Okay kazz, here goes. This is more about consumerism and less about love for the game. I have been playing video games since the original Nintendo system came out, I had an Atari when I was a kid. The Gran Turismo Franchise was revolutionary in its infancy. It provided superior graphics and began to introduce Kaz's vision of an automotive library in digital format. At the time, companies like EA and Codemasters were putting out good products but they were a step behind the GT franchise. When GT4 was released it was at the time, the pinnacle for the Franchise, tons of cars, tracks and great visuals. However, EA and Codemasters were closing the gap quickly. The Dirt series was born and EA was preparing to release its Shift racer, which ended up viscerally better than GT, but lacked the polish and car library. It was however, much more relevant to North American fans than the huge Japanese influence in the GT series. When GT5 was promised it was to be the next evolution in the series, however in the 6 years it took to release it, other companies had closed the gap completely. Game content was much more current and had cars only a year old. In Dirt 2 and Dirt 3 the content was current, Grid had been out and was impressive and the Shift Series evolved into a great online racer. Shift 2 had GT cars from the FIA GT series and current road cars. GT5 should have been better in a number of ways but it wasn't.
The car content is dated. The newest models were a year old and there were very few. Much of the content was a direct port from GT4. The track list was cut down and when the competitors were providing many world class real circuits in their games, GT cut back on track content and offered new fantasy tracks. For those of us who are motorsports fans and work in the motorsport industry, it was a huge disappointment.
The vehicle sounds and handling dynamics were a mild improvement over GT4 which by now has been surpassed by other racing games. Really the only superior part of GT5 is the social networking aspect, car count and photo-mode. However, the majority of people don't appreciate the creative aspects of the game and relate more to the gameplay aspects. The fact that we, the fans, waited 6 years for this was disappointing. As a consumer who pre-paid for the game that missed its release dates and ended up being less than it could have been, I believe we have a right to be disappointed.
If they had spent the 6 years modeling relevant tracks, like their competitors, modeling current relevant cars and motorsports subjects and combine that with the creative aspects of the game it would have been epic! Instead, it is full of old cars, too much Japanese content, poor audio, and an overall underwhelming presentation. They needed to put in current motorsports subjects, FIA GT, Rally and Endurance racing cars, more current road cars and more North American and European subjects.
The dlc could help in this matter. You would have the base game with its enormous content to build on but instead the dlc is copies of the same cars and when they do choose something new its not important subject matter.
GT5 could have been so much more than it is and that is where I feel let-down. I spent my money on it, I play it and I enjoy aspects of it but on the other hand it is in some instances a let-down. I should not had to wait 6 years to find that out.
