My "In-Depth" review version of the game
Ever since I waited for Gran Turismo 5, I felt that its the game of Salvation/Glory (or what ever dramatic positive word you know used for describing) for automotive enthusiast gamers especially with its 5 years of development, it really sounds there is something big going on in the game....but when the wait is over, I was already all wrong as I share to you all what literally players will get in this game
Polyphony Digital knows how to make realistic physics, and realistic graphics which is the great formula for a dramatic DRIVING simulator experience not can't be matched by any other game. It even has its own track editor and also weather effects, it has the DRIVING experience so great that it's like I'm a hero just recently saved the world and then having a vacation of my life...but take note, its all DRIVING.
But when you play the game, its more about DRIVING...its also about RACING. Polyphony Digital doesn't know how to make a quality RACING simulator.
In the past installments, the racing gameplay has been pure plain, go to the track...3,2,1 then start....then overtake all of your opponents and finish the race, there you go...the formula of Polyphony Digital in racing gameplay. But there is a problem...in that formula, the "however you do it is fine" is included in there, you can cut corners, use overpowered race cars or use your opponents as a barrier for you to not to understeer at the entrance or exit of a corner. Its very helpful in winning a race but those are really shameful ways to win a race...but the worse part is, its still in Gran Turismo 5.
In the 2009 E3 trailer of Gran Turismo 5, we all saw that NASCAR and World Rally Championship has been introduced to the game, and we all feel that nascar, the "NASCAR", and the world rally championship, the "World Rally Championship" is in the game on which we felt that GT5 will be the most complete package racing game that you don't need to buy another game for every motorsports (Codegamer's Dirt 2, and F1 2010 for example) and you really feel happy like your soul is up in heaven.
But in reality, when you play that certain motorsport in the game, the game itself will drag your soul down to hell. All you'll have are Nascar CARS, rally CARS, Formula 1 CARS, Japan Super GT CARS, German Touring CARS, LM CARS. There are no specific implementations of rules in each motorsports that are SO-CALLED in the game. Polyphony Digital only allowed you to drive the cars in their old-plain racing mechanism/gameplay.
Another thing in the game's aspect is it being a game. In GT Life's beginning you only have 20,000 of credits but the problem is, that amount of credits is far lacking to buy a QUALITY premium car, instead your only direction then is to go to the used car shop and buy a STANDARD car that can do quality in race like a Mazda RX-7 FC for example. The thing that I hate here is that Polyphony Digital wants to put a low quality rendered car in your face in the beginning of your GT Life...(seriously Polyphony digital? why don't you want to showcase the premium cars to the player in the start to set the atmosphere to be more engaging).
As you start deeper in the GT Life, in the a-spec and b-spec specifically, you'll notice that they are cheap. All of the race have ai cars that are set to default(for race cars) or stock(for production cars), they never change or upgrade there cars, its always on default or stock settings, so the sure way to win is to tune your car up to 600hp, or even use LM Race Cars while your opponents remain at their 300hp-ish cars...that easily indicates that races in the GT Life are cheap and, unacceptably, are undeveloped from the last installment of the game.
Let's go back to the ai cars. The ai cars has been improved, they can identify where you are and evade you, but the problem is that is only occasionally. In the Nascar series race in the extreme category in a-spec, in the Daytona speedway track with only 10 laps, I am surprised how difficult it is...and I'm talking about is finishing the race with the group of cars in the race, or finish in the middle place to be simple. In that race, the ai has no respect on which line you are taking, if you switch lane to the inner lane of the long corner of the track, the ai car in that lane coming fast to you will not slow down and inevitably hit your back on which causes you to fishtail and that happening in that high speed corner, disaster happens...with you conter steering your way to the right because of the fishtail caused by the ai hitting you from behind, you will then thrown away on where you counter steer, also because of the nascar "car" not able to handle the such situation, leading you to the right or upper part of the long corner which leads you in an unhelpful situation on where you are now facing the perpendicular to where you are on that road, but the worst part is that now the other cars are coming to you, they inevitably hit you, but that is just a part of it, the other part is that all of them will not slow down but rather they will still put there foot on the pedal and hit you or should I simply say, all of them will bulldoze you...
I was like "Hey guys! I'm in the middle of the track (in the long corner) and I'm on a wreck here! Can you at least slow down and pass me safely?", but moments later I was "OH MY GOD!...JESUS! OH JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH!! MY CAR!!"...they all hit me mercilessly like I was not there, and bulldozed me leading me thrown away on the large grass part of the race track. The interesting part in this scene is that ALL of the cars bumped me are still in straight position like nothing happened, not even one of them joined me thrown to the grass.
It took me 2 hours retrying just to finish that 10 laps race.
B-spec ai also has flaws, they drive slower than real life humans. They break earlier and limits their foot on the gas pedal in straight.
Very questionable races in the GT Life are the Gran Turismo World Championship and Polyphony Digital Cup found in the professional and expert category respectively. When you hear both of those races, the first thing that will come to your mind is that both races are big because of the names, especially beating the Gran Turismo World Championship will show the credits, but in reality the races within those are very cheap, in the Gran Turismo World Chanpionship you get random race cars from different motorsports but all of them are barely above 500, and in Polyphony Digital Cup (which is in the higher category than Gran Turismo World Championship) you get to race against production cars that are below 500 hp, not LM Race Cars or even lower class race cars. A fully tuned Corvette Z06 production version can easily beat both of those races.
Some contents of the Special Events are very questionable which are the nascar, and Top Gear test track.
The nascar content says you'll learn the way of nascar from Jeff Gordon, but in reality he will really do no help, all I can hear he says that helps is smoothen your steering. You'll expect in this content that you'll learn something unique for nascar motorsports, but no, you'll only be tested in maintaining taking inner or outer lane of the long corner and using slipstream on which I believe anyone can learn such skill outside nascar. Another very questionable content is where you will race other nascar cars with only you coming off from the pit stop, I found this very silly. Another one is where the challenge is about reaching first place within 2 laps but the problem is, in the title of the challenge says "Last 2 Laps" included which emphasizes that when you enter the race, you are in the situation on where there is 2 laps remaining and you need to rush to reach first place , and another problem in this is that when you enter the race, you'll start by rolling and all of you are at limited speed and wait the 3,2,1 signal, but that is not the end of it, in the beginning of the race you have perfect condition tires and full gas tank...so now where is the feeling that it is the LAST 2 laps. In general all that Jeff Gordon thought you in this content can be absolutely learned outside nascar.
Top Gear test track content is also questionable. It seems the only purpose of this track being in the special events is to promote that the track is in the game. When you enter the challenges in the test track you will be given 2 silly cars, first is the Volkswagen van on which you'll find it very funny because it is slow and is not a race material. Another challenge is they'll let you drive another old model of Volkswagen that is the same, slow (barely gets past 80km/h) and no racing potential but in this race, there is even funnier happening...there are 2 batch of race going on the track the same time, 8 cars and another 8 cars...when the race starts. Top Gear is known to do so many silly things, but that doesn't mean Polyphony Digital should.
Gran Turismo economy system stil exist in the game. You'll win credits when you win races, complete challenges. But there is a problem, the system itself. Grinding credits will be your hobby to collect your dream cars, not to mention credits for fully tuning them, which is already frustrating. Especially for me, when will I be able to buy the cars that costs 20 million each even though I'm now deep in the game like 70% completion that I can barely buy a car at 3 million.
But that's not the end of the economy system in the game. when you finish series of race in a category, you'll recieve prize cars and the problem is, the feel the prize cars being a reward is already gone when you get standard cars...and this happens mostly. Some prize cars are even worse, some are a very old model ones that you can't even use it for race.
GT Auto has been improved from the previous intallations, you can now do body paint and wheel paint, but the sad thing for the body paint is that you can only paint "basic" paints, you cant do combiniations. Adding body kits has been improved, you can now put front, front extension, and rear body kits, but sadly only applicable to premium cars.
Damage can be understood that it is implemented in a higher level because the repair costs that much. But the damage in GT Life is only cosmetic and will not affect your cars performance, so why repair it?
Dealerships in the game sells only premium cars and standard cars can be bought only at the used car dealership. The problem here is that there are too many japanese cars in the used car slot and too many variations of one model (Honda Civic Ek has more than one model year for example), lacking of european and american cars.
The game also has problems for those who want to achieve platinum trophy, one is the trophy that requires you to fill your garage with 1000 cars. Does this imply that Polyphony Digital wants you to fill your garage with low quality standard cars? this is very silly.
Online gameplay is also unrefined, first is the lag issues and second is the lack for car filtering in races, the only filter you can set is HP and types of tires but not the type of car. So if the game host wants to set the cars only for production cars...he can't.
So now I'm trying to find myself where I'm comfortable in game.
If I go to the GT Life, I'll get bad ai, bad events, makes me feel cheated that it says it have NASCAR, Formula 1, World Rally Championship that the truth is the game only have the cars of those motorspots...bad and unchanged economy system (credits grinding), horrible prize cars, cosmetic damage, and many others.
If I go online, I'll get laggy races and community that bulldozes anyone in front of them when in last lap.
But then finally I found myself, in practice modes, drifting my sports and super cars alone in the track and collecting all my dream cars...but in this place where I found myself...is this worth the 5 years of wait?
________________________________________________________________
I was really sad on what we really get in this game...I'm a fan of the franchise, a real fan that keeps defending this game against forza and shift fans even though I didn't even played it yet, but now I'm the opposite.
Gran Turismo 5: The Real DRIVING Simulator.....
Ever since I waited for Gran Turismo 5, I felt that its the game of Salvation/Glory (or what ever dramatic positive word you know used for describing) for automotive enthusiast gamers especially with its 5 years of development, it really sounds there is something big going on in the game....but when the wait is over, I was already all wrong as I share to you all what literally players will get in this game
Polyphony Digital knows how to make realistic physics, and realistic graphics which is the great formula for a dramatic DRIVING simulator experience not can't be matched by any other game. It even has its own track editor and also weather effects, it has the DRIVING experience so great that it's like I'm a hero just recently saved the world and then having a vacation of my life...but take note, its all DRIVING.
But when you play the game, its more about DRIVING...its also about RACING. Polyphony Digital doesn't know how to make a quality RACING simulator.
In the past installments, the racing gameplay has been pure plain, go to the track...3,2,1 then start....then overtake all of your opponents and finish the race, there you go...the formula of Polyphony Digital in racing gameplay. But there is a problem...in that formula, the "however you do it is fine" is included in there, you can cut corners, use overpowered race cars or use your opponents as a barrier for you to not to understeer at the entrance or exit of a corner. Its very helpful in winning a race but those are really shameful ways to win a race...but the worse part is, its still in Gran Turismo 5.
In the 2009 E3 trailer of Gran Turismo 5, we all saw that NASCAR and World Rally Championship has been introduced to the game, and we all feel that nascar, the "NASCAR", and the world rally championship, the "World Rally Championship" is in the game on which we felt that GT5 will be the most complete package racing game that you don't need to buy another game for every motorsports (Codegamer's Dirt 2, and F1 2010 for example) and you really feel happy like your soul is up in heaven.
But in reality, when you play that certain motorsport in the game, the game itself will drag your soul down to hell. All you'll have are Nascar CARS, rally CARS, Formula 1 CARS, Japan Super GT CARS, German Touring CARS, LM CARS. There are no specific implementations of rules in each motorsports that are SO-CALLED in the game. Polyphony Digital only allowed you to drive the cars in their old-plain racing mechanism/gameplay.
Another thing in the game's aspect is it being a game. In GT Life's beginning you only have 20,000 of credits but the problem is, that amount of credits is far lacking to buy a QUALITY premium car, instead your only direction then is to go to the used car shop and buy a STANDARD car that can do quality in race like a Mazda RX-7 FC for example. The thing that I hate here is that Polyphony Digital wants to put a low quality rendered car in your face in the beginning of your GT Life...(seriously Polyphony digital? why don't you want to showcase the premium cars to the player in the start to set the atmosphere to be more engaging).
As you start deeper in the GT Life, in the a-spec and b-spec specifically, you'll notice that they are cheap. All of the race have ai cars that are set to default(for race cars) or stock(for production cars), they never change or upgrade there cars, its always on default or stock settings, so the sure way to win is to tune your car up to 600hp, or even use LM Race Cars while your opponents remain at their 300hp-ish cars...that easily indicates that races in the GT Life are cheap and, unacceptably, are undeveloped from the last installment of the game.
Let's go back to the ai cars. The ai cars has been improved, they can identify where you are and evade you, but the problem is that is only occasionally. In the Nascar series race in the extreme category in a-spec, in the Daytona speedway track with only 10 laps, I am surprised how difficult it is...and I'm talking about is finishing the race with the group of cars in the race, or finish in the middle place to be simple. In that race, the ai has no respect on which line you are taking, if you switch lane to the inner lane of the long corner of the track, the ai car in that lane coming fast to you will not slow down and inevitably hit your back on which causes you to fishtail and that happening in that high speed corner, disaster happens...with you conter steering your way to the right because of the fishtail caused by the ai hitting you from behind, you will then thrown away on where you counter steer, also because of the nascar "car" not able to handle the such situation, leading you to the right or upper part of the long corner which leads you in an unhelpful situation on where you are now facing the perpendicular to where you are on that road, but the worst part is that now the other cars are coming to you, they inevitably hit you, but that is just a part of it, the other part is that all of them will not slow down but rather they will still put there foot on the pedal and hit you or should I simply say, all of them will bulldoze you...
I was like "Hey guys! I'm in the middle of the track (in the long corner) and I'm on a wreck here! Can you at least slow down and pass me safely?", but moments later I was "OH MY GOD!...JESUS! OH JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH!! MY CAR!!"...they all hit me mercilessly like I was not there, and bulldozed me leading me thrown away on the large grass part of the race track. The interesting part in this scene is that ALL of the cars bumped me are still in straight position like nothing happened, not even one of them joined me thrown to the grass.
It took me 2 hours retrying just to finish that 10 laps race.
B-spec ai also has flaws, they drive slower than real life humans. They break earlier and limits their foot on the gas pedal in straight.
Very questionable races in the GT Life are the Gran Turismo World Championship and Polyphony Digital Cup found in the professional and expert category respectively. When you hear both of those races, the first thing that will come to your mind is that both races are big because of the names, especially beating the Gran Turismo World Championship will show the credits, but in reality the races within those are very cheap, in the Gran Turismo World Chanpionship you get random race cars from different motorsports but all of them are barely above 500, and in Polyphony Digital Cup (which is in the higher category than Gran Turismo World Championship) you get to race against production cars that are below 500 hp, not LM Race Cars or even lower class race cars. A fully tuned Corvette Z06 production version can easily beat both of those races.
Some contents of the Special Events are very questionable which are the nascar, and Top Gear test track.
The nascar content says you'll learn the way of nascar from Jeff Gordon, but in reality he will really do no help, all I can hear he says that helps is smoothen your steering. You'll expect in this content that you'll learn something unique for nascar motorsports, but no, you'll only be tested in maintaining taking inner or outer lane of the long corner and using slipstream on which I believe anyone can learn such skill outside nascar. Another very questionable content is where you will race other nascar cars with only you coming off from the pit stop, I found this very silly. Another one is where the challenge is about reaching first place within 2 laps but the problem is, in the title of the challenge says "Last 2 Laps" included which emphasizes that when you enter the race, you are in the situation on where there is 2 laps remaining and you need to rush to reach first place , and another problem in this is that when you enter the race, you'll start by rolling and all of you are at limited speed and wait the 3,2,1 signal, but that is not the end of it, in the beginning of the race you have perfect condition tires and full gas tank...so now where is the feeling that it is the LAST 2 laps. In general all that Jeff Gordon thought you in this content can be absolutely learned outside nascar.
Top Gear test track content is also questionable. It seems the only purpose of this track being in the special events is to promote that the track is in the game. When you enter the challenges in the test track you will be given 2 silly cars, first is the Volkswagen van on which you'll find it very funny because it is slow and is not a race material. Another challenge is they'll let you drive another old model of Volkswagen that is the same, slow (barely gets past 80km/h) and no racing potential but in this race, there is even funnier happening...there are 2 batch of race going on the track the same time, 8 cars and another 8 cars...when the race starts. Top Gear is known to do so many silly things, but that doesn't mean Polyphony Digital should.
Gran Turismo economy system stil exist in the game. You'll win credits when you win races, complete challenges. But there is a problem, the system itself. Grinding credits will be your hobby to collect your dream cars, not to mention credits for fully tuning them, which is already frustrating. Especially for me, when will I be able to buy the cars that costs 20 million each even though I'm now deep in the game like 70% completion that I can barely buy a car at 3 million.
But that's not the end of the economy system in the game. when you finish series of race in a category, you'll recieve prize cars and the problem is, the feel the prize cars being a reward is already gone when you get standard cars...and this happens mostly. Some prize cars are even worse, some are a very old model ones that you can't even use it for race.
GT Auto has been improved from the previous intallations, you can now do body paint and wheel paint, but the sad thing for the body paint is that you can only paint "basic" paints, you cant do combiniations. Adding body kits has been improved, you can now put front, front extension, and rear body kits, but sadly only applicable to premium cars.
Damage can be understood that it is implemented in a higher level because the repair costs that much. But the damage in GT Life is only cosmetic and will not affect your cars performance, so why repair it?
Dealerships in the game sells only premium cars and standard cars can be bought only at the used car dealership. The problem here is that there are too many japanese cars in the used car slot and too many variations of one model (Honda Civic Ek has more than one model year for example), lacking of european and american cars.
The game also has problems for those who want to achieve platinum trophy, one is the trophy that requires you to fill your garage with 1000 cars. Does this imply that Polyphony Digital wants you to fill your garage with low quality standard cars? this is very silly.
Online gameplay is also unrefined, first is the lag issues and second is the lack for car filtering in races, the only filter you can set is HP and types of tires but not the type of car. So if the game host wants to set the cars only for production cars...he can't.
So now I'm trying to find myself where I'm comfortable in game.
If I go to the GT Life, I'll get bad ai, bad events, makes me feel cheated that it says it have NASCAR, Formula 1, World Rally Championship that the truth is the game only have the cars of those motorspots...bad and unchanged economy system (credits grinding), horrible prize cars, cosmetic damage, and many others.
If I go online, I'll get laggy races and community that bulldozes anyone in front of them when in last lap.
But then finally I found myself, in practice modes, drifting my sports and super cars alone in the track and collecting all my dream cars...but in this place where I found myself...is this worth the 5 years of wait?
________________________________________________________________
I was really sad on what we really get in this game...I'm a fan of the franchise, a real fan that keeps defending this game against forza and shift fans even though I didn't even played it yet, but now I'm the opposite.
Gran Turismo 5: The Real DRIVING Simulator.....
👍
