In this review, we push for the overtake in the Playstation 3 game, Gran Turismo 5. We find out how well this racing game plays.
This game was released in 2010 and is the fifth main entry into the series. This game was also the subject of one of our first impression videos.
We know quite a bit about this franchise. We first played Gran Turismo from clear back in the PS1 days. That game wound up being a great game to play. Next, we played Gran Turismo 2. That game ended up being a slight improvement over the first and also a great game.
Now, you can imagine our excitement when we moved on to the Playstation 2. The hardware limitations were very apparent in previous instalments. So, it was only natural for us to think that the next instalment on the next generation console will be even better. We played Gran Turismo 3: A-spec. That game presented a huge disappointment with such a bizarre difficulty curve and so little to differentiate itself from the other games in the series. Finally, we played Gran Turismo 4 hoping things would turn around. That game ended up being even worse with a horrendous menu system. As a result, it got a barely passable score.
So, we are forging ahead with this fifth instalment on the Playstation 3 in the hopes that this series finally gets a nice turnaround.
Like previous instalments, there is no storyline. All you have to start with is 20,000 credits and an empty garage. Weirdly enough, you need to purchase a car just to enter the license testing where cars are supplied. So, you can buy either a new car or head on over to the returning feature of a used car lot to pick up a used car (oil change is practically necessary for the latter option).
From there, you can try out the beginner leagues in either A-Spec or B-Spec or take on the license tests. License tests will net you some added credits, but more importantly, it helps you unlock the later races.
A brand new feature in this game is experience points. When you win races or clear tests, you gain experience points. The harder the race or test, the more experience points. Obviously, the higher the placement in those events, the more experience points you earn. Most races and events are locked by the level of a racer you get to. Some are available right away at your paltry level 0 rating. While training events net you experience points based on the highest level you reach (meaning, if you earn a bronze trophy, you don’t get any added experience points for getting more bronze trophies on that same test), wins in races will always earn you experience points to help unlock later races.
While A-Spec is a general mode that lets you play, B-Spec is a slightly different beast. First of all, there are no training courses for your driver to gain some experience points right away. What’s more is that this is basically playing a racing game without having the growing pains and annoyance of actually racing yourself. Instead, you are basically watching from the side lines as the game basically plays itself. Your job is to coach your driver (often referred to as “B-Spec Bob”) throughout the race. You can get them to cool off, pick things up, overtake, or keep the pace. Each instruction lasts a few seconds.
How much coaching you actually have to do to take a win really depends on the situation you find yourself in. Sometimes, you might have a super powered car to trounce the competition. In that case, you can let Bob drive along and turn your game into a glorified screensaver. If you are broke and squeezing every last ounce of Horse Power (HP) out of your car just to keep up, then you are probably going to have to coax out some good placements by shooting out commands every minute or so.
The thing to keep in mind is that your driver has an intensity scale. The hotter the driver goes, the harder he’ll push the car (but is more prone to mistakes). The cooler he goes, the more relaxed and safe he’ll be (but can also allow opponents to catch up in the process). What’s more is that you have a strength gauge and a mental strength gauge. Like most normal human players, when opponents are near by, you’ll more likely tense up a bit and try to push things harder. If you are miles ahead, you probably will wind up relaxing anyway.
The problem is that there is only so much driving a racer can do at any given time. So, this, over time, takes a toll on your drivers mental state. Strength will gradually wear down over time. The longer the race, the more your drivers strength will decline. When strength gets largely depleted, then mental strength takes a hit. This is where you become more prone to mistakes such as spinning out or ending up in the ditch. B-Spec races, generally, raise the total number of laps to roughly double a normal race, so this can be a problem – especially for lower level drivers.
The good news is that drivers get better with practice. If you start your driver off with races in the Sunday Cup, then they will probably do well with a reasonable car. As they win races, they’ll develop better skills such as better handling and better use of speed. Importantly, they’ll be able to handle gradually longer and longer races as well with practice. So, you are basically training a virtual player.
If you jump into the training courses, you’ll notice that each license has 10 tests. A number of them are just simple turns, acceleration and braking, and acceleration control. While these are generally dead simple, the requirements to obtain the goal means you are going to be asked to perform near perfect driving just to clinch it. Bronze is very doable for most reasonable drivers as long as you aren’t making that many big mistakes. This, of course, is a huge improvement over previous instalments where just getting a bronze/pass is a huge accomplishment given the difficulty. Still, hits that are too hard or going off course often disqualifies you, so good driving is still necessary beyond good times.
In all, you have your National B license, National A license, International B license, International A license, and the final “Super” license. Generally, unless you are getting all gold, you’ll probably find yourself lacking in experience points part way through. So, this will require some race wins to pad those experience points and unlock the next license level.
Special events have a huge range. Some are just like your standard license test. Meanwhile, others feature special races largely only found in these events. Events found here include rally events, Nascar events, full fledged racing events, and even Go-kart events. Many have different levels of difficulty, but they generally require a higher driver level as well. So, popping in and out of these events is very likely going to happen. Still, in the early to mid parts of the game, the credits you can earn in a harder event can mean your first high performance car will suddenly become affordable (which would otherwise likely require a huge amount of grinding). So, while you can’t just rip right through every event for the most part in one shot, you can’t really discount these events either.
The races themselves have some minor tweaks to them. The biggest tweak is the inclusion of guide lines. While this series is no stranger to guide lines, this is the first game to include them in every race you end up in.
For novice drivers, these guide lines are huge in terms of flattening the learning curve. Instead of figuring out reference points in the tracks on when to, say, hit the brakes, the guide lines gives you a general idea on where to do so ideally. The dotted blue line offers a great racing line, and when it turns to red, you probably should be braking. The full red means you are going too fast while the semi-opaque red line indicates that you are going slow enough for that particular part of the corner. As you brake, watch the solid red slide up to the end and you can figure out what it’s telling you.
While the guide lines are great for beginners, later on, you’ll gradually realize they are far from perfect. Sometimes, you can go slightly further out at the beginning of a turn. Other times, you don’t necessarily have to break all the way to the end of the indicator in order to make it around to corner’s exit. So, while hugely useful, it’s not the be all and end all for racing in this game.
Another feature in this game is the dreaded downloadable content. As of this writing, the game shows off the models, but I know it is impossible to obtain because the content is no longer available online. As a result, some cars are there, but cannot be obtained even with the required amount of credits.
Another returning feature is the tune shop. These shops allow you to take your car and get it fully upgraded to help you crush the competition. This includes stage 1-3 of weight reduction, stage 1-3 of upgrading your engine, adding racing filters, better exhaust systems, adding turbo’s, and throwing on better tires. The change in performance with those upgrades is obvious. If you are more of a gear head, you can also get better transmission systems, fly wheels, and a whole lot more to tweak the heck out of your car just to ace a particular course.
The thing to keep in mind, though, is that although tuning your car is very helpful (sometimes, even essential) in winning certain races, it also comes at a cost. It’s more than possible to spend more in credits tuning your car than the car itself. This can be a real drain on your overall credits and can undermine your chances of getting high performance cars early on. So, the more you can ration those credits early on in the game, the more you can save for better cars later on. This has the unfortunate side effect of making races more difficult to win, though. So, it’s all about balance in your play. For me, a stage three engine upgrade generally became a choice only when other upgrades (and cars) aren’t enough. This is because that alone sets you back by a massive 30,000 credits.
Like previous instalments, this game isn’t about getting one ultimate car and trouncing the competition with it. Many events have very specific requirements. This includes being specific makes, specific horse power, years of production for the cars, or what the cars country of origin is. Sometimes, you’ll be able to take a single car and tour around a number of events and bring home a pile of gold trophies. In other instances, you are building up a car just for a single event that can be a mere 1 race long. As a result, this game requires you to build a massive collection of cars to complete. That, of course, is a huge undertaking in and of itself.
The game does help you out a little, though. If you enter an event, you can go to your garage and let the game filter down to which vehicles qualify for a specific event. This does help in determining if you have something that qualifies, though finding a car that qualifies is a different task.
You can go into the requirements for hints (manufacturers in the dealers section offer a flag for the cars origin if it’s a country you are looking for). Most cars also feature a release year at the end of the name. Sometimes, they can even offer a list of cars that specifically qualify for a given event (which is a bit more direct). Another useful feature is the ability to see a list of typical opponents. This is especially useful for looking at general horse power for cars. Generally, you probably won’t want to enter a race in a vehicle with 15HP when the average opponent is hovering around 150HP. You simply know you are going to lose at that point. So, both lists are generally extremely useful.
Probably the biggest problem is finding the older cars. Car dealers are generally pretty good about offering newer cars. They sometimes offer older cars as new, but those cars are generally few and far between. Your primary sources for these are going to be prize cars when you complete events or tests or browsing the used car lots. The used car lots often changes up the inventory, so dropping by from time to time to find something good can be a very good idea – especially for older makes.
Unless you intend on grinding specific races, you’ll probably find yourself bouncing between A-Spec, B-Spec, special events, and, for a time, road tests. This is because there are only so much experience points and credits to go around. If you’ve been upgrading your cars for that edge, you’ll probably find yourself running short sooner or later.
Generally, this is probably an improvement in the grand scheme of things. This is because you could simply grind out the different modes one at a time and not have to worry about, say, driving tests for the rest of the game. This game generally forces players to get a variety while playing. When you run out of events you can play in in A-Spec, meander on down to the B-Spec for some extra cash. Want something really different? See what unlocked in the special events. This game encourages bouncing around which does help keep things interesting for the players.
Some might get annoyed at some of the requirements part way through the game, there does appear to be a good reason to set up the progression like this. It still gives you that choice to tackle this game however you like, but at the same time, it also encourages you to get a little variety throughout your session.
For me, this game does offer some good improvements. The race guide is probably the single biggest improvement in the game. This is simply because it allows newer players to get used to the racing style of a simulated racer. While it sounds like this means the game holds your hand, it really only holds the hands of players who haven’t raced a particular course yet or are new to simulated racing. The guide only offers so much and, if you are an experienced player, you might start seeing ways of improving that race line. So, the learning curve is greatly reduced.
Another improvement is the decreased skill requirements for passing license tests. It’s mostly if you are trying to earn bronze trophies where a decent performance will grant you a pass. In previous instalments, these licenses were required to unlock events. This doesn’t appear to be the case this time around. The degree of accuracy needed to pass the tests are still greater than what is needed for the races themselves for the most part, but it’s not hard enough to make you want to pull your hair out.
The other improvement that I’ve noticed with this game is that this instalment ditches the atrocious menu interface found in the previous instalment. Things are slightly simplified, but improving over pile of option vomit is also a very low bar here.
This leads us to the problems with this game. The first problem to note is the aforementioned menus. While things are somewhat simplified, they still suffer from the problem of breaking things down into far too many sub-menu’s. This is most apparent in the dealerships where cars are broken down into specific makes. In some cases, even special vehicles. This makes browsing the dealership a painful chore. It could have benefited from a simple listing with filters. In fact, it would have been even nicer to filter by what qualifies for specific events in this list system. The used car menu has something similar, why does the new cars have to be painful enough to want to require a whole dealer item for one single car?
To make matters worse, the menu’s have extremely long loading times. This ends up making searching for specific car requirements rather impractical after a while. I don’t really understand why a banner picture takes so long to load in a system as powerful as the PS3, but apparently, it requires several seconds to load things like that. Browsing around the menus reminds me of my times with old Windows 95 machines. Something good is probably going to happen if you wait a few seconds, but you understood that computers aren’t that powerful. Games, by this time, don’t have long loading times for menu’s for the most part. Why this is such a huge problem for this game is perplexing.
Another problem is the requirements for some events. Specifically, the events with older cars. It would have been nice if the game offered clues as to where to find some of these cars. Unfortunately, I’m left with hoping hard that a required car will turn up in a prize pool somewhere along the line. In some cases, a required car that even qualifies was never forthcoming for me. Just getting something for an event felt like a lucky lottery win.
The other problem is with the overall game itself. So much of this game is from the previous Gran Turismo games. If you loyally follow this series, this game will feel so much like the same game with slightly improved graphics, an updated car library, and a couple of new courses. The inclusion of Nascar events is certainly something, but you get all of a couple of new races and that’s it. As a result, if you’ve played previous games, you’ll probably be left disappointed.
Having said that, if you haven’t played any game in this series, this isn’t a bad place to start with some of the requirements being lowered to get novice racers into this kind of game. Still, it’ll definitely feel like a grind at times, but at least this game is doable.
Probably the only gamers that will enjoy this game who are experienced with this series are players who go for the high degree of realism. Those cars depicted in the game? Yeah, they really do turn like that in real life. They also go from 0 – 60 like that in real life too. A vast majority of potential players, though, will not really notice nor care enough to really notice these tiny details, though. With so many interface problems and long loading times, it makes me wonder if the developers really chose the right areas to focus on when it comes to improving this game.
Generally speaking, this game does offer some good improvements to help newer players get on board with a game like this. For players who have played previous instalments, though, this game is probably just another disappointment in that there isn’t much in the way of new race tracks. The added cars just means more cars you probably won’t be driving throughout your race career. With a slightly improved, though still heavily flawed menu system and long load times, this game suffers from some critical issues that needed to be addressed at least three games ago now. The overall minor amounts of new content doesn’t win me any favours either. While it is an OK game, it’s nothing to get overly excited over.
Graphics is probably where this game shines the most. Every track has been hugely improved in terms of overall looks. As a result, you have that highly realistic feel in this game. Whether it’s the city lights at night, the shine of the track during the day, or the very convincing level of detail for the cars themselves, this game really nails it in the graphics department. Probably my only real complaint on this front is the obvious copy pasted animations of the people in the stands where you can see identical movements from identical sprites and models. Additionally, there is very few instances of different day cycles that it shows off outside of a special event or two where the sun sets before finishing. Still, it’s a great effort that should be awarded good marks.
Audio is a bit lacking in this game, however. While the realistic engine sounds works very well here, the music is a mix of largely forgettable tracks. The only thing I found really memorable is Sub Focus – Rock It only because it always had a great intro. There also is so little in the way of voice acting as well. It’s a decent effort, but nothing that is especially noteworthy.
Overall, this game offers hours of gameplay. Unfortunately, it provides little in the way of something new for experienced players. Newer players will easily enjoy the new guide line system on the track as well as some lowered requirements, though. The menu’s, however, are extremely painful even if seemingly inspired by the third instalment. Making matters worse is the long load times for the menus. This makes each visit absolutely painful. What’s more, B-Spec felt almost like a massive waste of time. You basically let the game play itself with no way of fast forwarding 10 minutes of racing you aren’t doing. There are also annoying bottlenecks to contend with where cars you need are simply unavailable. Graphics are great, but the audio is only half decent. It’s a decent, but an overrated game.
Overall
Furthest point in game: 52% completion. Beat the Gran Turismo World Championship with all gold (rolls end game credits).
General gameplay: 17/25
Replay value: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 70%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
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