Gran Turismo 5 - PS3 - Review

[Ohio Joe]

I really love this series and have been looking forward to this getting released. I was less then impressed with the demo they put out a while back but it seems like a lot of what disappointed me has been corrected. It's GT, if you did not like any of the old entries, there's nothing here to bring you in but if you did like them, this is bigger, better and with a few new twists to give it even more re playability then ever.

The Look - I still think the people in the stands should look better but they don't look completely like card board cutout now. Some of the tracks are a bit... barren. They also still have some VERY minor clipping that has plagued the series bot other then that, the game is a beauty to behold in 1080P

The Cars - Over 1000 cars to be had in the game and I still can't freakin find out for sure if I'll be able to race my T-Bird. F'kers, come on and put out a definitive list already. Otherwise there is little to complain about regarding selection. Go Carts, used cars, classic cars, new cars, Nascar, off road, you name it and they put it in there. They also have some weird thing on the website about paying them to create cars not included for you... not sure of the price though. The cars also seem to be divided into two further categories, "Premium" cars, that can take damage (I think I saw somewhere that there are 200 of them) and the rest, that do not take damage. I don't have any of the premium cars yet so I'm unsure how or if it impacts car performance though I would assume it does.

The Tracks - 20 total tracks with 70+ variations on them. nuff said.

Game Play - They have made some change here and I'm not sure if I think it is for the best or not... It's not any kind of deal breaker on the game or anything but... it's almost as if they made it a little more complicated then it needs to be. On all the previous versions of GT, the first thing I would do is go and get all of the license's so naturally thats what I did this time as well. I did the first test of the first license and got this pop-up telling me I was awarded experience points... WTF? I figured it would make itself apparent at some point so I continued. After passing all 10 tests and getting the license, I went to take the next one only to find that I needed to be level three before I could take it and I was only level two. So... They have added this whole level up thing before you can participate in races or take tests. It comes down to having to take some tests, do some races, take tests, do races, instead of just letting me get the tests out of the way right off. A little annoying but that big of a deal.

There are also several different modes of racing:

A-SPEC - Regular racing, you drive.
B-SPEC - Your the crew chief and give orders while the computer drives. I don't get this mode yet as there are only a few orders and none of them seem to have any effect on whats going on.
Online - Race against real people and still have full screen :) Have not tried this yet. I did notice it has it's own garage section and I'm not sure yet how you put cars in it. I will be doing online though and will update at a later time on how it works.

Bottom Line - I love it, massive in scope and at least at this point it delivers real driving fun.

[JonLP24]

1. Gran Turismo 4 was BY FAR the best car game I ever played

I never could set aside enough side cash to buy the $500,000 Shelby. IOW, I never came close to finishing it.

I would love to play GT 5, perhaps more than any game on the market at this point. However I have a XBox 360 and AFAIK, this is only coming out for PS3.

[Ohio Joe]

5. 500k is nothing now

Soooooo many cars from wicked cheap to millions to buy (not to mention upgrade). They offset this by giving you bigger rewards, money is much easier to come by then previous editions.

[Ohio Joe]

2. B-Spec Mode

OK, I've messed with this a bit and it can be pretty cool. A much more laid back approach to racing since you do not actually drive the car. The effect of your orders are subtle but basically they are, maintain, ease up, get more aggressive and try to overtake. Except for overtake, the rest seem to be how aggressive your driver will try to take turns. The better you know the car and the turns, as well as your drivers skill level, the more aggressive you can let him be. You do also have to factor in how "hot" the driver is as well as how much strength and mental strength he has left... ehhh, that makes it seem a bit more complicated then it really is but it does make for a very different experience.

oh, a note on the menu's... holy crap, these are perhaps the biggest annoyance in the game. Way too many and a pain to navigate, they definitely should have put more thought into them.

[Ohio Joe]

3. Car List

I'll keep this as a sub thread to list out what cars I have so far:

Premium Cars:
Toyota - FT-86 Concept '09 - Blue - 220HP
Gran Turismo - PDI Racing Kart 100 - Blue - 33HP

Standard Cars:
Nissan - SilEighty '98 - Black - 197HP
Toyota - Yaris U Euro Sport Edition - Red - 83HP
Autobianchi - A112 Abarth '79 - Metalized Dark Grey - 67HP
Honda - Civic SiR-II(EG) '91 - Blue Pearl - 158HP
Honda - Mugen Motul Civic SI Race Car '87 - White w/racing stickers - 216HP
Acura - DN-X Concept '02 - Red and Grey - 400HP
Nissan - mm-R Cup Car '01 - Red w/racing stickers - 133HO
Hommell - Berlinette R/S Coupe '99 - Blue Metallise - 159HP
Toyota - VITZ U Euro Sport Edition '00 - Black Mica - 84HP
Mazda - Demio Sport '03 - Classic Red - 108HP
Nissan - Silvia Spec-S Aero(S15) '99 - Lightening Yellow - 273HP

The only car I've bought so far is the Nissan Silvia and I've put a bunch of money into building it up, it is a much better car then when I first got it used. I'll reply to this post when I have another 20 or so cars. If anyone wants to see more info on any/all of the cars, just let me know what and I'll add it in. Also, if I can figure out a way to do pics, I will add those for each car.

[Ohio Joe]

6. Car List Update 1

OK, below are my latest car acquisitions. Some I won, some I bought... and I'll be buying lots more :D Money is much easier to come by in this version and it has to be, just too many cars. Right now, most of the cars I'm buying are to enter specific races, either to complete the GT Life races or for the new Seasonal Event races (these need wicked specifically tuned cars). I now have 12 premium and 29 standard cars, only the new ones will be listed with each update.

Premium:

Honda - Civic Type R (EK) '97 - Championship White - 171hp
Mitsubishi - Lancer Evolution IX GSR '05 - Cool Silver Metallic - 269hp
Nissan - Silvia K's Dia Selection (S13) '90 - Velvet Blue - 376hp
Maserati - GranTurismo S '08 - Grigio Granito - 426hp
Volkswagen - Kubelwagen Typ82 '44 - Grey - 22hp
Lamborghini - Murcielago LP 670-4 Superveloce '09 - Giallo Orion - 817hp (yes... yes this baby screams so fast you can hardly control it)
Mini - Mini Cooper S '07 - British Racing Green - 211hp
Daihatsu - OFC-1 Concept '07 - Super Red Metallic - 61hp
Renault Sport - Clio Renault Sport V6 24V '00 - Bleu Lliade - 243hp
Mazda - Eunos Roadster J-Limited - Sunburst Yellow - 175hp

Standard:

Volkswagen - Lupo 1.4 '02 - Jazzblue Perleffekt - 95hp
Mazda - Kusabi Concept '03 - Silver - 143hp
Subaru - Subaru 360 '58 - Sand Beige - 15hp
Mazda - RX7 Type RS (FD) '98 - Highlight Silver Metallic - 387hp
Honda - Z Act '70 - Pack White - 29hp
Nissan - Skyline 2000GT-R '73 - Silver Metallic - 167hp
HPA Motorsports - Stage II R32 - Silver - 506hp
Daihatsu - Midget II D '98 - Yellow - 32hp
Dodge - Ram 1500 Laramie Hemi Quad Cab '04 - Deep Molten Red Pearl Coat - 533hp
Alfa Romeo - Giulia Sprint GTA 1600 '65 - Rosso Alfa - 226hp
Lamborghini - Countach LP400 '74 - Nero Tenebre - 363hp
Toyota - Celica XX 2800GT '81 - Light Beige - 162hp
Mini - Mini Cooper - 1.3I '98 - Volcano Pearl - 59hp
Toyota - Sports 800 '65 - Amethyst Silver Metallic - 52hp
Suzuki - Wagon R RR '98 - Silky Silver Metallic - 61hp
Volkswagen - Lupo GTI Cup Car (J) '03 - Red - 135hp
Citroen - 2CV Type A '54 - Gris Bleu - 14hp
Toyota - Prius G Touring Selection (J) '03 - Bronze Mica Metallic - 76hp

Yeah, there are a large number of very low hp cars. I've not found any real use for any of them except as a kind of collectible. I guess I can really fix one up, learn to drive it and then create a track and make it only for that car, then go online and smoke some fools :D Other then that I'm not sure what I would do with a lot of these and there are still hundreds of more cars to collect... WTF am I doing... at least I'm having fun :crazy:

[Ohio Joe]

4. 1.05 Patch update

They release this the other day. A few things of note. You can now turn on the damage in single player. As well there are two new things in GT Life, a seasonal events option that has races where you can rack up mega exp points and cash and an online dealership that has rare/hard to find cars. The seasonal events, while they can give big bonus's, have wicked strict requirements. I've not tried any of them yet because either I don't have the specific car for the race or the car I have is not suitable in some way (to heavy, to lite, to much HP, not enough HP... ugh, too many restrictions on these races it seems).

[Ohio Joe]

7. Spec 2.0 Update

They just did a huge patch a little while ago (I never did find out what that one did) and now they come out with Spec 2.0, another huge update that weighs in over 1.2gig. It does a boatload of stuff, there is a nice list here:

http://www.gtplanet.net/gran-turismo-5-spec-2-0-now-available/

It has some interesting items, some good, some bad. I like the bonus XP and prize money for playing multiple days in a row, it will help when I binge play :D

I hate, hate, hate the new cinematic type back rounds to the main menu. They look awesome but fuck... The added load times really suck.

Also, until 10/16/2011, they are giving away a free car (that they will be charging for after the 16th), the Red Bull X2011 Prototype ’11. Sweet! They do however make it a pain to get it if you do not know how, look in the latest news section in the top right of the main menu for the instructions. Suck!

Also, this prepares the game for their upcoming DLC which will include cars, tracks and more.

I feel like I should update my cars section of this thread but I just got to damn lazy to keep up with it and now I have such a boatload of cars, I'm not sure I have that much ambition :D We'll see, heh.

[BulletproofLandshark]

8. Got my Red Bull car, running the hell out of it in B-Spec now.

Being able to save during endurance races is a godsend.

[Ohio Joe]

9. Don't miss the special Red Bull race in the Holiday races section

First prize is 5mil and the race is not that hard.