GT Academy USA Round 2 Cancelled, GT5 Update Incoming

Wow! In an unprecedented move (and on a Sunday morning, no less), SCEA has just announced the cancellation of Round 2 in GT Academy USA, due to more abuse and “wall-banging” on Rome and Madrid. All participants who qualified for Round 2 will be automatically moving on to Round 3. The start of round 3, previously scheduled to begin on February 14th, is now “subject to change” pending the next GT5 update, which has been confirmed to introduce more sophisticated corner-cutting and wall-banging detection mechanisms to “prevent this type of inappropriate driving”.

Though some with fast times at Rome and Madrid will be least pleased with this outcome, it is a wise decision to uphold the integrity of GT Academy while absolving SCEA from making subjective decisions about individual disqualifications. The awkward nature of the Rome and Madrid city courses were also particularly unsuited for such an important time-trial competition.

Players world-wide will now benefit from more reliable collision and corner-cutting detection, providing greater integrity in GT5’s online races and ensuring such a fiasco does not happen again when GT Academy returns to Europe.

Stay tuned for more news about Round 3 and the next GT5 update. Thanks to all of you who sent this in so quickly!

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Comments (189)

  1. cbabb

    GT Academy has been a joke since the beginning. It should be cut. I agree with some others. Fix the problems with the game that I payed for.

  2. AGTFan

    Best thing for those disappointed in GT academy is to think about how to get involved in actual racing. Grassroots motorsports can be practised in many countries and with small budgets too. I’ve been playing GT since version 3 but but every time I attended a real driving event (I run an Integra Type-R 1996) I find it hard to enjoy GT again. The handling is very realistic indeed but not having gforces and fear and nothing at stake means it totally different from the real thing.

  3. eclipsee

    Well, it took 13 years of development for fixing (if really fixed) the wallbanging and lawnmowing, better late than never.
    Looks like perfectionism takes its time.

  4. sinister_300zx

    HA! figures..i saw this comin since about half the people who play GT5 or for the matter all the GT’s cheat..cutting turns or hitting other drivers (people really need to learn how to pass other drivers not run into the back of them to spin them out…this is why i put heavy damage and penalites on strong online :) )….the next “update” wtf its been over dued wtf is kaz and PD doing i have no clue..i stand by my words “5 yrs of doing what to GT5?? the way this game is it would have took at least 2yrs”

  5. jasr73

    Hmmm. As much as it’s going to piss off everyone off that conducted themselves in a gentlemanly manner, the only real way manage the communities expectations and return some creditability to this kerfuffle is to hit the reset button start again post update.

    Moreover, if they’re going to get serious about running competitions like this in a professional manner going forward; set a few internal rules around scrutineering of lap times going forward.

    Not rocket science really. Get a few real quick guys to set some bench mark times and if punters are getting within 10% +/- of those times then laps need to be captured and scrutineered for rule compliance.

    Yep that would take some resourcing, but if there serious about running a tight competition to a creditable standard…

    1. S117

      Well, that doesn’t piss me off, but then again, I don’t think anything like that will happen if this update works half as well has Sony/PD hope it will.

  6. Zuel

    @ SavageEvil

    I read and comprehend just FINE SON.( So watch your step) What you fail to see is that PD and SCEA are going through the pace of getting the event done. Even though they have prof of people cheating. So they canceled the event until a working update can be released to prevent this from happening again. Which is fine but having people to move on to round three is not right. The whole event should re-start no matter what. This is a event on driver skills not cheating. Everyone whom entered should have another go at it due to the matter at hand. If you don’t agree with this then you must be one of the people who cheated.

    1. GetOutOfMyFridge

      “I read and comprehend just FINE SON.( So watch your step)”

      What are you going to do? Throw letters at him via E-mail?
      Might want to try growing up a little before you go arround calling people “son” and making threats. Of course a mature adult wouldn’t be doing that over a videogame based competition in the first place anyway, and for the most part they wouldn’t go arround making generalized statements like, “If you don’t agree with this then you must be one of the people who cheated”, but come back in 5 to 10 years, try this again, and we’ll see what happens.

    1. lol

      Has long has he didn’t tweet “90% finnished on the update”, or “The update could be released anytime”, there’s a chance it’ll at least be close to the 14th. But if he tweets either of those, it’ll be the year 2017 before we get it.

  7. Zuel

    I agree with with a lot of points that have been made ob the game. But GT Academy it self no, PD and SCEA have done a very poor job on the event. They seen corner cutting,walling riding and so on. They’ve changed the tracks TWICE hoping to prevent any cheating and that didn’t work. They’ve canceled and pushed everyone from round two to round three due to the cheating. The event is based on driving and sportsmanship. And by their actions they haven’t should any mind set on running the event right. They’re coming out with a update to fix the trouble but what of the event. Are they going to restart it over again? More likely not due to the time last left to the being of the race season. GT Academy in the States for the first time and people messed it up.GREAT FUNKING JOB PEOPLE!!

    1. SavageEvil

      You must not read and comprehend very well. PD wanted to avoid having to be subjective on ruling out who cheated and who didn’t. So they canceled the time trial until after the update is out. My goodness I swear some people just like to complain because they can. Stop crying about everyone who made it to round 2 getting a free ride to round 3, just means more people to get eliminated in that round. Complain much?!?

      As for the cheaters, seriously what did you expect? See one person cheat and he doesn’t get penalized, then others will follow suit. Follow the leader mentality, PD decided to cancel so they don’t have to go policing the contest and try to be subjective and choose who cheated and who didn’t. Less time consuming and easier is to fine tune the penalty system to prevent course cutting and wall riding, hope this increases the sensitivity of the damage modeling, 30mph impact with an immovable object would seriously damage any car, and knock things around in your gear box and transmission. Come on PD get this right, and how about including a difficulty select for the offline game, I know there is a switch for it. Oh and complete option to disable rubber banding, so if the AI pulls away, you won’t catch up unless you are just faster and have a better car. Same car with same skill means you lose if you crash.

  8. XTRGT

    Ok you guys are blind because GT5 is awesome on driving and that’s important to me and for the guys who can’t drive fast and cheat please don’t play the game ok,for the guys who can’t drive fast but drive clean please practice more and you will be fast some day and for the guys who think they can do a best simulator in 5 or 6 years then do it and will see the results because it’s all talking but no action.

    PS:For Kazunori Yamauchi and Team thank you for your Hard Work to trying put this game Perfect :)

    1. Craig

      Your right, PD couldn’t make a best simulator in 5-6 years. Couldn’t even finnish this one. But, give them a couple centuries , and who knows, mabey they’ll at least catch up with Forza……..

    2. Mohamu

      Driving th cars and the phisic is very good. But it looks like you’ve never played this **** online lol
      Disapearing tracks, no flag rules, etc, etc…

      If this is perfect for you, well, live with it in happyness:)
      It is almost as bad as NFS Shift was.

      And lets check out the GTR/Race series on PC, or Iracing, or rFactor, or I could list the better games for you.. and noone took this long to finish…

  9. BanditRa101801

    I agree with you that constructive criticism is what is needed in anything, including GT5, but, everyone thinks that every single problem is going to be fixed instantaneously, which is not going to happen. There are certain problems that can be changed right now (penalty system), and there are certain problems that can only be changed when GT6 or future installments come out (graphical). Everybody has to just deal with the game as it is and be patient. It’s not perfect.

    1. Mohamu

      I agree! But think it over again. We all were patient for long years :) I only say, my patience is not never-ending.. 5 or 6 years are more than enough to test the server capacity, to think over the flag rules, and I could list the very-very big problems of the game.

      Big respect to Mr. Kaz, but this game in it’s actual position is more frustrating than enjoyable (for me), and JUST because of those bugs..
      The concept of GT5 is more than good, almost perfect, but I bet they have lost a lots of fans (including me) with theese problems..

  10. BanditRa101801

    I think, and this goes to everyone one who is part of GTPlanet, that we have all forgotten the structure of GT Academy, what it takes to become a race car driver, and Gran Turismo.

    1) GT Academy is a competition in which a virtual racers skill is tested through various time trials. From these time trials, the best move on to each round, until the finalists are selected. From this point, these finalists are given a physical, to see if the finalists are capable of driving. Then, the finalists who pass this go through “racing boot camp” to see who is the BEST possible candidate(s) to become a professional race car driver.

    GT Academy DOES NOT make every single finalists a driver, GT Academy only selects the BEST to have the title. That is how the competition is and will continue to be. We will never know who cheated from the European competitions because the problem was not a big as it is in the Americas. We will never know who cheated in the Americas up to this point. Deal with whatever PD and SCEA plan to do. Stop the useless whining, complaints, bashing and making unnecessary personal attacks. This is NOT what Yamauchi-san would want!

    2) If there are people who feel that they can become a professional race car driver, this is not your only opportunity. There are racing schools and racing clubs one can get involved in. Every little bit helps. But, if you have the drive and the motivation to become a race car driver…just do it! If, you put in every amount of hard work into becoming a race car driver, and your will get it in return. Don’t be a defeatist. Have faith.

    3) Now, I agree with PD and SCEA for pulling the times and looking into fixing the penalty system for GT5. However, everyone needs to realize that this competition is merely that…a competition. Competitions have flaws, they have their imperfections, just like GT5. PD and SCEA are making a decision that they feel is needed for making this competition have validity. As followers of this great game series, we all know that this game is a piece of art, no matter what flaws it may have. Gran Turismo was created on bringing realistic car simulation to the home consoles. However, Gran Turismo has now been a surprisingly influential part of the car industry, just as Yamuachi-san and PD are portraying in their interpretation, not ours. Mr. Yamauchi-san would want nothing more to make the game “perfect,” but that is not possible, because… if this game was 100% perfect, our beloved series would die! Yes, there would still be tracks, cars and/or DLC that could be added to the series, but there would not be the passion that people, like Jordan has, if the series was to cease. There have been many great video game series in history that have fallen to this fate.

    As much as we may think GT will be around forever, there is always that possibility that it MAY NOT! Let’s not criticize PD and SCEA for past mistakes and support them with the solutions they are making NOW!

    1. BanditRa101801

      P.S.: I am NOT enter into the GT Academy competition. I do NOT own GT5. I do NOT own a PS3…I am only someone who appreciates and cares about Gran Turismo and always will, no matter what comes out. My apologies on the grammatical errors I made…but just deal with it. Have a good night. :)

    2. Mohamu

      “Let’s not criticize PD and SCEA for past mistakes and support them with the solutions they are making NOW!”

      To be honest, (and I apologize if I hurt somebody with my words) untill this game doesn’t going to be palyable I can’t criticize anyone else but them. (And the best support for them if they hear our criticism.)

      I’ve spent a lot of money on this game. Bought a PS3, a wheel, built my cockpit and waitin’ 5 long years for only this game. And what I do 3 month after the game release? Just waiting for them again to make this game playable..

      Great.

    3. AGTFan

      That’s a overlong post but one message hopefully will stick with a few readers. If you enjoy competitive driving look around for car clubs in your areas and get involved as helpers,marshals or drivers. It’s a lot of fun and it does not have to cost the world.

  11. LazyYouth

    So Polyphony needed some retarded guys to cheat three times on their special competition to finally realise their penalty system was wrong to begin with? Way to go.

  12. Type2red

    In my opinion POLY canceling round 2 automatically voids Gt Academy and is unfair to anyone who particpated in round 1 because the corner cutting that exists now was still prevalent in round 1 POLY sould cancel the entire competiton and remake it from scratch because if not I don’t think anyone will take this “real driving simulator”too seriously from a competitive stand point, just my 2 cents.

  13. Kuzanori Yumobushi

    Hello, this is Kuzanuri Yumobushi .

    I just like to say that GT5 has been nothing except fail (the Ferrari models were tight.. but that was about it).

    Sincerely,
    Kuzanuri Yumobushi

    1. Translatorsan

      Please forgive Kuzanori’s attempt at humor. Due to a firmware glitch, he has inadvertantly confused retarded troll bait posts with what you call “a funny joke”. Be patient, he’ll be back to normal has soon has we update him to Kaz v.5.846 software with idiotic post filter….

    2. Kuzanori Yumobushi

      Kuzanori Yumobushi here.

      Translatorsan is a disgruntled ex-employee. I would like to reiterate my point that GT-academy is a useless marketing gimmick, and is taking all the “fun” out of virtual used-car/stamp collecting that players are suppose to do with GT5.

      Yumobushi out.

    3. Trey

      Nearly two hours to think on it, and that’s the best you came up with?
      At least make an attempt at orriginality. Krikes man, I’ve got a garden gnome that makes for a better troll. How about next time you go for something we haven’t heard 100 times allready.
      I swear, what’s happening to the trolls these days? They’re getting way too lazy. Taken all the fun out of it…….

    4. Mayday Mayday

      Troll to base….Troll to base….I’ve been hit…..Repeat, I’ve been hit…..My engine is on fire…….Out of ideas……Going to have one last go at the target……..Doubt i’ll make it……Tell my mum I love her, and won’t be home for dinner…….Goodbye cruel world…….Troll 1, over and out…….(static)……

    5. Kuzanori Yumobushi

      Sorry to disappoint everyone.

      To continue the streaks of shudder-inducing unoriginality, I, Kuzanori Yumobushi, will now commit skppuku (popularly known in the West as hari kari).

      Ciao world!

      Yumobushi out.

    6. Jman

      See, Kuzanori Yumobushi is actually a former friend (in grade school) of Kazunori Yamauchi, but he works at EA, and is just jealous.

      Lol, jk

  14. kalakanto

    Hopefully all time working this new update don’t go to improve this ‘cheater problem’ and we get some new things to game itself too…

  15. Rob

    So why can’t they enable the insta-fail options that the License and Special Challenges have? You hit a wall too hard or get 2 wheels off in those and you’re disqualified.

    Or, like Practice Sessions, invalidate the next lap when it senses an off.

    For a prize like this, people will cheat -especially younger Americans, now more than ever.

  16. SavageEvil

    Well this is a welcomed turn of events. Cheaters in online contest force PD to revamp the game code so it can fix cheats, awesome. Now they should work it so that the amount of time spent off roading will be added to your total lap time after you finish your lap. As for wall banging, they should fix the collision system so that it is more sensitive to impacts, since Premuim cars have parts that deform, we should see wheels getting damaged from you having hitting walls, dragging on walls should produce interesting results, like perforated tires and parts rubbing on the tires. Hopefully the damage system gets a much needed upgrade, as of now you don’t damage your car easily. What about suspension damage? Surely suspension should have a shelf life as to how many hard bangs it can take in one race? Come on PD, lets get those guys upping the ante some more.

    It’s a shame that this is what drove them to update, but so be it.

  17. Zuel

    They really need to start the whole event over and not allow the people that cheated to return. But we all know that won’t happen

  18. chump

    Why don’t they eliminate cheaters? That would be the easiest solution, unless of course EVERYONE in Round 2 cheated….

  19. DEV-DAVIDE

    *track.
    Hope in some good firware update with anti-cutting rules and other important things for funny, good and onestly races. But does the next update contain things like better replay control, car damage (->it s actually good) and some other thing?

  20. Jump_Ace

    Well there’s hope atleast :) Glad to hear SOny and PD are deciding to make things right. If you want to find the best drivers in the nation, you MUST get rid of the cheaters. I’ll be competing again, yay and I can’t wait for this new detection system!

  21. DEV-DAVIDE

    this is my opinion, but i think there will not be other GT Academy in USA in the next years due to who have cutted the truck and push another player to the wall

    1. Cyle

      Very possible, but more likely they’ll just over compensate on the anti-cheat, and then we’ll get another round of stories next time about clean drivers being robbed.

  22. Big Ron

    Did that happened in the GT Academy demo as well? Can´t remember to get a news, where corner cutting was a problem. Where was the difference to the GT5 retail version?

    Why didn´t the rest of the world try to cheat, but the USA does? Two times in a row!

    1. Cyle

      I believe the rules were not clear about corner cutting and rail riders untill round 4, and that would open the door for lawsuits by people they DQ. This way, they can theoretically weed the cheaters out in the next round, and no one should be able to make a claim of bias by judges, or inconsistent rule inforcement.

  23. GTP_Cobra

    These people “cheats” make me laugh, when they get in a ral car on the track i think your going to know who was cheating lol and suspect most are underage. plus i hope the update does something about the penalty system when getting bumped by someone and also getting the penalty…

  24. Stune

    As annoying as this is for everyone involved, and I do feel sorry for people who have put in the hard work to gain respectable times the clean way, at least something good in the form of upgraded cheat prevention will come from this fiasco.

  25. Gorbachev

    I wonder why Sony is choosing to reward the cheaters by letting them progress as well?

    Sony should disqualify all the cheaters they can identify to discourage this sort of behavior in the future.

  26. RedBaron

    In reality, nobody would want to cut the track through terrain because of slippery tyres and possibility of damage. Please overhaul the physics.

  27. Jack

    Can’t imagine what it must be like to spend hours and hours putting in a great time, and then having it deleted. And then spending hours and hours doing it again, and then have it deleted again. People must be real happy about the whole situation.

    As far as just Americans cheating, the European contest had the grass as slick as ice, so that’s why nobody could run a better time by cutting corners.

    Oh well, I guess the phrase is “Situation normal, all F***** up”.

  28. Obli

    Wall banging has been in the GT series since the first game. I am not very sympathetic about this – it should have been resolved by GT2.

  29. The Stig

    GT Academy USA should only use INDY or Daytona! Why you wonder?! Well, it’s to advance for Americans when they have to turn right… ;)

    I feel sorry for the Canadians not to be able to participate in the competition. But if they did they would probably win the whole thing (they know how to turn right…). :)

    Well, to be honest I think it is good they use all the possible ways to go around the track as fast as possible. Now hopefully they make the game even better.

  30. NBH

    This just highlights that GT5 is just a game and not a true simulation. If people can gain
    an advantage then they will take it, people would in real life if there were no consequences. I’m really puzzled why several features in GT5 seem to have gone backwards from prologue, it’s like they were adding bit by bit but just left chunks out.

  31. The General So

    Sorry, but the japanese has lost their touch in game development. Look at Final fantasy series, look at GT5. It doesn’t take 5 years to make a game that has such crappy menu system. It’s not even streamlined. It takes about 1 minute to switch cars and then back into a race. Why can’t I just go to my garage and select a car to race rather than back out of menu after menu just to switch car then back into the race but again having to go thru menu after menus?

    1. Benny44

      You can – just select a race and then go to my garage – I think it’s in the bottom right corner of the track selection screen

  32. Sub-Zero Racing Team

    I just want an option that enables you to turn off tire wear and visual damage in online matches for drift sessions and photos. (Amongst other things)

    ::2 cents::

  33. RPM

    This is a good thing that PD had learned about the inappropriate driving skills of racers who cheats in GT Academy and will be in effect in Online Races too. Like when a racer is penalized, it should take a while to be flashing invisible car for the other racers at the back not to accidentaly bump him and will be penalized. Many many more GT need to fix but I am happy that after a month or more, there is a new update!

  34. DMC_S2000

    I also remembered that in license tests, you get disqualified when you go out of the track or cut a corner…

    Why can’t they implement that in GT Academy?

    1. pasigiri

      There are a lot of things that PD has implemented in GT5P and GT5 itself (as DMC_S2000 mentioned one) that should be … implemented or used. I think the testing and QA departments at PD are severely lacking or non-existant.

  35. DMC_S2000

    HAH! That’s what I’m talking about…Kaz Yamauchi is such a douchebag focusing the development only on Graphics and Physics that they don’t care improving…or should I say fixing the racing mechanics…

    The “Dream Car Championship”….yeah right DREAM Car…that race throws random racing cars from different racing motorsports as your opponents that instead makes the experience as TRASH Car Championship…

    That’s right Kazunori, improve the graphics more! blind the consumers more with the game’s amazing graphics! OH YES THE GRAPHICS!…oh yeah don’t forget adding Grand Theft Auto feature that you wish to add in the game…and still keep the racing mechanics as obsolete as PS2, or even PS1 generation…

    1. DMC_S2000

      @Madman Apex

      I don’t get it, you stated the problem, which is the shadows, but you question the action that can fix the problem which is improve the graphics….

    2. Madman Apex

      you said: “That’s right Kazunori, improve the graphics more! blind the consumers more with the game’s amazing graphics”
      i said: how have they improved the graphics? have you seen some of the shadows?

      sure the texture maps are better, its HD it has to look better. but that is what makes it look better, that it’s in HD and the texture maps are clearer and show more detail. PS3 has better hardware can handle larger maps; that improvement is kinda impossible to avoid. the cars have more polys, i should say the premium cars; that is really the only thing they have done. they could have atleast improved the maps on the “standard” racing cars.

  36. CorporateHammer

    Man, when did the world turn into cheaters and cry babies ? I remember how people didn’t like the penalty system in Prologue and complained and now people want it back stricter ? Keep it up and no one but EA and Activision will want to make games and THAT would be something to whine about.

    1. Stanlee

      When? I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell us, since both your posts on this page are your cry baby tantrums about goverments and people posting stuff……

    2. CorporateHammer

      LOL ya my first post would be considered a tantrum but the post above ? I didn’t read anything in that post about government. Hoping a person who asked a question could answer it, well ya.

  37. idlestation

    This is good news.. penalty system in GT will be much improve now. Well this affects wall riding and corner cutting most, but I hope pd will also improve collision penalty between cars as well.

    1. Devin

      Nevermind that the US has spent a decade fighting two wars that where only supposed to last months, and begging everyone else to send troops to take up the slack the whole time.

  38. Chiz

    Yeah all the talk about my country is bs I think the people doing it are just jealous that they couldn’t run gt academy

    1. CorporateHammer

      I live here too and you know, with all the whining it’s no wonder everyone bashes this country. Were out policing the world while our southern border vanished completely, and our government is enslaving us all so they can get their botox and pass bills without reading them, announcing not to read them which is basically getting paid without working and meanwhile citizens go on a hissy fit over the internet like someone gives a rats @$$.

    2. myself

      Too busy being paranoid about the government and whining that they arn’t allowed to play with the yanks I guess. Pathetic.

    3. crisco_21

      Pathetic? because I cant enter a contest? Go line up for your naked body scan or have some minimum wage ethnic minority hand frisk your child you effin sheep! If that happend in this country would result in a great Canadian punch in the face…but you have watch list to worry about so you conform.

    4. crisco_21

      Well I never made any statements about how Americans participate in GTA or any stereotypes only that it sucks we werent included…hardly makes me a terrorist I think.

    5. Chris

      Oh jeez, I don’t think floormatt was talking to you. That was probably a joke because of CorporateHammer’s rant about his government.

    6. GT_Scott

      Has taken frow wikipedia:

      “The Canadian Anti-Terrorism Actwas passed by the Liberal government of Canada in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001, as Bill C-36. The “omnibus” bill extends the powers of government and institutions within the Canadian security establishment to respond to the threat of terrorism. The expanded powers were highly controversial due to widely perceived incompatibility with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,[1]in particular for the Act’s provisions allowing for ‘secret’ trials, preemptive detention and expansive security and surveillance powers.[2]Contents [hide]1Bill C-36 2Opposition 3Prosecutions 4Expiration 5See also 6References 7External links [edit]Bill C-36This bill provides similar measures to that of the USA PATRIOT Act passed by the United States in the same time frame.The bill’s passage has been compared to the government’s activation of the War Measures Act in response to terrorist activity by the FLQ”

      Apparently the gov was just a little more sneaky about it, cause it sounds like about the same has the Americans……

    7. crisco_21

      Yeah but its the first Ive heard of it compared to the hundreds of times ive heard it about the US. Just a smoke show to look like we give a sh8t, our government is more worried about running out of beer than a terrorist invasion.

    8. GT_Scott

      lol…
      Frankly most of what I hear of the US is the gov sayin “trust us, we know what to do”, and the public sayin “forget that”. I think 98% of the population refused to fly last christmass because of the scanners. That’s ussually the big flying holiday I guess. Not a bad protest given loss of money by airlines.
      Oh well, off topic and late for an appointment. I’m off.

    9. crisco_21

      From wikipeadia

      Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Canada, in term of both volume and dollar value.[1] In 2009 beer claimed 46% of the dollar value of alcoholic beverages sold in Canada. This compares to 29% for wine. Statistics Canada figures show that liquor sales in Canada amounted to $19.4 billion worth of alcoholic beverages, up 3.3 per cent from the year before. Beer sales totalled $8.8 billion, Wine $5.7 billion and spirits $4.9 billion. 2.3 billion litres of beer were sold in 2009, a 0.9 per cent increase from the previous year. Per-capita beer sales have dropped 28 per cent from their peak of 115.2 litres in 1976 to 83.5 litres in 2009. By volume, imported beer has more than doubled its market share in the last decade. In 2009, imported beer had captured 13% of the beer market in Canada, up from six per cent in 1999.[2]

      No beer eaquals civil chaos!

  39. Joe

    The whole point of this is to find a driver to pilot a real life race car. If these people are going to corner cut and smash into walls then they should just be disqualified with no questions asked. If disqualification was clearly stated up front then you wouldn’t have this type of behavior. Essentially this was brought on by SCEA themselves via poor planning. Just my .02

    1. ilikefood

      If RULES were clearly stated up-front (for example, “You have to have at least 2 wheels on the track surface at all times”), then disqualification would make sense. But they weren’t. Without a clear definition of rules, everyone is just going by “gut feel” of what a “clean” lap should look like, which is ridiculous.

      The main point is that things that aren’t allowed ARE penalized. On some corners, if you cut them, your lap doesn’t count, right? This means that if your lap counts, it’s a legal lap. The problem is with the programming of the rules in the game, not with the drivers.

  40. crisco_21

    Hmm I dont see any nerds (corner cutter or not) doing exeptionally well at driving a real race car because they are fast at a game. How many will piss there pants coming off full throttle to the first corner under braking?? LOL

  41. Super_Colossal

    All the people generalizing the cheating problem with The whole country of the USA. Who didn’t see that coming…the America bashing is getting old. It’s been old for some time. We aren’t perfect, neither are you. Shut up about it. Like ZERO people cut corners and whatnot anywhere else. Grow up.

    1. daics69

      good call. i’m australian myself, never cut corners. even when i loose it and go flying off i try to get back on track near the incident rather than attempting to take shortcuts. don’t think of this as racist, because its not, but americans can’t be the biggest cheats or worst drivers in the world. whenever i have a spanish or german person in a room all they try to do is smash other competitors off the track and cut corners, etc. and that’s just for a couple of points and a win, imagine what they’d be like if they had a GTspain or GTgermany. all hell would break loose

  42. NoonenF1

    Did these problems ever occur in the other GTAcademy events in different countries? C’mon Yanks, a little decorum on the track. What are you going to do once GT puts you in a real car? You’re going to suck, that’s what.

    1. McClarenDesign

      It’s not entirely our fault. If we could build an affordable car with proper handling, we wouldn’t be conditioned to drive so poorly. Before the haters come out, let me remind them of the 60’s… tons of horsepower with crap suspensions and drum brakes.

      We Americans are a product of conditioning… and probably will be for quite some time. Like you said, once everyone gets some ACTUAL seat time, then we’ll see who actually has talent.

  43. Hypergolem

    The first 10 in round one were not cheating. I checked each of their ghost replays and there was no cheating. Not sure about the others, but if the first 10 were so fast without cheating i don’t know why would the rest cheat.

  44. Steph290

    I say, “Bring down the Ban-Hammer of Thor!”. Any self-respecting driver will try to honor the rules and pull off a great time while maintaining a clean lap. All those who do otherwise will most likely be a hinderance to the academy when, by chance, they do arrive at Nissan’s academy and perform poorly. SCEA itabbing to lenient in my opinion.

    1. ilikefood

      Yeah, sure, “honor the rules”. But what exactly are “the rules”? How do you know what they are? The only way to know is… WHAT’S PROGRAMMED IN THE GAME. If the game doesn’t penalize you, then it’s legal. Simple as that. Same in real life. If race organizers don’t penalize drivers for running over curbs, then it’s allowed. In this case here the problem is not with drivers, but with how the game is programmed.

      Without clearly defined rules there is no such thing as “cheating”.

  45. McClarenDesign

    Seeing all this makes me feel much better about NOT making it past round 1. I may not be as fast as everyone else around me, but at least my posted laps were all clean and fair. Small shame that I can’t compare my times to everyone else like I could with Prologue, but even that wasn’t always a fair comparison (I don’t use the handbrake when running a hot lap).

    Updates like this are gonna push everything back, imo, unless the next update is truly mammoth. Expect GT Anywhere and Driver’s Club much later than we hoped.

    1. Deuce350z

      Same here m8, I know I and a few other guys who gave up on round 1 because of the cheating going on and how it was perceived as “acceptable” by players.

  46. jbthbt

    I hadn’t considered it until just now, but it now seems to me like a good percentage of those who made it through round 1 may have been cheating in that round. Makes me wonder how many truly talented drives were beaten out by corner cutters? I’m all for doing it in your own race (loved the esses in Apricot Hill when I had fallen behind) and even online if you’re a turd, but I wonder if these guys realize that they’re going to have to actually sit down behind the wheel of a car someday and bouncing off the walls don’t work in one of Nissan’s 370z’s with an instructor in the seat next to you.

    1. Clark H.

      Because when Sega released it, and it was billed by many has the first real attempt at competition, that’s when GT started calling itself “The Real Driving Simulator”, and all the PR started about Kaz having a dream and being a perfectionist, etc. Before that it was just about this unknown up and coming guy and his groundbreaking game. They didn’t even try much at calling it anything but a driving game untill Sega tried saying theirs was more of a sim than a game.
      On a side note, sorry jbthbt, we didn’t mean to take over your post…:)

  47. Missed_the_Apex

    Nothing like putting GT5 into a national competition to spotlight how many broken pieces there are in this game. I really love GT5 but it really could be better in a lot of ways. And I hate to bring up the whole 5-6 years of development thing again, but with that much time we shouldn’t have these problems from a so-called “perfectionist” company.

    1. Clark H.

      I don’t think they ever were a perfectionist company. I think that’s largely a myth started about the time Sega GT came out on Dreamcast. GT has alway had problems of one sort or another, some for the whole series.

    2. Missed_the_Apex

      Couldn’t agree with you more. Always felt the “perfectionist” was a myth. It just sucks that I enjoyed GT4 so much and have really felt that GT5 was a let down. And the problems with GT Academy I think show that it does fall short of the past GT’s.

  48. Alex Leighton

    Me personally, I think they need to man up a bit and just kick the cheaters out. I really doubt that the people who cheated at Indy aren’t the same ones who are cheating now, and they WILL find some other way of cheating, no matter what changes they make to the game.

    Sony should know by now that lines of code don’t stop people from ruining things for everyone, the best method is the banhammer.

  49. Gtkiller

    I think it was a smart move by Sony and PD now there gonna try to fix the flaw and I’ll be able to enjoy the online portion a lot more.

  50. yournamehere

    From the driving habits of the most of the Americans players online have displayed… it’s absolutely no surprise to me that cheating is prevalent in the USA version of GT academy.

    Kudos to SCEA and PD — do whatever is necessary to preserve the spirit of the competition.

    1. Guitarplaya15

      this whole gt academy thing is so stupid. and a waste of time for pd, while they could be instead working on improving many more, and much needed aspects of gt5.

    2. Lars

      Seriously? What the hell was that? It’s gone from a discussion oveer bloody game to stereotyping nationalities. Classy mate, truly classy. Your words are crap.

    3. mynamehere

      Brits are basically Europeans minus the class and culture. The first and most notable trait of the British is their sense of elitism and entitlement – a leftover from an era when Britain ruled most of the world. Sadly, most of the British people, having lost their power, have not yet lost the feeling that they are better than everyone else.

    4. @ mynamehere

      No guessing what ‘classy’ part of the world you come from then…

      Your vast knowledge of an entire nation’s attitudes, and your fantastically idiotic reasoning for them have greatly amused me.

      Teach me something else oh wise one…

  51. FatherOfPearl

    Welp.

    Good job, SCEA. Maybe in Round 2 1/2 you’ll either implement a functioning penalty system or actually test the tracks before releasing them.

  52. MasterFocus

    why not implement the penalty system that GT Life Practice run provide? cutting a corner with 4 wheels on the grass will give you a red timer, wich is not counting in your best lap

    1. Guitarplaya15

      yes, i was wondering why they werent using this feature on the indy track when everyone was cornor cutting! PD is over thinking this one. They can put much more rational new features in a future update.

  53. Catalysis

    Not a biggie compared to the recent Sandy Bridge fiasco, I suppose, but yet more proof how flawed GT5 seems to be. What this incident and the Sandy Bridge problems do reveal, however, is how poorly some products are being tested before being unleashed on the public these days. It’s no good blaming a minority for spoiling everyone’s fun – those exploits should have been beta tested out!

    1. daics69

      yeah i picked up on all the corner cutting crap and poor damage model, poor ai, poor penalty system, blocky shadows, etc. about 5mins into playing the game, the day it came out. so not sure how much testing went into it. all i know is i would’ve offered my services to test the game over the past few years for FREE just to get a decent simulation!! close enough but at the same time nowhere near close enough. if you get what i mean? peace

  54. speedy_2

    My gosh. Scrap this GT Academy crap. The offline portion of the game(THE ACTUAL DISK WE ALL BOUGHT) has plenty that needs to be fixed. Stop wasting time on this crap. They could’ve released a few more Seasonal Bonus races with all this wasted time. Or better yet, fixing other content in the game. Or even adding more premium cars. This Academy crap is such a waste of valuable time and resources that could be put to WAY better use.

    1. guidance is internal

      Lets prove how superior our game is by turning couch potato’s into “real race car drivers”.(Google the winners since 2008)
      Marketing gimmick anyone?

    2. Impy

      Is this where all the bitter people who couldn’t get past round 1 are supposed to post about how pointless the whole thing is? Or is this just a meeting of the Whiner’s Complaint of the Week Club?

    3. speedy_2

      I’ve been playing GT since GT1 was a demo. I’d hardly say I couldn’t compete. But, an online competition that takes away all this time that could be used for other things is a waste. Plain and simple. I’m not saying it’s not a good idea, but it shouldn’t be first priority when other things need to be addressed.

    4. Kevin

      Out of 5 updates full of non-academy stuff, they decide to make a few quick track changes and add a set of rules to a previously planned update, also containing non-academy stuff, and you really thing GTA has been taking up all the dev time?
      Your problem is you didn’t learn from GT1-4 that PD likes to hype the heck out of every one, but what actually gets released is pretty much just more of the same, and not what the hype leads people to believe it’s going to be each time.
      A year from now there are going to be some really dissapointed people out there. Up untill now, most of the update content was probably pre-planned so they could speed up the release. Yes, they’ve thrown in some user wishes and fixes, and there will likely be more of those, but it’s not likely ever going to be “fixed” or “finnished” like many think it will. Why spend that much time on it when they can move on to the next project and get us to pay for it has a new version?
      Oh, and being a fan from the first demo doesn’t make a person good enough for GTA competition. Plenty of us here are fans from the start, and know we are nothing more than average players at best. Being a fan from the start just makes you, well, a fan from the start…..

    5. Least Resistance

      You don’t think that a virtual racing championship is worthwile? Fair enough, but I think there’ll be televised championships one day and GT might as well lead the way. So you have to fix a few issues, and people say its half-arsed. Nope, it ain’t.

    1. Guitarplaya15

      Im hoping this is the reason. Because mine did not re set this past wednesday. I was hoping for some easy moneh

    2. Guitarplaya15

      yes but after you do all the races and drain your account on cars, there is no way to make money quickly

  55. deep_sky

    Now is the right time for Sony and PD (who after all will be developing the patch) to acknowledge that the collision physics need a radical overhaul – and collisions with walls are no exception.

    Whether that will make it for this update is open to question, but hopefully the one thing to come out of this will be the realisation that some long standing issues with GT have to be fixed, both for now, and in the future.

    1. Big Ron

      It could be, that they do not change the collision physics. All what was said is, that the collision “detection” will be updated.

      So for me it sound like they punish you quicker for hitting the wall. But maybe your car will react like always.

      But it would be great, if the physics will be reworked, too.

    1. Sum1s2pid

      It’s a wonder that anyone would try to do anything less than sporting just because they can, especially with stated rules and access to replays… even if it *is* amusing to watch compilation videos of their suck.

    2. yourmom

      That’s BS. Nearly every one who made it past round 1 cheated. That’s including nearly all the GTP members that made it. So by “select few”, you mean everyone, then yes, a few people ruined it….

    3. nasanu

      No actually I applaud those who cheated in this. They have done what the GT community as a whole as failed to do for 10 years. They got PD to do something about cheating.

      Very well done.

    4. daics69

      i don’t look at it as being ruined, i look at it as the cheats doing the real drivers a massive favour because now we’ll FINALLY have a realistic penalty system….hopefully. can’t wait for the update and GOOD WORK KIDS! keep cutting corners while you can lol

    5. VBR

      The only people who have ruined this competition imo, are PD themselves! They’ve ruined it by not providing good enough in game penalties for cheats, to run it on in the first place, at least now their finally gonna do something about it. Hopefully what ever they implement won’t affect the option to turn it off for online racing, like we can with penalties at the moment. I would hate to be forced into having penalties permanently on like in Prologue, as me & my friends drive clean anyway & I don’t want that kind of ghost car slowing down unrealism spoiling my racing.

    6. vardd

      Yes, it is Cheating, but as a racing driver, IRL or in a game, you do what you can to win. Thats it. Simple rule.

      There is a flaw in the game, and you want to win, use it.
      You drive to win.

    7. Cyle

      And when caught in real life, they take away your win, you get DQ, and/or get penalized in other ways, so no, real winners don’t cheat. Just the people that are tired of finnishing behind the real winners cheat.

    8. Least Resistance

      Cheating is NOT fair enough, but if people are setting times based on corner cutting, wall banging etc that give a real time advantage then anyone who wnats to proceed has to adopt those tactics too. That’s why players who like a clean contest of skill are forced to adopt the same tactics, the alternative is just giving up on moral grounds and it’s hard to ask the real GT fans to do that.

      So, they’re patching the game with a more advanced penalty system which is good, but I guess that those who want to gain an edge by cheating will still find ways to do so, so it’s not ‘well done’ to them, they are cheats. Plain and simple. Cheats.

      There’s always been a conflict between the spirit and the letter of the law – the proper GT fans and drivers want the fastest CLEAN lap possible, that’s the point. That’s where the skill is. Try gaining time in real car by bouncing off the wall at 108mph and see how far you get.

      Cheats do spoil it and unfortunately they’ll continue to do so, the end result will be that the game will be so harsh that accidental barrier nudges will get you disqualified and that’s not progress either. If you like the game, play it properly. If you can’t compete without cheating – TOUGH. That’s life. Go back to shooting people in the face on some other server please.

    1. Ezekiel76

      I just completed the new seasonal FF events. There was about 50k total for credits and less for exp. Wasn’t worth the time, if I wanted to do that I would have ran the Sunday Cup again. Hopefully they will go back to the loads of credits and exp, it was nice not to grind forever.

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