Well I went to the PS Beta Rooms yesterday. :grin:
Really great day, casual and good fun.
Was the first one on GT5... and had about 15 mins on it before anyone else wanted a go (due to the slow process of gaining access to the room). Also had plenty more go's during the event.
Graphics:
It looks great, good detail overall with some impressive visual effects, the smoke effects look good, dust, particle, and kicked up debris are all well implemented. The shadowing and car detail is also excellent. Only thing I could fault is that on the Nurburgring, there was some 2d trees visible at slow speeds. But the Nurburgring itself amazing. It's my favourite track and I wasn't disappointed. It was tighter in places and felt more closed in, with excellent shadowing. The bumps and feedback was great and the gritty used look was again fantastic.
2D looked crisp, detailed, gritty and played at 60fps. Played very smooth.
3D looked good and was well implemented, but there was a slight motion blur effect in use that sometimes made it hard to focus. Also 3D runs at 30fps and this was noticeable, the cars just felt slightly less responsive. Not much but in my opinion noticeable and definitely affected the handling. Oh and there is a bonnet view for those that are wondering.
The Physics:
Standard physics were good and felt similar to GT5P but with much more feedback and a definite improvement. What I noticed was that you could push the car harder and even on standard there was some good moments of oversteer or understeer that needed a quick reaction to catch.
Pro physics were amazing period.
The handling on pro setting was sublime and far exceeded GT5P in feedback and control. The amount of small inputs that you could apply was immense, with you able to correct small slides with a quick correction but at the same time knowing that if you tried a little harder you'd be off. It was easier to know and feel the limits of the cars than in GT5P but at the same time more precision was needed to drive well. You immediately could feel the improvements in all areas with the cars bouncing over bumps realistically, and sliding and moving about more so than in GT5P, but all the time giving you more feedback, therefore letting you know what the car was doing all the time.
You had so much more input when braking and it felt great for it. The cars dipped and slid and the feeling was immense.
The in-car view looked great with a slight shake giving you more of a sense of immersion.
The feeling of speed was also improved from GT5P, but not too much to be silly and unrealistic.
The thing that stuck in my mind was how much more you could push the cars than you could in GT5P. In GT5P it felt like you couldn't really rag the cars as they had a slight feeling of being on skates.
But this isn't evident at all in GT5. Even on pro you can really give the cars some stick, with a great sense of how ragged you're being. but this didn't take away the difficulty or make it easier at all. It felt better for it and more like how cars really handle than in GT5P.
Overall impression of the handling was WOW with no complaints at all.
Sound:
It was hard to judge the sound due to the events constant music blasting out. But what I did hear was more throaty than in GT5P with a definite improvement in audible engine noise and car engine variation.
The tyre noise was there but not as annoying as in GT5P.
Superior to GT5P? Absolutely.
Damage:
Hard to judge the damage as it was only implemented in the demo in superficial form. It looked good and detailed but the build was not current enough to fully try it's implementation and detriment to the cars physics.
All stuff seen before in numerous videos since E3.
Overall:
Superior to GT5P in every way. Sound is improved with more individuality to the cars engines than in previous iterations, with better tyre squeal too. Handling on standard is improved and on Pro is sublime, and better than GT5P and GTTT. The feedback, input, immersion is all there and in my opinion the best I've felt in any console racing game.
Roll on November.
Might get in a few of the publicity shots with them!
👍
Thanks for your impressions Madmurdock, great read! 👍