Gran Turismo 5 is published by SCEA and developed by Polyphony Digital. Fashionably late, Gran Turismo makes its first appearance to the PS3. The Gran Turismo series is well known for it's simulation style racing, and features hundreds of real life vehicles. It's also known for its highly detailed and realistic tuning system.
My expectations for this game have been much higher than most games. The reason being, GT5 has been in the making for over 5 years. That's a long time to make a game, it better be right.
My first impression of GT5 was horrendous, I could barely navigate the menus. It kept freezing, sometimes for over 30 seconds. It turns out, servers were severely overloaded, and it affected the single player menus. What?!
With the menus finally fixed, I was able to start playing the game. For some reason, there are a lot of un-intuitive menus to navigate. Like in previous games, you have to acquire licenses to drive.
B spec is an interesting new mode in which you hire a driver and then guide him through the races. You guide him by using simple gestures (pace up, pace down, maintain, and overtake) but the AI does all the racing. At first, I found it a little strange, but it does grow on you.
The presentation of this game is very clunky. You pick the race you want, and then you race. Personally I would like to see a better form of presentation. Each car has a distinct feel, and sound, making each car feel unique. Something you would expect in a racing simulation.
There are 200 premium cars, which include a dashboard view. The graphics on the premium cars, are stunning. The 800 standard cars have basic graphics and no dashboard view. How confusing.
The multiplayer uses the lobby system, no matchmaking available. Even Gran Turismo 5 prologue had matchmaking. For those of you that like lobby systems, fine, I understand. But some of us want to jump into a game quickly.
Despite it's shortcomings GT5 is a superb simulation racer. Minus the poor presentation and un-intuitive menus, the actual racing of the the game is outstanding. We should be thankful it's not the other way around.
Review is a segment about my opinion on things. I like things, and you like things too. Before you run off and buy something, you should check out my review. Chances are if I like it, it’s probably awesome.
