I come to this game, as I do all games now, with the mind and body of a 40+ old gamer with very little twitch muscle left and all manual dexterity fading with age. Whatever enjoyment I can find in a game tends to be tempered with the idea I can never do well at the higher levels of the game and the fact that I'll not be winning on-line. So enjoy your read ahead with that in mind.
GT5 is the racing game that Jap studio Polyphony Digital have been making since before the Playstation 3 launched. Its tag is
the real driving simulator and it's by that that it must be judged. Don't expect flashy explosive graphics, tracks with spurting lava, boosters and so on - this is a sim and it deals with real cars going around realistic -often real - tracks.
So how did they do? Well, they did pretty well but the game is not without some problems.
The menu system, for example, is an annoying piece of shit that should of been changed completely shortly after design with the subsequent public torture and execution of the designer and his entire family. It's unintuitive, doesn't group things where you would want them and forces you to endlessly traipse backwards and forwards as you just want to race.
The graphics and sound are great. With the exception of the trees which are a bit polygonesque and the shadows which are as bad as anything from the PS2 you can imagine. The engine does run at 1080p 60FPS though, so perhaps it's easy to understand why some compromises had to be made. Sound, on my system at least, comes out as Dolby Digital 5.1 48k and is as crisply appointed as one could want. The music on the other hand is techno, lightweight synth jazz, cheapo classical and generally a bit shitty and uninspired. Like it was chosen by someone who doesn't like music very much. There is no option to use your own music in the game - for shame, Polyphony Digital.
There are over 1000 cars in the game - one of its unique selling points, and due to implementation one of its critics' biggest bugbears. There are around 200 premium model cars and therefore around 800 standard model cars. The difference? The former are modelled in detail, look amazing and offer custom dashboards if you like to race inside the car. Standard models contain less detail and no dashboard. That said, they actually look quite good to my eye, just a little plain at times - it depends a lot on the specific car.
Damage modelling comes in two flavours in GT5: costume and mechanical. Both become progressively unlocked as you increase your level. Costume looks a bit crap, with areas of your car taking on a sort of distorted plastic look. Mechanical damage unlocks quite late on and actually effects your racing performance. So I can't tell you much about that apart from to say that update 1.03 just became available tonight which adds mechanical damage to on-line racing via the options.
Handling is a fucking dream, thank fuck. This is the very core of any racing game, without which any amount of snazzy graphics, explosive damage modelling and car tuning options would completely fall apart. It took me 3-4 days for the handling to click into place for me, and when it did it was a pure joy to be able to sling cars round corners, powerslide and all the other cool car stuff we love. It is
not forgiving though, muck up your line or braking at a corner in a powerful car and you'll spin or go off-course - this is just how it should be in a sim.
GT5 is played in one of three main modes: GT Life, Arcade and On-line. GT Life is the full experience and involves entering races to win money and experience points to go up levels to get you faster cars which can enter more races, etc. You start with a small amount of cash and no cars and have to make your way up the rankings. It works well. Arcade gives you access to most courses and cars and is standalone with no xp or money involved. On-line is currently unstable and can cause your save game file to corrupt - though maybe 1.03 has fixed this. There's no info currently.
Two salient points here. The AI is rubbish. You'll either win by miles or be all but last, depending on the relative speed of the car. And the B-spec mode, where you build up a fictitious racer and issue race commands to him, is a massive time and credit sink and nothing else.
This is a massive game, I've only scratched the surface myself and have only been able to write of a few of the more important areas and more annoying issues. I've not told you about tuning, the used car dealership, special events, replay and photo mode, paint, race mods and so on. Sorry about that, but did you really want to read much more?
GT5 is a game that excels - mostly - in the areas that are most important to it: driving a car around a track. It offers little panache or flair and has some problems that are really unforgivable in a game with such a long development. That said, they appear to be listening and are bringing out updates at a rate of knots. I'm impressed, I enjoy the game and would suggest anyone with an interest in driving games buys it. I wish they'd fix the on-line though, that really is cuntish corrupting your save file.. oh and you can't back it up, it's copy-protected.
UPDATE: I was wrong, you can use your own music. It's hidden away in options/audio. Works well, called 'Personal Music' inside the game. Online seems much more stable to me with the new patch (1.03).
Yes, I'm reviewing a game update. Why? Because I can, and because I'm quite impressed with what it offers. As you'll know if you've read my previous review of the game itself, I was pretty pleased with it though there were some problems. This update doesn't address many of them but it really doesn't matter. In the intervening time I've really fell in love with the game and play it regularly. This update offers a lot more functionality and fun. I'm still shit on-line, mind you.
Seasonal Events are brilliant. They offer a lot of fun, close racing and lots of credit and xp. They are updated regularly, are open for around two weeks and let you race, time trial or drift. They tend to have very strict regulations and most of the race events restrict you to a single vehicle that you can hardly tune at all. This leads to very close, tough racing. I can only get silver at best but it's great fun trying to find just a second or two more out of a track.
