Gran Turismo 5 - PlayStation 3

Polyphony Digital Realizes Its Racing Dream

Matthew Kato — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:00:00 GMT

There's no point in wondering where all of Gran Turismo 5's development time went. We all have an idea of what the game should look like after five years, but what's done is done. The game is finished, and it's more than capable of standing on its own four tires. Say what you will about the developer's inability to put out a game in a timely fashion – Polyphony Digital's singular vision and commitment to delivering a great race experience pays off in Gran Turismo 5. I wouldn't necessarily call it the most complete racing game since it doesn't deliver on every single front, but when you get behind the wheel of GT 5 it is a racing experience like no other.

After having played so many racing games throughout the years, it can be hard to still get that primal thrill of getting in a red-hot race car and pushing it to its limits out on the track. Going fast is always fun, but there's something more that separates the great racing titles from those that are merely going through the motions. GT 5 succeeds in capturing that elusive adrenaline rush.

The graphics are undoubtedly a big factor in this simply because their high level of detail and evocation of realism puts you that much deeper in your seat as you whip around a corner or blast down a city street. Racing is all about living in the moment, and nothing helps that more than combining the game's great sense of speed with graphics whose details keep pace and help put you in that car at that moment. In particular, I highly suggest you get into a premium car and race from the cockpit view. Here you'll feel the sensation of every bump on the street and get a better idea of the rigors of racing. Add in snow, rain, and night environment variables, and you've got a game that visually lives up to the hype.

The cars themselves are another obvious factor in making GT 5's racing second to none. The vehicles handle great, and I really got a sense of what different kinds of cars feel like and what it's like to work with them and be able to wring out every bit of performance while straddling that line between being in and out of control.

One of my continuing criticisms of the series has been the cut-and-dry, sterile feeling of its career mode. Although GT 5 doesn't abandon its traditional racing events format, I appreciate how relatively easy the learning curve is in earning money and XP to move up the ranks due to the extra challenges that are available. Playing through Special Events like the NASCAR learning school or Rally stages is not only fun, but it breaks up the monotony of the normal A-Spec races and also is a great place to turn when you hit a dead end and need an infusion of cash or XP.

The game also sprinkles in a selection of rewards like paint chips (which you use to color your cars), free cars, unlocks for the Special Events, Photo Travel locations, and more as you progress. The latter even got me interested in the Photo Mode, a mode I normally wouldn't bother with, and that's exactly the kind of incentive that keeps things going and binds together some the seemingly disparate features in the game.

In general, the XP and money flow pretty easily and it makes starting out with the low-level cars easier. That being said, I don't mind working my way up the car ladder. Having to race all kinds of vehicles gives me an appreciation of what different cars are good and bad at, and it helps me as a racer in general. In some ways, this is the heart and soul of what Gran Turismo is all about.

As much as this game has nailed its overall vision, it's a franchise that needs to stretch out its horizons a little bit. This has been the case in the past, and GT 5's attempts to do this are uneven. Car damage has been requested for years, and now that it’s in there, I find the way it’s presented strange. You unlock it later in the game, and up until that point the damage is cosmetic and slight. Frankly, however, its absence in the beginning of the game only meant that by the time it started to matter, I was past worrying about when it would show up. I suggest you keep some money handy, because rebuilding your chassis isn’t cheap. Or better yet – don’t crumple your car in the first place.

The online experience is satisfying in many ways except for the glaring lack of any overall ranking or leaderboards. This is disappointing in and of itself, but I also think Polyphony passed up a larger chance to integrate the online portion back into your main career. In fact, I wish they'd done this with online instead of the underwhelming B-Spec mode where you command other race car drivers while they race for you. I'll never understand why I'd rather have someone else race for me. I'm a race car driver – it'll take the jaws of life to pry me out of the cockpit before I surrender the wheel to someone else.

We’ve all been waiting what seems like forever for Gran Turismo 5, and now that it’s here, I don't expect perfection, but tangible evidence that it was worth the wait. It is. I wasn’t blown away by every aspect of the game, but overall it’s easy to see the sheer amount of effort and craftsmanship that went into the game. This is a racing experience that racing fans should not miss.

Below are more thoughts on other aspects of Gran Turismo 5. For more info on the game, check out our overview from the other day. Also take a look at these videos here.

NASCAR
Make no mistake about it: This is not a replacement for a full-on NASCAR title. Fans should still try out the stock cars, however, because the cockpit view is excellent, and the game gives you a great feeling of what these beasts are capable of. The draft is particularly important at the ovals and is the only way to keep up with the pack. Sorry, no 43-car fields, only a dozen on the track at once.

KARTS
This seemingly slight form of racing is really fun. I highly suggest you race using the first-person camera to really capture the sense of speed. Watch out for the tight turn radius that can cause some unexpected spin outs.

CARS/UPGRADE/CUSTOMIZE
Cars in GT 5 are either standard or premium. This doesn’t refer to their quality or value, but simply whether or not they have a cockpit view and more fully rendered parts (premium, obviously). Still, it’s not like standard cars are ugly or anything. Most of the time I couldn’t remember which was which. You can change the colors of the premium cars' wheels, but GT 5 is not a big customization game like Forza 3. Although it's hard to sneeze at GT 5's huge selection of over a 1,000 cars, I wish you had more options to sort through the new and used dealerships.

COURSE CREATOR
It's cool to play around with the randomly generated course creator, but the bad thing is that when you tweak one part of the track it tends to change the rest of it. At least you can demo your creation as you make it.

ONLINE
The races we were in were very smooth and didn't show any drop off in quality (this goes for the offline split-screen as well). I liked how you could try out cars and get a sense of the track before the race started, but I wish there were more options to restrict and specify which kinds of cars could enter in a race, particularly by horsepower. The community dashboard gives you plenty of features like messaging with friends, a lounge, and the ability to gift cars to others.

Hands On With Polyphony's Long-Awaited Racer

Matthew Kato — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In anticipation of Gran Turismo 5's Wednesday release, here's a rundown of some the game's many features. We got our hands on the game and wanted to give you a lay of the land. Be sure to stick around for more on Gran Turismo 5 leading up to its launch on Wednesday.

The game is divided into a four sections: GT Mode, Arcade, Course Maker, and Gran Turismo TV.

(Note: We didn't get a chance to play the game's online portion, but it'll feature 16-player races, a personal message board, the ability to send cars/parts to friends, and more)

GT MODE
This is where you'll spend most of your time taking license tests, racing (in both A-Spec and B-Spec mode), upgrading your cars, buying cars, etc.

A-SPEC
This is more or less your career. As in past GTs, you'll race through different events and championships that each have their own requirements. Some are for cars of a certain year, make, or origin, and others are for only front-wheel drive cars, etc. You get money and XP for each race, and this XP goes towards your A-Spec Level. All of A-Spec's races are housed in the Beginner, Amateur, Professional, Expert, and Extreme series, and each series and race in the game requires a minimum A-Spec level.

B-SPEC
Here you create and train an AI racers to drive through the same events and championships on your behalf. During a race you can command your driver on the fly, telling them to slow down, maintain their pace, speed up, or overtake at any given time (assuming the cooldown timer has expired). Appropriately, you earn B-Spec XP and a B-Spec Level which determines which races you are eligible to race in.

CARS
Used and new dealerships let you browse cars from across the globe and through time. The game features over a 1,000 cars, and the two dealerships have different inventory. In fact, the used car lot populates with an assortment of vehicles as you play, so you won't always see the same selection.

You can fine tune your purchases in the GT Auto section and the Tuning Shop. The latter is where you'll buy new exhausts and weight reduction kits, while the former offers a mix of services. You can get your car painted, change the oil, and perform engine overhauls for used cars and repair damaged chassis. You can only paint your cars with paint chips you already own, so GT 5 isn't about tricking out your car in a rainbow of colors or decals. Paint chip colors can be earned or you can choose from the colors of the cars you already own. However, you can only use each paint chip once, so it's not like you can paint your entire fleet of cars the same color all at once.

All cars are split classified as either Standard or Premier, and the latter are more detailed, offer a cockpit view, and show more damage than the standard cars.

SPECIAL EVENTS
This category of your My Life career hub is where you'll find separate sections for things like NASCAR, rally, and Kart tutorials. These disciplines offer challenges of varying difficulty, which you'll unlock as you make your way up the career ladder.

Gran Turismo Karting Experience
There aren't a lot of races in this Special Event and its three difficulty levels, but you'll run through some kart-specific race tracks like Eifel and Tokyo Bay. Even though karts are sequestered in this Special Event area, you can still race them in Arcade mode on whatever location you want. To do this, however, you have to make sure you go into your garage and label your kart as a favorite before you go into Arcade mode.

Jeff Gordon NASCAR School
Starting with a short intro to the sport with a virtual Jeff Gordon (voiced by the real deal), this event is more like a license test in stock cars. Hit the ovals and get a feel for how oval racing and stock cars handle differently than your normal vehicle. NASCAR racing in the game doesn't feature a full 43-car field, and there are only cars for Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Jaun Pablo Montoya, Carl Edwards, Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano, and Tony Stewart.

Top Gear Test Track
The hit show's flat test track which turns in on itself like a figure-eight can be a formidable challenge. Take to this airfield in everything from an old VW bus to a Lotus Elise.

AMG Driving Academy
Here you'll learn the ins and outs of how to tame the monster that is the Nurburgring. The cool thing about this Special Event is that it breaks the 'Ring up into sections before making you tackle the whole gargantuan track all at once.

Gran Turismo Rally
Rally racing is a different kind of beast, and you'll get your feet wet with different races surfaces and the tires that go along with them as you combine your times in different stages.

Grand Tour
This is a five-race tour from the Alps of Switzerland to Rome that encompasses taking on the Monza track with a Ferrari, a Lamborghini-driven night race through Tuscany, a rally portion, and a spin through the streets of Rome in a different Lamborghini.

Gran Turismo 5's New Features

Matthew Kato — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:45:00 GMT

With a release date of November 2 and over a 1,000 cars in its garage, Gran Turismo 5 is finally ready to hit the streets. Ride along with us as we run down the details.

Polyphony Digital and Gran Turismo mastermind Kazunori Yamauchi was on hand at E3 to run through some of the features in Gran Turismo 5, and here's a quick rundown of just some of what you can expect.

Cars: The game contains over a 1,000 cars, and they are broken down into two categories: Standard and Premium. There are about 800 Standard Cars and 200 Premium, and most of the cars you've come to love in previous GT games are in the Standard category, so you know that the Premium-branded ones are truly special. How? Well, the Standard cars don't have fully modeled interiors like the Premium ones, and although they can be damaged, the Standard cars don't show the level of damage detail as the Premium ones. That's not to say that their cockpits don't look good or they don't damage, just not to the same extent. Frankly, it's a little disappointing to hear, but we'll have to wait and see more of the game to truly judge the differences between the two.

Yamauchi showed comparison shots between a Premium car and its real-life counterpart, and the difference was shockingly negligible. Cockpits were exact down to the electronic wiring and panels, and the engine bays and brake calipers were stunning. All of GT 5's cars have their undersides modeled since the game allows for car rollovers.

3D: I played Gran Turismo 5 in 3D, and it looks pretty good. The sense of speed isn't awesome, but then again the GT series hasn't traditionally been a leader in this category anyway. The game also supports a combination of 3D and head tracking if you also have a PlayStation Camera. This means the camera pans around the cockpit as you move your head.

NASCAR: One of GT 5's big new features is the NASCAR license, and today Yamauchi announced the first nine drivers and their cars in the game: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, and Carl Edwards. Yamauchi says that there should be more drivers announced, but one unfortunate detail emerged. The game will not support a full 43-car field or allow you to hit all the tracks on the NASCAR circuit. You can, however, take a stock car out onto the other courses if you like.

Personally, I'm disappointed that NASCAR's inclusion into Gran Turismo 5 isn't full-featured enough to make GT 5 a substitute for the lack of a NASCAR-licensed console game. Is something better than nothing?

Updated Gran Turismo 5 Impressions

Jeff Cork — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:07:00 GMT

The Gran Turismo series has a reputation for delivering high-end, sim-style racing to PlayStation owners since its debut in 1997. It’s also known for being a little tough for novices to crack and for giving players stop-gap releases between major versions. That last bit hasn’t changed – PlayStation 3 owners already have played around with the Gran Turismo HD demo and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue before the 2010 release of the latest full version. When it comes to accessibility, however, Gran Turismo 5 looks like it could be the entry point casual players have been waiting for.

According to series producer Kazunori Yamauchi, the way that people play games has shifted in the past decade. Rather than devote a dozen undivided hours to a game in one sitting, he says players today now have text messaging and e-mail to distract them. With Gran Turismo 5, Yamauchi says he and his team are setting out to create a game that players can enjoy even if they have a limited amount of time to do so.

Cars have always been a huge part of the game, obviously, and Gran Turismo 5 has one of the most impressive garages we’ve seen. There are 950 cars in the game, covering everything from classics to cutting-edge race cars, with plenty of entries in the middle. Perhaps one of the most interesting additions comes in the form of hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs), including the Tesla Roadster. “It’s an eco friendly game,” Yamauchi joked when we interviewed him in Polyphony Digital’s Tokyo offices.

Polyphony’s painstaking attention to detail is demonstrated by how much work his team has spent making sure EVs were accurately translated to the gaming world – from the way they sound to the way they handle. “You just hear road noise and the sound of the wind, really,” starts Yamauchi. “One thing about it is that Sony is one of the major producers of lithium ion batteries. We were in close contact with a team that develops those batteries, and we’ve taken in their knowledge and information, and that’s how we went forward with development. One of the most difficult things about the EV cars is the battery. Regarding the Toyota’s hybrid system, we’ve been in contact with them regarding their system for over five years now, so we have accumulated a good amount of knowledge from their side as well.”

Acquiring new vehicles has always been a huge part of Gran Turismo’s career mode, and we don’t expect to see many changes with that structure. What’s certain is that players who also play the PlayStation Portable version of the game will be able to fill their garages faster – up to 10 times faster, according to Yamauchi (those players won’t be able to access quite everything, however; 150 cars are exclusive to the PS3 version).