Playing pretend?

[Crimson]

Just as a disclaimer, I love GT5, and I'm not here to start an argument.

There's one thing that bugs me about the new game, though. In the past, events like the Japanese touring car series were long championships that involved 10-20 lap races and were a fairly close (as close as the games up to GT4 could get, at least) approximation of what JGTC was really like.

Upon unlocking the Super GT series in GT5, I was met with three races that, according to the description, 'feature cars from Japan's Super GT series'. Almost like an exhibition rather than an actual race. Similar sort of thing with NASCAR, really - the final, for example, consists of ten laps around Daytona. As opposed to the real life two hundred. No pit stops and no real use of the techniques Jeff Gordon taught me.

I know the average gamer probably isn't interested in driving around Daytona 200 times, but it just feels like a bit of an anti-climax. Why call them 'extreme events' if they're essentially the same as all the others?

 

[KC_HIX]

+1 I was very disappointed with the JGTC in particular. I was expecting long races with pit stops etc and at least a championship!

 

[Bigbazz]

To be fair, GT5 has pretty much lacked tyre strategy and pitstops completely thus far, i've only got the last half (lvl23+) of extreme races left. I've yet to change tyres or refuel, in GT4 there was a lot of pit strategy involved.

To go to such effort to bring NASCAR to the game, only to include a single championship consisting of short races, mostly run on road tracks. Its disapointing. Same goes for a lot of stuff.


The tuned car championship, meant to be for the most powerful road cars, and i absolutely slaughtered it with a standard road car, no upgrades. The supercar challenge has the AI driving around at almost safety lap speed in supercars that don't reprisent the real life performance even slightly.

No power/tyre restrictions in ANY of the races, only challenges have power restrictions (rally) and only B-spec has tyre restriction. The game could have been made much better balanced.

The game is great, but in the events area (Something that to be honest is tiny in the scale of things, so easy to implement) the game is lacking for the real race fan. I've not yet witnessed the Formula GT series (im lvl 22) but in GT4 it included a full length championship season, including the full 78 laps of monaco just like in real life, and 17 races all at real life GP distance/time.

They could have easily implemented something similar for the NASCAR and other series, they are "extreme" events after all. There's not much extreme about racing around a track for 5 laps against slow drivers. The final at Daytona is great, the AI seem decent there (rear ending aside) though the 10laps makes it anti climatic.

 

[snicker3s]

As opposed to the real life two hundred.

Endurance events -> Suzuka 1000 km?

Not entirely sure, havent raced it myself.

 

[Crimson]

Endurance events -> Suzuka 1000 km?

Not entirely sure, havent raced it myself.

You've missed the point entirely. I'm not saying there aren't any long races in GT5. In real life, the NASCAR race at Daytona is 200 laps, but in GT5 it's just 10.

 

[jeepster2982]

The events in GT5 were definitely aimed at a casual gamer with a short attention span. Im at lvl 20 and I have yet to see indy in this game. 1 or 2 race events, small lap amounts, no pitting, no tire wear, fuel depletion, and now I hear that I really dont have anything to look forward to with JGTC. At this point the only DLC im looking for is more races!

 

[alonsof1fan91]

Also they failed at giving us a bigger variety of tracks in A-spec mode. Im lvl 22 now, finished every championship I could access and I haven`t raced at or only raced on rarely occasion on following circuits:

- Suzuka (every layout)
- Fuji (every layout
- London
- Indianapols GP
- Monaco
- High Speed Ring

Somehow 90% of those events just use Madrid, Rome, Deep Forrest, Grand Valley, Cape Ring or Trial Mountain.

Someone has made some really terrible mistake while setting up GT5 a-spec mode. It is by far the worst one in every GT game so far.

 

[AgentGT]

They removed the ability to save in between championship races, this pretty much removed the incentive to put in long races in long championships.

 

[GV27]

Actually there is not a single race in GT5 that uses Indianapolis GP. You could complete the game without playing it, just as with SSR7.

I can understand they would not use SSR7 (although why don't set up some kind of "Wangan" competition?), but not using Indianapolis GP? Seriously...

And, AgentGT, it's the other way round. BECAUSE races are short, they removed the ability to save in between championship races; because "it's not needed".

 

[HurlingDervish]

They removed the ability to save in between championship races, this pretty much removed the incentive to put in long races in long championships.

I can't speak for levels over 22, but the majority of the championships seem to be within 1-2 hours. Well within playtime for the average gamer. I just plan on doing a series before I put in the game so I don't spend an hour floating back and forth. If I start to lose? Oh well it was still fun and I got some practice in on the tracks as well as cash.
Championships are also great if you have to do laundry

I totally get where you are coming from if the championships stretch in to 3-4 hours though...Three hours is doable, on certain days, but four is too much without a save.

 

[Exorcet]

You could replicate a race series in Arcade mode, or even better online [if you can find a bunch of people interested in the race].

It's the closest thing to an event creator.

 

[jeepster2982]

wait so indy GP isnt even in the formula 1 event????? is that a joke? THEY USED TO RACE THERE FOR REAL. Ugh what a facepalm moment

 

[HurlingDervish]

You could replicate a race series in Arcade mode, or even better online [if you can find a bunch of people interested in the race].

It's the closest thing to an event creator.

I've run into lots of people online willing to do some 30 lap races so I would put money on people being willing to do a community organized series.

 

[Tenacious D]

The game is great, but in the events area (Something that to be honest is tiny in the scale of things, so easy to implement) the game is lacking for the real race fan.

This is the strangest thing about GT5. In all the other games, there are hundreds of events. In GT2 there is even an Event Generator which you could use to create your own series with laps, power restrictions, etc. And it would pay out prizes! In GT4, there are hundreds of Events, and Manufacturer Cup races on top of that, some which are small events themselves.

It does seem that there was some very strange thinking going on in PD HQ. It looks like the game is oriented to pushing people into playing B-Spec Mode and Online. The problem is that much of the GT fans just don't want to do the B-Spec stuff at all, and Online isn't ready yet. Even the online structure to handle all these gamers isn't in place. It wasn't in place when the game shipped, and many of us had to pull our network cables just to get the game to run right! On top of that, many GT gamers don't have access to online at all.

For all these reasons, regardless of what Kazu-san wanted us to do, there should have been an A-Spec single player game which was even larger and grander than in GT4. I'm hoping that this can be patched into GT5. Prologue has shown that they made a game structure which can be seamlessly patched with single player content, and I can't imagine that GT5 wasn't built the same way. Especially from journalist talks after GT5's release, and indications in Kaz's tweets recently, GT5 is going to grow. It needs to be expanded badly, and things tweaked all over. The number of people really happy with the game as it is now are a fraction of the fanbase.

 

[Sertsa]

I'm surprised and bothered by this, too, especially the jump from very short races to ludicrously long ones. Maybe they just thought everyone would mainly race online?

It took me months to complete GT3. I spent many months, on and off, on GT4 and never quite completed everything (98% or so, since I never got a couple challenges and rally races). A week or so with GT5, and it looks like I'm getting close to doing everything I plan to, as I don't anticipate doing endurance races and don't have much interest in B-Spec.

 

[Heath_1]

What annoys me about the Nascar races is they have included Laguna Seca and Grand Valley.. now.. I know next to nothing about Nascar but I'm quite sure they don't race on Laguna Seca, correct? Also, those cars understeer so much on normal tracks it's just not funny and near impossible to get higher than 7th position. Understeer, colossal amounts of 1st gear wheel spin and rigged perfect driving AI.

Edit.. the Nascar events would have been way more realistic if PD included more oval tracks.. simple as that.

 

[jeepster2982]

I would imagine events would be the easiest thing to add, all the content is there, just come up with a fancy "poster" for it and viola! I mean classic muscle car championship, american muscle, and its ONE race at MONZA? Give me a break, waht about daytona, daytona road, Indy, Indy road, or what about LAGUNA SECA, i mean dont they really race classics there in real life???

 

[GV27]

wait so indy GP isnt even in the formula 1 event????? is that a joke? THEY USED TO RACE THERE FOR REAL. Ugh what a facepalm moment

Now you mention it, I think it does use it! My mistake on that front!!

You are completely right, the Formula GT uses the six F1 tracks Gran Turismo 5 has: Monza, Indy GP, Nürburgring GP, Suzuka, Fuji F, Côte d'Azur.

 

[jeepster2982]

Now you mention it, I think it does use it! My mistake on that front!!

You are completely right, the Formula GT uses the six F1 tracks Gran Turismo 5 has: Monza, Indy GP, Nürburgring GP, Suzuka, Fuji F, Côte d'Azur.

ok well thats not bad then, certainly worth the grinding for a formula GT

 

[Exorcet]

I'm surprised and bothered by this, too, especially the jump from very short races to ludicrously long ones. Maybe they just thought everyone would mainly race online?

I pray that isn't the case, because the current system is terrible for encouraging online play.

 

[Raimundo.jcc]

Don't you get it, guys? GT5P is alpha version of GT5, and GT5 is beta version of future GT6.

Maybe someday we'll get the whole game. I'm loving what I've got, because simply there is nothing better released for PS3 system. Despite the bugs, flaws, shortness and easyness (except for licenses) of the game, its a great game!

 

[asia minor]

I am very much bothered by short race lengths also, but for this major reason: you are forced to race dirty and banzai your way through the field. With no qualifying you are always starting at mid pack, meaning most of the time you must pass plenty of cars in only a handful of laps. One will never win by using a comparable car to the field and racing "properly", ie adhering to the racing line, not using other cars as bumpers, not overtaking in impossible overtaking spots, etc.

Example: Tsukuba. Track is so narrow that normal overtaking between same powered cars will be few and far inbetween... and you want me to overtake 7 of them in 3 laps? Then you have to treat it likes it mario kart. shame really.