Gran Turismo 5 features exciting game play to suit newcomers, automotive enthusiasts, and seasoned gaming fans. GT5 raises the bar for the franchise with its depth of content and unparalleled visuals that are difficult to distinguish from a real live race. Players can progress and acquire credits through a variety of activities in GT Career Mode or they can explore different tracks and race with friends in Arcade Mode. Additionally for the first time, GT5 will feature an extremely deep online and community feature through the PlayStation Network.
Where Gran Turismo 5 boasts its strengths is in the graphics. All the cars in the game are modeled after their real life counterparts. Selecting the interior view on a Ferrari Italia will warrant a different dashboard and interior design than that of a Ferrari 599. Adding this feature rather than using a generic interior for all vehicles adds to the realism and joy of experiencing what driving the real car would be like. Unfortunately, not all the cars in GT5 allow you to use the interior view. The game separates cars into two categories. Premium cars and standard cars. The majority of the cars in the game are standard cars, which do not have a designed interior. The biggest disappointment was that the Bugatti Veyron was considered a standard car. Were the doors locked and no one had a set of keys when Polyphony Digital was researching it? The Veyron should have been a Premium car.
*Update: Polyphony Digital has released an update that now adds interior views for standard cars. However, it is just a generalized interior for all cars.
The environments you race in are breathtaking. From the remote wilderness to historical landmarks such as the Coliseum in Rome, the scenery adds another element of enjoyment to the races. Don't be gawking at the scenery during a race though or you may find your Lamborghini crashing into a wall. Take a couple practice laps if you want to admire the scenery more closely.
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| Rome, Italy |
Within GT Mode (career mode), gamers can partake in a variety of activities. The layout is set up into an organized area known as GT Life. Here future race car drivers can enter a variety of races or improve their driving skills by completing a number of challenges in the License Tests. In order to progress through the career mode, gamers purchase used and new cars from a variety of car manufacturers. Cars are also acquired by winning races.
There are two modes of racing: A-Spec, where you the gamer do the racing, and B-Spec, where you create a driver and coach him through races on his way to becoming an elite driver. B-Spec can be challenging at times since you have to find the balance between a car that your driver is experienced enough to handle and one that will win you the race. Oddly enough, there were times when even though my driver's experience was high he still decided it necessary to take a sharp turn at 100mph and crash into the wall.
There is also a Special Events section that contains a variety of unique events that will give you a break from the sometimes tedious races. As your racing experience increases, various events will be unlocked. The first two sections are unlocked fairly quickly. Once you get to a Level 2 you will have access to Pro Kart racing and a NASCAR drafting tutorial taught by Jeff Gordon. Future unlocks include the Top Gear test track and the AMG High Performance Driving Academy.
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| Pro Kart racing |
Within Arcade Mode, gamers can enter Single Player races, Time Trail, Drift Mode, or a Two-Player race. Time Trial is a great way to practice on a track that may be giving you a hard time. You can drive as many laps as you want and the game will keep track of all your lap times. The best part about Time Trial mode is that every time you do a lap you'll see a "ghost car" following or driving in front of you. The purpose of this is to show you the path your vehicle took as it went around the track while on your fastest lap. This feature gives you real time information on what areas of the track you need to push it to shave time off your lap.
Drift Mode is a blast but more of an after thought as there are no Drift events in career mode. In Drift mode, you drive a section of the track and drift through various sectors. As you enter a corner, a bunch of flags will appear at the top of the screen. As you drift, these flags will fill up and you get points. The faster and more flashy your drift, the more points you will net. Once you reach the end of the sector, your points will be saved and you will continue drifting in the other sectors until you reach the finish line for a total score.
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| Realistic mountains that almost seem ski-able |
Besides GT Mode, Arcade Mode, and Drift mode, there is a Course Maker that allows you to edit current tracks. This is most useful in creating more Pro Kart tracks for your friends to use in Arcade Mode, since there aren't many of them to start with. The last feature accessed from the main menu is Gran Turismo TV. Here gamers can watch automotive reviews and episodes of car programs from all over the world.
When purchasing Gran Tursimo 5 there are two options. You can either purchase the game for $60 or for $100 you can buy the Gran Turismo Collector's Edition which comes with the game, GT5 gold key chain, model car of a Gran Turismo themed Nissan GTR, and an Apex technical information guide. I highly recommend buying the Collector's Edition solely on the fact of the inclusion of the Apex book. The book contains tips and strategies for driving on the tracks, buyers guide to the automobiles in the game, and tuning information. The information in the Apex book is so detailed that you can actually use it to work on real cars. Now that's cool. There are outside companies that make great accessories to enhance the GT5 experience, such as Logitech's G27 racing wheel and Playseats' Evolution racing chair.
Final conclusion, this is a must play for any serious PS3 gamer. The game offers many exciting elements that will keep you coming back. However, with GT5 being delayed over and over, the game should have been better than it turned out. There are many glitches where cars will get stuck on walls and you just have to restart the race, load times are horrendous, and so is the soundtrack. The music makes you feel you are stuck in an elevator rather than the interior of an expensive race car. However, Polyphony Digital has a feature where you can substitute your own tunes while playing the game. The graphics are incredible and all the cars handle like their real life counterparts, but I just expected a bit more. Especially with the exclusion of Porsche automobiles in the game, part of my soul was left missing as well.
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Excellent)
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Excellent)
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