Game review n°3 - Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo

Released - 24 November 2010 by Polyphony Digital, Japan.

Genre - Racing simulator.

Multiplayer - Yes (PSN IS BROKEN, SO YOU CAN'T PLAY ANYWAY!).

Requirements - PS3, PS3 controller, steering wheel (optional), Playstation Eye (optional).

Price - 45$ on Amazon

Demo - I don't think so.

Official website - http://www.gran-turismo.com/

Description:

Long awaited continuation for one of the best and most popular racing simulators ever.

Over 1000 cars (over 200 premium), 26 different locations, and 71 different tracks are available in the game.

Graphics: 7,5/10 - Forget what you see on the screens. I doesn't look that good even on 1080p. Premium cars are beautifly done, but the standard ones vary from good to eyesore. Some look worse than in NFS: Most Wanted from 2005. Tracks look very good, especially in motion (nice blur effects). But what pains me the most is very poor antialiasing.

Music, Sound: 4/10 - Well, what more to say about the music, I hate it. Mostly. The menu music - groove, gets very repetitive and the racing one is dumb, also repetitive, when it should be energizing! It only has few nice d'n'b tracks, but that's it. (My Chemical Romance, really?). Engine noises are also not the best. At higher revs (80% of races) every car sounds exacly the same. Muscle V8, or howling V12 - doesn't matter.

Difficulty, Balance: 6/10 - The game is not balanced. It varies from very very easy to almost undoable. Which wouldn't be that bad, the easy races, licences were placed at the beggining and the hard ones later on. But for example some races in Expert Spec were very easy to do, but for example Top Gear challege on begginner is not doalbe for me (Gold Throphy).

Complexity: 9/10 - It has many cars (many of which are just diffrent versions of other cars), many options in tuning, many challages, licences, two specs - so yeah it has a lot of stuff to do.

Driving Model: 9/10 -The driving is hard. Like it shouuld be. Cars behave really realistic. The only minus is some cars are not imaged very well. For example - Murcielago LP670 SV is probably a car with the greatest grip force of all road cars, when in Gran Turismo it slides like crazy.

Feel, Gameplay: 7/10 - The thing about it is, that this game is rather only for petrolheads. My friend played it and said it was boring, when I had fun collecting cars, tuning then and so on. A- spec is enjoyable, licences are frustrating, but teach you how to be a better driver. B- spec is boring and frustrating, when your driver won't overtake a car, even if he has a chance. Also it's way to simple (only 4 commands).

Price to value: 6/10 -  It's a console game, so it's expensive, but if you are a petrolhead and like fast cars, go and buy it. If you want a racing game, but you are not very into cars - go buy NFS: Hot Pursiut or Blur.

YAY & NAY

YAY:

- Carefully made premium cars, tracks and locations

- Lots of cars

- Very realitic driving model

- Quite nice tuning system

- Head movement tracking (Playstation Eye)

- Enjoyable, if you are a petrolhead

NAY:

- Not very good looking standard cars

- Lacks Porsche and some other cars (only one Bentley f.e)

- Antialiasing, and particle effects

- Music, cars sounds

- Boring B-spec

- Unbalanced difficulty

- Wierd damage model (scaling with your level)

Overall: 7/10 -  twenty bilion years of work and only 7/10. Shame on you Polyphony!