Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

 

 

Create your own review

Very dissapointed, not with the game, the game is top drawer, but with the people who have reviewed it after only a few hours of play.

So then, the review, yes it starts off with a 20 minute installation and an update or two to download, didn't bother me. The menu music, I have read people complaining about the menu music. I don't understand why people would complain about this. Yes some of the tracks may not be to everybody's taste but since there are options to change the menu music to one of over a hundred built in tracks of different styles, I'm fairly sure there will be something there for everyone. Maybe we just need to take the time to read the manual or check the options.

Next thing, damage and AI. Would you play a game like Zelda or Final Fantasy, expecting to walk straight into the hardest battle in the game during the first 5 minutes of play? Gran Turismo 5 has taken on an RPG element and this is where most "racing" fans are misunderstanding and therefore criticising GT5. This game is a racing RPG and i personally believe it should be judged in its own category as there are no other games like it.

A levelling system has been introduced, you obtain "experience" points based on your finishing position in a race. You start off at level 0. Only beginner level 0 competitions like the Sunday cups etc are available. Opposition car behaviour is very basic, damage is practically non-existent.

As you increase in level, you are able to enter more competitive races, unlocking cars and obtaining credits (money) for various wins along the way. On top of these competitions you will unlock special events to take part in at particular levels, level 2 unlocks a particular event with two courses. The first course you are eligible to race on with your free awarded car, the second race you will have to save up enough credits to buy a car that meets the requirements so you will be coming back to this at a later stage. These events seem to award greater experience points and greater credits, increasing in challenge as you continue to progress and "level up".

Damage also increases as you level, difficulty changes behind the scenes from beginner to amateur, through professional to expert and by then your car really will be vulnerable to shunts and barriers. I just get the impression that a lot of people have started the game and played the first couple of races against poor AI and no damage and accepted this as the standard for the rest of the game. Not true. The game grows, I guess calling it GT life mode is a stroke of genius from the developers as it is more than an appropriate name for this RPG style of racer. What starts off like playing against a baby, soon develops in difficulty, size and beauty into a monster of an experience.

Don't judge a book by its cover, and certainly don't judge this game by its first few hours of play. Games are changing, it is no longer viable to play a top game and make an immediate impression. If you did this with other games such as Assassins creed 2, you would think that Desmond is the main character. Gran Turismo 5 is a truly great game that grows to become better and better with each race and with updated support coming thick and fast, it is one of the PS3's best titles of recent times.

Having given GT5 several hours yesterday, I'm starting to make friends with it, but it's not without niggles.
It looks as incredible as promised with jaw dropping visuals and presentation in places, but not without some tearing here and there (this was a surprise). Sound is also great and inclusion of Nascar racing and karting is a pleasant change.
Career mode is more accessible and you can shortcut to levels and events you really want to do without having to take extra license tests etc.
The handling it has to be said, is sublime with huge differences in the feel of cars as you would expect. On track they perform brilliantly, particularly as you get up into the real racers.
One thing that really annoyed me about Forza was that once a car got into a slide it was uncorrectable, yet on GT5 you can get really out of shape round a corner and still save it if you fight hard enough. Traction control needs to be turned down to get this effect.
On the other hand you can be happily steaming round a corner when the slightest bump or loss of traction can send you flying off course, yet this is an equally satisfying aspect as it is realistic! These cars are definitely not on rails, the depth of control is vast.
Sountrack deserves a mention too as it features Them Crooked Vulutres, Queens of the Stone Age AND Eagles of Death Metal!! Awesome.
Otherwise though, if you've played earlier versions of GT, it all feels very familiar, and this is where my biggest problems with this long long awaited game lie....
Silly license tests, still there (although you can thankfully skip many of them now).
Samey race categories and some age old tracks, still there.
Samey mismatched CPU cars that always finish in same order (bar Nascar).
Stupid AI, still there - CPU cars will still drive into the back of you rather than attempt to pass.
Being disqualified from some races (Top Gear Test Track) for as little as going off road or hitting a cone!! That's annoying.
But my biggest issue so far is with the so-called damage modelling. If it's working as intened (speculation of patch on official launch day?) then it's barely noticable. You can get into some almighty scrapes, intentionally once I suspected the damage wasn't up to much, yet your car stays 99% intact!! A wing might fall off if you're lucky, but otherwise the age old trick of using a line of traffic as an auto-brake still works horribly well. And that's a shocker considering how long this game has been in development.
Yes it looks amazing, and will be a great demo to show off your PS3 and mahoosive HD TV, but, GT has always pitched itself as "The Real Driving Simulator", and nowhere in the real world can you plough into a wall/other car at loony MPH and get away with it.
So, it sets new standards in graphics and handling, but is stuck in 19998 when it comes to simulation.
No doubt millions will love it though.

I've had this game for a few days now.
So I'm adding my review to the list.

Ok. I'll start by saying that I've never played Gran Turismo Prologue. I've been waiting patiently since GT2. So as you can imagine, my expectations were sky high.
The second point I should say is that I don't take my ps3 online. So there will be no talk of online multiplayer nonsense within my review.

So, in goes the disc. Within a minute you are greeted with the super-slick hi-res intro movie.. Artistic city scapes, and POV footage of cars being constructed. All accompanied with a jazz-funk sound track.
It all looks very polished indeed, and immediately you can see that this is a thing of quality.

A word on installation. You have two options.. Install the whole thing which takes 45 minutes and 8gb of space, or install as you go, so you can play right away, but things take longer to load.
Personally I installed the whole thing. I waited 5 years, another 45 minutes isn't going to make much difference. Lol.

Now, the basic premise behind this game is to drive cars, win races, pass challenges, and collect rewards as you go. These take the form of credits, extra cars, extra tracks, and extra car parts.
To begin with, the options are limited. You have a modest bank balance, and the car dealership has only very average cars for sale. This is very deliberate. The game is designed in this way so that you can become accustomed to mastering the basic controls and techniques. As you progess, you will be able to drive more desirable machines on more exciting tracks.
There is of course, the Arcade mode. Which allows you to jump in a top of the range car and thunder around the best tracks right away. But doing this is has no reward. It is simply a pick-up-and-play setting designed to let people get right into the action.
The real game lies in the Career mode. In this you use your starting money of 20,000 credits to buy a car. Then you can enter in races. Money is awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, and with this money you can tune your car, change the colour, or sell it back to the dealer and buy a new car.
Now, a word on customization. This is a petrol head's dream. Inside the game you will find after-market parts galore and the ability to tweak almost everything. Gear ratio, suspension biting points, drive train levels, chassis hardness... The list goes on. Some might think this is going to far, but I disagree. Gran Turismo 5 is a Driving simulator, not a racing game.
Also included are a long series of driving lessons and tests. This is basically a long tutorial. You can attempt them at your leisure, but extra goodies are awarded for getting gold in each one, or completeing a whole set of lessons. I would advise not skipping this part of the game. It's the most frustrating and most rewarding part of the game. Isn't that what a game is supposed to be? Difficult and rewarding? I believe this to be true. I come from the old school of gaming and i'm sure many people will agree with me on this.

This brings me on to the controls.
If you drive along at 95mph and you accidentally veer onto the grass then you will spin out and crash. Some people have slammed GT5 for being 'too difficult' because 'it keeps spinning out all the time'. So I say to these people... The physics engine in this game is absolutely spot-on realistic. Obviously we don't control our real-life cars with joypads, but the physics within this game are exactly the same as real life. This, in my opinion, is an area of the game that has clearly had a lot of time and effort spent on it. Honestly, if you drive a car in the real world then you will be amazed.

Now the visuals.
This game is gorgeous. It's a work of art.
The cars look amazing, the scenery is flawless, the ambient effects are weather-perfect.
It's impossible to describe the graphics adequately. But trust me, you have to see it to believe it.
If you're someone who likes to appreciate the hard work that goes into a game instead of bulldozing through it without even looking around, then you will be in heaven. This game looks AMAZING.

So, the Top Gear Track.
Yes it's in there, but no it's not available straight away. You have to win a few races first, then you have to win a special challenge on the track itself. Then, and only then does it become available for general play. The challenge isn't easy for a novice. So prepare yourself.

Two other nice additions worth mentioning the photo option, and the race music option.
When you're watching a re-play you can pause the action and take a photo of your car with a virtual camera. Then you can view the photos in an album. The photos look stunning. And very quickly you will be collecting photos of your latest achievements.
The race music option lets your choose a track from your ps3's playlist to play while you are in a race. This is a most enjoyable option. Those of us who drive in the real world know all too well how driving music can effect our driving style.
Thrashing a Zonda around to the sound of Beethoven's 5th Symphony is my new favourite hobby. Lol.

Now, the last thing i'd like to mention is the inclusion of a 'track editor' option. Now, don't get too excited.. You can't build a track from scratch. Maybe that would be asking too much. But what you do get is a sort of randomizer. You type in your parameters, such as number of corners, weather, surface type etc.. And a track is created matching your criteria. You can then save your tracks and have races on them in arcade mode, or just set lap times using the cars in your garage.

Some of you will be thinking ''but what about the other half of the game where you get to be the manager of a racing team?''.. And to those people I say yes, that mode does exist. I just havn't played it enough to be able to include it within this review.
Unlike many people before me, I actually write reviews about things i own and have used.


So, should you buy this game?
In my opinion yes. It's a truly amazing experience. But be warned, it's not a casual title. It will require a lot of your time and the learning curve is steep. But the rewards are definitely there.
This is a game for mature game players.
If you've never played Prologue and like me you've been waiting patiently for this game then click that 'add to basket' button now. You will not be disappointed.

EDIT ADDED:

Had the game for a bit longer now, so I'm adding some after-thoughts.
Don't worry though, the game is still excellent, my opinion of it hasn't changed.
First I want to add some comments about the replays. Watching replays of yourself winning races is a truly amazing experience. They look uttery real. Like, photo-realistic. And once you master the art of following the racing line properly,you will be amazed at how good the movies look. Not to mention the cars.

Another thing i'd like to mention are the 'Special' challenges. These consist of three levels on each - beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The top gear track is to be found in the special category. So are the karts, nascar, and an excellent series of tutorials for the Nurburg ring, utilizing a specially designed Gran Turismo AMG Mercedes. Incidently, this is a god send when it comes to learning the nurburgring.

Furthermore, i've had a little play with the 'B-spec' mode - the bit where you are the driver manager. Personally, I can't get into it. Doesn't seem like my cup of tea at all. But i will keep trying it. Many people seem to love it, so these must be son fun in there somewhere. Lol.

Anyways, that's it really. I still recommend this game. And it won't be leaving my ps3's disc drive for a good while yet.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 422 customer reviews...

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Game - Very impressive.
Best driving game...A must have for all racing game players...
Played with my thrustmaster wheel: the best driving simulation ever ...

Published 11 days ago by Giuseppe B.

4.0 out of 5 stars Gran Turismo 5
I have been playing GT5 since its release and have come to the conclusion that it is slightly underwhelming. Read more

Published 28 days ago by J.S.Hammond

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot of hours of gameplay for the money!
If you enjoy racing games and continually search for a more realistic experience, then this game is for you. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Mr. D. W. Garwood

4.0 out of 5 stars The real driving simulator.
After numerous updates and patches,this game is now approaching perfection.The graphics are superb,the tracks are fantastic and the physics are perfect.I love this game. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Bendigo36

5.0 out of 5 stars Addictive!
Great game, what else you can say about best car simulator? Good graphics and game play, if you are bored get one of this.

Published 1 month ago by Michael

4.0 out of 5 stars Stupendous
This looks good on the PS3. However for my nine year old grandson, we could only play within the Arcade section. Read more

Published 1 month ago by J3Rivers

4.0 out of 5 stars Good buy, Alot of choice.
This game was good and worth the wait
alot of car choices and races and the only problem is the endurance races you have to complete to complete the game
and we all... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Shaz khan

3.0 out of 5 stars extremely disappointing
after all the hype for the game it was extremely disappointing when I got it. took 1 hour with loads of updates and crap before I could play it, spent ages trying to get up the... Read more

Published 2 months ago by studio steve

4.0 out of 5 stars Should have been better
I wish there was a 3 and a half star rating as this game needs it. I don't really want to give 3 stars (average) because it is a very good game but it doesn't really deserve 4... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mr. T. Blades-thorpe

1.0 out of 5 stars A Prime example of why ps3 loses out to xbox 360.
I bought this game yesterday and put the disc into the console this morning, i am on a fairly slow broadband connection (average around 150kb/sec download) and let the update... Read more

Published 3 months ago by M. N. Pearson

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 422 customer reviews...

Search Listmania!