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When we saw Gran Turismo 5 for the first time last month, there was quite a bit of discussion about the impressive graphics from the trailer.  It was certainly in Polyphony Digital’s visual style, but was it “real”, or had it been rendered independent from the game’s visual engine?  That’s what IGN editor Chris Roper got to ask Kazunori Yamauchi during a recent interview, to which he answered “of course it’s real”.  To verify that answer, Chris began a frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer to see what he could find for himself -discovering some interesting imperfections that support Yamauchi’s comments.

First, he noticed the shadows from the scene of the McLaren SLR on the Nordschleife.  The shadows of the trees can be seen on the surface of the track, but not on the car.  He also picked up the shadows of the hay bails on one of the rally stages – they actually hover “above” the surface of the ground while projecting out from the bail itself.  The flags from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway could also be seen “waiving” through the flagpole.  Chris argues that these shortcuts are evidence that the shots come from within the game’s true visual engine, and were simply not pre-rendered models created by Yamauchi’s team.

He goes on to ponder the green Citroen GT’s accident with a Corvette, throwing his opinion in to the debate about whether or not they actually touched (and should have subsequently been damaged).  The article continues with further discussion about the damaged Subaru, the “drag racing” scene from the Top Gear test track, and NASCAR, quickly venturing into the realm of speculation and assumption.  It’s still an interesting read though – check it out here.

Some people were quick to lament that no “hard facts” regarding Gran Turismo 5 were released at last week’s E3 show, but now that we’ve had some time to carefully pick through the HD trailer, you can see we’ve actually learned quite a bit.  Much like we did with Gran Turismo PSP: What You Need to Know, let’s put the pieces of the puzzle together and find out exactly what Kazunori Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital told us…

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Since the big announcement at Sony’s E3 press conference, two things have happened: lots of journalists got their hands on the demo at the show, and Kazunori Yamauchi has released more tidbits of information in a flurry of interviews.  It’s difficult to keep up with everything, and all the excitement around the Gran Turismo 5 trailer hasn’t helped, but we should be able to clear up a lot of the confusion by aggregating the pieces of the puzzle right here.  Keep reading to find out what we know, what we don’t know, and what everyone else actually thinks about this long-anticipated title…

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Thanks to an excellent new interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, we’ve just learned a lot about the progress of Gran Turismo 5 - and it sounds like it is further along than anyone may have imagined.  When asked about “how development’s going”, Yamauchi-san responded:

“I want to release it as fast as I can, but GT5 for us, when you talk about its status, it’s at a point we can release it any time we want, but we can always keep working on it. It’s very important for us to make sure everything is done perfectly and everything is done in detail.”

After just one brief paragraph, GT5 suddenly seems closer than ever before, implying that the major features have already been implemented.  If it’s true that his team at Polyphony Digital are just polishing things up and working out the bugs, it tilts the scales in favor of a 2009 release.

Yamauchi also addressed questions about GT PSP’s extended development time, and how the game has affected Gran Turismo 5:

“We first made the announcement in E3 of 2004, so [laughs] it’s been five years. Since then we’ve released GT4, Tourist Trophy, GTHD and GT5 Prologue. Of course we were always working on the PSP version a little bit at a time, but every time we have one of those releases it’s affected by that new title. So this is a software that was born in between GT5 Prologue and GT5, and it’s affected by both of those titles.”

“I don’t think there was a direct effect [on Gran Turismo 5], but I do believe that the development team really gained experience in streamlining displaying graphics on a very small space and also how to manage memory when the amount of memory available is very small. That sort of experience is something that was gained by the team.  And you know, this is the first time we’ve developed a portable game, and I think there is an effect on how we see games, and how we understand videogames.”

Check out the full review at Eurogamer.

Since GT PSP was announced yesterday, we haven’t really gotten a good look at what this big, little game actually plays like.  Sure, the first screenshots are impressive -- but to see it running at a full 60fps is a completely different story…  Although the driving skills (as usual) leave something to be desired, you’ve not seen Trial Mountain look this good since Gran Turismo 4.

We knew it wouldn’t be long before more detailed information begins trickling out of Los Angeles – and sure enough – the first interview with Kazunori Yamauchi from E3 does just that!  He sat down with automotive news site Edmunds.com shortly after Sony’s E3 press conference and shared a few interesting things about GT Mobile and Gran Turismo 5.  Here’s a quick summary of what we learn:

• GT Mobile will include every track from Gran Turismo 4 - including the Nurburgring Nordscheife!
• GT5’s release date is “not decided yet”.
• Yamauchi views GT Mobile as a way to introduce new players to the series.
• Polyphony Digital is working to keep the entire game under 1GB in size.  This is important because the new PSP Go only contains 16GB of internal memory, although everyone with older PSPs will still be able to buy the game on UMD disc.
• Yamauchi owns a red Nissan GT-R.
• Yamauchi confirms a new GT Academy competition is coming to the U.S. and Japan.
• Specific brands of aftermarket parts will not be available in GT Mobile.

These are just a few of the high points – check out the full interview for much more!

Polyphony Digital’s president, Kazunori Yamauchi, just announced Gran Turismo PSP at Sony’s E3 2009 Press Conference.  This “little” game is going to pack quite a punch, including 800 cars and 35 tracks!  It’s also going to let you trade and exchange cars with each other, which Kazunori warned will probably be the only way to acquire them all.  Up to 4 people can also race head-to-head via the PSP’s ad-hoc connectivity.

One of the most exciting things we noticed -- a Ferrari Enzo was visible in the short preview video shown at the show.  It’s only logical, then, that the ultimate Ferrari super car will be coming to GT5.  Stay tuned for higher-res pictures and videos!

Welcome to GTPlanet’s live coverage of Sony’s E3 2009 press conference!  After months of anticipation – and complete silence out of Polyphony Digital – expectations are running high for some type of major announcement regarding the Gran Turismo series.  We already know that Gran Turismo Mobile is going to be announced, but questions still remain about Gran Turismo 5.  What’s going to happen?  Watch this box below over the next few hours to find out!

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