Started a new game. Two BIG annoyances

[ScouserInExile]

... and one minor point.

I've just started a new game on a new account, mostly because I wanted to take a different approach this time, namely by running through the licences before starting to race and to find the "optimal path" through A-spec, B-spec and the special events.

I have immediately run into two issues with the game that have made me wonder "what were they thinking?" - I'm aware a lot of people hacve a lot of issues with stuff in GT5, but I can normally see why they have been done, but these two are totally illogical:
1) You have to buy a car before you can do anything else. You can't even look at the first tier of races without buying a car first. And you can't do the licences. I genuinely can't see the point of this. Especially if you are new to the series and want to do the licences to see how the physics work and what kind of car you want to get first. Pointless, surely?
2) Car delivery. Yet again, genuinely, genuinely no point to this. Why don't they just stick the car in your garage when you win it? Having to go into the truck, click on a car, click "yes" to wanting it then clicking yes or no to using it, before it dumps you back to the main screen just wastes so much time. It serves no purpose since you can't do anything esle other than say you want the car, if you say no it just stays there. Beyond pointless!

The minor point is one that wasn't around when I first started - Seasonals. If you are just starting, these are completely gamebreaking (as are Stealth / DLC cars, really). Get a K Car, slightly tune it, win the Paris seasonal, 300K within a few minutes. First time I played through (ish, I gave up once I hit the endurances), the early stages were the most fun - trying to win with an almost standard car, having to re-run a couple of races to be able to tune your car up enough to beat the AI and progress. Now it's far, far too easy and will thrust you into the middle-tier grind almost straight away.

And breathe...

[/rant]

 

[HaylRayzor]

Yes I don't think it would be out of line to require you to be a certain level to unlock the seasonals and stealth/cl cars.

But I believe this ship has long sailed.

 

[ScouserInExile]

On the levels issue: gifting cars is a bit of a game-breaker as well. You can gift a high-level car to someone who is level 0, the level of the car only stops you from buying that car if you or B-Spec Bob aren't high enough a level.

And gifting circumvents the "you need to buy a car before doing anything" thing.

 

[disguisedpotato]

It makes sense to me to put a level cap on the seasonals indeed. Maybe lvl 15 or 20, I don't know but at least something .

 

[Coxis]

Point 1: My theory? They made it so you can't do anything before buying a car due to the many ways of going through most (if not all) of the game without buying a single car in previous GTs. Not saying it makes sense, just my theory. I know I definitely tried to do licenses before buying my new car by attaining gold in all of them, but the game disagreed with me. Also, what's keeping you from driving a car and getting to know the physics? You have a whole arcade mode at your disposal, with dozens of cars and many (but not all) tracks initially.

Point 2: This one does make sense, especially if we take into account that when the game first released you could trade almost any car, regardless of its value. Tickets are delivered in that fashion in case you decide to keep the car (redeem the ticket) or gift the car to a friend. Receiving a car ticket guarantees that you'll get a completely untouched car. Receiving a car does not.

Seasonals: They aren't that game breaking anymore. I remember the first ever seasonal events, I did them on my GTP account, level 0, 0 credits. After completing them all I jumped over to level 15 and had 1,000,000 credits.

 

[Tornado]

1) You have to buy a car before you can do anything else. You can't even look at the first tier of races without buying a car first. And you can't do the licences. I genuinely can't see the point of this. Especially if you are new to the series and want to do the licences to see how the physics work and what kind of car you want to get first. Pointless, surely?

I noticed this as well when I restarted the game. I preordered the game, but it wouldn't even let me use my Stealth cars as my first car. I simply had to buy a car before it would let me do anything. Its the stupid crap like this that makes me wonder what people are talking about when they say the GT series "needs to change," when most of GT5's conceptual problems are from the changes they made from GT4.

What I ended up doing is saying screw it and gifting myself a Birthday Exploit car.

 

[HaylRayzor]

I noticed this as well when I restarted the game. I preordered the game, but it wouldn't even let me use my Stealth cars as my first car. I simply had to buy a car before it would let me do anything. Its the stupid crap like this that makes me wonder what people are talking about when they say the GT series "needs to change," when most of GT5's conceptual problems are from the changes they made from GT4.

What I ended up doing is saying screw it and gifting myself a Birthday Exploit car.

You don't have to buy a car if you have stealth/cl cars. But you do have to select one. When you start there is no car selected so go to your garage and pick a ridiculously overpowered stealth/cl car and start destroying the early events. I didn't buy any cars until I needed a FF to finish the beginner events.

 

[Tornado]

You don't have to buy a car if you have stealth/cl cars. But you do have to select one.

Then they must have fixed it, because I can tell you that when I restarted my game back in January it would not let you progress from the main GT Life screen if you were in one of the Stealth preorder cars. It forced you to buy a car or switch to a car gifted to you.


And if they fixed that, I have to wonder why they didn't fix the entire thing.

 

[HaylRayzor]

Then they must have fixed it, because I can tell you that when I restarted my game back in January it would not let you progress from the main GT Life screen if you were in one of the Stealth preorder cars. It forced you to buy a car or switch to a car gifted to you.


And if they fixed that, I have to wonder why they didn't fix the entire thing.

Well if they fixed it they must have fixed it so you CAN'T use a cl car, cause I used my cl cars when I started on release day. I haven't restarted since then (don't see the point).

 

[Bigbazz]

I bought the collectors edition so I had a whole bunch of Chrome cars ready to drive. But, instead i just did not use them for the game at the start. Same goes for the seasonals, if you're starting a new game and don't want it to be too easy, then don't do the seasonals.

 

[deep_sky]

Only two big annoyances? I've got about a hundred

Having to select a car before doing anything is one I don't understand; Car Delivery is indeed pointless and I cannot fathom why it changed from previous games when a car just plopped in the garage.

The Seasonal's are really just an extension of the terrible game design. The fact that the Cr/XP value keeps going up and down is probably an indication of how badly designed the game is. There's just no balance to the game.

 

[Bigbazz]

Annoyances for me.

Not being able to fast forward or reverse replays, not being able to select a single lap from a race to save as a replay.

I did the Nurburgring 4hour race, my lap 14 was the best lap and It was probably the best I have ever driven around the track. But to watch that lap I have to save the whole 4 hour replay and then watch it for well over an hour before i get to what i want to watch.

This is quite frankly ridiculous.

I love the game but I too have a big list of annoyances. Chrome/Stealth cars and seasonals are just not some of them.

 

[ScouserInExile]

Annoyances for me.
I love the game but I too have a big list of annoyances. Chrome/Stealth cars and seasonals are just not some of them.

Ah, the point I was trying to make (badly, it would seem) is that I can see why theyve done some of the annoying things in the game, but those two are deliberate descisions that I really don't think make sense, from a game design point of view.

You don't have to buy a car if you have stealth/cl cars. But you do have to select one. When you start there is no car selected so go to your garage and pick a ridiculously overpowered stealth/cl car and start destroying the early events. I didn't buy any cars until I needed a FF to finish the beginner events.

Hmmmm.... I'm at least 75% certain I tried using one of my stealh cars and it still told me I needed to buy a car. I sent a car from my other account and it then let me continue...

 

[Bigbazz]

Just to confirm, you have to buy a car, regardless of whether you have a bunch of chrome or stealth cars, you can't do anything before buying a car. A bit silly, but not the end of the world for me.

 

[toymdngn]

i started a new game a couple months ago and the Camaro Edge DLC car was automatically imported into my garage. i still had to buy a car before it would let me do anything.

 

[Strittan]

There are many "What were they thinking?" moments in my opinion.

• Why can't I buy whatever color I like when I wanna paint my car/rims?
• Why are they still sticking to all the "Are you sure you want to..." questions? It takes forever to navigate through all these...
• Why are the standard cars in the game from the first place?
• Why can't I buy whatever suit/helmet I like?

... and many more.

 

[Exorcet]

Having access to millions of credits and experience from the first instant isn't an issue. I only wish the game was like that from the first day. If you want to prolong the grind, just don't do the seasonals. I've played the game from the day it came out. It was never hard just long. And when all you want to do is race online, grinding for credits isn't the slightest bit of fun.

 

[FishHunters]

Agree with you.

1) Since we're not using our OWN car for the Specials & Lic. we should be allowed in wihtout a car. Same with seeing the first tier of A/B-spec races. How do we know which car is going to be most beneficial, for our $20k of starting CRs?

2) Car Delivery: Everything is a waste of time. Which boggles the mind. In the majority of games you can stay in a certain menu after you've done something.

3) Had they gotten the credit system right or make a updated change they wouldn't have had to give us the freebee cash in the seasonals. It's not the way to fix the issue; come on PD fix the CR system.

 

[iamjajo]

Then they must have fixed it, because I can tell you that when I restarted my game back in January it would not let you progress from the main GT Life screen if you were in one of the Stealth preorder cars. It forced you to buy a car or switch to a car gifted to you.


And if they fixed that, I have to wonder why they didn't fix the entire thing.

It hasn't changed as of today. You can't click on any menu item except New Car or UCD.

 

[BWX]

OP's post is just evidence of completely broken A-Spec in GT5. After really loving GT1 through GT4's single player "career" mode, I still cannot believe how bad and broken and unbalanced and how short (see sig.) A-Spec is in GT5.

GT5 is still so good in so many ways that it is frustrating as Hell. I can't believe Kaz hasn't issued a huge apology just for A-Spec- and given us a proper A-Spec through an update or something. Oh well.

 

[Cosbuster]

OP's post is just evidence of completely broken A-Spec in GT5. After really loving GT1 through GT4's single player "career" mode, I still cannot believe how bad and broken and unbalanced and how short (see sig.) A-Spec is in GT5.

GT5 is still so good in so many ways that it is frustrating as Hell. I can't believe Kaz hasn't issued a huge apology just for A-Spec- and given us a proper A-Spec through an update or something. Oh well.

Yes, A-spec sucks and making B-spec such a big part of the game is even worse and they didn't even put any effort in it, they just copy-pasted all the events from A-spec.

 

[Bigbazz]

Talk about over exaggerating.

Comparing GT4 ammount of races with GT5 is pointless, because GT4 was just mass quantity, a pointless ammount of races that served little purpose other than adding numbers.

GT5 events are more challenging and more focussed. GT4 only had challenges in the form of the Driver Challenges and Licences. GT5 has Licences, Special events and Seasonal events.

There's not much difference in reality.

 

[BWX]

Yeah the length of time it takes to complete A-Spec (it's size/number of races) is pointless to compare. Huh? No- you are wrong, it makes a huge difference.. plus GT5's is a hot mess compared to previous GTs. Oh, and license tests are meaningless now, how do you square that against previous GT's integration of license tests into A-Spec? I'm not bashing GT5, just A-Spec in GT5, if you think it's better than previous GT career modes you are in the very tiny minority. I'm not talking about the whole game, so don't lump it all in together, I'm talking about A-Spec.

 

[xXDoc187Xx]

I can't believe Kaz hasn't issued a huge apology just for A-Spec- and given us a proper A-Spec through an update or something. Oh well.

I guess thats what happens when a game devolper decides to make a game for himself rather than making a game for the ppl.

 

[Bigbazz]

Yeah the length of time it takes to complete A-Spec (it's size/number of races) is pointless to compare. Huh? No- you are wrong, it makes a huge difference.. plus GT5's is a hot mess compared to previous GTs. Oh, and license tests are meaningless now, how do you square that against previous GT's integration of license tests into A-Spec? I'm not bashing GT5, just A-Spec in GT5, if you think it's better than previous GT career modes you are in the very tiny minority. I'm not talking about the whole game, so don't lump it all in together, I'm talking about A-Spec.

GT4 had a massive ammount of pointless races, getting 100% was just trowling through tonnes of pointlessly easy and meaningless races.

The only hard parts of the game were.

A : Licences
B : Driver Challenges.

Now if you compare the 2 Aspec type modes, GT4 had lots of pointless extra races, most of which could be completed and easily won via B-spec, much more easily than the b-spec mode in GT5, and in GT5 you actually have to race the a-spec races yourself.

In GT5 you have the licences with the old driver challenges integrated into the (now not necessary by popular vote) licences, the difficulty level is roughly the same.

Add an aside to that, GT5 gets Special events, the replacement for the driver challenges (that were moved into licences) and providing a variety of actually engaging driving challenges.

On top of that you get the constantly evolving and fresh online seasonal events.


The GT5 single player experience is so much more than GT4's, and I loved GT4, all golds and 100% completed in that game.


Have your issues with GT5 and thats fine, but the game is far from broken, it didnt sell that well because it was crap. Too many people look back at the old GT games with rose tinted glasses.

 

[zanxion]

I have to second to the fact not being able to have a look at least to the features of a race before getting the car allowed to use in it. I have many times spend money to wrong cars trying to get the correct one for a race.

Also, what bothers me generally in the game is that for most races you are being placed last on the grid. Why the hell does that? Not that I cannot wimp the a##es ahead of me, but what has gone wrong putting me last place?

 

[ScouserInExile]

There are many "What were they thinking?" moments in my opinion.

• Why can't I buy whatever color I like when I wanna paint my car/rims?
• Why are they still sticking to all the "Are you sure you want to..." questions? It takes forever to navigate through all these...
• Why are the standard cars in the game from the first place?
• Why can't I buy whatever suit/helmet I like?

... and many more.

I've never bothered with painting my car / rims, so this has never occured to me
Yeah, I find the exsessive messages really annoying as well. The menus in general aren't great, upgrading your car can be a real chore at times.
While I think it's a little poor, I can see why this has been done - time, effort and space. I don't think it was designed to have standards and premiums, it was just born out of necessity.
Not something that bothers me, but it does seem a little weird.

OP's post is just evidence of completely broken A-Spec in GT5. After really loving GT1 through GT4's single player "career" mode, I still cannot believe how bad and broken and unbalanced and how short (see sig.) A-Spec is in GT5.

GT5 is still so good in so many ways that it is frustrating as Hell. I can't believe Kaz hasn't issued a huge apology just for A-Spec- and given us a proper A-Spec through an update or something. Oh well.

For me, the biggest problem with A-Spec is that it just too easy. I am not a great driver by any stretch of the imagination. In the first 4 titles, there was always a point where my tallent would run out and I wouldn't be able to progress - which is where a lot of the fun came in: I would enjoy trying to win more than actually winning. Fiddling with setups was on of my favourite parts of GT3 / 4, but I've not had to do anything other than adjust gear ratios a touch in GT5 and I've walked through the game. And it's not like I've been maxing out the cars, they've been "warmed up" at most.

Talk about over exaggerating.

Comparing GT4 ammount of races with GT5 is pointless, because GT4 was just mass quantity, a pointless ammount of races that served little purpose other than adding numbers.

GT5 events are more challenging and more focussed. GT4 only had challenges in the form of the Driver Challenges and Licences. GT5 has Licences, Special events and Seasonal events.

There's not much difference in reality.

I would disagree with this. My problem with the competitions in GT5 is that there is basically one of everything - in previous titles there have been repeats of the same competition, requiring you to tune your car as you go to remain competitive. In GT5, especially when you get to the higher tiers, it is often a case of "buy / win a car, use it to beat competition x, never use it again". One of the things I liked about GT3 is that you would be looking for, say, an FF car and rather than just saying "what will win competition x?" you would have to be thinking "what can I afford now that will win competition x and will be tuneable to beat competition y and maybe even competition z?"

 

[Tired Tyres]

GT4 had a massive ammount of pointless races, getting 100% was just trowling through tonnes of pointlessly easy and meaningless races.

The only hard parts of the game were.

A : Licences
B : Driver Challenges.

Now if you compare the 2 Aspec type modes, GT4 had lots of pointless extra races, most of which could be completed and easily won via B-spec, much more easily than the b-spec mode in GT5, and in GT5 you actually have to race the a-spec races yourself.

In GT5 you have the licences with the old driver challenges integrated into the (now not necessary by popular vote) licences, the difficulty level is roughly the same.

Add an aside to that, GT5 gets Special events, the replacement for the driver challenges (that were moved into licences) and providing a variety of actually engaging driving challenges.

On top of that you get the constantly evolving and fresh online seasonal events.


The GT5 single player experience is so much more than GT4's, and I loved GT4, all golds and 100% completed in that game.


Have your issues with GT5 and thats fine, but the game is far from broken, it didnt sell that well because it was crap. Too many people look back at the old GT games with rose tinted glasses.

Play the game without an internet connection and say that.

 

[SuperCobraJet]

GT4 only had challenges in the form of the Driver Challenges and Licences. There's not much difference in reality.

The only challenges?

Obviously, you never delved into the A-spec point side of GT4.

The ultimate in challenge layed before you.

 

[C_Raccoon23]

GT4 had a massive ammount of pointless races, getting 100% was just trowling through tonnes of pointlessly easy and meaningless races.

The only hard parts of the game were.

A : Licences
B : Driver Challenges.

Now if you compare the 2 Aspec type modes, GT4 had lots of pointless extra races, most of which could be completed and easily won via B-spec, much more easily than the b-spec mode in GT5, and in GT5 you actually have to race the a-spec races yourself.

In GT5 you have the licences with the old driver challenges integrated into the (now not necessary by popular vote) licences, the difficulty level is roughly the same.

Add an aside to that, GT5 gets Special events, the replacement for the driver challenges (that were moved into licences) and providing a variety of actually engaging driving challenges.

On top of that you get the constantly evolving and fresh online seasonal events.

The GT5 single player experience is so much more than GT4's, and I loved GT4, all golds and 100% completed in that game.

Have your issues with GT5 and thats fine, but the game is far from broken, it didnt sell that well because it was crap. Too many people look back at the old GT games with rose tinted glasses.

I don't think I'm looking through rose tinted glasses. It really is true how GT5's career mode is lacking in some places. I'm not going to compare GT5's career to GT4, but to GT3 instead. IMO, GT3 had the best career mode out of all GTs.

One thing that makes me love GT3's career better is that as you moved from the Beginner, Amateur, and then finally Professional series, the races actually got LONGER, so pit strategy played a vital role in many cases. This doesn't happen in GT5 at all. The 10 laps races in the Professional league in GT3 were brutal, especially since there were 10 races per championship. That's 100 laps a championship! But I was still HOOKED as a result. I bought GT3 again last year after I regretted giving it away in years ago, and there were many nights where I stayed up until 2AM getting through GT3's career. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing for GT5's career. Instead, in that game A-spec races are shorter than the B-spec counterparts. Where is the sense in that?

Seasonal events were great when they first came out, but honestly I'm starting to lose my enthusiasm for them. I just do them for money in most cases and that's it. Possibly the only seasonal event that stood out for me is the Ferrari F1 challenge. It wasn't an A-spec rehash, and if PD keeps adding seasonals that are actually different from those in the main game, like the Expert and Honda Civic seasonal, maybe I will enjoy them again. There are 1000 cars in the game. It shouldn't be hard at all to come up with a bunch of events that are actually UNIQUE. Heck, they honestly should do a Skyline or S2000 seasonal next, since there are so many in the game.

Another example how GT3's career was better was prize cars. GT3 had only 150 cars, but eventually, the game still gave you cars you actually WANTED.

Here's the prize car list for GT3's Pro League:

https://www.gtplanet.net/gt3/prizecars/Pro.htm

I don't understand why we can't win cars half this decent in GT5. Granted, you do win some good cars in GT5, but those are far and between.

GT5 has over a 1000 cars, and a lot here will agree that most of the prize cars in this game are just terrible. Even in Extreme series, prize cars are still a joke. I don't see any excuse for it. For example, in GT3 if you win the FGT championship, you were awarded with another great F1 car. In GT4, if you win the FGT championship, you got the Mercedes Sauder C9. But if you win the FGT championship in GT5, all you get is a Caterham.

Why are we awarded such a poor car in one of the most difficult events in the game? I might be nitpicking, but it just seems illogical to me.

IMO GT3 just works much better as a game than GT5. And in GT4's defense, as SuperCobraJet said, try to get 200 A-spec points in every race if you truly want a challenge in that game.