Gaming Gran Turismo 5 Review

load times of around 10-15seconds a race are anoying but not overly worrying

pros for gt 5

some of the cars are a dream to drive and you get a mazda concept car around level 9 in b spec and its easily one of the best cars in the game. Im only level 18 myself and thats after some big amount of hours into it.

The licences you dont need to do but you get free cars and it saves you alot of money the first car i brought was a 400k lambo, after that was a mini cooper lol.

graphics are better than the competition from forza 3 which i do own.

cons

if you want an online game this isnt for you
used dealership is very confusing
if you want all golds in special event and licence prepare for pain.

not unlocked damage yet but unless you crash your way around i dont see how it will be a big pro or con either way.

cant wait for endurance league to be honest.

outside of wow ive played GT for more hours than any other game recently, main reason is i dont really play alot of console games online and im unlikely to take GT online unless some of my m8s want car specific racers that we can set up and do as we wish.

and any idea how you unlock the x1 prototype as i need that car lol

 

Reinstalled F1 2010 yesterday and played Melbourne on a wet race. After restarting it about 15 times to try and make it out of the first lap with my nose cone or not spinning out on a slippery curb I finally got my virgin car in the zone and thus ensued the race of my life against sutill. For 3 laps we were neck and neck with inches between us. With zero visibility i was hunting down my braking markers as missing one could mean a spin or trip to the gravel. He was faster on the straight but i had him in turns 11 and 12. In the end I finally beat him to 10th. Never before have I got such an adrenaline rush from scoring 1 point in a race.... Think I'll pass and keep playing F1!

 

i have both gt5 prologue and gt5 and what i don't like about gt5 when compared to prologue are slower loading times and definitely menus - prologue had so much nicer interface/menus and jumping from section to section happens in no time where in full gt5 everything takes ages. simply prologue was like a beautiful glamorous girl and the new one is like a silly chic who tries to impress - but once you're on the track you forget all this and it's simply just jooooooy!!! i use driving force gt whell from logitech and so far completed everything with all driving aids off - it makes it more challenging.

but be warned - this game is highly addictive !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You see, that's the thing: Gran Turismo is a "Driving" Simulator and not a "Racing" Simulator.

I would not recommend this game to those who really want a racing challenge, and those who heavily follow real world racing championships. For those people, I would recommend F1 2010 or even Forza would be better.

I look at Gran Turismo as more of a kind of "Test Driving" game, where you can get to "try out" a wide selection of cars, some of which you may even already own or may consider buying in real life.

I agree with this review. There are many issues.

Most races in this game can be very boring. However, this is a problem I have found with most "tuning" car games, but more so with Gran Turismo.

The problem is that I don't even want to tune up my car in this game, because my car will end up two laps ahead of the 2nd car. It feels, like other reviews have described, as if I am effectively racing against myself and doing Time Trial after Time Trial.

To be honest, I have always preferred racing games, such as GRID or GTR2 (FIA GT) that more closely resemble real world racing championships. The reason is that they have strict regulations regarding which cars can race each other in each category. The idea is to make races as close and exciting as possible.

Therefore, to me, there is a fundamental flaw with games that provide, or encourage, extensive car tuning and parts-upgrading.

That's not to say Gran Turismo is not good. It's just not what I play for serious racing.

Graphically, there's a slight disappointment. There was a lot of hype over the years of development. In some tracks, it looks like a HD PS2 Gran Turismo. The premium car models are very good though.

Car Damage, or the car damage that I have seen so far, seems limited to a selection of cars. I have driven into walls at over 100mph just to test the car damage and found no more than a few scratches on the front. But, to be honest, I was never expecting damage to be all that great.

The bigger issue I have over the "limited" car damage (which is similar to the issue I have with Need For Speed: Shift) is that the age old problem of bumping into barriers and rebounding is here still. You can still use the vehicles ahead as brakes with not much consequence. I haven't played online, but I have always disliked Gran Turismo online, partly for this problem of cars bouncing off walls or using your leading car as a brake.

To call this game a "Driving Simulator" is probably an accurate term. Because it quite accurately simulates "Driving" rather than "Racing".

Although you could still question the "Driving Simulator" claim as well, questioning whether real cars can slam into a wall at 100+ mph and all you see or hear is a quiet "thump", then drive off happily like nothing happened. I haven't tested yet whether it is as ridiculous as Need For Speed Shift where their cars cannot be totaled, but what I have seen so far is bad.

The AI cars are very dumb. They drive as if they have no awareness of your car. Plus they don't really try to overtake each other much.

Cockpit View is not available on some cars.

Overall, it's a good game, but mostly for car collecting, admiring some cars, or seeing how different cars handle. However, for "racing", there are much better games for that.

 

This is one of the most pointless reviews ever... Now, before you start attacking me, my comment is not about this article or even Bit-Tech... Moreover it is about the hype and selling power of the GT series. This game could be a load of tripe and it will still proceed to be one of the biggest selling games ever.

@Spanky, In my opinion there hasn't been a 'difficult' racing sim since the days of TOCA 1 and 2... The point is that they do not wish to make a game that only a small percentage will be able to play, let alone enjoy... They want to make games they can SELL, and right now it is all about style over substance and not just in the games industry.

 

now all i need is test drive unlimited 2 so i have a driving sim and a free roam game

 

Haters gonna hate....

Forza? Not available on my PS3. It`s an Xbox excluisive.

And graphics? stick your shiney graphics where they belong while the game with those shineys is crap.
gameplay > graphics

GT5 is just fine for the most part.

 

i just can't bring myself to be negative about GT5 because i love it so much. awesome game.

 

my thoughts exactly. Racing games are bought by people of all walks of life, but after a few months or years, the only ones still endlessly playing these games are those of us who follow motorsports, primarily formula 1, which was anything but processional this year.

i agree watching cars go round whilst "managing" one driver does sound dull, but what about Farming Simulator 2010, or Sims 2, or any old Football Manager???

Watching 22 people kick a football round a field isn't overly interesting, as Football consistently proves.

 

How dare you Sir... May all your teeth fall out except one and may that give you toothache....

 

completely agree. this game isn't for us though mate, we're destined to keep rFactor, Race07 and many other exclusive sim games alive for years to come.

And would you really want your granny in one of these races? Its bad enough dealing with people who are trying to learn, let alone complete noobs. Sim racing is and always will be an esxclusive thing that mass market games-makers do not cater for, we are an excusive bunch, and our games are made for us, and us only.

 

may that one tooth make me pull my car over and hold up the bus that the england team is in on their way to an important football match that they will now be late for

each to their own, the main point being, that a racing game should be reviewed by someone who knows what racing is, not someone who thinks formula 1 isn't overly interesting.

just my 2cents

 

I was jealous about PS3 owners getting this game as an exclusive, but I'm certainly not any more. Aside from the mediocre graphics , the gameplay sounds pretty poor. Yes, I'm sure the physics are excellent (but that's true of a lot of games these days) but the concept of scaling opponents to match the player's car should not be something that developers are still getting wrong.

My personal favourite racer, NFS: Shift, allows the player to upgrade their car as much as they wish, but scales opponents accordingly. Upgrading is therefore not about getting as much power under the bonnet as possible, but rather about finding a car that is right for you and making it fit to race in a specific category, or modifying it to suit you further. For example, jumping into a Corvette might make a specific event harder to win than choosing to drive a much less powerful but far more stable Audi TT, depending on your driving skill. The trick to the game and the fun of upgrading came from discovering which car YOU were best in relative to other drivers with similar (though not always identical) vehicles.

A game where you simply win a couple of races then buy the fastest car available in order to breeze through the rest of the game sounds thoroughly dull to me.

 

You'd need to play it to understand what gt is all about. regarding nfs shift - i've got it and gt5 is faaaar better, simply it feels better, shift isn't as real as this i find it more 'arcade'

 

Maybe you should play it the driving and SIM aspect are indeed outstanding. It is close, maybe play with a whell and turn aids off ans you wont be so ignorant.

 

GT5 is quite difficult have you played it? Try the top gear challenge or get gold on the Nurburgerring, some of the expert and extreme racers are incredibly challenging.

 

F1 isn't overly interesting. A lot of the races is just processional, driving while trying not to make any mistakes but hoping that the guy in front will so you can pass him. Without refueling and with tyres that last more than half the race even on the softest compound, there's no pitstop strategy involved. Unless the weather makes an appearance, F1 really isn't that interesting.

Back on topic, I have neither an Xbox 360 nor a PS3. However, I plan to buy one or t'other for Christmas, getting either Forza 3 or GT5. Which is better?

 

As a PC gamer who jaunts onto the PS3 from time to time for Fifa, Tiger and now GT5... the number of loading screens in GT5 and the time it takes to finish loading is making me really hate the game despite enjoying the racing aspect!

 

Forza 3.

 

However bad the review was, I think I would still wind up buying GT5. I'll wait a while, but it's coming. I bought a PS3 for this day