Gran Turismo 5 finally arrived!... Last November! Yeah, I'm late to the party, mostly because I just got a 3DTV and I was looking for games I could play. The only one that caught my eye was GT5, and I was very surprised to see that it actually finally came out. Gran Turismo 5 is the first GT for the PS3, which is somewhat disappointing because the PS1 and PS2 each had two GT releases. The main reason it looks like GT5 will be the only installment on the PS3 is because of the ability for software updates; this game came out in November and it already is on Version 1.09.
It should be noted that I have not played a GT game since GT2, so my review may be somewhat skewed.
The selection of cars is extremely huge, bigger than that of the PS1 releases, very welcomed since the PS2 releases had to sacrifice car amounts in order to push the PS2 to its limits. The feel of driving these cars is as good as ever, noted by car experts as preserving the tiny differences between cars even if the differences are so small that even car experts don't really notice any difference in real life. No two cars drive exactly the same, but some cars do drive similarly, especially if the models were manufactured to be competitors to each other.
The graphics are great in most places, notably the cars and the race tracks. Things that stand out as looking awful are trees and people, which is very bad since a virtual Jeff Gordon appears to give an introduction to the world of NASCAR to the player and every time you win a new trophy, your PIT crew appears next to your car. Thankfully, your avatar never takes off their helmet, so you don't have to be punished with some ugly monstrosity the entire playing experience. One negative on your appearance though is you can NEVER change your racing suit or helmet color unless you erase your save data.
Two big appeals to GT5 for the ultimate racing enthusiast are the ability to use the PlayStation Eye to enable head-tracking so you can get better looks at the rear view and driver side mirrors and the ability to play in 3D. Like any racing game, you can also play with a steering wheel or a rig with a brake and accelerator. I'm not insane and orgasmic about racing games, so I'm just going to stick with the 3D.
A neat feature for me personally was that the Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 '98 is an unlockable car; I own the '99 variation. The only major difference between the '98 and '99 is that the '99 and up versions featured optional automatic transmission, which I have. The SLK 230 featured in GT5 drives basically exactly how my actual car drives since all MT cars can be played as AT. Every quirk including the silly way the SLK 230 accelerates from a full stop is included, much to my delight.
Story: N/A
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 8/10
Replay Value: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 8/10
Replay Value: 10/10
The graphics of people and trees are pretty big distractions keeping the game from receiving a perfect score, but the cars and race tracks have unbelievable attention to detail. Thankfully, despite Top Gear having an inclusion in GT5, only the track and wacky challenges are included and not the hosts of the show who are so incredibly British that they make casually racist remarks on their show so frequently that previous guests on the show have criticized the show for being juvenile and protected by the BBC's weak apologies.
No comments:
Post a Comment