Again, it wasn't grumpiness. I just think the GT series has always had a very generic and poor exhaust sound quality. GT2 imo could have improved the sound of the cars even using generic sounds without much effort. They still could have been much better.
I'm just pulling your leg on the grumpiness thing; like I said, it amuses me!
But, again, I disagree with your actual point - the GT series
was an innovator in sound, but has
become generic and has had to remain "poor" as a direct consequence of its vast scope. It seems that not many people are actually able to appreciate this.
To say that GT2's sounds could have been much better is stating the obvious somewhat; every game ever made could have been better. Then again, I don't know of any other Playstation game that comes close to the level of quality
and quantity that GT2 showed - making the sounds better would have been a massive technical challenge, well beyond the limit of diminishing returns. I suspect that you're really referring to the perennial lack of accuracy as regards certain cars, i.e. cross-plane V8s, which is not "sound quality"
per se. This is a disappointment I share.
Clearly PD has had a massive challenge on their hands with the sound in GT5, and the contrast between the innovation in some areas of the game's sound (the engine overall, spatial effects, atmospheric effects, quantity of sound sources) and the apparent stagnation of other points (reverb, sample quality, sample
accuracy, lack of intake sound, missing incidental effects etc.) perhaps points to technical limitations in the same way that weather effects in previous games were at once impressive and frustratingly limited. The hope, then, is that PD have something up their sleeves for the future.
On the negative side, perhaps PD's sound guys don't really know enough about how cars produce sound, and it may never get much better.
