Bizarre decisions by PD [list]

[Yev]

Entry number 437 on the "Bizarre decisions by PD" list.

Seen the idea so I decided to make a topic.

Let's start:

- Unreasonable car selection (no F50, Diablo, Zonda F etc.)
- Many desirable cars are standards (Veyron, Zonda, many LMP/Group C cars etc.) while we get two Suzuki Swifts as premiums
- Many desirable tracks are missing (new Rome track instead of the older and much better one, no Midway, Apricot Hill, Pike's Peak etc.)
- Many cars aren't saleable
- Leveling system instead of the old Licence system
- New menu system (I like it though) instead of the old -city map-
- Face tracking available in Arcade only
- No mechanical damage in GT Life
- BSpec (in my oppinion) is done better than the ASpec (fuel/tyre wear, standing starts)

Post your ones and I'll update to this post.

 

[Midnight Snacks]

1. Silly level system
2. Paint chips
3. Can't preview paint on a car before you actually paint it
4. Smoke and rain pixellation
5. Poorly designed menu system

I tried to focus on game mechanics, not content.

 

[ChicoMaloXD]

The game has a good car selection (premium). But I agree the more content the better. They didn't have enough time to put more cars (premium ones). That has been discussed before countless of times.

-They mistaken saying the game had 1000 cars.
-The game needs more real life tracks/circuits. The originals are poorly designed with a few exceptions.
-Exclude damage, unless is very realistic and implemented in GT mode.
-Better car customization for Japanese cars. (body kits, high performance rims, etc)

But they don't have enough personal to achieve these goals.

Edit:
-TAKING SO LONG TO RELEASE DLC/ not releasing DLC at all...
-Not listening to the community

 

[chriz00]

Here are a couple:

- They should have had the various track variants (ex. Normal & Reverse) as one, rather than having them separate. Also, having weather/time options as one rather than separate. In my opinion, that would make it slightly easier/faster when choosing a race track.

- There should be that little "garage" button whilst doing practice mode (just like in the seasonals/special events), rather than having to go all the way back to the main page and having to go into the garage there.

 

[IceMan PJN]

- 20 million credit cap makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, despite efforts from the GTFDL to defend it.

- Lack of rewind and fast forward sorts of options for replays, despite this being such a basic and practical thing.

- Can only share eight photos at once.

- Can't share replays at all.

- Can only share with friend list rather than the entire community of millions.

- Can't save tuning setups. We should be able to save multiple different setups for every car, but instead whatever we currently have on a car at the moment is all we get.

- Why do I have to watch the same lame oil change animation a thousand times? It's a waste of friggin' time.

- Why must the cursor bounce around the screen to icons placed randomly about as if it was designed for me to click with a mouse? Menus need to be laid out better.

- No livery editor? Not even a basic one? Heck, Top Gear Rally, an early Nintendo 64 game, had a full livery editor. Is GT5 coming to us from 1996?

- Paint chips? I don't need a paint chip if I want to paint my real life car. Whatever color I want is what I get, with no paint chips required. This is retarded nonsense.

- I can't use Formula One cars in the actual game, despite the cars being right there?


- Why don't I have the handy search functions for dealerships, like what I enjoy from Forza Motorsport 3? If I want to search all the manufacturers for a saloon, I should be able to do that without having to go in and out of each one. If I want a car from 1970, it should list all cars from 1970 for me. If I want just V6s, it should list all V6s.

 

[BAZZ]

Stock gear ratios! Fix it, darnit.
UFO Clutch.

Then I'd be a happy Bazz. 👍

 

[Midnight Snacks]

-
- I can't use Formula One cars in the actual game, despite the cars being right there?

That's a license issue. If an F1 car is racing against another car on track, technically it's an F1 game. PD doesn't have the rights to do this. I know, it's stupid.

 

[Aloha62_2]

-No premium wheels for standard cars
-No 1/4 mile test track
-No test track at all
-Rolling starts for everything
-All the work put into weather and day night transitions and there are barely a handful of events with them.
-Adding multiple versions of the same car just to bloat the car list
-Not fact checking car stats, the poor lister storm has been wrong for years now.
-Making the act of collecting a prize car much slower then it use to be, just put the damn thing in my garage.

 

[shirakawaa]

- La Sarthe 2005 and Special Stage Route 7 aren't used in any event

 

[Guffaluff]

- Favorite list limited to 100 cars

- No optional qualifying (why? )

- Rolling/Standing starts should be optional for all tracks

- No point to point option for the Course Creator

- No option to drive cars stock to the bone like in Prologue (Time Trial). I want the possibility of driving my cars stock despite having bought NA Tuning stages or other permanent upgrades.

- Pointlessness of the License Tests.


This is all I can think of right now. But don't get me wrong, I love the game , I just think there are some issues that seem so easily fixed, but somehow they aren't.

 

[Seismica]

You've made a big mistake in not posting a couple of reserve posts after your initial one. This list is going to be pretty big.

To add a couple:
-Races and championships are far too short in A-spec (Seriously why does every event seem to only have 3 venues and <5 laps for each race?)
-Can't save mid-championship (Has this been fixed yet? No connection for my ps3 you see)
-The exp system is an epic fail, what was wrong with licenses? There is little point in them now (Other than 100% trophy) as the exp and car rewards are pathetic.
-Game is biased towards online gameplay (Seasonal events and an online car dealership form the bulk of the game now, offline events and the UCD are rubbish in comparison, ironic seen as GT made it's name with offline games)

Just generally they took GT4, widely considered to be one of the best console racers of all time and made it worse. I'd say the biggest bizarre decision was focusing almost solely on graphics.

 

[Corpsey]

Lots of garbagey concepts and not stylish ones like the alfa romeo 159 ti, fisker karma etc.

This list is massive though... there's so many things that are annoying as hell ~_~ I find I spend a lot of time at the "Oil Change" place because you can't skip the damn animation, and you have to wait for the entire menu to load just to click that one stupid button.

 

[BWX]

Look at my Sig. A-Spec size it 4 times smaller than GT4? GT4 - 522 A-spec races- GT5 - 127 A-Spec races. WTFPD?

Also related to that... Why are all the A-Spec events that were supposed to be on the disc being parced out to us once every two weeks via PSN? They should be part of the game, and why aren't any of them longer races, or different format? So boring. WTFPD?

Why no in-Endurance race or in-Championship game save? WTFPD?

Why did PD take away our setup save slots? WTFPD!

The list is VERY long. Good thread. PD boggle my mind sometimes.

 

[D00msday]

Standard cars.

 

[Rico_S]

Having a terrible public relationship.

 

[CarBastard]

-Not being able to preview paintjobs (Programing-wise IT'S NOT HARD!)
-Giving prize cars only once, and some horrid ones (Not only you've got more grinding in the game, YOU'VE MADE IT WORSE!)
-Not being able to save mid-championship (GT4 had it, why not GT5?)
-Not being able to qualify (GT1 and GT4 had this, oh, and real life racing).
-Making odd new tracks instead of bringing back old favourites (SS7 instead of SS11, Toscana instead of any GT4 dirt track, Chamonix instead of...GT4 chamonix. Why Cape Rig? Where's El Capitan?)
-Insisting on their boring car focus instead of listening what the majority of thw community wants (Yes, I mean econo-eco-hybrid-K car-crap commuter boxes instead of moaaaar race and sporte cars)
-Giving only 3 Racing grade dry tyres (GT4 had 5, RSS, RS, RM, RH, RSH. And they had differences, unlike GT5s stupid similarity in duration of RS and RH)
-The paint chip system (Though I thank having unprecedented levels of customization for a GT, the system is a nuissance. What about allowing me to use X paint colour X times I want after I discover it from the first time?)
-The odd design of menus (They look very good and stylish but things like going back to the menu after quitting online sucks)
-The lack of Piazza del Campo (Hadn't you reached a solution to the legal problem? You took all that time modelling, GET THE DAMN THING INSIDE!)
-Cars can only be tuned to certain HP levels (Real life proves thigs can get preeety wild in any car, you just need moaaar boost)
-Making the Nurb 24H race with the wrong cars (Kaz, didn't you raced there? Did you see any Group C or LMP car there? Nope, you saw GT cars. Have you ever thought why the A.C.O doesn't race there? That's why I thought, now set to work and give me moaaar GT race cars)
-Bringing back the legendarily awesome and beloved RM function and only giving it to a dozen of cars, a majority of which were already there since GT5P (Remember GT1 and GT2? It rocked and gave the otherwise boring cars a reason to exist, making boring Meganes and Peugeots in amazing Touring cars)
-Having pause menus without enough options (Though it's gotten pretty better in this respect with the "Are you sure to restart?" and the menu/info optoons, but what about giving audio and video options in pause menu? A jukebox to select the song you want? Surely it wouldn't be too complicated)
-Not remembering which setting for your garage order you had (Making you select "Order by: Make: Descending" everytime you start up is a nuissance)
-Making stuff for trailers not available in game (Nascar grid with fireworks, photomode for various cars, deumbed down damage system)
-Waste of WRC, NASCAR, SuperGT, Red Bull, and specially Top Gear licenses (There is just so much wasted potential here...)
-Awkward car receiving system (Not everyone likes the ticket system. I like it, in fact I'd like that even purchased cars ended up in the truck for me to receive it in the same cut scene way of the FT-86 trailer. But, in the interest of fairness give a quick "Take to garage" option and "Add all to garage" that would simply skip the whole process for those who don't want it).

And maybe more but I don't remember them at the moment...

 

[another_jakhole]

I just shat myself. lol This list can go on for too long. It's kinda pointless. Just makes me/us feel crappy.

 

[Aftrbrnr]

-Cars can only be tuned to certain HP levels (Real life proves thigs can get preeety wild in any car, you just need moaaar boost)

This. That's one thing I appreciate about Forza 3, is that with enough money, you can take a little car like a Chevrolet Aveo and make it competitive with super cars (although like real-life, the fact the chassis was never designed for such high performance means even after all the modifications, it won't handle as well as a super car).

There are two other issues related to that, the first being that most non-performance vehicles (family sedans, economy hatchbacks, etc.) don't receive too much performance gains despite being heavily modified (as in you purchased everything from the parts shop). The second issue that ties in with that is the prices for parts are universal from vehicle to vehicle, now remembering that some cars don't gain much performance despite being tuned to the max in new parts, the end result is you end up paying a lot sometimes for only about a gain of about 100 pp or less. With some cars (I'm looking at you, superminis) it seems ludicrous to spend money on something like a stage 3 engine tune for 30,000 credits when you only gain a couple of horsepower. The 2CV is probably the most extreme example in that you can spend close to 200,000 credits on it and it still isn't even competitive with most stock non-performance cars (try running a tuned to the max 2CV in the French seasonal and see how close you can get to the lead, if at all).

What's nice about some previous GT games and Forza is that part prices vary from vehicle to vehicle and/or how much performance you get out of them. Generally, parts will be cheaper on less expensive non-performance oriented cars than sports cars or racing vehicles. With that, parts prices also seem to rise with the more performance gains you get out of that certain part relative to ones that don't perform as well.

Face it, you shouldn't have to pay 100,000 credits to only receive an increase in 30 to 40 horsepower, even in real-life that isn't the case most of the time.

 

[SoCal Senator]

You guys hit most of them already. I'd add:

Pitting is awful in it's current form. Make the driver actually pit the car and obey standard rules. Bonus: animation for driver changes.

Fix some of the more ridiculous challenges (Eiger Alfa Romeo, Elise, IC-10, etc.). Too much frustration will keep people from trying to plat--and hurt future sales.

 

[nizmo_bro]

A lot of good ones in here. Makes me wonder about PD.

I'll add one, I don't think I read already

-Drafting is way too strong.
Add that to a bunch of noobs online and your looking at some major accidents on the first lap. I saw this myself today. Everyone in a group of cars tries to pass all at once and it creates a cluster**** into the turn. Not fun at all.

 

[gogatrs]

A lot of good ones in here. Makes me wonder about PD.

I'll add one, I don't think I read already

-Drafting is way too strong.
Add that to a bunch of noobs online and your looking at some major accidents on the first lap. I saw this myself today. Everyone in a group of cars tries to pass all at once and it creates a cluster**** into the turn. Not fun at all.

It also takes the realism out of karting.
The only track where you're faster without the pack is a tiny custom course called the paperclip. And it's an oval.
Everywhere else, you're better off bump drafting

 

[trangurismo]

- Monza (No Chicane), La Sarthe 2005, SSR7, Rome Reverse, Tokyo Reverse were never used in A-Spec/B-Spec modes
- Tsukuba Circuit (Seriously, why is this stupid track being used so much?)
- No proper preview of showing the paint colour before painting it on your car
- Horrible Prize Car List
- Missing a lot of great tracks from previous GT games (No Seattle? WTF?)
- Not being able to sell most of the cars you bought
- No saving in championship races and endurance races
- No saving for tune setups
- Every single race in A-Spec is a rolling start
- When it keeps asking you to "Sign into the PlayStation Network" a hundred times when your offline from the PSN
- No proper track creator

 

[08ViperACR]

Chuck Norris

 

[avilab]

PD's anti-customer relations. Seriously, would it kill you to just inform us of upcoming updates/changes? We're a pretty loyal customer base, but even that lasts only so long with no information to keep us coming back on a regular basis.

 

[DEATHSARTHE]

I really think a lot of the game play design was based around online and anticipating the actions of an online community that exploits and hacks.

PD kinda threw us everything but the kitchen sink in previous games because there was no online element, it was a more personal game. Now that online has become a pillar in the gaming market, players obviously will exploit from any possible angle to get ahead unfairly.

It must've been chaos trying to balance the game with Online functionality. We still look at Gran Turismo as if it were GT4 or GT2... but really its entirely different beast. Though it captures their spirit almost perfectly, GT5 is a much different entity that needs structure and rules to ensure an honest experience for/from everyone.

While it seems it may have caused more problems or quirks than anything, I'm sure its needed. You know, I don't think they've quite mastered how to balance good game design with an over-active online community and I don't blame them this being their first time - but changes will come in updates. Gran Turismo will be a smoother game.

 

[lbsf1]

It also takes the realism out of karting.

Yeah.
In real karts there is absolutely no slipstream, (check my newest vid in the karting thread) and in gt5 it is really noticable you can from 20m behind gain easily 10mph down a straight. It really ruins races.

 

[zedextreme8177]

The separation of A-spec and B-spec

It was much better in GT4, where you could drive, or let your Bob takeover, especially during endurance races

 

[GasolineJunkie]

GT4 - 522 A-spec races- GT5 - 127 A-Spec races.

If this was addressed, I can deal with all of the other silly things that they did.

I know we have online seasonals but its only a few at a time and GT4 had some of the same make races in the dealerships, heck, Prologue had that!

And there should be way more mid range endurance races. Almost every race series in GT5 is 3 races and 5 laps. There are some that are only one race!!! There are really only 2 decent length series in GT5 other than the enduros. The FGT and Dream Car.

There are so few races, that most tracks got barely used!!!

there are so few races, that allmost all cars will not get used. I don't expect them to have a race for every car, but maybe a race for each class of car. The more races there are with certain restrictions the more you'll actually use them. What else am I gonna use my 2CV for? Yup, nothing.

Rant over.

 

[robbo6]

Most of my major peevs with the game have been mentioned, but I'll list the ones that grind my gears the most.

Rolling starts...why pd?? The old beep, Beep, BEEP is synonymous with Gran Turismo and it's gone! Also the wait for a race to
actually start (already long because of loading) was made WORSE with this decision!

Top Gear....I really do think a mentally retarded offspring of a Gorilla could have designed a better tie in with Top Gear.
The events are just plain AWFUL!!

Lights don't properly illuminate roads...Who in their right mind would race on a twisty rural road at night in a Lambo with
THOSE lights!!

Premium car choice...Completely and utterly bizarre. It's not just the fact that many excellent cars were not premiums, it's
the fact that many premiums are just huge "WTFs!" Prius??? the three old VWs??? 2 almost IDENTICAL Suzukis?? NASCAR?!! I know
NASCAR is popular but only in a small part of the world.

Lack of events....as others have said GT5 is appalling in this regard. The longest championship is 5 races!! WHY?? I'm just
aghast at that.

Standard cars...ok time constrainst aside (I can understand that), but TOO many identical cars with just the region name
changes. Theres 2 identical mazda touring cars, the Opel and Vauxhall racing cars are identical....not to mention the
identical Diahatsus, the identical Mazda roadster, MX5, Miatas. Identical RX7x and efini RX7s. A Thousand cars? my arse is
there. Also some look REALLY bad and I MEAN REALLY BAD.

Poor track quality.....the new tracks are really nice, the tracks given a good hd upgrade (tsukuba) look good. But it
highlights the Appalling lack of quality with the VERY basic ports. Trial Mountain (one of my favourite tracks) looks just
crap, Laguna is devoid of detail and life. Autumn Ring has awful looking 2d sprites for the the marshalls..they look REALLY
bad. In fact I'm amazed photo mode gives as much freedom as it does, becuase I know it's there to show off the GOOD tracks
(hell, Tsukuba has a drinks dispenser if you look into the inner pit area!), but it makes the bad tracks crappness all the
more apparent.

Not enough usage of some tracks and over usage of others....Tsukuba, nice track but OVERUSED!! EVEN in the new seasonals it KEEPS
ON BEING USED. And we still only get a few of the reverse options....and then in (arguably) crap events. SUVS get grand
valley reverse (I LOVE that track reversed, but HATE SUVS!). Rome reverse in the KEi cars, I don't hate the keis as much as
the SUVS but COME ON PD!! and Tokyo reverse with the classic cars, same thing......as above for me. I know that's a personal
thing, but I HIGHLY doubt that SUVs, Kei cars and Classics are the most POPULAR car choices in the GT games!!


No saves during championships and enduros....again Im aghast, other GTs had the championships saves....and I could excuse
previous GTs not saving during an enduro because of the limited save space of a card...NO EXCUSES with the huge HDD. And with
the modern issues of power saving I find it mind boggingly stupid to expect people to run their PS3s CONSTANTLY for hours on
end. The PS3 may have low power usage, but that's irrelevant if MILLIONS of PS3s are left on. Add in the higher risk of
failures and the people who use additional cooling solutions which will use MORE POWER. PD should get an award for doing HARM
to the planet!

LACK of options.....This a Japanese problem I think. They tend to write a game a certain way and you play it that way or go
frack yourself. I think this is unacceptable nowadays with the modern life trend to be able to customize almost everything.
The fact I can only remove the entire HUD (which laughingly had to be PATCHED in!) just to get rid of the damned IRRITATING
flashing gear adviser thingy. JUST LET ME REMOVE THAT ONE THING!! I'm SURE previous GTs HAD that option!

Aspec in low grip mode not real grip....another WTF?! Makes wet weather and enduro tyre choice completely and utterly
irrelevant.

Awful menu....already mentioned but I have to re-iterate that it's BAD!! Many times the pointer will move to an unexpected
area. Also WHY did PD change the long established "X" and "O" select and "triangle" cancel system?!!

Changing oil....I HATE it!! in fact the whole GT auto section takes TOO long to load.

The paint system... First off i have to admit it was NICE to get the option, but my 'eck PD arsed it up. The limited use
paint chips are a pain, and the no preview of the car with the paint is just mind boggling ESPECIALLY considering the limited
usage of the paints chips!

The system for acquiring cars.....WHY??? with GT having such LOOOOOOONG load times for the menus they ADDDDDD unnecessary steps
within that crappy menu.

In game economy......awful, Less events, less money, limited prize cars, limited ability to sell prize cars, and HUGELY
expensive cars....WTF.

Used car dealership......what a complete pain in the arse. I'm trying to acquire all the standards and this system just
SUCKS!! WHY remove the individual dealer UCDs??? It's just a blatantly crappy way to increase the games longevity.

Bspec has LONGER races than Aspec.....WTF....does PD HONESTLY think gamers would rather spend MORE time pressing ONE button
every 20 smegging seconds, than actually driving and racing themselves???? Possibly the WORST and most bizarre decision!!

No steering lock adjustments....I have the same lock to lock ratio in the F1 and other race cars that I have in a road car???
WHAT??!!!

No selectable reverse gear with the steering wheel in sequential mode.....Again I'm aghast, missing it in GT3 was bad enough
(first game with proper wheel support IIRC) missing it in GT4 was a MASSIVE oversight....missing it in GT5 is just
ridiculous. Pressing triangle to reverse when I have an accelerator pedal is WRONG....and the worst thing is in H shift mode
reverse WORKS PROPERLY!!....it's THERE in the game just not in sequential mode. <facepalm>

No dead zone adjustments for the wheels.....the Evo X is undrivable with my G25 because of some problem with the wheel and
the simulated AYC the car has...so it wobbles down straights. I LOVE the car....cannot drive it. <slow ironic clap for PD>

Drafting.....I'll echo what has been said about this..it's over exagerated, especially for the AI IMO.

Brake disribution/balance/bias...always been wrong in previous GTs and no exception in GT5. I try and run race cars and
classic cars without ABS and the brake balance thing is driving me mad!! EVEN if I have NO, ZILCH, NADA rear brake power I
can still lock the rears....WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!! I WANT to be able to adjust brake bias in ONE PERCENT INCREMENTS.

No Practise and qualifying.....HOW HARD could it be to put the options for these in??? Those who don't want it can just start
the race as normal. JUST DO IT!!

Premium cockpit view.....the high speed shaking makes me ill, Too many games are doing this and should have the options in
to turn things off. Also when adjusting the seating position the outside view POV changes....WHY?!! If I adjust my seating in my road car the view outside doesn't change, I just get closer/further away from the windscreen.

I've always been a huge GT fan, got EVERY game apart from GTp. GT5 is seriously killing the series for me personally. They've
taken some steps forward in many areas.....but sadly for me gone backwards in many many more areas. I still play the game,
but whereas I loved GT1 ,GT2, GT3, GT4 (eventually, although I think the rot started in gt4)......I have no love for GT5,
it's a "good" game and only "good". It could and SHOULD have been better.

 

[GT'S BiG FaN]

Making GT5