machschnel, I disagree about "progress." I find that Gran Turismo is the game that many car games are patterned after. Some people are enamored with how Turn 10 took the GT formula and juggled it around a bit. It uses experience too, and I think it's stupid. With other games, they generally use the classic GT formula: you "level up" by winning races, either winning cash, cars or both, and using this to enter more races. "Same old same old but different" isn't progress. It's just variations on a theme. And yes, I haven't found many games which don't require some grinding. Please don't bring up "iRacing" if you have that in mind. A game I have to rent to the tune of up to $200 a year doesn't figure into this discussion. It's a different universe entirely.
Amar, I doubt you can find too many people who are bigger GT fanboys than I am, but these guys do have a point. In classic GT, the "leveling" as I said before was based on one game play element, and that was the money system. It restricted you to earning your way through Gran Turismo just like it does in real life. I just wish life could be as easy.
Now this new experience point monstrosity is just... weird. I'd even say a hideous demon from the pit of Hell at times. It's very strangely organized, very troublesome. It's difficult to make progress. The points are stingy. And it figures into a LOT of GT5.
I think the only problem is that it's difficult to progress with it. With the economy of GT5, you have one layer of difficulty, one wall with doors you must find ways to open. But with the XP system, there's a whole new layer of barriers you have to overcome.
The second wall in Gran Turismo used to be the License Tests, but they weren't a big deal. It may have made many kids cry, but most grown-ups could usually figure out some way to at least Bronze your way through them fairly quickly. I liked this second wall, because it made you understand the game. Plus, you used your wits and your skills to overcome them. If you were really good, you got cars out of the deal too. It was a very low wall, a wall that wasn't really a wall, so much as a teaching aide.
The XP system on the other hand is just another dreadful wall. It unlocks a few things, but it's very greedy, and you have to serve it arduously a long time to get anywhere. The money system makes sense. Money has value in all areas of Gran Turismo. XP can only unlock barriers, and you don't get much of it. So it's like having a job which is now
two jobs. It becomes an ordeal, a mental hardship. It taxes the fun aspect of GT5 and makes it not as fun. For some people, just flat out no fun at all. I think it could possibly have been a good idea if the game logic made sense. But in GT5, it doesn't.
You have to grind for money anyway. Why add a goofy, meaningless XP structure to it? It walls you off from many areas of the game needlessly. GT5 isn't all
that big to start with, so the XP barriers make a small game even smaller. We'll all change our tunes if the system is involved well with some new exciting downloadable gameplay, but we have no clue on that. We don't even know if we'll be getting GLC at all.
The painting system is messed up. What the heck were they thinking with a Paint Shop which
has no paint of its own! Instead, you have to have a paint chip from a won or bought car. And the stupid chip is good for one paint job. Criminey. Okay, this is a cool idea
in addition to the standard colors in a paint shop. But this way? It's messed up.
Another is the used car lot. Hardly anyone thinks it's a good idea. The list of cars is TINY! And you just get a few days to manage to make enough with GT5's stingy economy to hope to afford many of those vehicles. If they slip through your fingers, and many will, when will they show up again? Who knows.
I suggested a two tiered approach would be better. Take the old lots from GT4, call them Yamauchi Motorworks. Stock them with slowly changing car lists, but make these full of cars you need for races. So in this lot, you'll be able to find cars you
need in the game fairly easily.
Have another, based on the GT5 system. Call it Translator-san's Swap 'N Shop or something.
This list will be fast paced like GT5's, but there will be some randomness to it. Cars may appear in a day, or in a week. The list has no set limit, but a vague one of 100 cars or less makes sense. You can find cars you need for races here. You can find race cars, tuners, fixxer-uppers which may happen to have some upgrades in them already. You can find rare one of a kind cars. All are more bargain priced, because this is a car flea market.
Something like this would be a much better idea than what we have now, a quick SMALL list which can get lost when you have to do a Championship for several races and can't break out to check on the puny used lot. Miss a car... who knows when it'll show up again. Can't buy a car you need for a certain race? Well, sucks to be you.
I still love this game. I took a break to do some writing. If not for that, it would have been GT5 day, and I'd be trying to see if I could make level 21. But I have a bad feeling that I'm going to be pounding away at some races I'll grow tired of in order to unlock something or get a car for a race, only to learn that it wasn't that awesome, or a prize car is worthless, or that the game is just going to be closed off to me for a long time, unless I grind away incessantly on a race I don't like for XP and money.
GT5 should have been designed like GT4. In fact, if it's possible, PD really needs to redo the game structure so it is like GT4. Give us those thousands of Manufacturer's Cup races. Expand the race categories, add longer race structures. Add prizes to online play.
As it is, GT5 is going to sell very well, and should make Kaz and SONY happy. But improve it, and it could cruise among the stars.
