Gran Turismo 5 is the largely anticipated game in the long Gran Turismo franchise. With its first outing on PlayStation 3 the game certainly has had a rough time to release with numerous delays and hiccups along the way. Have these problems carried on into the retail version or where they properly ironed out before release? More importantly has the wait been worth it?
Lets find out and kick off the HOTs and NOTs
HOTS
Presentation
As expected from the long hyped title, Gran Turismo 5 looks great. From the cars to the environments it is the complete package. Skidding across the track, tyres screeching with plumes of smoke filling the air behind the car has never looked or sounded quite as good; not only does this realism help immerse players it lets them enjoy it while they play.
While there is a minute drop from premium to standard cars the drop in polish is negligible and overall hardly noticeable as players just won’t spend enough time playing in the cheap cars. The time has been well spent super polishing the higher end Lamborghinis, Aston Martins or Zondas which players will almost inevitably purchase.
The Feel
When you get behind the wheel on Gran Turismo 5 it truly feels like driving a car. From the way the car under and over steers around corners to the way it hits the floor after leaving the ground, players get a super realistic experience of getting behind the wheel. Due to this realism it makes the game feel extremely fast and often very hectic when it comes to the first corner when every car descends at once.
Level system
The game offers a simple but effective levelling system where competing and winning races will earn players experience points. The more experience players have the higher level they become and more races, events and cars to purchase are available to them. This works rather well easing players in with cars which are relatively slow before letting them tear up the tracks in the most expensive cars. The levelling seems pretty fair and does gradually get harder to level up the implications of this are valuable seconds lost in races could mean the difference between enough experience to level up or not, and when trying to reach a level for that favourite car the pressure soon starts to build.
Online
The online section of Gran Turismo 5 now offers a solid and fun reason to play it. While at launch it was okay at best it has been greatly improved since the release of the patch which doubled the number of players the servers could handle and I’m sure it will only improve subsequently. The online allows you to easily take on your friends or simply hop into an open lobby to take on players from around the world giving the game a heightened level of competitiveness. Do learn from my mistake, it is not advisable to play the Nürburgring as your first race; unless you truly are a professional.
Damage
Damage is one point on which the game is very split; but it does help complete the Gran Turismo 5 experience. Once the damage modelling takes effect it looks phenomenal. It truly is one of the major features previous Gran Turismo title has been missing and thankfully they got it almost perfect first time. Seeing the cars scrape along other cars or even take the entire car door off it all looks brilliant; so brilliant you may wish to save up money as when you first use it the car does seem to get completely ruined.
Special events
The special events section brings some of the games most fun events into play. From the fast paced high intensity kart racing to the skidding dust or snow spraying rally car races Gran Turismo 5 offers a great selection of races which are just great fun to play.
Karts add an amazing new type of racing to the series which feels a lot fast due to its close to the road racing. Reaching nearly 90 mph in a go kart causes the screen to vibrate and shake just like you would in real life, giving players a full sense of immersion which it realistic but more importantly ridiculously fun to play.
Rallying also adds a large portion to the title like in previous Gran Turismo titles. The races are like no other and set out into sections over a day of racing. The first race of the say may start with the sun coming up and the final section be in the dark adding a nice difference between sections. Be it on dirt or snow the weather conditions turn this into a thoroughly enjoyable event where skidding round corners is a must.
They are at least two other parts of the special events that are bound to be favourites of many players; NASCAR and the Top Gear Test Track. This seems to be trying to appeal to a wider audience but fortunately the modes are great even without knowledge of the individual events. Both add a very unique experience to Gran Turismo 5 that extends the amount of gameplay in the title.
Playable By Anyone
The game is tailored in such a way that anyone can pick up the game and enjoy the simplicity of racing. Long time fans and people that understand everything down to the smallest details in a car will feel right at home with the amazing amounts of customisation from changing the suspension to turning on and off driving aids. Although the mountain of features can truly modify the car to be perfect for you, new players or people that don’t understand every bit of a car, can also do this same modifying thanks to the clear and simple explanations; these clarify for example what the individual driving aids do to the car.
NOTS
Loading Times
By no means does Gran Turismo 5 take ages to load; but even after taking approximately 40 minutes to install the entire 8 GB optional install, the game fails to load anywhere close to quick. The game clearly has a lot of content it needs to load but at the end of the day the time taken for loading is time wasted when you could be racing. It could be excused if it wasn’t for the massive optional install which although decreases loading times, still failed to make them short.
Create A Track
Rather than a typical ‘create a track’ mode Gran Turismo 5 offer players the opportunity to decide on the complexity and sections. While this does help extent the games life the mode is just too limited and won’t fully allow players to create the exact track that is in their head. The mode offers few saving features either, picking the time of day the race is to take place doesn’t make up for the inability to decide where the actual track goes.
No Starting Damage
At first when I played the game I was personally let down by not having an option to put damage on. The only way damage will appear is via the slow process of levelling the driver up and it takes quite a while being damage only properly appears at around level 20. As soon as the damage modelling starts it makes the experience fully realistic; while I can see that some players may wish not to have their cars damaged, an option at the start of the game or even in the game options should allow it to be turned on and off. Luckily as previously mentioned the wait for damage is fully worth it.
VERDICT
Gran Turismo 5 takes the successful formula that is well loved by fans of the series and has majorly improved on it. Bringing stunning graphics and fast paced racing with now a solid online experience means Gran Turismo is practically exactly what it set out to be. While there is a further wait for damage again, with no option to turn it on or off, there are plenty of other areas of the title to keep players entertained for many gaming hours.
