Gran Turismo 5.....was it worth the wait?

[corn619]

I just picked it and played about a hour of it not including the 50 min optional install time. Well...I can't help but feel a little let down. Now don't get me wrong, I know this will probably be the deepest racing game ever made and it is a great game. I'm a little disappointed in the graphics and car collision areas. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I thought this game was going to be better than Forza 3 in every aspect and I feel its not. Maybe I just need to play it more but, I just found Forza 3 a much better first experience. Whats everyones first impressions? Take it easy on me Hashiriya!

[EvilRyu2099]

I just picked it and played about a hour of it not including the 50 min optional install time. Well...I can't help but feel a little let down. Now don't get me wrong, I know this will probably be the deepest racing game ever made and it is a great game. I'm a little disappointed in the graphics and car collision areas. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I thought this game was going to be better than Forza 3 in every aspect and I feel its not. Maybe I just need to play it more but, I just found Forza 3 a much better first experience. Whats everyones first impressions?

The standard cars could have been much more.. Other than that, I'm fine with it.. Probably won't get high metacritic scores, but still a solid game in the series and a crap ton of replay value.. It's better than FM3 but that's really not saying much I guess.. With them working on the game for 4 years, people expected perfection and that's not what it was, flat out..

[Weekend_Warrior]

With them working on the game for 4 years, people expected perfection and that's not what it was, flat out..

Actually, it was closer to six years. But yeah.. I haven't been able to play the game yet, but I've watched quite a few gameplay videos and read some reviews. Doesn't seem like it was worth the wait. Not when you take into account that Turn 10 Studios have managed to put out 3 really good Forza games since Gran Turismo 4.

[t0yrobo]

I played it in a Gamestop for a bit and I was pretty underwhelmed. I'm sure a lot of the simulation aspects are great. But I was going 170 mph, and it felt like 40, then I ran straight on into a wall and all that happened was a dull thud :/. The series has always been like that to me, it just feels totally sterile and lifeless.

[Jayson]

I really want to get another PS3 for this, but I am still playing the crap out of GT4.

I guess that it doesn't help that my main (non PC) gaming screen is a 32"TV so I will need to upgrade that too before the PS3.

[EvilRyu2099]

I played it in a Gamestop for a bit and I was pretty underwhelmed. I'm sure a lot of the simulation aspects are great. But I was going 170 moh, and it felt like 40, then I smalled straight on into a wall and all that happened was a dull thud :/. The series has always been like that to me, it just feels totally sterile and lifeless.

Not sure what you mean.. The speed seems accurate to me.. The damage is the usual which is indeed disappointing.. This garbage about the standard cars looking like PS2 upscales isn't that accurate to me.. They look pretty good.. I think with the graphics, you weren't going to get that big of a step up considering how amazing the ps2 versions looked.. GT4 in 1080i could rival the Forza games on 360, it was that amazing.. GT5 looks like one of the best PS3 games out there, but it wasn't the Crysis level graphics that everyone was expecting.. The trees do look like disappointing cardboard cutouts, but the city tracks are simply jaw dropping.. They need to patch better damage effects IMO, but I doubt they do that..

[hashiriya1]

Take it easy on me Hashiriya!

Whoa, whoa! I am not one of those guys who gets mad at someone who has a different opinion than me!

I can't say yet if it was worth the wait. None of the past GT games have been perfect, and I didn't expect this one to be. Yamauchi is a perfectionist, but he is at the mercy of deadlines (which he clearly ignores!), budgets, system limitations, etc. I want to put in at least 20 hours into the game before I form an opinion about it. Right now I am too busy exploring the different modes, cars, tuning options, etc. I want to get into the real meat and potatoes of the game. I am going to buy and modify cars that I have owned and tracked in real life and see if they behave the same in the game. A DC2-R, GDB STi, and an R32 GT-R are the last 3 cars I have owned that are also in the game. I already bought an R32 GT-R in the game, but right now it's stock, and I'll tell you, it feels nearly spot on, even down to the ATTESA system not keeping up the car making quick turns after quick turns. Too bad you can't install an ATTESA lock-out kit (or disable the ATTESA). Anyway, I am kind of rambling...

I have been playing a balance of online and the single player mode. The online battles are fun (if you are lucky to get a good connection) when everybody is being a good sport. There are a lot of track trolls who are there to mess up the fun for everybody, but that is true about any online multiplayer game. It is expected. For the most part, I have been lucky and found a lot of mature players. I have mostly been playing with the guys from the nasioc.com forums.


I also have Forza 3 and I love it, but I cannot compare it to GT5. I am not saying GT5 is vastly superior that the two cannot compare, but the amount of work that went into GT5 compared to Forza 3. One thing I will miss in GT5 that is available in Forza 3 is the 5.0 Foxbody. That thing is so gangsta.

One thing I have to say is....don't play this game with a control pad. It MUST be played with a Logitech wheel. It's a completely different game when played with a wheel.

That is my 2 cents for now, but I am still dissecting this game.


Thanks Corn619 for pointing out to me that there was a thread already in existence. I should have searched!

[Niode]

I'm not surprised that it has had a lukewarm reception. Not to mention the fact that reviewers have had their copies for only a couple of days. It's not really possible to review a game this large/non-linear in such a time. However I do have quite a few concerns.

Multiplayer, this part of the game has been slated by every mum and her son. It's lacking and unreliable. No class system which basically gives you the same issue you get with non-ranked fighting games. Everybody uses the top tier. No variety. Just whoever can wield the top tiers tools the best. Boring.

Damage model, players have been begging for this since Gran Turismo 1. Yes we could forgive the lack of damage model on earlier consoles, TOCA had a great damage system (for PSX era) but the lack of variety and low-poly visuals were it's main drawback. Gran Turismo 3 on the PS2, not enough horsepower. Gran Turismo 4, still not enough horsepower. GT5 on PS3, still not enough horsepower? Forza 1 did it back on the Xbox. The dull thud like you've stubbed your toe on a table doesn't count Polyphony, it's immersion breaking, not just breaking in fact, it kills it stone cold dead. It reminds you that you're not driving a £100,000 sports car, you're driving a cardboard box, designed to look like a £100,000 sports car. I am still absolutely amazed that you can send the cars flying through the air, land on top of other cars and maybe get a very faint dint at the most. Where is this hyper realistic damage model you promised us Yamauchi?

It just screams of over-hype. A game this long in development that is so under-polished is quite scary. It makes you wonder what Polyphony have been doing with all this time. Maybe Yamauchi needs to realise that he's making a game here, not a model railway. Perhaps a rethink of the entire franchise is needed. It doesn't appear to have changed much from GT3.

Even the visuals aren't anything to be impressed by. Those blocky self cast shadows on the cars are just ugly, the sparse track-side ornaments. The sterile CG-look. It just doesn't look anywhere near as appealing as those super-detailed hyper-realistic 'in game screenshots' we were promised. Sadly I think Yamauchi has fallen ill of the Sony hype machine, even Polyphony, Sony's most prolific hardware-juice-squeezer can't make GT5 look much better than the 1 year old Forza 3. Disappointing, especially if we are to believe the whole 'PS3 is much more powerful than 360' argument. This should have been the clincher. This should have been the game that justified all the fanboys that went out and bought the machine on day one, with it's ridiculous price tag. "it's much more powerful than the 360, it has to be, it cost me twice as much!". Those dreams have been shattered with the release of GT5. Personally, I'm disappointed, I expected, of all people, Polyphony Digital would be the guys to achieve the holy grail. Sadly the reality hits that the PS3 really is no more powerful than it's main competitor in real-world scenarios.

Overall, Polyphony appear to have delivered a game that, while possibly undeservedly, will sell by the bucket load and be a major system seller for Sony. It's just such a shame that the game still feels 17 years old.

[t0yrobo]

I played it in a Gamestop for a bit and I was pretty underwhelmed. I'm sure a lot of the simulation aspects are great. But I was going 170 moh, and it felt like 40, then I smalled straight on into a wall and all that happened was a dull thud :/. The series has always been like that to me, it just feels totally sterile and lifeless.

Not sure what you mean.. The speed seems accurate to me.. The damage is the usual which is indeed disappointing.. This garbage about the standard cars looking like PS2 upscales isn't that accurate to me.. They look pretty good.. I think with the graphics, you weren't going to get that big of a step up considering how amazing the ps2 versions looked.. GT4 in 1080i could rival the Forza games on 360, it was that amazing.. GT5 looks like one of the best PS3 games out there, but it wasn't the Crysis level graphics that everyone was expecting.. The trees do look like disappointing cardboard cutouts, but the city tracks are simply jaw dropping.. They need to patch better damage effects IMO, but I doubt they do that..

I swear every time I make some stupid misspellings I get quoted .
Niode summed it up my feelings pretty well. It doesn't feel like you're racing a car at all, it's exceedingly clear that it's a simulation. That was fine in the first 2 GT games, ok in the 3rd, questionable in the 4th, and now I'm just confused about it. Apparently they can spend years tweaking how the vehicles move on the rod, but barely even consider what happens when they run into something. That's not just an oversight imo, it's a massive fuck up.
I think likely what happened was the GT team has be left to their own devices with so little oversight for so long that they lost the big picture on what they were making. I guess it's sorta how I feel about all the newer Final Fantasy games, the people that made them are clearly very talented, but the end result just isn't that great.

[EvilRyu2099]

Even the visuals aren't anything to be impressed by. Those blocky self cast shadows on the cars are just ugly, the sparse track-side ornaments. The sterile CG-look. It just doesn't look anywhere near as appealing as those super-detailed hyper-realistic 'in game screenshots' we were promised. Sadly I think Yamauchi has fallen ill of the Sony hype machine, even Polyphony, Sony's most prolific hardware-juice-squeezer can't make GT5 look much better than the 1 year old Forza 3. Disappointing, especially if we are to believe the whole 'PS3 is much more powerful than 360' argument. This should have been the clincher. This should have been the game that justified all the fanboys that went out and bought the machine on day one, with it's ridiculous price tag. "it's much more powerful than the 360, it has to be, it cost me twice as much!". Those dreams have been shattered with the release of GT5. Personally, I'm disappointed, I expected, of all people, Polyphony Digital would be the guys to achieve the holy grail. Sadly the reality hits that the PS3 really is no more powerful than it's main competitor in real-world scenarios.

Overall, Polyphony appear to have delivered a game that, while possibly undeservedly, will sell by the bucket load and be a major system seller for Sony. It's just such a shame that the game still feels 17 years old.

Way to turn this into a fanboy argument bro... While the shadows and trees may look amateurish, everything else is fine.. Quit whining.. You make it sound like this game is total trash.. I agree that there are some disappointing aspects of the game, but I think they are minimal as well.. I really think the AI has improved, you can't just bang off other cars for your own benefit because you'll spin out almost instantly.. The replay value is still there, and I think if they wanted to, they could patch the flaws of the game.. I just think the negative aspects are minimal to the overall gameplay..