I just wonder if anyone has ever put this much effort into a game and gotten so much stick. if this was called anything other than gran turismo it would have scored 10 out of 10. Am I deluded?
You're way off.
Here's the problem that the GTFDL can't get their heads around: There actually are other games out there, and some of those have set the bar pretty high; higher than what GT5 has reached. Allow me to illustrate.
Gran Turismo 5 - Mazda RX-7 Type RS (FD) '00 at Laguna Seca:
Forza Motorsport 3 - 1997 Mazda RX-7 at Laguna Seca:
See how much higher Turn 10 set the bar? In this picture it's not just the car that falls short, either, but rather the track also looks like crap by comparison. Setting aside the track issue for the moment, the difference here is that the GT5 shot has a "Standard" car model while the FM3 shot is typical of all FM3 cars. FM3 doesn't have some FM3 models and then a bunch of sub-standard, outdated models.
Now, the GTFDL may be quick to dismiss the 800+ Standard (sub-standard) models as just free extras and insist that we just focus on the 221 (or so) Premium models. Alright. FM3 has roughly twice as many, with FM3 retailing on day one with at least 400 Premium models versus 221 or so in GT5. So, even neglecting the 80% that looks like crap, GT5
still fell short. Not only do those sub-Standard models clearly exhibit far less detail, but they also completely lack any sort of interior view, with interior views being pretty standard in major racing game releases these days, so it
again falls short here.
And that's just the cars. Don't forget that, while the new tracks look nice, many of the tracks are obviously outdated and would being doing well to pass for a launch title, let alone a flagship title for 2010. While some effects look nice, like night and lighting, others like the frequently-referenced shadows leave something to be desired, rain isn't even matching what PGR4 had several years ago and far short of F1 2010, and glitches like trees flickering at Monza are just not nearly good enough.
While the game has a few nifty features like the Course Maker, other nifty features appearing in other games like FM3's magnificent Storefront are altogether absent. Sharing photos and tracks is a joke, we can't share replays at all, and we can't even save different tuning setups, let alone share those. There's no livery editor and tuning is more clunky than FM3.
The whole oil change thing is neat on paper and maybe the first handful of times you do them, but by the 1000th oil change they're just a tedious chore that detracts from the game rather than adding to it. Watching every car you acquire driving two inches from the shadows gets old after several hundred times, as well. The limit of just 20 million credits is just plain retarded. A lot of the AI scripting, especially for Bob, is just absurd. B-Spec is a boring, tedious chore that's enjoyable to every bit of three people. Now, the GTFDL will be quick to spin it as a money-making bonus and that the great thing about B-Spec is doing other stuff while Bob runs, but that's basically saying "The best thing about GT5 is not playing it."
Really, we could play this game all day, but the point is that the game just falls short in too many places to be rated as high as other games like FM3. It's not a matter of opinion. It's not something up for debate. It's
definitely not unfair bias against GT5. It's just the way it is.
Seriously, if that was a screenshot from FM3, Turn 10 and FM3 would never hear the end of it from GT fanboys. This isn't from FM3, however, but from GT5. Now that it's from GT5 it's suddenly okay? I don't friggin' think so.
I enjoy the game, but it's still definitely not a 10 or even a 9, no matter how you try to argue it. 8 to 8.5 maybe, but not a 9 or a 10. Negate every single point I've made and all the ones I didn't and then we'll talk about a higher rating.
...and not Skylines and Miatas...that's what is missing
