Gran Turismo 5 Turns 10 Today

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This is the thing what i love from GT5, the Grand Tour is memorable.

Much better than GT 6 in terms of content, inmersion and AI, despite for the car list what obviously in GT6 is bigger.
This should be implemented in the actual motorsport events, like the NASCAR Series the game had. And this type of rally should be the primary GT rallying, the time attack point to point races instead of the closed circuits.
 
I'm a little bit late but, here goes... I haven't used these forums (regularly) at all since 2010, and I joined specifically because of this game and how hyped I was for it, so I feel it'd be a satisfying bookend to commemorate the 10 anniversary of it here. Listening to GT5 menu music to accompany writing this~ Man, it makes for really good background music for anything.

PS2 and PS1 games were huge in my early gaming days, GT3 being one of them. By 2009, having played 2/3/4/5P, the series was one of my favorites. Before and after GT5, it brought out my passion for cars like no other media. The instant I saw the first trailer in June, I was already really pumped cause it was gonna be the next, real, big GT (despite playing Prologue a decent bit and enjoying it), especially for NASCAR (and visual damage to a slightly less extent) being in the series for the first time, it was like a dream come true. The next 18 months we're filled with F5'ing GTPlanet on my PS3 browser, latching onto any new trailer and article that popped up, clinging to GTPSP news and the game itself to whet my modern-GT appetite and make the painful multiple-delay wait a little bit less painful (and having a TON of fun and hours with it too), getting the latest screenshots/pics from my old PSN buddy, spending some hours in the 370Z Indy demo, and going to almost every Target for that in-store demo so I could finally drive a NASCAR car in GT. Every new trailer was ecstasy and every additional delay was a huge downer. However, the day finally came, and to I still have what I picked up from GameStop that incredible day.

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I can't describe how elated I was that day, to hold that game and flip through the pages in that book and agape from the amount of cars I was about to play with, or booting up the game for the first time, or spending hours and hours in the game for the following few years. The shortest I can put it is I don't think there's been any game that I've anticipated as much combined with how much love and hours I put into it as GT5. I was 14 at the time so my standards were a bit lower, but today I still enjoy it every bit as much as I did 10 years ago. The photo mode, sheer amount of cars and tracks (especially my new and old favorites from 3/4/PSP), NASCAR/Daytona (I don't mind the challenges or the amount of cars they had, idk why so many people say the license was underutilized), chilling in online lobbies at the Top Gear track and Shuffle races (God I hope that comes back in GT7), watching that amazing intro a billion times (and Spec 2.0's), collecting paint colors and applying them and aero body parts on my cars, admiring the weekly(?) photo mode contest entries here on GTP, messing with karts and the fun albeit limited course maker, relying solely on my trusty Chrome Line Lambo and race-modified Camaro for so many of the tough races, just thinking about the menu music and all the great memories I had with the game takes me back to 2010 and 2011, particularly playing this game on the many school days off during the snow-filled winter of 2010. After a few months of GT Sport's release, I realize how much I missed the variety of the legacy PS2 game cars (the old random sedans, the 80s-00s race cars, etc) despite not looking as good as the Premium cars or usable in Photo Travel, I didn't and still don't care, I miss having all those cars to collect. Hopefully in 7, we have at least 500 fully detailed models with a lot of old favorites back. I'm psyched for the future of the series, it almost feels like I'm back in 2009-10, latching on to any news on GTPlanet and elsewhere about the next big GT game. Here's hoping the delays aren't the same, haha. Going back to this game revitalized my passion for the series for the first time since Sport came out, and now I wanna go back to all of them at some point soon... And hey who knows, maybe I'll finally be active in the GTP community!

Back on topic, GT5 unleashed my love of cars and racing games like no other game has, and I'll never forget how much it meant to me. Firing up the game again made me nostalgic (and also craving all the old cars we lost in Sport), and makes me wanna keep playing some more and enjoying all the cars (and rediscover the fun of buying/unlocking more) and fun tracks, and potentially complete the career mode. It blows my mind how this game is as old as GT3 when I played it to get hype for this game's release, and it was already super nostalgic to me back then... I sadly never got into GT6 much as I was slightly burned out from the media I enjoyed around the time, but I look to return to that game as well. In the end, GT5 will probably always be my favorite game in the series for all it did for me, and the amount of fun I had with it; I'm not too critical of the physics, campaign specifics (though I am glad we're getting a GT4-like Simulation Mode for 7), Standard cars and other stuff people here have mentioned, so those never took any enjoyment out for me. To close off, here's a few pics from my time with the game, with the final one being a Free Run sesh I had on the 10th anniversary, doing the first thing I did when I got the game (after importing all my GTPSP cars)- taking a NASCAR car out for a spin at Daytona. (and here's an album full of pics of my CE and my stats in the game.) (also, if y'all want me to put all my GT5 photo mode pics in an album, lemme know)

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The game that took me out of the series until GT Sport. We used to LAN GT3, GT Concept and GT4 weekly in a friend’s garage. To lose the LAN functionality was the biggest downgrade of all. Losing iLink functionality in GT4 was a sad omen of things to come.
Well, turns out Gran Turismo 5 did have a lan mode in the end. Better late than never huh?
 
Gran Turismo 5: The video game that lived inside of my PlayStation 3 for three straight years and never came out, that is until Gran Turismo 6 came out. It was an incredible ride all throughout its lifespan and forever changed my expectations of racing games, video games in general really. The online experience I had shall never be forgotten and I made so many memories: Meeting friends online to go race, share what new cars we acquired, show off our own custom rides and throw 'em down on the course, Shuffle Racing, lending cars for one another to borrow for whatever the occasion, competing in the Seasonal Events to see who can get the best Performance Point Multiplier bonus, and making millions of Credits when you were away from home with B-Spec Remote Racing. :D

In my opinion, GT5 is still the most-ambitious title that Polyphony Digital has developed, considering their scope of features they wanted to implement before succumbing to feature creep (a lot of the features they wanted to implement made it, but others got postponed) and the hardware platform they were developing the game on. GT5 still has the highest number of "Firsts" for the franchise:

  • Use of licenses for unique in-game content and challenges (even if they were severely underutilized) such as NASCAR, Top Gear and more
  • Introduction of karts; they are the first other type of vehicle to co-exist with cars in the franchise
  • Course Maker; while it was underwhelming to a majority of players, the idea of having an infinite number of courses to race on was a very ambitious and quirky idea for the franchise
  • Online community hub, where you can check out what your friends are up to in the game, comparing their progress and stats to your own, see what photos they've shared, check out some of their car collection, receive and send messages to, post bulletins on their bulletin board, receive and send gifts to, and much more (I think I got them all but there could be more; it's been seven years or so!)
  • First game in the franchise to have a lobby system over the Internet (not matchmaking, but lobbies and rooms where you can join a group of players that you want to race with custom conditions and rules set for the room instead of fixed settings)
  • Shuffle Racing! Such a cool departure from the traditional bring-your-own-car racing everyone was accustomed to; instead, everyone is given a random car to drive and competes with one another which makes for some unpredictable yet fun racing (bring it back, PoDi!).
  • Seasonal Events; if you've cleared all of the game's offline events (A/B-Spec events, License Tests, Special Events), then the developers put together some (sometimes very hard!) additional challenges on a regularly scheduled basis to test your mettle; they had all kinds of different conditions and they gave out some very rewarding prizes should you manage to complete them (Performance Point Difference adjustment multiplier was a fantastic idea that didn't return in GT6)
  • More in-depth personalization and customization for cars with custom body and aero parts, and if you wanted to paint your car a specific color that was featured on another car, you could do that, with paint chips (with some licensing exceptions).
  • Multi-monitor support, 3DTV support, and head tracking with the PlayStation Eye.
  • Online B-Spec Racing; I mean, it was pretty much like betting on horse racing because you didn't know who was going to win, but at least you always gained Credits instead of losing them; it was always nice being away from the game all day to come back to millions of free Credits! :D
  • Saving and suspending endurance races (which was eventually added into the game with an update)
  • Cross-platform interactivity; you could drive your car collection from Gran Turismo PSP on the game if you linked your PSP
  • Trophies/Achievements for bragging rights
  • Introduction of DLC (while GT5P received additional content with free updates, GT5 had all-new content released for it available for purchase on the PS Store); I still remember the day when it was first-announced; I think the community exploded with all the excitement it generated. :D
...and I'm sure that I forgot a few, but that's what I can remember off the top of my head. And thanks to its fans and several communities, we know much more about the game than ever before. Just last night I had updated the game's page(s) on The Cutting Room Floor, which, if you don't know what it is, is a website for the documentation of unused and hidden content in video games. With all of the features and content that this game came jampacked with, it was inevitable that some of it had to be shelved for another time, or was just changed/removed outright. The "What Could Have Been" factor of GT5 was so immensely high, much more courses, more cars from the PS2-era, even all of the fan-favorite courses from the PS2-era could have been in the game. Imagine that!

As of today Gran Turismo 5 is one of my Top 20 all-time favorite video games and probably my 2nd-favorite in the franchise (sitting right behind GT4), bringing back the old and blending it with the new for a grand gaming experienced enriched by the Internet. I'll be replaying GT5 this week to pay homage to the game that managed to spend three years of my life and I enjoyed every second of it.

Long Live GT5's Legacy! :cheers:
These posts are the reason why I signed up for this forum, beautiful!
 
We're deep into nostalgia with regards to GT5 now, and I have some of my own. I visited some family over thanksgiving and one of my family members happened to still have my old PS3 with my old copy of GT5. This is an OG PS3 and I'm stunned it even still works. I fired it up and my save file was still there. The last time I played the game was fall of 2012 :eek:. What struck me about picking it up again was how well it has aged. Sure the car sounds aren't the best, but they also aren't as bad as I feared they might be. The visuals have really held up though! The racer that I've been playing the most over the last few years is Forza Horizon 4 on XBO-S and I was pretty impressed with how GT5 looks in comparison. Vs FH4, GT5 I think has a more consistent presentation, even if the resolution is less. Simple things like how the gauge clusters light up at night just feels like so much more care went into it with GT5 vs Forza. I really really enjoyed playing the game again, (significantly more than I've enjoyed playing FH4 since like...week 1 of that game) and it's got me itching to pick up a PS5 and GT7 now. The nostalgia hits the hardest with the music...such a vibe this game creates.
 
After I stopped gaming about 8 years ago my old PS3 served as a Netflix player for a few years until Sony discontinued those apps. Then all it did was playing the odd DVD every other month.

Then I got myself GT 6 and 5 in the spring and been playing these ever since. Totally agree with you! Still great games.

I finally got myself a PS5 on Black Friday but it hasn't arrived yet. Will finally say good bye to my trusty old friend. I'm also extremely surprised that it survived all these years.
 

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