However, I don't really see what Kaz adds to this game, apart from a love for cars. Reading stuff like this, I'm inclined to think that GT1 was a lucky hit and he's actually a rather mediocre game developer.
60 million Gran Turismo games sold say you're wrong. Even if you think GT5 is a waste of a Blu-ray, there are four-plus predecessors which sold around 50 million.
Kaz brings to Gran Turismo that special essence which keeps you posting here, keeps us racing in it,and make other game developers copy it.
GT has always consisted of mostly racing, if PD are going to largely ignore the racing because its not the main aspect of the game then they need to be more inventive with events/career mode, and not put the emphasis on racing.
Some of us are evidently playing another game. I'm racing, single player offline.

Well, when I'm playing it.
TL;DR version: I guess my GT5 is just more fun than your guys' GT5. Oh well.
For the past week, I've been caught up in a programming project for the Arturia Origin synthesizer. It seems these guys have whiners on their boards too. The Origin has been out for three years or so, and has been promised through this time to be given templates of some vintage synthesizers. These templates essentially turn the Origin into these synthesizers. Unfortunately, the company has been slow to release these templates, and so far have only produced two, the Minimoog and Jupiter 8. Thus, the board has become rather grouchy lately, and some have even threatened to sell their Origins out of frustration.
But the thing is, the Origin is a modular synthesizer, and the parts to make these synths exist in the Origin to start with. So you don't
need these templates, they just make things convenient. I tried to point this out to the posters at the boards, but they weren't too impressed with me. I can sort of understand, because these digital synths have turned keyboard players into push button addicts, used to having a ton of sounds available at the press of a button. Making your own synths takes time and is rather tedious. I do wonder though what they see in the patches in the machine already that they're using to make music, because a lot of them are rather lame sounding. I actually like this factor, because it encourages me to create my own sounds, and it makes my Origin unique.
So anyway, one of the admins suggested he see if Arturia might make some template-like synths for us. That made the boards happy and grouching ceased for the most part. I offered to roll some of my own, and this made me instant friends with a few people. I'm making "template" patches resembling to my estimation a number of vintage synths Arturia doesn't even have modeled. But my patches sound very similar to the sounds from albums these synths are featured on, so I'm confident most of the folk there will appreciate them, and fall back in love with their Origins.
What does this have to do with GT5? Well, my experience isn't much like you guyses, much like my time spent with my Origin is much cooler than theirs.
Yes, I've complained along with everyone else that the the XP system is weird and doesn't work with GT5. Making a whole separate B-Spec section of the game is okay and all, but not if the A-Spec section is just as tiny, and lacking many of the tracks the team made. Plus the online playground doesn't exist yet. The graphics overall aren't as good as Prologue's. We can't tune our cars much more than we could in Prologue. We can't adjust gear ratios. There are zero brake upgrades. The paint shop doesn't even have any freaking paint of its own! We have to steal colors from other cars! Yadda yadda, you all obviously have your fave peeves.
But...
I can't wait to get back to it. I was going to race tonight, but my idiot gubmint job is trying to kill me, so I resorted to shooting at Arab militants in Desert Combat instead to keep awake till bedtime. It was fun, but I really wanted to either race, or polish off these synthesizer patches.
And I don't want to race in other games. I couldn't care less about Shifty 2, or whatever Simbin is cooking up. I'm as excited about Forza 4 as I am about the third installment, and... well, my 360 Leet has been disassembled for more than a year. My PC sims are collecting dust.
The reason is that nothing is as cool, or suave, or delectable as GT5. And I've been racing offline. I have no big problems with the bots, because I haven't seen a racing game with astounding, incredulous, "You have to SEE THIS in action!" bots. The only game I can think of with better bots is in Toca, and that's because they're bland, boring, polite little rail riders, which will create amusing pileups as they plow mindlessly into wrecks. Wii. Every game as A.I. which falls down somewhere, and with GT5, it's the braking through turns problem. But I've had WAY more headaches with online racing and racers, so thank you but no thank you.
If there was an equivalent racer out there, I'd be playing it. When I'm not hunched over my synthesizers. But there's not. And even those that are have copied Gran Turismo to one extent or another to start with. Forza whole hog. And if there was, this board would have emptied a long time ago, and I'd sure be enjoying the lack of noise, believe me.
Evidently, some Japanese yahoo, in spite of any opinion to the contrary, has a touch with this racer which is unique in the racing game world. I mean, seriously, when people threaten to dump it and leave GT Planet, for like... months, and they're still here, that says something.
