… gt5 isn’t as good as it could be

         Reply
         1. 

            Mark Serrels

            November 29, 2010 at 3:09 pm

            Just want to say to everyone: play nice! Don’t want this to become a flame war! This is Kotaku – everyone loves each other here. It’s hug a gamer day after all!

            Reply
            1. 

               Kris Butler

               November 29, 2010 at 3:44 pm

               lol and like i said in reply to that post… anyone tries to hug me i’ll slap them 😛

            2. 

               MasterCyl

               November 29, 2010 at 4:18 pm

               You might be surprised but my mates and I just did a rally race all in fiat 500’s and it was hilarious. We were willing them up a few hills.

         2. 

            5footassasin

            November 29, 2010 at 4:26 pm

            Anyone that I can have a good old fashioned GT vs Forza debate with is worth hugging, they clearly love gaming! (regardless of their taste in driving games :P)

            Fiat 500’s are rad! I found winning the top gear challenges in GT more thrilling than any race in F12010 and you barely hit 100kph 😀

            ps. I used to be an external view guy too….. once you go bumper you never go back. Looking at the car is what awesome replays are for!

            Reply
            1. 

               Kris Butler

               November 30, 2010 at 8:52 am

               haha fair enough

               i go bonnet or rear view in most racers… depends on how it feels… 😉

7. 

   FlameOn

   November 29, 2010 at 12:31 pm

   @JesseAnger Why should we not look at the negatives?

   Here is a game over half a decade in the making, millions upon millions of dollars invested into it, and we should just ignore all the bad bits? It doesn’t get a free pass from criticism just because.

   For me there’s a few inexecusable misfires from GT5… 1. It’s lifeless and presented poorly 2. It’s graphically inconsistant 3. The online is awkward at best 4. The damage is pathetic 5. It has fewer customisation options both in terms of mechanics and aesthetics than Forza 6. AI isn’t interesting to race against.

   I dunno, I’m waiting for GT5 to blow me away and I hate to sound like some mindless fanboy but Forza 3 grabbed me and I was absorbed, GT5 bored me and I’m left feeling cold and like I’m not having fun. I think it’s just hard to feel the excitement of a race when the cars impact off things like rubber, damage is inconsequential and the other drivers race like zombies… maybe that’s just me tho, I guess if looking great most of the time and excellent handling is enough for you then it’s as good as it gets, but if you want an exciting race you’ll be left wanting. I love my arcade racers and my sim racers and I’m sure ultimately I’ll enjoy my time with GT5, but that doesn’t stop me from being dissapointed.

   Reply
8. 

   RK

   November 29, 2010 at 12:45 pm

   Yeah, the really succinct version is that they’ve spent 6 years on the driving physics (other than the collision physics) and the pretty photo-taking mode, and the graphics of certain things they care about.

   And they blatantly spent no time at all on anything else. The menus are a mess. The AI is awful. The collision physics are awful (which is especially surprising given how much they cared about every other aspect of car movement). Car tuning is an afterthought and badly implemented (and as everyone notes, no brake upgrades, wtf?). The sound is second rate. Many of the challenges are set up in a really frustrating manner due to the AI and collisions and disqualifications (the Top Gear bus challenge is already becoming infamous due to this). There is a hell of a grind just to unlock stuff like car damage which should be available from the start. With any other game you’d call it rushed. There is no way that testers wouldn’t have told them about these problems. Polyphony just didn’t care to spend time or money on fixing any of these things.

   If all you’re looking for is the driving experience, buy GT5. If you own a wheel, buy GT5. If you’re just looking for a fun racing game, stay away.

   Reply
9. 

   oggob

   November 29, 2010 at 12:49 pm

   Personally I would like these posts for (at least some) games to be not so early. Not even a week is past so it more like early impressions. Anyway, I’m going to take the simple review option.

   Gran Turismo 5 is another Gran Turismo game, so to use the old phrase, “you played one, you’ve played them all”.

   That being said, I also don’t think the game is 100% complete, but at the same time Gran Turismo 5 is the most feature rich of the series, do not let any other website tell you otherwise.

   Polyphony have said they will be continually updating and improving the GT5 experience ongoing, they’ve created a great platform in Gran Turismo 5 and it will only get better.

   End result is that if you have played and enjoyed a GT game in the past, then you will enjoy this also.

   Reply
   1. 

      Gobbo

      November 29, 2010 at 1:58 pm

      Well put; I’ve been playing it solidly since last Wednesday, and I still feel like I’m barely into the tip of the iceberg, and what people are saying here is purely first impressions rather than a summation of what the game is all about. It’s Gran Turismo after all, which is more of a gradual journey than a 12 hour wham-bam-thankyou-maam session then you have the fastest car in the game.

      I find that weather and online play are two of the great additions that really make a change to the series. And it’s a good sign too that they’ve already had 2x patch updates since launch, so they’ll at least be supporting the game and further raising the bar.

      Fingers crossed they do something DLC-related with additional cars (or even tracks) down the track – this is one of the few games that I reckon I’d be bothered to shell out afew pennies for some extra content.

      Reply
10. 

    John

    November 29, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    Atleast GT5 isnt bending over to the ‘accessible’ audience, Getting Gold in licence and challenges is a real challenge, and to unlock the best bits you need to earn it.

    everyone just wants things handed to them these days, cater for the lowest common denominator

    Reply
    1. 

       Scott

       November 29, 2010 at 2:05 pm

       think you hit the nail on the head there, am totally bewildered at some of the opinions of GT5, considering the advancements that the series has seen from release to release, this is definitely the best the series has to offer. Am enjoying it immensely and will do for a very long time.

       Reply
    2. 

       Gobbo

       November 29, 2010 at 2:33 pm

       > everyone just wants things handed to them these days, cater for the lowest common denominator

       This is why people will still be playing GT5 many months down the track whereas fans of other racing games would’ve moved on from the flavour-of-the-month.

       Reply
       1. 

          John

          November 29, 2010 at 3:11 pm

          exactly, Forza gave me everything i wanted within hours of playing the game, i didnt have to earn anything… and i havn’t played it in a loooooong time.

          Reply
          1. 

             Mr Waffle

             November 29, 2010 at 3:35 pm

             “Forza gave me everything i wanted within hours of playing the game”

             You mustn’t have wanted much, then. You don’t get gifted R3-R1 cars until dozens of hours into the game, and the career mode doesn’t offer races for them until years 4+. So sure, if you saved up and bought them and picked those races to use them in, you’d get them in “a few hours”, but that is hardly the game’s fault. If you went with the flow of the career mode it would take 20-30 hours of racing before you started getting the good stuff.

             Reply
       2. 

          Mr Waffle

          November 29, 2010 at 3:37 pm

          “many months down the track”, eh. It’s a year since Forza 3 came out, and guess what, people still play it. Hell, people were still playing Forza 2 when 3 came out. (Which, if you recall, is the amount of time it took for GT5 to come out…)

          Reply
          1. 

             John

             November 29, 2010 at 4:00 pm

             And people who could (ie with BC PS3’s or PS2’s were still playing GT4, or playing Prologue)

             that doesn’t mean they’re better?

             as for the R class cars, arcade.

             Reply
11. 

    Tom

    November 29, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    I find the biggest setback for Forza 3 is that the 360 supports screw all wheel peripherals.

    The Logitech wheels are a game changer for GT5 in my books.

    Reply
12. 

    Dr_Stef

    November 29, 2010 at 2:36 pm

    Playing it since Saturday.
    Graphically the nicest Gran Turismo yet! (even though it might have a few glitches here and there ). Definitely
    Worth the wait, as this is probably the only driving/racing game I was ever interested in. Usually not a big fan of these games, but Gran Turismo always stuck with me since the early days.

    Loved:
    The new XP point system is a lot of fun, you just want to keep getting higher levels to unlock new cars and other things. I know GRID and other games had this previously but it’s good to see GT5 followed this. They also have good beginner level classes for people who don’t do so well in racing games <– 😉

    Also I like how they made your earnings a lot more generous than the previous GT's. You can win all your expenses back you spent on that first crappy 'Honda Civic R97' in the beginning in almost 3 or 4 races. Which means lots more money to spend on nicer cars earlier on in the game, instead of racing yourself silly to scrounge up some little trinkets of cash. (GT4).

    Hated:
    The online part of the game could and should be a lot better. Even though you have free run of the track while you are waiting for a race to start, I find the lack of being able to invite your friends to your lobby disturbing.
    Maybe I am not looking right, and it is hidden somewhere in the 40 sub menus. Anyway the only way my friends could find me was if I named my room something ridiculous and in CAPS so they could accidentally spot me in between the 600 races going on. This thing needs an invite system.

    That's all I can say for now..
    My score for this game: 8/10 🙂

    Reply
    1. 

       oggob

       November 29, 2010 at 3:54 pm

       Re : Online – If you have actively setup a room and in it… then the process for your friends is quite simple…

       They hit “Community” > Click your PSN ID, they can click the “Coffee Cup” to join your room.

       Reply
       1. 

          Dr_Stef

          November 29, 2010 at 6:57 pm

          Ah so that’s how to do it lol

          Reply
13. 

    Gordo

    November 29, 2010 at 4:38 pm

    Quite frankly I’m bored with it already, gave it a good bashing over the weekend, I’ve done the b a and ic licenses as well as all golds in beginner amateur and proffesional series races, don’t really care for the rally or endurance races. I use the bumper cam view so I don’t give a crap about interiors all that gimmickry gets in the way of driving imo. Online is horrible, no way of filtering races by connection and no way of making a private room or sending out invites to friends… I’m having a hard time fathoming it took them 5 + years to make this, hopefully all the updating they do will fix some of these online issues.

    Reply
14. 

    Jim smith

    November 29, 2010 at 5:00 pm

    I’m enjoying it a lot so far, but some complaints are valid. Standard cars are pretty silly. I don’t get why they’re included. I would rather have had 3-4 hundred ‘premium’ level cars without the standard cars.

    Also AI on lower levels (I’m only on level 12) is bad. They just ram you all the time.

    However overall it’s a great game. Mist minor issues melt away in the heat of a race.

    Reply
15. 

    Nic B 205

    November 29, 2010 at 5:02 pm

    Have to agree with most of the comments here.
    I’m a little bummed that my favourite car: Peugeot 205, even though there’s 3 variants, none of them are premium.
    I find that GT5 is kind of like an automotive RPG. You have to gain experience points to level up, farm some credits by doing some races or side quests (challenges), and upgrade your car until you are at a sufficient level to beat the other cars that you happen to be “racing” against.
    This seems to be no different to previous GT games. You’re either slower than the competition, or faster than them. You rarely seem to be racing each other. Even the single make races that you can do through ‘practice’, seem to be a bit too easy to win. When the other cars turn into you in a corner, it’s like I was just in their way and they were going to take that racing line any way.
    The real joy for the game for me just comes from the driving with a wheel (older logitech driving force ex). I didn’t care that I was trouncing the opposition in the euro hot hatchback series, when I was in my ‘collector’s addition’ DLC Audi R8. I just loved cutting up the lines. I guess that’s why I’ll continue to play it.
    Anyho, good, solid 8/10 from me

    Reply
16. 

    Shikyo

    November 29, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    Just a note to everyone saying that the car selection sucks and the damage sucks, the higher level you get in career mode, the more cars get released and true car damage gets unlocked once you hit level 40.

    Reply
17. 

    Instant-Noodlez

    November 29, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    I don’t think I will bother going into the whole Forza 3 vs. Gran Turismo 5 debate as they are both two different games which provide two different experiences. So on with the review! (first impressions)

    Gran Turismo 5 was 5 years in the making by the same studio, Polyphony Digital. It is the first ‘full version’ of the series to hit the PS3. Was it worth the wait?

    Loved:
    Racer Level System. This is a new feature being introduced. Basically you level your driving abilities by completing your usual licences, winning races, and winning special events. The level restriction applies to what races you can do and what cars you can purchase.

    This system also applies to B-Spec events where you take control of a driver by issuing commands to he/she/it.

    User Interface. As all versions of GT, they changed to UI and this time round, I think they managed to do it well. It is heaps simple and relatively easy to navigate with everything usually on the one screen. They also have little speech bubbles and appear above the cursor when highlighting items.

    Photo Travel. Previously, GT4 had introduced this option. It is no different. I just like having my shiny cars as desktop wallpapers. They have expanded on this feature, by allowing you to change the little details any camera fanatic will understand. Luckily there’s an Auto Focus option.

    Hated:
    Used Car Dealerships in GT Mode. Unlike the previous versions, the User Car Dealership is quite unpredictable. But I guess this is realistic as no one can really predict when particular cars appear on the market.

    Lack of ‘Premium’ cars. Premium cars have just that extra detail, doing what the PS3 does best. However, this is only limited to a small portion of the 1031 car list.

    Overall:
    Polyphony Digital has brought a solid racing sim to the PS3 without changing too much of what makes GT one of the best racing sims ever and providing ALOT of hours of gameplay. Yes there are improvements needed to some features and the online service, but there is just so much to do you might not even notice. =)

    Rating: 8.5/10

    Reply
18. 

    b4d

    November 29, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    I have to say I love the game but am disappointed that after 5 years we haven’t seen anything ground breaking or breath taking. I also have no idea what they could add to make it ground breaking or breath taking.

    The rally still SUCKS, how can they not get that right after 5 years? It may not be an important part of the game but why put it in if is half arsed?

    Level 16 and loving almost every second (gravel rally not included). No brake upgrades (that I have seen) is a bit confusing but the game is definitely worth the coin if not the wait.

    Haven’t even looked at online yet but with so many people chokng the crap system they setup I don’t see me looking at it too soon.

    oggob is right “you played one, you’ve played them all” but it is most definitely a vast improvement in most areas while taking small steps backwards in others.

    Reply
    1. 

       5footassasin

       November 29, 2010 at 7:08 pm

       I think just the opposite when it comes to rally! I think its fantastic in GT5 and puts every dedicated rally game I can think of to shame with both its sheer difficulty and the immense satisfaction you feel as your skills slowly develop. Real rally is freaking hard! It feels awesome when you eventually slide your way at a 100kph around a corner that could hardly get around when you started out, it certainly made me realise ‘oh yeah..rally in Dirt2 seems reaaally arcade now’ – That being said I’m playing with a logitech wheel with great feedback, I can imagine it wouldn’t be anywhere near as good if you’re using a controller

       Reply
       1. 

          b4d

          November 30, 2010 at 7:42 pm

          The amount of times I have shaken my controller in frustration at the gravel rally sections is almost giving me RSI. Have not the room or the money to blow on a good wheel but realise that some day soon I must if I want to do well in some of the harder tests and challenges.

          Reply
19. 

    Luke

    November 29, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    GT5 is a lot of fun to play, and it looks beautiful. thats all i can really say about it that’s nice.

    The career mode, wow. this is the biggest piece of shit, it’s pathetic. so far i have unlocked three type, beginner, amateur and professional. each one has a PATHETIC, 9 races. NINE.

    You will be lucky to use one car for more than 3 races over those 3 areas, because the used car market can be a real pain in the ass. I have done some races 4 times, because there is no variety, and i’m not wasting more and more money on a car i will use once, i am struggling to knock out 2-3 races with one, if i buy a lambo i will get good value from it, but i have to farm the same races again and again…

    Forza 3 on the other hand, had DOZENS to choose from, power limit FF, mid engine, ferrari V porsche, super cars with 550BHP, american cars with 600BHP, muscle cars, B, C, A S class. The list goes on and on.

    Forza was a little let down by its class system online, and its A.I like GT5 wasn’t very good, and yes its a semi sim so some cars were unbalanced. had both these games came out at the same time i would swap GT5 back for F3 tomorrow morning.

    Reply
    1. 

       5footassasin

       November 29, 2010 at 10:08 pm

       I think the career mode in GT is really just a way to sample a little of every era and type of car. I loved doing up my Yaris for just one race or discovering a new car I’d never heard of before to fall in love with (Toyota 2000GT!). GT is about the love of all cars, not just striving to get the koolest most powerful one and winning a bunch of races with it. – Not that Forza is either, but GT forces you to play a wider variety of vehicles in the hope that perhaps you’ll find something new to appreciate that you hadn’t before. I wouldn’t exactly call 9 races, some with multiples races per series ‘pathetic’ – however I agree it would have been relatively easy for them to expand it even further

       Reply
       1. 

          Luke

          November 30, 2010 at 2:58 pm

          well for 6 years in development i think it is. You do make some valid points, but the lack of information also annoys me, i do up my S15 silvia to 318BHP, and then it just smashes everything, and now theres almost no point to it other than to race a friend online with it if he has something with a similar power / weight ratio.

          Reply
20. 

    Stephen Moore

    December 1, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    Still gathering my thoughts on this – I’m only up to level 17.

    Pro – Handling is really enjoyable and rewarding.

    Con – No engine breaking – WTH? For a game that claims to be a simulator – omitting one of the most fundamental aspects of driving a manual vehicle is hard to understand.

    Pro – Parts of the game look amazing.

    Con – The rest is a mash up. Munge munge munge.

    Pro – There are like a bazillion cars to attain.

    Con – Unlocking them is a laborious chore. E.G – I wanted to start the beginner rally mode – so naturally I went to the second hand dealer looking for an 80s or 90s model Japanese 4WD. But I couldn’t find one. So I had to make do with completing another race before a suitable auto popped up. Checking back all the time is a pain in my rear end. WHERE ARE THE MANUFACTURER RACES??

    Pro – Variety in racing in the form of NASCAR, Rally and karts.

    Con – None of which are particularly well done. They’re enjoyable enough, but aren’t thorough enough in execution to justify their existence. The rally mode is especially disappointing – when are we going to get a rally game that is on a real dirt track?? I’m so over these big flat, featureless roads. Ever driven on the dirt? Where are the potholes, the bumps, rocks, tyre channels and corrugations. Maybe this complaint is more fairly levelled at a rally game like Dirt.

    Pro – you can modify the look (somewhat) of the premium cars.

    Con – the most you can hope for on a standard car is a lick of paint and a bookshelf spoiler. Why can’t we at least CHANGE THE WHEELS of some of the standard cars?

    Pro – Finally GT has a damage model. Also, I do like that second hand cars often need a wash, oil change and sometimes even engine overhaul and rigidity fix.

    Con – They missed a big opportunity to implement this well, and make it a part of good gameplay. Apparently it unlocks at level 20 and 40, so I can’t yet say decisively.

    At the same time as I am impressed by the scope of GT5 – I am confounded at the oversight of many seemingly obvious features, and general lack of development time spent on gameplay. Clearly, PD spent most of it’s time modelling the cars and tracks, and seem to have forgotten about what you do when you’re not ogling one of the premium cars. Which clearly, as indicated by the photography mode (it’s actually a bit of fun), is what the team envisioned us doing.

    If it were renamed GT – The ultimate car collection game – it might serve a more accurate description.

    The thing about this game being so epic in scale lends itself to many opportunities for improvement. The only question is will they take advantage of the modern DLC phenomenon and give the fans what they want, or will it be quickly forgotten as the PD dive into another excruciatingly long development period.

    Gran TurisMMO anyone?

    In summary, it’s a behemoth of a game – but it’s a lopsided behemoth that needs some serious gameplay balancing.

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