Horrible Gran Turismo 5 Night. (Updated)

  • Thread starter Thread starter TK42OnE
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I think the Lotus Top Gear Challenge was intentionally frusturating. Or rather, some sick, sadistic form of humor. Maybe the Advanced Challenge will be Reliant Robins! They had the car on Comfort: Hard; the worst tire you can possibly have. I was endlessly frusturated as well, until I looked and noticed the tire choice. When I noticed it I gave a little chuckle, imagining that Jezza and the boys were watching me, laughing maniacally at the havoc they created.

But maybe PD did just drop the ball and mess up with this one.
 
Great write up - I think this needs to be re-named the GT5 Therapy Thread. Everyone should first agree that they really do like the game, but that doesn't mean it is perfect and sometimes you just want to vent. The OP nailed most of my frustrations better than I could... but here is my vent:

You get the Top Gear test track but the reasonably priced car isn’t modeled in the game at all!! Also, there are no standing starts on the Top Gear test track. WTF – who in product development overlooked the fact that everyone would want to test their skills against all the celebrities in the reasonably priced car or against the Stig in the latest exotic from a standing start like it is done in the show. And wouldn’t it have been cool to have a feed from Top Gear of all the Stig’s times along with all the reasonably priced car times. So then after watching the latest show you could get on the game and try to beat the latest times?

I am banging my head against my Fanatec wheel at the Samba bus challenge and the Lotus challenge - and those NASCAR cone/wall things are insane. But then I go on the 'ring for the AMG challenge in the 300SL and it is all wonderful again.

(Before every session of play, I try for 30 minutes to gold another license.)
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This is the best advice to avoid frustration - mix the good and bad up some to keep going!
 
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The NASCAR ones weren't so bad. 10 tries with my dual shock. Plus the payouts are even higher than they say pre-race. But the Lotus challenge on the other hand, I'll NEVER complete.
 
Theres a trick with the lotus top gear challenge, you know how you can't switch on ASM before the race? If you have driving force GT you can overide this after the race start hehe. I did it fairly painlessly this way and i turned everything else on just to be sure lol, Made the car behave properly not once did it want to step out if i drove smoothly and fast. Passed the leader just before Gambon nearly jumped up and down with joy haha had so many failed tries before finally deciding to give it another go.
 
TK42OnE
But does anyone have any races or challenges that they think exemplify the beauty of the game. Anything that stands out and made them say "Wow! Now I know what the fuss is all about!"

I need something to make me fall in love with the game again.
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Take your favorite car to the full Nurburgring sunny layout and just do a few laps. Worked for me. I took the Ferrari California. Actually I've been doing a lap on the 'ring in the California to start every time I boot GT5.
 
speedthrill
For the Top Gear challenge, i can only say practice and don't brake full pedal to the metal, same with throttle. Would you drive this 111R like that in real life? No, so you don't do it here too.

The car is very short wheel based and very easy to spin in real life too. If you brake and corner whilst braking (wich is btw what this intermediate test is all about), always put a little percentage off throttle on, so the rear has some artificial grip too, and once you understand that, silver is easy, but gold is another hand pair (on simulation). Keep practicing!!!
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Errr, driven one have you? I owned an Elise S2 for a year and a half and test drove a 111R before buying a Tamora. Whilst the TVR gave me too many foot in mouth moments to count the Elise was incredibly well balanced under breaking and was ridiculously easy to drive on bumpy English A roads on the limit.

I have golded this challenge but it was way harder to drive the Elise than my experience in real life, you shouldn't have to nurse them around a track you chuck them around one!
 
Foxis
Sorry, but you are not correct about the Elise. I own one IRL. While it is easy to spin under certain circumstances, the Top Gear event is not at all accurate unless the "comfort hard" tires are some godawful tire compound concocted in automotive hell.

The Elises (mine is an S1, tuned to about 165bhp) share the fact that they are very manageable while breaking into and accelerating out of turns. Lift-off oversteer is another matter entirely and this is portrayed accurately. Lift off power in mid-turn at your own peril. :)

So, as others have noted: The Top Gear test is NOT accurate regarding how an Elise would typically drive, and this is due to PDs tire selecting being pure evil.
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I meant that if you slap those tyres on that car in real life, then yes, you'll find a car with the same behaviour like the one in GT5.
That's the whole point of this test. The bad tyres!
 
Spyder-Si
Errr, driven one have you? I owned an Elise S2 for a year and a half and test drove a 111R before buying a Tamora. Whilst the TVR gave me too many foot in mouth moments to count the Elise was incredibly well balanced under breaking and was ridiculously easy to drive on bumpy English A roads on the limit.

I have golded this challenge but it was way harder to drive the Elise than my experience in real life, you shouldn't have to nurse them around a track you chuck them around one!
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No, not driven one, that's just technical race info about this car. it is verry stable but being short wheel based, means that if you go over the limit, it is pretty hard to catch. Stick the worst tyres from GT under it and you have this.

Put a young (like 18 to 20) bloke in a real life lotus elise and it's pretty dangerous, same goes for the toyota mr2 from the 90's, lovely cars, but for younlings pretty dangerous...

Because of my bad english you guys understand me wrong. What if you would put tyres like that on your real life lotus, what would happen? Yes, the same as GT5, spinouts more frequent, corner braking with the butt out, etc...
 
Shaneman
The NASCAR ones weren't so bad. 10 tries with my dual shock. Plus the payouts are even higher than they say pre-race. But the Lotus challenge on the other hand, I'll NEVER complete.
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The rewards for each trophy are given individually, so if you gold it first time out you get the combined rewards of bronze+silver+gold. If you get bronze the first time and come back later and get silver, you'll get the silver money too.
 
The weird thing is, the Pro TG challenge is the easiest of the three >__>

I really struggled with the Lotus, I never even bothered finishing. Then, after a while, I came back to it randomly and had 1st by Chicago lap 2.
I cant really give much advice over the cliched "keep at it!", but Skid Recovery is your friend here.
 
To be quite honest it only took about half an hour for me to get the gold in the lotus top gear challenge. I had mastered the Ford GT LM in prolouge-a car with the same problem (if not so extream). All i can say is left foot-right foot braking. While trying to break and turn at the same time or maintain your speed while cornering without spinning out put your foot on the accelerator all the way down while lightly pressing down on the brake. It works for me but it takes some practice. Good luck! :sly:
 
RacingManiac
Get a Cappuccino, a great car, never mind a K-car....:D

About as much fun as can be had in a car(not Kart) under 100 bhp(or 90 for that matter). Enough to win FR cup with...:)

I do hate the fact that I NEED to get those cars to win those races though. I still need a Italian, a French and a Lupo for all those random events...
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Agreed on the need to buy so many cars. I wouldn't mind if I actually used the cars for more than one series. But I bought an AZ-1 and tried to race it stock in the Kei car series. An awful little car. I could get close to winning, but never managed. The car improved DRAMATICALLY when I put sport tires on it. With that simple mod, I blew away the field on the first lap. The rest of the race was boring.

I'd try a Cappucino, but there's not much point for me now that I've completed the Kei car series. And I guess that's a big complaint of mine with GT5 so far. There are VERY few races. What do I do with my AZ-1 now? Nothing. What do I do with my WRX now that I beat Clubman? Wait for high-level races, and tune the crap out of the car, so I can run three more races with it? And what of the 70's supercar I need to buy? How many races can I run THAT in?

If there were about 5x more racing series in GT5, I'd be MUCH happier. Something like GT2 had. I'd at least like to be able to race each car in more than a couple series each. If I can't do that, why would I ever tune a car? My method so far is to win a car, find a race I ran run with it, banish it to the back of my garage, and repeat the cycle until I can't run any more races. Bleh.
 
Graphics arent a "big" issue for me on the truck race considering ill only use a truck once or twice in my Gran Turismo experiance. I love everything about the game to be honest. Same with SOCOM Confrontation (But that's another subject). What I'm trying to point out is to have some tolerance. By the way the Top Gear tests annoy me, but if the game was always easy I would never play it again (Like GTA4) XD And just to point out the only flaw that digs deep into my heart from the anticipation from waiting and the excitement of finally getting to play iit is buying a car and finding out it has no inside veiw. Fortunatly, updates can make better damage come into play, so maybe PD will add inside veiws for more cars in DL content to came XD
 
Chunk
Agreed on the need to buy so many cars. I wouldn't mind if I actually used the cars for more than one series. But I bought an AZ-1 and tried to race it stock in the Kei car series. An awful little car. I could get close to winning, but never managed. The car improved DRAMATICALLY when I put sport tires on it. With that simple mod, I blew away the field on the first lap. The rest of the race was boring.

I'd try a Cappucino, but there's not much point for me now that I've completed the Kei car series. And I guess that's a big complaint of mine with GT5 so far. There are VERY few races. What do I do with my AZ-1 now? Nothing. What do I do with my WRX now that I beat Clubman? Wait for high-level races, and tune the crap out of the car, so I can run three more races with it? And what of the 70's supercar I need to buy? How many races can I run THAT in?

If there were about 5x more racing series in GT5, I'd be MUCH happier. Something like GT2 had. I'd at least like to be able to race each car in more than a couple series each. If I can't do that, why would I ever tune a car? My method so far is to win a car, find a race I ran run with it, banish it to the back of my garage, and repeat the cycle until I can't run any more races. Bleh.
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Yeah I wish there were at least as many races as GT4. GT4 had a good number and a nice diversity to them. There was a really good progression there, too. I never found myself getting bored looking for something to do in GT4.
 
TopGearFTW
The weird thing is, the Pro TG challenge is the easiest of the three >__>

I really struggled with the Lotus, I never even bothered finishing. Then, after a while, I came back to it randomly and had 1st by Chicago lap 2.
I cant really give much advice over the cliched "keep at it!", but Skid Recovery is your friend here.
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Isn't it just?

I find the difficulty of GT5 is all over place.
 
Lol good read, mostly because I had similar thoughts, as I would say many have. The truck challenge is such a joke, I passed on buying a truck when they first showed up in the used car lot. Then when I get around to the truck challenge there's none! So I had to wait until yesterday to buy a truck, by which time I've finished everything except for this event. It definitely seems horribly out of place, but there are a few other events that seem to be in the wrong categories too.
 
Lol good read, mostly because I had similar thoughts, as I would say many have.
cicohipe
The truck challenge is such a joke, I passed on buying a truck when they first showed up in the used car lot. .
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Well im bad at the license tests so i got bronze in IA and got a Dodge RAM for my hard work and fustration at test IA-10. I was happy to recieve a free truck that i will use in every race to come......:grumpy:
 
There are lots of tricky little areas on GT5, and I agree they can be annoying when you've yet to master them. The key point though, is that with a little practice you will master them, and with any luck you'll have learned something from it and emerged a better driver/gamer. I've overcome every challenge thrown my way so far, I've been pissed off, but looking back I'm glad the game has actually given me a reason to improve my skills.
 
the Elise TG challenge was so frustrating, but by the end of it i was enjoying it so much.
very satisfying to get gold.

my frustrations are with the AMG Driving School challenges.
Its very difficult to know where you're going wrong with nothing to compare to.
no split times and no ghost car.

i would LOVE my ghost to appear like the licence tests.
 
EFFalcon
the Elise TG challenge was so frustrating, but by the end of it i was enjoying it so much.
very satisfying to get gold.

my frustrations are with the AMG Driving School challenges.
Its very difficult to know where you're going wrong with nothing to compare to.
no split times and no ghost car.

i would LOVE my ghost to appear like the licence tests.
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DEFINITELY agree on this. Split times would be so incredibly useful. Without them, I have no idea if the different lines/braking points I'm trying help or hurt. Makes getting the gold a bit difficult.
 
The Lotus Elise car is the car you hate to love, but when you get a hold of it, by God it is fantastic fun. Start with aids first (whichever are available) and soothe yourself into it.
 
EFFalcon
My frustrations are with the AMG Driving School challenges.
Its very difficult to know where you're going wrong with nothing to compare to.
no split times and no ghost car.

i would LOVE my ghost to appear like the licence tests.
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Yep, PD doesn't think when they do stuff. They just be like, they you think they'll love a Nurburing challenge? Yea man. And dump it in, without any help. We are supposed to know the track backwards and forwards. They give no tools for helping people learn, or get better at driving the track fast. Just like 1,000 other things PD did terribly when they made this game. Just another feature not in it, be it a simple and small feature.
 
AgentGT
Isn't it just?

I find the difficulty of GT5 is all over place.
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I guess they thought it would be hard negotiating the crossover, but youre either too far behind (lap 1), or too far infront (lap 2) of the AI for it to affect anyone other than the AI.
 
Okay. Update.

My faith has been restored. I really do think a large part of why I had such a horrible time the night before last was the one two punch provided by the Sports Truck Challenge, and then the horrid Top Gear Intermediate challenge. Both of those events are, so far, in my experience, the low points of the game. To do them both back to back was just asking for trouble.

This isn't to excuse PD though, as the mere fact that those two challenges are in the game is confusing and bizarre to me.

Last night, however, was different.

First off, I completed the Beginners Rally Challenge. A side effect of which was that it made me tune my '97 Civic to the eyeballs, and that has turned into my pet project, and it a flat out blast to drive. The event itself, after you get the hand of it, is a lot of fun too.

Then, on the advice of some posters in this thread, I decided to give the AMG challenge a shot. Score. This is why I bought GT5. Pure driving enjoyment. Fun, exciting, beautiful, challenging (without being moronic *cough* Top Gear *cough*). I didn't go crazy and kill myself to get golds, I settled for silvers, and that was enough for me at the time.

Then, to top it off, after all the money collected from the events, I had enough to finally race modify my '70 Dodge Challenger. Amazing. Mind blowing. Spectacular. Pick your adjective. I couldn't take the smile off my face with a chisel.

I'm sure there will be more disappointments in the future, but at least now I have something, a couple of things actually, to fall back on and help snap me back to reality when I run across another Sports Truck challenge.
 
Look man its easy to complain about the difficulty in this game when when people fix their cars up and have a freakin 100hp advantage. Their is a little button before you jump into a race called typical opponents or something like that. It will show you types of cars used and their hp how about you guys take a look at that then fix your car accordingly. I have been doing this and it makes the game a lot more enjoyable

Oh and for the license test, how long have you been playing gran turismo the tests were never really that easy to gold. Prologue is a test/big demo if you didn't know

And there is a reason why the AMG challenge is done in portions at first get familiar with the layout that you are working on. Jeeez I'm you guys practically want everything done for you maybe that's why pd put in the b-spec mode for all you whinney punks
 
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:rolleyes: A triple post and you call people names too? Nice. Some of these challenges aren't so much difficult, it's the frustrating way you're put behind the 8-ball and expected to fight your way to the front. Sometimes it's fun and other times it's VERY frustrating and not much fun at all. By posting and talking about it some people here will let that frustration out and help each other and in the end will probably end up enjoying the game more. No need to insult people.
 
This has been an inspiring read. Thanks TK42OnE!
 
Goudvis
Your main issue is that you're not a very good racer. That's hardly polyphony's fault...
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I bow to you oh greatness.. what, you're only allowed to enjoy this game if your Micheal Schuhmacher. ther are many of us who are not 'great' racers, by who's definition by the way? We paid the same money as you, so there is no need to be so arrogant:tdown:👎👎👎
 
I'm glad to see the update... and it only goes to demonstrate what I think about this game (and many others besides), which is that it will take some time, atleast a couple of weeks or so, to formulate a proper opinion on the game. There are definitely weaknesses - we could probably fill an entire subforum with them - but there are also alot of strengths. Unfortunately, the game seems to be structured in a way that, if you want to earn trophies and/or unlock extra good stuff, you need to complete certain tasks and missions that you would rather see burn in hell. However, it would seem that you've found a way to mitigate against the dull/frustrating moments - go and do something less boring instead (to paraphrase a UK TV show from the 1980's).

Last night, I was trying to complete the Jeff Gordon NASCAR challenge, in the hope of being introduced to a new form of motor-racing and/or discovering a new-found respect for the genre... but I ended up wishing that Susan Boyle would force herself sexually upon the man in retaliation for his supremely annoying little comments. But rather than letting it annoy me, I took myself off to the Nurb in the dead of night, in the Jaguar XJ13 and whipped it around the track for 20 minutes. The game has it's low points, but there will always be high points too. And there is no better feeling that coming back to something that was at first too hard, only to triumph later... I passed that Jeff Gordon challenge without resorting to thoughts about Susan Boyle's genitalia.
 
Chunk
Agreed on the need to buy so many cars. I wouldn't mind if I actually used the cars for more than one series. But I bought an AZ-1 and tried to race it stock in the Kei car series. An awful little car. I could get close to winning, but never managed. The car improved DRAMATICALLY when I put sport tires on it. With that simple mod, I blew away the field on the first lap. The rest of the race was boring.

I'd try a Cappucino, but there's not much point for me now that I've completed the Kei car series. And I guess that's a big complaint of mine with GT5 so far. There are VERY few races. What do I do with my AZ-1 now? Nothing. What do I do with my WRX now that I beat Clubman? Wait for high-level races, and tune the crap out of the car, so I can run three more races with it? And what of the 70's supercar I need to buy? How many races can I run THAT in?

If there were about 5x more racing series in GT5, I'd be MUCH happier. Something like GT2 had. I'd at least like to be able to race each car in more than a couple series each. If I can't do that, why would I ever tune a car? My method so far is to win a car, find a race I ran run with it, banish it to the back of my garage, and repeat the cycle until I can't run any more races. Bleh.
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you shouldnt buy too many cars... earn them by winning races... so far i've only bought an honda ek9 type r (starter car), honda dc5 type r and nissan gtr34 pace car (for fun)... im level 20 now and i have around 2,500,000 credits... use your winning cars to participate in the races... i hardly tune my cars heavily... exept for the dc5 to save money... XD
 
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