I was thinking wether I should give it 90 or 80. In the end I gave it 80.
+
On one hand it is everything I was hoping for, actually it's more than I was hoping for... I would have been happy with GT5 Prologue with only a couple of more tracks and some more cars.
The premium models are beautiful, I like the car selection (although I would love the latest Volvo S60 and SAAB 9-5 (fjord blue!), but hey I fully understand that the game was not made in Sweden...)
The standard cars doesn't look as good, obviously, but I think the variation compensates more than enough for that, it adds another dimension to the game. When racing you can't really tell the difference between standard and premium and it's not what you focus on either.
I'm driving with the DFGT wheel and it makes the driving experience even better.
The effects from daylight progression and weather is fantastic, the Nordschleife is in itself worth more than 100 points on this scale...
The Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2.
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On the other hand, while I find the driving aspect absolutely brilliant, there are many things in the user interface and other minor features that still seems to be in alpha or beta state... It has been improved through patches, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
The seasonal events, that was a fresh addition in the start, has become rather uninteresting. It's fast cash and it's a way to farm helmets and suits, but that's all there is for me. I would appreciate if they thought about new ways to renew the game through seasonal events, without making every seasonal event a copy of the previous one.
The game progression is more about moving up to more and more powerful cars, rather than facing more and more skilled opposition. The last endurance, for instance, on Nürburgring 24h I would prefer racing against GT cars (with highly skilled AI) over the totally unrealistic LMP cars (would any LMP actually survive 24 hours around that circuit? I think not). A way to incorporate the B-spec team in the >4 hour races would be nice as well, and it would give B-spec a better reason for being a part of the game.
The online connection has been worse than other games. During one period I was constantly disconnected from servers without the game even giving me a hint of what might be the problem. All connections can't be expected to be perfect for gaming, but the software should tell you why a certain connection doesn't work. Maybe it's just something that has got to do with the fact that online gaming is a rather new field for PD still...
The paint chip system is cool I guess. There are some really nice colours and I like that there are metallics and pearls for instance. But sometimes it's annoying that you need to earn paint chips to be able to paint your car. Why can't I just head over to the paint shop and pay the people working there to paint my car in the colour of my choise? And why is the chip gone once I've painted the car?
General improvements that would raise the grade:
The track generator is great, I only wish it gave you more artistic freedom and not just random layouts based on the parameters you chose.
Weather and daylight transitions on all tracks would be fantastic.
Some sort of free roam mode would be great. For occasions when you want to drive that gorgeous car, but don't feel like racing. It doesn't have to be a huge space, if they could just open up the roads inside the Madrid and the London tracks it would provide some nice city driving. They could open up all variations of the Eiger track (just removing the barriers) to have a free roam mode there.
The inclusion of a livery editor would make me spend the rest of my life in front of my PS3 so maybe it's good that there is none... yet it doesn't stop me from wanting one
So, as a total the game gets 80 from me.
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