So has anyone bought Gran Turismo 5?

[PTRACER]

Any good?

[Ian-S]

what's Grand Turismo, is it a stuck up tortoise?

[kals]

It was the must have driving game for Playstation. Sadly that changed once the PS3 was launched.

[Sam]

Got it a week ago... The menu system is slow and not very intuitive, the pad controls are occasionally laggy, the game crashes at an uncomfortable rate without saving your progress, half the gameplay features won't get unlocked until you play for a few weeks, the AI is still far from perfect, some driving challenges and license tests offer controller-thrown-through-the-window-at-supersonic-speed levels of frustration, load times are slow, collision physics are rubbish, engine sounds are generally underwhelming, the amount of visible graphical issues is woeful, there's no bonnet view... I could go on, and I haven't even really tried out online, car customization or photo mode to see if there are any problems with those features.

And yet I can't stop playing the damn thing. The physics are excellent and aside from an occasional controller issue the driving itself is great fun. For me that's enough, but if you want to be awed by graphics and sounds or have a really short temper for problems I suggest testing it out before buying.

[PTRACER]

Have you ever played iRacing to compare Sam? Or driven GT5 with a steering wheel?

[Sam]

Have you ever played iRacing to compare Sam? Or driven GT5 with a steering wheel?

I did get to try GT5 with a wheel when Sony had one of their promo setups in Rally Finland but, annoyingly, they had some novice arcade settings on the machine so I couldn't get any real feel for the game.

No experience from iRacing either so can't compare with that. I would be surprised if GT5 matched iRacing as far as realism goes, though, seeing that it's not quite as hardcore.

[PTRACER]

People do seem to be quite upset that most of the cars are ports from GT4 and the sounds and AI are just as rubbish.

I also saw a video of a NASCAR doing 230mph in the tow at Daytona. It doesn't sound very real to me.

[Ian-S]

what? you expected realism from a console game?

[Speedworx]

GT5 is on my xmas list.

[Sam]

People do seem to be quite upset that most of the cars are ports from GT4 and the sounds and AI are just as rubbish.

The ported cars are low on detail and have low res textures, but you don't generally notice it when racing against them. They don't have interior views, though, so if you're used to driving from cockpit they are going to be a disappointment. They are also not that spectacular in photo mode either. For me neither of those is an issue and the cars have updated physics so personally I only see the ported cars as extra content.

Sounds are better than in GT4 but that's not saying much. Some cars actually sound very good but those are few and far between, for the most part they are mediocre at best and some of the cars sound like sewing machines...

I also saw a video of a NASCAR doing 230mph in the tow at Daytona. It doesn't sound very real to me.

The NASCAR cars don't have restrictor plates, and hence they go at rather mad speeds around Daytona.

On the realism... To me (as a pad driver) the cars seem to react to the steering input in a very realistic way. Whether that is an absolutely accurate representation of real life I don't know, but it sure feels like it. Someone called it 'pseudo realistic' and I'll agree with that.

[caneparo]

On the realism... To me (as a pad driver) the cars seem to react to the steering input in a very realistic way. Whether that is an absolutely accurate representation of real life I don't know, but it sure feels like it. Someone called it 'pseudo realistic' and I'll agree with that.

[eivind]

I play this with my Logitech G25, and it is not bad. The physics are way better than the previous games, but of course not as good as hardcore simracers would like it to be, after all it is a highly commercial console-game. You can have a lot of fun with it. I have yet to try it online, but I suppose this will be very entertaining.

[Speedworx]

Loving the game. A friend sent me a Veyron within and hour of me playing the game. Did some online racing last night and the Pagani Zonda R around Daytona Road was AWESOME!

[caneparo]

online I don't understand how I could race against those people that have serious cars, while I don't have it. they should allow classes and let cars race only under that class

[WilliamsF1]

I've got this game. I also have the G25 steering wheel attached to my racing frame. I enjoy the game & feel they focused on the actual steering input using the wheel, with a good degree of success.