Started a new game. Two BIG annoyances

[ScouserInExile]

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.

The prize cars are universally rubbish throughout the game, especially when you get a minor variation on the same car for A-spec and B-spec. Putting the Mazda Furai in such a low-level race is a bit jarring as well - you suddenly go from having to work to progress to having a money-making machine very early on.

It lacks the basic acheivement -> reward structure that is the basics of game design. A lot of the time, you are completing competitions for completion's sake, not because there's something worth having from completing it.

What's puzzling about this is that the previous titles have very definite difficulty curves, with the occasional blip (being able to get the Gillet Vertigo Race Car from the AMA European Championship in GT3 being an obvious one), whereas GT5 just bimbles along without much challenge, except for a couple of nigh-on impossible Special Events.

 

[Wedge598]

I completely understand what you mean about the seasonals breaking the game. But, like most of this game, it's up to you to use some descretion when selecting events and cars. You can make the game as easy or as difficult as you want.

I found the seasonals to be game saving in my case because I choose not to try them until I had worked through almost every A-spec event sans the endurance events. At the time I was around level 22 and the grind was starting to be painful. With the high payout seasonals I was able to extend my game by letting me get to level 30 without having to replay any A-spec events or sit through any of the painfully long endurance races.

If you choose to do them right from the start they will ruin the experience. But if you wait and use them to avoid the grind they are a Godsend.

 

[Carbonox]

I have to agree with the fact that it's stupid to force the player to buy a car even before doing the licenses (does PD really want us not to start the game with a car fully earned from doing license tests well enough?). I tried for a long time to go around it, but to no avail. The start of the game was completely broken compared to the previous games and doesn't allow for any decent Minimal Buys runs (like the yet-to-be-completed one in my sig) since one buy goes wasted at the start.

 

[Tornado]

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.

And yet, the overwhelming majority of complaints about A-Spec is that it isn't enough like GT4's.

GT5 events are more challenging and more focussed.

Most of the events that are in GT5 are lifted directly from GT4, even using the same interface graphics. And many of them were done much better in GT4.

The GT5 single player experience is so much more than GT4's

This is nonsense on an objective level.

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

I hope you realize how ridiculous this sounds after you just spent all that time talking about how GT4 has a bunch of "pointless" events. I can count the amount of Seasonal Events that weren't rehashed versions of events that are already in the game on one hand.

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.

The game is broken (in several ways), it would have sold fantastically regardless of if it was any good, and the only one wearing rose tinted glasses here is you.

 

[Bigbazz]

To the above talking about enjoying the challenge in GT4/3. Honestly I think the issue may lie with your skills in comparison to back then. I completed GT4 and got very close to doing the same in all of the other games, but my driving has improved massively since those days, yet I don't recall the games actually being hard until I look back to around GT2. The likelyhood is that in GT2 I was simply not as skilled as I am now, and that the game was not really harder.

Just an example of GT4 being easy, it was commonplace (on this site too) for people to complete the F1 world championship events using LMP type cars. To get a challenge against formula 1 cars you used le mans cars. Seasonal events, some of them may well be rehashed versions of previous races, but most of GT4 was rehashed versions of the same race. For example all of the rallying involved you doing the track, then doing it backwards, then doing it all over again with more laps, and then again with even more laps!

Back to the seasonals, we have had a bunch of these challenge races with strict restrictions on the cars allowed, making them highly challenging, far more so than anything in previous games.

Back to GT3, that game for me was the worst of the series, while I had fun with it I always thought it was massively lacking after coming from GT2 which was a much bigger game, I got close to completing it but never felt the urge to put in the time, the F1 world championship did seem more difficult than in GT4.

In GT4 we had no challenging content outside of the licences and driver challenges, the GT5 Aspec mode is not very challenging either, but the Special Events are, as are the intentionally challenging Seasonal events we have been given.

GT5 is not perfect, far from it, but it is the best of the series, if you think otherwise why are you not playing a previous generation instead of this version.


My issues fall with small things.

No rewind/fast forward
No Drag Strip
No standard car rims
Too small lap record lists, not editable without full clear
Ai is too easy
Racing tyres have too much grip
Non abs braking too sensitive


But getting into an arguement about it not having 300+ more pointlessly easy rehashed races to get it closer to GT4's number is silly, because it would not make the game any better. You could say that GT4 was better because you had to pit stop and worry about tyre wear in almost all of the races. However the tyre wear in GT4 was horrid, the tyres only lasted a couple of laps even on short tracks and it was far from realistic. Perhaps a strange decision to take tyre wear out of the game almost completely for the majority of GT5 aspec outside of the endurances, the compromise in GT4 with tyres wearing out very quickly was not the right one either.

 

[SuperCobraJet]

In GT4 we had no challenging content outside of the licences and driver challenges,

Apparently you missed it the first time.

Post # 29 ^ above ?

 

[Tornado]

For example all of the rallying involved you doing the track, then doing it backwards, then doing it all over again with more laps, and then again with even more laps!

If that is what your definition of rehashed is (and its a pretty silly definition, I think I should say), I cannot imagine how you refuse to see that GT5 suffers from the same problem. Only, because of how events are structured, it is far, far worse.

 

[Bigbazz]

Apparently you missed it the first time.

Post # 29 ^ above ?

Point taken, but that was often more about finding the best car to thrash the opposition while giving you 200points. You could be in a sitatuion where car A would simply not be able to win the race at 200points, a whole bunch of other cars would not give 200 points and then car B would win the race fairly easy.

But i'l give you that, if you put in the time and patience to specifically race for A-spec points then you would have a challenge on your hands.


But if you take away the A-spec points in GT5 and just race slow cars in the races you will get the same challenge, just without the points, or without having to search for the golden car.

My lasting impression of GT4 was trowling through car manufacturer races, bored out of my skull at how many there were and how they lacked challenge or direction. The best memory of GT4 was doing the driver challenges, they were awesome and genuinely hard.




To the above, Rally in GT4 was stupid because you did all of the tracks forwards and backwards, then you did them all again forwards and backwards with more laps, until you had done them all 3 times, forwards and backwards. GT5's A-spec is weak, but GT4's A-spec was also weak. The beauty of GT5 is when you look outside of that with the special events, the seasonal races and online racing. Nobody is saying GT5 is perfect, and i'm certaintly not, but GT4 was not any better.

The biggest problem with GT5 A-spec is generally down to this>


AI is too slow.


The reason it is too slow is because not everybody is a hardcore sim racer with hours to practice, the game has to appeal to a wide audience. Now don't get me wrong, I still don't get why they can't fix that problem like any other game with a difficulty setting. But there we go. Adding 300 more A-spec races isnt going to fix anything, its quality over quantity you want and GT5 is not the first in the series to get this wrong.

 

[BWX]

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.

Yeah that too. I was alsways pretty fast and was only really challenged with the harder parts, but you could tell they REALLY thought about the difficulty of the games and the balance. It was always fun for me back then, working through the game..

A-Spec in GT5 just isn't as 'developed' or expansive or balanced. I purposely made it difficult for myself and took my time and I was still done with A-Spec with all golds in a month or so- besides the very long endurance races- I did all but the longest three.

I just hope they do more in GT6, that's all.