Gran Turismo 5 Review

The game that has been in development for almost five years is finally here! Following the continuous delays that Gran Turismo 5 has faced over the years, the much awaited driving simulation on the PlayStation 3 is finally here and it has a lot of things to make up for fans who who’ve been eagerly anticipating the game. With over a 100+ cars available in the game, around 70 tracks to race through plus a number of new features, is it all worth the wait?

For a game that has been in development for five years, a lot of gamers have high hopes for Gran Turismo 5. Now that the game is finally here, is Gran Turismo 5 all worth the wait? Let’s take a look in the HOTs and NOTs of the game to find out.

HOT

Welcome to My Home
My Home in Gran Turismo 5 is the main hub for all the aspiring racers where they can prepare for the upcoming races, sign up for events, access the garage and more. This hub will act as the main menu where the player can change their GT Profile, change certain options to fully optimize the game, pick events, acquire licenses, and a whole lot more. The hub is fully customizable where you can change the color of the dashboard’s theme, the profile picture or even the wallpaper. Every driver needs to go through the My Home hub to access all the needs of an aspiring driver in Gran Turismo 5. This is where everything begins!

Gain Experience to Level Up
People who have been playing Gran Turismo all these years should know that in order to gain access to events or unlock more cars in the game is by acquiring a specific amount of licenses or trophies while participating at events. In Gran Turismo 5, a leveling system is implemented encouraging players to gain experience to level up. The events and cars in the game are mostly locked in the beginning and in order to gain access to them, you must reach a specific level. Earning experience can be done by simply acquiring either of the three trophies in the game while participating at the events.

A/B-Spec Events
There are two main events in Gran Turismo 5; A Spec and B Spec. Participating in these two events are one of the ways to earn credits to buy cars and gain experience points to level up. In the A-Spec event, players will have go through a series of racing tracks and achieve one of the three trophies in each race. Everyone must begin on the low class ranks which is the Beginner’s section. As you reach a certain level, the next section will open up allowing you to access more of the tracks in the A-Spec event. Some events will require a certain car or tires in order participate.

As for the B-Spec, it’s an entirely different mode. In B-Spec, the player will no longer have to drive the car to race through the tracks. A driver must first be selected in order to participate in any of the B-Spec events. Selecting and customizing the player’s personal driver can be done in the My Home hub. Just like in A-Spec event, players will gain credits for achieving any of the first three places and a special level for the drivers. The driver the player will select has its own abilities that players need to look out for. Each of them has a special trait such as the mastery in turning into corners, speed, their aggresiveness, and their temper. All of these aspects will reflect on the performance of the driver in a race. Once the driver is selected, the player can now begin the race. As soon as the race begins, the player can coach the driver in how to drive. The player can ask the driver to maintain the pace, slow the pace down, overtake the driver, or increase the pace. Excessive commands will annoy the driver and makes them do un-necessary mistakes that can lead into losing the race.

Earn Rewards By Leveling Up
There are benefits in earning a level in Gran Turismo 5. At every level that the player will get, there will always be goodies that you can unlock. In addition to unlocking more events and tracks as the player levels up, players will also be rewarded with things that can be used in customizing the player’s car. Most of the time, players will receive a voucher that can be redeemed for a car, and sometimes, a voucher that can be used to buy paint jobs and parts for the car. These are just some of the rewards that players can expect as they level-up and there are more surprises to come!

Earn Credits, Get a New/ Used Car and Tune it Up
Having a well conditioned car is one of the keys in winning a race in Gran Turismo 5. At every race the player wins, credits will be rewarded. These credits can be used to purchase cars through the dealership or if the player is on a tight budget, they can always go and buy a used car. Just because the player buys a new car, it doesn’t mean it’s always well-conditioned! To make it even more effective and faster in racing, the player must go to the Tune Up section of the game and buy parts to increase the horsepower, change the tires for a specific race track, and spice up the body parts of the car. With so many cars to choose from and events to participate in, players are expected to spend some quality time with customizing cars tuning up their rides.

Arcade Mode
There are three modes that are playable in the arcade mode. The typical Single Race, Time Trial, and Drift mode. In the Single Race mode, players will have to race against computer controlled opponents and the races are divided into three difficulty levels; Beginner, Intermediate, and Professional. In Time Trial, players are free to choose tracks, cars and customize it with the weather effects. As for the Drift Trial, players will be awarded points on how effective they will drift on a track. The performance on this mode will be graded based on various criteria. These three modes are not new at all for Gran Turismo fans who have been playing since the first one on the PlayStation One.

Let’s Make a Race Track!
In Gran Turismo 5, players are able to create their own tracks and upload it for anyone to play. Everyone seems to enjoy this feature in Sony’s ModNation Racers and the addition of this feature in Gran Turismo 5 makes the replay value of the game even more. The only difference between the creation of race track in Gran Turismo and ModNation is that in Gran Turismo, players can’t put obstacles to slow down enemies. Instead, players are only able to create the the scenery of the track, the length of the race track, and the weather it has. To make the personalized race track even more challenging to other players who will download it, players are able to customize the turns to make it sharp.

Online Multiplayer
The main highlights of Gran Turismo 5 is the online multiplayer. This is the first time the series has gone online in a main entry Gran Turismo and it does not disappoint . There are no lags or any other mishaps while playing. In the multiplayer section of the game, players are able to race people online. By simply joining in the Open Lobby that can be found in the My Home Hub, players are able to find a room and look for a race. When the player finds a lobby, other player’s profile can be viewed, kick a player, or simply just have fun. If the player is the host, they are able to fully customize it to meet their needs. They can change the game mode to either Free Run and Race or just a shuffled race.

While connected on the PlayStation Network, players are able to view the Community Section in the My Home Hub. In there, players are able to check their friends that are online who are also playing Gran Turismo 5, post a message in the boards, or even give gifts! When it comes to gifts, anything from the car, or museum cards can be given. For players who are under age and are not allowed, players can choose friends that are able to see the profile online.

Taking the License Test
Not everyone who will purchase Gran Turismo 5 is a fan therefore, they will need to do some training. Similar to past Gran Turismo titles, players are able to practice driving and honing up their skills by taking the License Test. The license test will give players a specific task to achieve and depending on the performance, a trophy will be awarded. If you’re too scared of getting ranked, there is a simple Practice mode available where you can just do whatever they want and practice without getting penalized.

Special Events
In addition to the A and B-Spec, there are special events that players can participate. The only way to unlock these events is by gathering enough levels. When a certain amount of level has been reached, an event will be unlocked in the Special Events section in the My Home hub. One of the highlights of the Special Events is the Nascar where players will be taught on how to drift. There are more than five special levels to unlock and the only way to get them all unlocked is by playing through the game and gaining experience points.

Custom Soundtracks & PSP Connectivity
Featured on the Gran Turismo game on the PSP as well, Gran Turismo 5 will offer players the ability to play their own songs on the PS3 hard drive while playing the game. Before players are able to listen to the soundtrack, the music files must be stored on the PlayStation 3. When a player successfully listens to a track in Gran Turismo 5, a trophy will be unlocked! For players who have Gran Turismo on the PSP, they are able to upload their Car Collection Data onto Gran Turismo 5.

NOT

Graphics Are Not That Good
For a game that is five years in the making, the graphics of Gran Turismo 5 surprisingly does not have the best graphics I’ve seen this generation . If NFS: Hot Pursuit is to be compared with Gran Turismo 5, it will be obvious to the gamer that Hot Pursuit’s graphics are superior to Gran Turismo 5. While the weather effects are pretty good in Gran Turismo 5, the physics and the environment that the game has to offer to gamers aren’t that appealing. The character models and the people behind the race track look dated while the voice overs of the characters are way off-sync.

Excessive Installation
While the data installation of Gran Turismo 5 is optional, players who choose not to install it will have to suffer excessive installations while playing the game. Similar to what Konami did with Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo 5 will install a piece of data every time the player loads up a race or the cars in the garage. This can get annoying at times and load times without installing it is horrible. However, if players have at least 8 to 10GB of free data on the hard drive, players are able to download the data but it will take at least thirty minutes to do so. While data installation is not that new for some of the PS3 games, it is not right to have 10GB of space downloaded to the hard drive.

Boring Multiplayer Modes
While the addition of the multiplayer mode in Gran Turismo 5 is a nice one, what makes it a let down is the two modes that players are only able to play. The two modes that players can play are Free Run and Shuffle Race. These two modes are just a basic car race and I can guarantee that after a couple of matches, you’ll get bored of it.

VERDICT

Editor's Choice AwardIn the five years that we’ve been waiting for, I must say, that Gran Turismo 5 is a game still worth checking out whether you’re a fan of the series or not. While the new features are appealing for racing fans, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit offer more diverse modes than Gran Turismo 5, if I were to compare the two racing titles. Graphically, the game has not changed much from Gran Turismo 5: Prologue but this makes up for the impressive weather effects on offer. It may not be the best game ever made but it’s still a polished title. Racing fans won’t be disappointed.

14 thoughts on “Gran Turismo 5 Review

  1. Mark Fajardo, you’re a joke of a journalist.

    Let me count the ways…
    – Why compare an arcade racer to a sim. racer? Dumb.
    – Multiplayer listed as hot; multiplayer modes list as not? Dumb.
    – Graphics are the same as Prologue? Dumb.
    – Lastly, there are 11 hots and 3 minor nots? Dumb.

    Mark Fajardo – who has written 1041 shitty posts on Just Push Fart.

    This is the first and only time I’ll visit the WordPress blog of a website.

    Good riddance.

  2. I got my copy yesterday, and if I have to be honest, I am mildly disappointed. It really does not look and play like all the pictures and trailers we’ve seen. I think GT5 was a bit of an overhype. I just kept asking myself, what were they doing for these 5 years. The Standard cars look awful (Especially the Nissan Silvia you can buy as second hand in the beginning) and the Anti-Alias could have been much better. I think that Prologue looked sharper than GT5.

  3. The game is awesome, I’m really loving it. 1st thing I did was try to roll a fiat 500 F but it wouldn’t roll:D. Your review of the game is descent however I do disagree with your views on the graphics and physics..

  4. No offense, but comparing a sim. racer like GT to an arcade racer like NFS is hardly fair. GT is to be life-like, or as much as possible. NFS is an arcade racer, they can basically make whatever style of race they want and use whatever physics they feel fit the game. Each are perfect in their own way. One for racing and actually testing real life skills, and the other for doing insane stunts, among various other things you couldn’t normally do in real life. As for the graphics, just because they haven’t improved from GT5P doesn’t mean they aren’t good. My jaw dropped the day I bought an HDTV and a Ps3 and popped that game in, and I’m sure I’m about to do the same with the full GT5. Other than that, great review and I’m glad you gave it no less than 4 stars! Right on man.

  5. what we’re saying is, GT5 needs to improve its core gameplay. They can’t just expect a ten year old series to have the same gameplay at every game they release, because it gets tiring and boring. Every game needs to evolve.

    While both GT5 and HP are two different games, they still fell under the same category which is a racing game. Either way, GT5 is a great title and fans should not miss it.

  6. I have to agree with the first responder. Mark, you are the worst video game reviewer I’ve ever come across. You’re grammar is fifth grade level and your assessment of GT5 indicates you’re not a fan of the series or even like cars. I disagee completely with your assessment of the physics. They are bang on and EVERY Gran Turismo game have had very different physics from one another. When ever I buy the new GT the first thing I notice is that the game is more challenging due to the revised physics that I am not used to. Even though I love this game, I am a little dissapointed with their use of time in development. First, I was hoping for more NEW cars. More Posches, Koenigseggs, a Ferrari 360, more Astons, a ’11 Shelby GT500, a new 2011 5.0 Mustang would be nice. I wish they had spent more time developing more new or newer cars instead of many of the old cars that have been included for automotive history sake as opposed to driving/gamer satisfaction. I mean, there are over 1000 cars and realistically, most people will only care to drive 50 to 100 of them. At times I do wonder what was going through their minds when they were making some of the decisions. OH! What bothered me the most about GT5…. before I got the game I knew the first thing I would do is take a Bugatti Veyron or Ferrai 458 around either the Nurburgring Nordshleife or the Top Gear Test Track; the two most anticipated tracks of the game. When I popped the disc into my ps3, after waiting YEARS, I discovered that the Nuburgring and the Top Gear Test Track are not available in the arcade mode until they are unlocked….. HOW CRUSHINGLY DISSAPOINTED I WAS! I bet that pissed a lot of people off!

  7. Fully agree on the graphics. As AMAZING as it is, that this game pulls off 1080p AND a constant 60fps. I just feel disappointed in ALOT of the courses. Then again, there are some gorgeous looking ones as well!

    But back to the ‘graphics don’t make a game’ point. It’s still a solid gaming experience. And the perfect thing for someone who hasn’t played a gran turismo since part 3 :p

  8. I completely agree about the graphics- there’s something weird about them that I can’t quite put my finger on. The lighting seems to look great but it just seems that anything more than a couple of metres from the track looks like a cardboard cut-out!
    Is it just that PD doesn’t have very talented people working on this aspect of the game?

  9. i just cant believe the fact that there is about 20 different skylines and 350z’s etc. also cars like toyota prius and honda hybrid, i dont get it…… who wants to drive a crappy slow electric car in a racing sim. alot of the cars in used cars are just crap! me being an aussie, i would of loved to see our hsv gts (vauxhaul vxr8) and some aussie FPV models, even an aussie v8 supercar, all we got was a monaro which looks shocking, imported straight from gt4 and an old ford touring car.
    after playing this game through to the end, there were so many times when i said to myself….. what the f@#*! were they thinking, like when i rammed an 430 scuderia into a wall at 330 and only had a scratch, or when i rolled a veyron at 400 and it just floated and rolled slowly. 5 years in the making? i think PD needs to fire half their staff, or ban porn and facebook, im hoping they pull their fingers out for the next GT

  10. I have GT5 & NFS HP
    NFS HP graphics are heaps better but that is where the comparison ends.
    You need skill to win races in GT5 whereas IN NFS you just need speed & crash your way to the finish.
    I thought NFS HP 2010 was rubbish but I like GT5 even though it is outdated.
    Some of the new car models for sale are from 2003 and when you take out the many variation of single models like the Toyota you don’t have much more choice of vehicles than you had with GT4.

    To me it looks like they have just updated GT4 (but only a little)threw in a few more high end cars & added more model variations to the Japanese range.
    Some tracks are good but plenty have become so boring that I try to avoid racing on them at any cost.

    It’s a mildly good game but nothing like the pre-release Hype at all, and there is definitely nothing new or exciting in this release.

    The people at Polyphony must have grown bored with this Title because it shows in the finished product that they don’t care too much about it any more.
    Still a fun game & worth the purchase but just don’t expect anything new or innovative, those days have well & truly passed for the Gran Turismo brand.

  11. A fair review

    With regards to the graphics I found that the quality of the graphics themselves were impressive BUT I felt they were very lifeless because not a lot goes on in the backgrounds. Hardly anything at all is animating! Even a simple swaying of the trees would have made a big difference in the immersion of the game! On one of the tracks I stopped at the bridge to look at the river and it was a still image! The water wasn’t running or nothing! I would have preferred slightly lesser quality graphics to allow for a more immerse experience!

    Apart from that the game is pretty good! However it did feel like the same old stuff again!

  12. 5 years for THIS? what a disappointment! where to start? how about insanely long loading and installing times. ex: you just finished a race, and you want to replay it. well, there’s no replay button, so you have to exit, wait for it to save data, then reselect the race again, and wait for it to install again! and the racing is NOT realistic. ex: if you tap another car in the rear, or draft right on his bumper, he slows down-way down-for no reason, making it difficult to get around and pass. and as soon as you take the lead in any race, all the other cars slow down-way down-leaving you alone to ease your way around the track. that’s not what i’d call realistic. and the levels-amateur, pro, expert etc-i can’t tell the difference. except for a few races, it’s just as easy to win in the expert level as it is in the amateur level. and realistic body damage? what body damage. you can drive 200 mph into a brick wall, and the car just bounces off and goes it’s merry way. what a rip!!!!

  13. this game is not what they showed in trailers. mainly the shadows on the cars.so jagged its rediculous.

  14. Never compare a simulation game to arcade. That’s like comparing NFL Blitz to Madden or Halo to Battlefield. Yes they are the same genre but two different types of games on a whole. Besides anyone who knows about cars will buy GT5 over any NFS game because it’s guaranteed the realism of how the cars handle cannot be beat. Forza can only attempt.

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