I'm 27, so i can give a little perspective since i follow the series since GT1.
Back in the day, EGM was my main source of information. The magazine was imported here, and i bought every month. GT had a one page preview on november of 1997 but i really didn't paid much attention. I had a saturn at the time, since i was a racing fanatic (Daytona USA, Sega Rally).
Then in may of 1998 EGM had a full blown out review on GT, with a poster and a lot of details on the game. I bought a PSone after that because i have to had the game.
So the first GT just came out of nowhere to me (and to a lot of people) then after the game they started early talking about GT2. I remember reading constant previews and the famous claims the game would have. I was sure the game would have drag-racing, the CLK-GTR, the rally would be awesome among other things. Turns out the game was a bit rushed, i missed my CLK (only on PAL) and the drag racing was nowhere to be found, and the rally, was, well:tdown:
Then came GT3, the constant talk of a simultaneous release with the PS2. I couldn't afford neither the Internet nor a PS2, so i didn't "suffer" with GT3. All i know is, it was another batch of expectations, it would have weather (ended up having those poor SSR wet stages). Game came out in 2001, rushed, with a poor car/track list and the list of things to adress got set back to the next GT.
Despite what i'm writing, i played those games to death, i absolutely love the GT series, but to me i already had a feeling that what PD said woudn't always translate to the game.
Then i finally had acess to the Internet back in 2002, during college, i used to spend a lot of time reading about game in between classes. GT4 was way, way more advertised/talked about than GT5.
I guess, what is holding PD back now is the fact that when we first booted up GT4 we had absolutely zero surprises. The game took a lot of time to be finished and every feature and detail had already been announced. I know from interviews that KY didn't liked this.
And that scrutiny was during a time in which the internet was nowhere near what it is today. GT4 had thousands of pictures, extensive E3 demos, features on gamespot, and even car of the week pieces on IGN written by a dutch guy that posts here but i can't remember it's name.
GT4 also had it's share of promisses: we were suppose to finally get the drag racing mode (all we got was a drag strip to test our own cars), online racing, damage, Porsches... it seems like every feature not included was expected to be in, kinda like what it is with GT5.
We can definately see a pattern, on how PD works with their PR department. They decided to be more quiet this time, which is somewhat blown out of proportion these days because the internet age wants everything "for yesterday".
I thought about making a prediction thread, but then i decided it was only going to make me look like a pessimist, but if you follow GT closely as i do, since the beggining, you know there are things to expect on the game, and things that are "just talk".
I have a bad feeling punters will still be able to punt, that the rally mode will once again suck, and that the damage, while improved, will still be bare bones. I have to give them the benifit of the doubt, but deep down inside i know what to expect. GT5 will be great but it will have it's own sizeble list of things to add for GT6.
No, it's not your impression, we know a lot less of GT5 than we knew of GT4. Going by KY's mouth, i bet we won't know much until the game is printed, because this time they want people to have surprises when they play the game for the first time.
I know i ended up writing a huge block of text, but that's just how it's been so far with the GT series...
