Drifting in Gran Turismo 5: First Gameplay Videos

YouTuber ukoredgar2143 has provided us with some of the most entertaining gameplay videos yet! He’s been camped out at his local Best Buy, playing GT5 Kiosk Demo and putting the game’s new smoke effects to good use. Unfortunately, the demo doesn’t include skidmarks, but these clips still provide a nice preview of what’s to come! Thanks to all who sent these in.

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Comments (139)

  1. Gt5anticip8r

    Great vids, and even better driving! Physics look pretty much spot on to me, but the smoke does get vacuumed up too fast

  2. SZRT Ice

    P.S. To the “Anti-Drift Brigade” Drifting gives you a better understanding of how far a car can be pushed, both in acceleration and control.

  3. SZRT Ice

    I still remember playing the first Gran Turismo in a race that required hard grade tires, and tethering the car to keep control around corners… And after it was said and done, going back to watch (@ the time) what was the most epic thing I’d ever seen… Thus, a drifter was born… GT got me into drifting. No lie, No other game compares…

  4. Shurik

    Yes +1 on that the smoke needs to be disappearing slower. I like that its thicker then in Prologue but c-mon it’s the first thing that they eye catches; it’s still not quite realistic. =( How do they miss this? or maybe why???

    1. Sigmaviper11

      Yea. They need to work on the particle lifespan as well as making it more random. Right now the ending life span has no variance so the smoke looks like its getting swept up. The alpha cards need their edges softened a bit more, because you can almost see each individual one. The gravity needs to be adjusted a bit because in some cases the smoke really does rise a bit to quickly. And while this is a Conference build, they need to adjust the smoke out put so its not so temper-mental and possibly base it on tire width and composition. But that’s just me. Because be it drifting or a Nascar or DTM machine spinning round, or just doing donuts and burnouts, smoke adds A LOT to the immersiveness.

  5. John Marine

    In no way am I any drifting ace in the Gran Turismo series. It seems like much better car control can be had by using the Professional driving model. This dude is awesome for putting these drifts together. The drifting is almost as insane as any classic Sega 3D racing game.

    Now for something off-topic… the one that caught my interest first was the fourth drift video. The reason why, though, is completely unrelated to drifting. In fact, it’s my first interpretation of what standard cars seem to look like from the interior. I want to believe this Corvette is a Standard car as it lacks the Premium car details inside and outside. But really, this is quite manageable for interior and exterior detail.

    Still, this bloke is golden for his awesome drifts in these videos.

  6. Sigmaviper11

    Love the drifting. Just got a DFGT so I have to get used to it all over again. A new challenge before GT5’s release. But I have noticed something. The smoke effects in the kiosk demos are tempermantal. Sometime you can be going sideways quite fast and there won’t be any smoke. Other times you’re only doing 20mph, redlining first and the smoke is insane. I’ve also noticed with both the vids and my own kiosk drifting experiences that, the smoke will randomly quit at times mid drift on one tire though rarely both or that it won’t go up gradually but rather just come up full power. Yes, I know its just different builds of a demo, hence I would hope these issues would get fixed.

    Also it seems that the smoke in this demo dissapates more quickly than the demo I’ve tried. Although both to me are still about a second or two to quick in dissapation. Just my opinion.

  7. TakeshiSkunk

    Ugh I’m so tired of the whole anti-drift elitism. If you can’t even have a little fun drifting then you don’t love driving.

    I’ve always been a big fan of drifting, I’d say I spend maybe half my time in GT drifting anymore. I also love hotlapping, and a little below that racing.

    I dunno, drifting is just fun. In a car you’re really comfortable in (I’ve fallen in love with the old Lancer 1800 as of late) on a track you’re familiar with, drifting is really relaxing. Once you get past that initial learning curve its all very natural, and making the super smooth link or just sticking right on the line through a really long sweeper feels amazing, even moreso when you get to watch your amazing gt quality replay of it :p

    Not everyone is going to love drifting, but you’d have to go out of your way to HATE it if you really enjoy driving. Its a great display of car control. Sure its not as difficult as a lot of us try to make it seem, but its not mindless either. Also spending time learning to drift will teach you skills that can help you with racing as well, I know a lot of racing purists that have trouble with correcting slides and countersteering.

    1. Sigmaviper11

      I agree. Drifting has more benefits than drawbacks to me. In both Prologue and GT4 I spend a good 70% of my time going sideways somewhere. I really don’t understand what’s to hate. You get better skills, and you get a better feel for the car, not to mention. . . well for me anyway, getting used to a new car is so much easier once you send it sideways through a few corners.

  8. DrTrouserPlank

    Am I the only person who didn’t touch drift mode at all in GT5P and has no intention of doing so in GT5 as well?

    1. Maxiboy

      No your not. I tried it once … hated it. Thats not to say I didnt drift, I just did it in time trail, and didnt feel the need for it to be scored. I dont mind that its in GT5 at all, infact im glad, just have a look how many people are psyced about it.

  9. Zenith

    Just a thought, but back in the 60’s and 70’s american car companies often understated their vehicle’s engine outputs in order to appease government regulations. If PP uses those numbers to create the cars in-game, we may have some underpowered muscle cars. Maybe they use factual dyno sheets of original-spec cars

    1. tvensky

      Zenith – I doubt that is the case, but it could happen with couple of other cars not only muscle. but its good you bring this one up. some cars PD are just not able to test properly.

  10. yomamma

    they should make a ds4 with a mini wheel on it for ppl like me who can’t afford a G25 or G27. awesome vids though, would love to see what you could of done with a wheel.

  11. DaveTheStalker

    How about not having music? It’s A cryin shame when cover engine sounds with music :(. Can you upload the Vette video without music please?

  12. Veitchy

    I know it’s kind of off topic, but how freaking fast must that Corvette be to hold off that other car (Cheville?) while driving like that? Or maybe its just that the other car is mad slow…

    1. Paulo

      Thats something I noticed as well, and I hope the AI cars aren’t purposely made slow in events. If I’m racing a car thats faster than mine, or equal, I expect that to reflect properly in the gameplay.

  13. BDawg

    The in car footage of the driver in the Corvette vid is amazing, moving his head to look out the side window while drifting and wearing Chevrolet gear is just cool

  14. Maxiboy

    Mmmmmmmm dont like the flappy wheels. It used to be a strong point for previous GT games, but it looks like have made it worse. The wheels just simply move to fast and snap back to straight ahead far too quickly.

    1. StarSoldier

      Its because he’s using the dual shock controller. you can go full lock-to-lock with one inch of travel, Using the wheel will make it smoother.

    2. Maxiboy

      Well no it still shouldnt be doing that… does that mean that when you use to Dpad that the wheel automatically goes to full lock instantly? Its meant to be regulated and move to full lock at a certain pace (at a pace that a driver with a wheel could do it). I see what your saying, but how come this never happened with any other GT?

    3. andrewz

      I played Forza 3 a while ago and car’s wheels behaved in a completely opposed way: your analog stick was in the maximum position, but your wheels turned very slowly to the maximum position and it took like forever. I couldn’t find any way how to set it right in the menu. Am I blind? Maybe it looked better in replays, but it was incredibly irritating during the race, cause any single car felt very unresponsive.

    4. infamousDee

      That would be the active steering aid stopping you from spinning out. Fortunately, this can be switched off in GT5.

    5. andrewz

      I think it has something to do with simulating the steering wheel while you’re using d-pad. It does not affect the stability of a car.

    6. Red_9

      actually if you think about it, a bit of steering lag might be more realistic, seeing as it does take a moment or so on a real steering wheel to turn from extreme right to extreme left (or vice versa). Unlike the Dualshock, you can’t really snap from one direction to the other like what can be found in GT. What is it, like three turns of the wheel to go from extreme left to extreme right turn?

    7. Maxiboy

      @Red
      Yep generaly its around there for a road car, some sports cars have a faster lock, but even so it cant be done that fast can it? Im glad im not the only one thinking it, thought I was going mental.

  15. The Nothing

    I’m going to be one of the FEW appreciative GT fans out here in the internet world.

    ukoredgar2143 and Jordan, THANK YOU FOR THESE VIDS!

    1. Sigmaviper11

      It’s actually a quite fun way to sharpen your car control skills. Plus, you get the luxury of awesome replays if you do it right.

  16. FrancisBenjamin

    looks like PD too the advice i posted… use the Dust effect from rally races in GT4 and just put them in GT5 as smoke effect.

    looks amazing.

    1. Bernd

      I second that. Dust-effects in GT4 are prettier, or think about dust in GT5p,looks awesome, even with 12 cars on the track, so why are these new effects so poor, when only 2 cars are racing? I still don’t get it :-(

    1. robert

      i know its for fun in gt5p but its not something i like in the gt games, if i wanted to drift id play, pardon my language, nfs….. GT5 is for racing pure and simple not drifting

    2. Chris

      Yeah to bad opinions are like assholes and yours stinks… Perhaps us sim drifters want a game with realistic physic’s that we can compete in.

    3. Chad.D

      @robert i lol’d, the only thing simple here is you, at least your thought process is, maybe you should try drifting, and see how fun it is, and how challenging it can be, and also, gran turismo is the driving simulator, not just racing, try not to be so ignorant

    4. Luke

      IF you want to drift, GT should your first choice, and NFS your last. Drifting in NFS is completly screwed up and can`t be compared to real drifting, or even something similar.

    5. Chris

      I’m glad I have some fellow drifters on board here. Drifting is the ultimate in car control and exhibition. It takes a large amount of talent as well as being aware of every aspect of what your doing. In many cases such as nascar they show that their car control is limited in many ways. There are very few motor sports that exhibit such control.

    6. Yaywalter

      “if i wanted to drift id play, pardon my language, nfs”

      Incorrect. If you wanted to pretend to drift, you’d play NFS. If you want to simulate it, you’d play GT or another reasonably decent driving sim.

    7. Erik

      @ robert: Don’t worry, GT5 will be massive and if you don’t like drifting (provided that it will be an event in the game) I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other stuff in there for you. I think far from everyone will love every feature in there, but because of the diversity of the content I’m sure it will attract a wide perspective of players, all for different reasons. Sure, maybe most players will just do the classic racing with the state-of-the-art cars, but back in the days of GT1 me and my brother loved to take the more average cars (Honda Civic) out for some “family racing” around Trial Mountain, simulating two families in an intense race to first get to the mountain cabin… Now, imagine doing the same thing with the VW type 2 and around Nürburgring. In rain. At night. In cockpit view. It’s not really the Le Mans 24 h, but it’s something I’d love to do.

    8. Sigmaviper11

      I’m betting there will be events for drifting in GT. They have rally, 24hr, open wheel, and even top speed races (though limited) in previous installments. It seems anything they can get their hands on proper, they install into the events series. I don’t see why drifting would be any different. So don’t do those races, or find joy in sideways driving. Pick one. But don’t complain about it to everyone else. You do have freedom.

  17. Woggster

    Great videos!! GT5 looks like it’s gonna be amazing! =D

    Can someone please tell me what the songs are in the first and third Video please?? Thanks

  18. Black Chamber

    I noticed that there was no self-shadowing or environmental shadows cast on the vehicles.

    Could this just be due to the demo being a very early build?

    1. Erik

      But there is self shadowing and environmental shadows. 1st video at 0:20 for instance, the left side of the car is blacked out when in shadow and in the following sequence it looks alright in the big shadowed area as well. It’s propbably the big blue sky that’s reflecting in the roof at that point. 1:27 is also quite convincing. At between 1:29 and 1:30 the car reems to pass by some small shadow from maybe a flagpole or something and that is clearly being hinted on the right (our left) half of the front. 1:48 is also interesting because there we have the car moving through a complicated shadow pattern and you can clearly see it. The same effects are in the other videos as well as far as I can tell. Remember that these are cars that reflect a lot of light, even though they are in shadow they will still be lit up by the light from the sky. If you still hesitate, look at the second video, there’s shadows all over the place (on the car).

    2. Erik

      Maybe it’s the same thing that causes a lot of people to think the lunar landings was fake because the astronauts are lit up when in shadow. But light reflects well on most surfaces, especially moon dirt and car paint :)

    1. rydeen

      Drifting is the most i care about in GT! Im just waiting to drift with my friends online in a party mode or whatever its called.

    2. snaketus

      Drifting is part of motoring, and most exciting part of it. I’m clad we finally got some good drifting footage. I just look down pad drifters though (look at the front tires), because you just can’t do steering corrections like that within real life or with wheel in the game. Instead you have to steer with gas pedal.

  19. MrSkyline

    the smoke effects are quite poor if you ask me, it looks as if the smoke is attached to the car and gets pulled behind it, also it disappears way to fast.

    1. alexxx

      agreed it seems to act alot like a tail. the smoke should be a little bit longer and fade a bit slower. nevertheless it is a step up though

    2. B

      Definately. Don’t get me wrong, its a huge improvement over Prologue, but it’s still not quite there. It still disperses way too quickly. It also doesn’t interact with the car quite right whilst going sideways. And whilst doing a burnout the smoke rises way too quickly.

    3. MrSkyline

      @ Chad.D

      I know it does, smoke is a rather demanding effect in terms of processing power, but even if they adjusted the way it behaves, and not even the amount of smoke, it’d already be a big improvement.

      But hey I actually don’t really care, I plan to drive in front of the pack, therefore not being able to see other cars smoke :p

    4. Sigmaviper11

      Would it really be that hard on the fps? I mean by the looks of it the smoke looks to be alpha-ed rather than a true dynamic effect. So would it really have that much of an impact on the frame rate to reduce dispersion by about 2 tp 3 seconds and increase the gravity on the smoke?

  20. Cyrus

    Perhaps the gentleman who did the drifting could post up what settings he used so we can pop on over to best buy and try em out for ourselves, as I know I am not used to GT tuning at all…my Forza 3 setups probably won’t work as I can’t change the bump and rebound independently, and I assume for other reasons…

  21. infamousDee

    You can tell simply from watching these videos that the physics are streets ahead of anything we’ve seen on a console before.

    1. Cyrus

      I was thinking the same – I feel like this is what I was waiting for after GT3. I can’t believe how much the smoke curls up from the tires! Time to hibernate until November…

  22. Gran-Turismo-5

    I love drifting! I think that the missing special event in GT5 will be drifting with the guy that was in a GT PSP Commercial (I forgot his name!) though many people say that is going to be F1 with sebastian vettel which is great!

    1. rydeen

      Yes it was Tanner Foust but i sure dont think it should be an american to have the drift special event i think it should be some japanese drifter like Keiichi tsuchyia(Drift King) or kawabata…

  23. greenlightning

    Reminds me of some of the GT3 drift videos. GT5 is going to be epic and surely will secure Gran Turismo as the best of the best in console race games. The wait is soon going to be over and oh what a joyous day that day will be.

    1. FD3S

      Although I must add that the Best Buy demo is supposed to be an older build from E3. So we will be seeing some improvements overall.

    2. rydeen

      Hehe i know what u think lol… but i did watch the videos. Im just wondering if the physics will be realistic like LFS when ur using a wheel.

    3. FD3S

      Yeah I play LFS from time to time. I’m thinking the physics might be a lot closer to it, maybe not on par… but then again, I’ve yet to test how good final GT5’s physics are, so I’ll hold my judgement until then.

  24. Luke

    Well great, the vids are mostly not playable in my country due to the music.
    I hate music in racing and driftings vids. I`m sure most of you think the same way.

    1. STPtheMUSIC

      Yes, the majority of players are with you, Luke! However, many are making an exception due to the difficulty with obtaining decent sound quality at a BestBuy Demo kiosk. :(

    2. Erik

      I totally understand while someone would want to add music to a video because it’s difficult to get the proper sound. But if the result is that some of the videos can’t be viewed because of copyright issues with the music then I would prefer no sound at all. I can’t see the fourth video for instance because Sony (ironic, huh?) Music Entertainment has blocked it in my country.

      But all the other videos look sweet :)

    3. Luke

      Personally i`d rahter take any chance to hear the engine, that`s why i hate music in racing and driftings vids. Most people don`t even know what kind of music would be suitable. Drift vid with hardcore heavy metal stuff is a big and epic fail.

      BUT, and here it comes, i can live with music which is used to support the content. Unless it`s a music video, music should only be used decently and NOT on full volume.

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