Not saying GT5 is perfect... far from it... but neither was GT4. The closest to perfect (for its time) that any GT has gotten was GT3 A-Spec.
I have to agree on the GT3 thing. GT£ is by far and away my most played game, ever. Which is quite a claim, when you consider the time I put into gaming in the 80's and 90's.
Ten years ago, when I got GT3, I had one weekend a month where my housemate was away and I wouldn't be seeing Mrs ScouserInExile and I would spend the whole weekend playing it. And I do mean the whole weekend - I'd get enough food and beer in and not leave the house from when I got home from work on the Friday until I had to go to work Monday. I wouldn't even sleep that much.
The weird thing is, I never got beyond about 75% complete - not least because I would frequently start my game again (I had three memory cards - one had my long-running save on, one had a save at the point where I'd just golded all the licences, the third was used for restarting games). But I would play it and play it over and over again.
Which is where the disapointment comes in with GT5. I've not had much time to play it since launch, but I've managed to complete up to Endurance in A-Spec, a little bit beyond in B-Spec and I've done all the special events I can be bothered doing. And that's it, I'm done. I set up a secoind account on my PS3 to start a new game last weekend, booted up the game and then just thought "I can't be bothered with this". I reverted to my main account, looked around for something to do, found nothing then switched it off. There just isn't enough od a game there to keep me happy.
I know people will read this and say "it's not about getting trophies, it's about the driving". But the basic principle of good game design is "complete task -> get reward" and driving a different car in a competition I've already completed doesn't follow this basic idea.
I also have an issue with the grind. Previous titles had an element of grind - if you didn't gold the licences, you invariable had to run the first couplf races a couple of times to progress further into game (which follows the above design principle). However, forcing the user to play the same, high-level races over and over and over again to progress is unforgiveable and is the point where playing becomes a chore. Though I will admit to using the rubber-band trick to grind the super speedway enduro in GT3, and letting Bob grind the enduros in GT4 while I was at work.
There is also the "no life" problem with the endurances. I don't even have time to do a 9-hour enduro, let alone a 24 hour one. Not being able to save, or tag in an AI driver is outragous. Even if you could get Bob to help out, my missus would go balistic if I left the PS3 on for 24 hours straight.
I tend to roll my eyes a touch when I see threads about the lack of premiums, no damage, the exhaust sounds etc. because I think "none of these would matter if the game was actually any good" But it's just not as good as the previous games. Yes the graphics are great. Yes the physics are amazing. Yes it has a lot of whistles and bells. But it's verging on a tech demo, there is that little in the way of game there.
Sorry, that went on a bit...