I have been a massive fan of the GT series & all 3 generations of the PS1 were bought for GT alone.
The only thing I have always really hated about all previous GT is the poor AI.
and now GT5.... I am currently a-spec 26, b-spec 29;
Well at first I thought the AI had improved a little, now I don't think so. We still have a pack of cars that stick together and then 2 up the front that get some kind of performance boost (10-20% or so?)
It has been mentioned in the past, but the core features for racing offline are reasonable driving physics & decent competition. GT5 only manages one of those.
Pros:
PS3 / HDTV graphics
Mostly feels good to drive
Wheel feel pretty good.
Online performance pretty good
Nordschleife really is very good
Cons:
AI cars - still terrible
Damage is quite literally hilarious - it reminds me of Geoff Crammond's F1GP (version 2) only not as realistic
Levelling system - a pain, illogical & not even needed
Unrestricted races - unrestricted races are not actually races
Online restrictions & options are limited.
Economics - too harsh and restrictive.
Menu System - awful
Loading times - awful
Customisation - illogical & poor
Summary
The game design is complete lunacy, introducing a badly designed artificial reward system to compensate for the lack of competetive racing due to an ancient and truly terrible AI.
Development focus was completely misplaced leaving us with super highly detailed dashboard trims, but for many premium cars, you can't even read the clock faces (even within 1m of a 42" HDTV)
There are many new 'features' most of which are fluff that have nothing to do with the core values of realistic racing in a wide range of cars. They would be nice to have in a well constructed competetive, challenging racing game, but don't add longevity to something that is simply not enjoyable to play on your own.
Many useful features from previous GT versions have been removed rather than improved upon (power points, saving in endurance, tuning options, tuning saves, sharing removable components between identical vehicles)
I was hoping that many of the issues would be fixed by updates, however the seasonal events seem to indicate there is something deeply wrong with the current development philosophy at PD (explanation after score).
For me personally the only thing that remains fun in this game is time trialling some new cars & then racing them against friends online.
Final Score
graphics:
85%
physics:
90%
online play:
75%
single gameplay:
20%
Overall Score:
40%
Some Notes
Seasonal Events:
There isn't (as far as I know) a real racing series in the world that is entirely unrestricted. There's a good reason for that. Each competitor wants to win and the rules are there to enforce a good competition (as well as to reduce unsightly maiming & death)
Because it is a competition and starting at the front is a big advantage a system of qualifying is almost always present to give everyone a fair attempt to start with that advantage.
The seasonal events demonstrate the problem with PD at the moment. They introduced some restrictions to make the events a challenge. However because the AI is simply not fit for purpose they had to use a staggered start sprint format basically lumbering the player with a 25 second starting penalty due to the staggered start. However at least it was a challenge.
The restrictions allow the player to judge their actual driving/tuning skills, since the challenge should certainly be achievable with the defined restrictions. Because of this I was able to discover several corners on several tracks where although it felt I was driving it well, I found I could actually gain, in some cases, up to a second. Just on a single corner!!
This is for me the real joy of racing, analysing each and every corner to see if I can improve against decent competition. I don't mind not winning (some of us will always be midfield) there are always more losers than winners in every race on earth - that is after all the point!
Once they removed the restrictions, they then remove the only objective yardstick you have to measure your performance with.
It seems PD have no intention of creating a
racing game. I get the feeling that Kaz really would prefer to replace all the tracks with some city streets, traffic lights and car parks.
I just want a game with GT physics, a decent car list and competetive AI to race against on a wide range of tracks. Is that so hard?
Apparently it is.
(sorry for the lengthy rant, but this is the crap that runs around my head everytime I have to 'play' part of the game to get a new car to race online)
....
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