Nukezilla Review: Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)
Gran Turismo 5 is a racing game available on the PlayStation 3. There we go. Two sentences in already. Oh God, that’s three and this is four! Best crack on then.
GT5 prides itself on being “the real driving simulator” and we can thankfully report that it does a pretty good job of simulating driving in a realistic fashion. Unlike older Gran Turismo games (even GT5 Prologue) the physics model is spot-on for every sort of car, meaning no more ridiculous understeer in a high-powered rear-wheel-drive machine of unrivalled fury.
On top of all this it looks somewhat pretty depending on what graphical class of car – one of 800 Standard or 200 Premium – you happen to be looking at. Some tracks look nice and some deliver a resounding “meh” because of their lack of detail; the same goes for Standard cars, which are essentially upscaled GT4 models. Premium cars have lots of individually rendered bits and bobs as well as detailed interior views for driving, and look very nice indeed.
On top of this GT5 introduces some rudimentary physical damage effects which vary in appearance between both classes of car. Standard cars will simply have their models’ vertices deformed and crumple a bit, whereas Premium cars can have bits dangle off and properly bend independently of the body. Still a bit crap though.
The single-player mode revolves around building up your dream garage by purchasing a crap car, investing in various tuning options (suspension, engine, exhaust, transmission, yadda yadda) and racing it lots until you win more money or cars. There’s also special events such as point-to-point rally races, NASCAR, go-karting and themed events on the Top Gear Test Track; there’s a lot of stuff to do but once you get halfway through you might find yourself questioning why you’re bothering.
There’s a lot to be said for investing in a car, racing it lots and tuning it up until it becomes an amazing racing machine, which is entirely possible thanks to racing modifications and aero parts being available to install on your cars. You can also wash them, in case they get, erm, dirty.
As for multiplayer, GT5 appears to be trying to emulate a casual meeting of car fans in the way that you simply invite yourself into someone’s room to play without asking. It’s all a bit rude and there’s no matchmaking, but you can open a private room and tailor restrictions such as power and driving aids to your exact specifications. Mechanical damage, a curious feature missing from the offline game, can also be enabled.
It’s been five years in the making but in the end the occasional lack of polish on the graphics takes a bit of a shine away from the final product. Unrivalled as a driving sim but largely unchanged in its nature since 1997, GT5 is sure to please racing fans but will only occasionally prove exceptional.
This review is Day 22 of the December Review Nukestravaganza.
Damn Polyphony Digital. This was gonna be my system seller for the PS3, I had a game bundle lined up, in my sights, and everyone says it’s just more GT5.
What kills it completely is that it is awesome if you use the premium cars on the best tracks but they glossed over everything else, as if they rushed the game out.
More waiting for me then.
No, no, no, no! You’re doing it wrong. What you’re saying here is that the game is “awesome” if it looks really pretty and a bit shit if it looks acceptably nice.
Regardless of which set of cars you’re using – and since 200 of them are totally new (admittedly not as many as Forza, but it’s still a good number) you’ll probably spend most of your time in them anyway – GT5 is still a great looking game. Not the best, but it still looks pretty damn schweet.
Seriously, just go buy it. The handling is spot-on, the single-player is deep, even the multiplayer works. You’ll be waiting another 6 years for GT6 (probably) so why wait any longer?