What makes me think they dropped everything for this? I don't know, maybe the fact that they made such a huge song and dance about it? Also it is possible that they could have added in a good feature instead - you said it yourself, they put a crapload of effort into making 'real figures and specs'. Why not add something like brake fade? Or clutch wear? And by the way, all the research in the world doesn't make this a real car. If this were any other game, GT fanboys would be comparing it to MarioKart.
They haven't made the game just for you so they don't have to just make you happy, it's their game and it's theirs to chose what goes in and what doesn't.
I'm not talking about you in particular but it seems to be a common misconception that Polyphony have to get permission to do things in the game from their potential customers. They don't and I'm glad of that as if they did the previous Gran Turismo games would not have been the games that they were.
Although masses of people contribute to these games they are all Kazunori Yamauchi's vision of a what the real driving simulator should be, they've not been designed by a committee let alone by the millions of people who have played them in the past and that's a part of what makes them so special for me.
He's correct to note what people are saying about his games but anything that goes in that game goes in the game on his terms. Maybe people won't like everything that's the game, it's quite possible that I won't like everything but I'll understand that they've not made the game for
just me. I really had no interest in NASCAR being included at first but I'm looking forward to trying and even watched a bit (Not much) on telly because of Gran Turismo 5.
Although none of the games have been perfect I'm yet to find another driving game that comes close to them as a complete package, other games do beat the them in different areas but there isn't one game that comes even lose to matching it in all areas let alone beating it.
I'm personally very glad that they've created the X1 Prototype with Red Bull because if it wasn't for Gran Turismo 5 and Kazunori Yamauchi's unique vision that car would probably never have got any further than a few disparate ideas in Adrian Newey's perfectly aerodynamic brain.
Red Bull will surely have spent quite some time getting that car to be what it is through simulated testing and I imagine that they've learnt things from designing it as they would with designing anything. Even though we'll probably never see an X1 being produced I wouldn't be surprised if the learning they've gained from this project is used in development of other cars in some small way without us even noticing it happening.
Anyway, I like the car even though it'd probably make my kidneys fall out of my fear filled eyes if I ever got to drive a real one, not that I'd dare go any faster than about 10mph in a car with that sort of power to be honest. I like that Kazunori Yamauchi is willing to do things his way and I like that he wants to do things in the series that other companies haven't done.
