[Cornsnake]

Originally Posted by Arwin

Yeah, they're taking the weakness of not having a proper DLC system in place and always having to update the full game into a strength with that feature.

I hadn't played GT5 in quite a while. Forcing me to download 9 patches, about 2 Gb of data all together, taking an hour to download. But it's nice to be able to play a track like this before purchasing. Before this I really wasn't interested in buying new tracks. But now that I know what I'm getting makes it all the more appealing.

[patsu]

Gran Turismo 5 Photo Stream Service Launches in Asia
http://www.gtplanet.net/gt5-photo-st...ervice-begins/

As reported a month ago, the Photo Stream service of Gran Turismo 5 has now gone live. Using this function, any photo set by any player to “Share with Friends” will be anonymously published to the official Gran Turismo website for anyone to see, rather than limiting your works to only the people on your PSN Friends list. There is, however, a small catch in that the service is not available yet to users outside Japan and Asia:

“The new “GT5 Photo Stream” service has been started on gran-turismo.com. In GT5 Photo Stream, photographs taken in the photo mode of Gran Turismo 5 and set to “Share with Friends” are be shown in a list on a webpage, and can be viewed publicly by anyone. [...] This service is initially limited to Japan and Asia.”

Other regions’ players have been greeted by the following update to the original February announcement:

“[March 15 Addendum] In the following article, the commencement of the GT5 Photo Stream service was mentioned as being “With the coming Gran Turismo 5 update planned for March 2012. However the release timing for the next GT5 update has been postponed, together with the GT5 Photo Stream Service. We appreciate your patience as the next GT5 update is prepared, and thank you for your understanding.“

[patsu]

GT5 Online Service Maintenance Coming April 4th
http://www.gtplanet.net/gt5-online-s...ing-april-4th/

When Polyphony Digital launched Gran Turismo 5‘s new Photostream service in Asia two weeks ago, they also mentioned the game’s previously announced “March 2012 update” had been postponed.

Since that time, fans have become increasingly restless to learn about the company’s future plans for the game. Although there’s still no details, we do now have a potential date to hang our hopes on: Wednesday, April 4, 2012. Polyphony will be taking GT5‘s online services for approximately two hours, starting at 05:00 GMT/UTC.

...

[-tkf-]

I guess those that are playing GT5 already knows.. but hey.. some might have missed it, and it is a great teaser.. I like the top comment.. GT really does create racers..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s3hkBkB7ik

[patsu]

Originally Posted by patsu

The leaderboard wasn't there.

Yes, I meant more cars and more premium cars. ^_^

More tracks and special events would be nice too.

EDIT:
I didn't know 1.09 was out. I still haven't fully unpacked from my office move.

But this is interesting:
http://www.gtplanet.net/gran-turismo...-in-banner-ad/





Would be interesting if Polyphony Digital (or even Modnation Racer) can integrate with Google maps so that I can create a track out of arbitrary map location.

So here we are. Yo Sony, I'm going to ask a friend to try a casual racing or driver training game on top of Apple's MapKit in iOS 6. The 3D map stuff is pretty cool. I suspect a horde of people will do the same. Are you going to port PS Mobile to iOS or not ? ^_^

[poopypoo]

I finally got GT5! I gotta say... what a mixed bag! I'm so surprised.. about many things. What follows is an extremely self-centered mini-review. Don't sweat it if you don't wanna read some criticism, just send me your Friend ID!

I just finished a not-too-hard race in 12th place. It took me a lap or so to realize that the problem was that traction control and ABS had turned themselves back on. I have noticed that you have to turn it off for every new car, but also sometimes when you bring a car into a new race..? I definitely have raced that car with everything off the dozen or so races before that one. I was killing it the first lap, then as my tires started to decline it just got slower and slower because the car is most definitely tuned for drift-style racing. Anyway I decided to just swallow it and keep racing, because you can't change settings mid race, you can't retune without backing out to the race lobby, and I basically am just sooo tired of loading screens.

It's tempting to sum up my first day of GT5 this way. I know, however, that there's a lot more to it than that. Sure the UI sucks, the loading times would be hilarious if they weren't murderously bad, it's the same old bump-n-go racing, downshifting is better than braking, and the AI is just useless. All that said, it's still pretty good. Moreover, it is engaging as fuck. PD have a really ground-breaking knack for knowing how to keep you strung along. Other companies copy but they still come up with new ideas. For the most part, they do them better. But it's not entirely clear.

Tracks are great, quirky Japanese cars are great, B-spec is weird but hey why not, seasonal events are unbalanced but interesting, special events are... OK, the game just crashed on me...

To all the people who claimed the driving model was impressive or the graphics were impressive... I've gotta say, wow, take a step back and A to B some Forza. I'm not trying to start shit, I really enjoy and respect much of what PD have done. If there's one thing this experience has shown me so far, it's that there's plenty of room for more driving simulators, whether they're world-class or not. GT5 pretty much... isn't. Frame rate is shoddy in spots. Shadows are detailed, but crappy-looking. Track details are very, very flat. The game's still great. I love this genre so much! Hmmm, also, to make one more thing clear, I haven't even played Forza 4 yet. I'm just comparing to F3.

It is getting a little stale in the GT stable though. The cars chosen are not nearly interesting enough. The standard models look kinda bad at times. Now, I really love some of the choices. The volkswagens are incredible. Some of the retro J-cars are really nice. Overall, I still feel a little let down, like they could have come up with a way-better selection of Ferraris. Why no De Tomasos, classic Alfas, Maseratis, etc? Kind of lame on the Italian front. On the US side it feels... Ok. I think I expected more quirky stuff from a GT game. My wife digs rooting through sedans in Forza and I was telling her, oh just wait, GT is so much better for that, so many great family cars to choose from. Well... the minicars are here. But the family car lineup seems to have been pared back a bit. Surprised, is all. If there are 1000 cars here, I'm gonna guess 700 of them are racing sticker jobs. The games copy each other. I respect how much GT has brought to the table in the past. I just think... it's time for both houses to stop copying each other when it comes to car selections. They have covered the basics. Now get crazy!

Wrt gameplay, GT5 has done a great job with that. Aside from all the odd gameplay modes, the obvious example of this is the better handling of Z-axis movement. It's interesting how I feel the tire model is still noticeably lacking, but the simple addition of proper hills and more front-back pitching of the cars makes a huge difference in driving feel. Still haven't played any weather tracks, and only one night race. Looking forward to more of that. B-spec is really odd. My little driver is just awful. My only gripe is that it takes just as long to coach as to race. It's intriguing though. I'm curious what it's like to do the B-spec with friends thing. I love camera mode!! I'm so frustrated that you can't do anything with the photos. They're too glorious to use as tiny gamer profile photos. I thought I was going to get to replace that ugly backdrop, which brings us to the elephant in the room...

Somebody please demote the head of UI at PD. That is one shameful showing. They've nearly single-handedly ruined a great game. You wanna copy something? Forza puts the car front and center. You baby it, you wash it with a diaper, you add crazy aero bits and then you stare at it longingly. At times I would stop playing, and just leave my car up as sort of a screen saver/xbox killer. Photo mode comes so close to solving this for PD but then they just dropped the ball. I know! A black silhouette of grandstands! On a field of black! Fading to an optional color! Tasteful! Now... let's completely cover it with slow, fugly icons! Wtf >_< and don't ever, ever, let another game be so boring between scenes. It's like they just ran out of budget one day. And I'm playing version 2.whatever! The game can't even count how many cars I can buy fast enough for the cursor on the dealership screen. It's bad... the worst of this generation. Not that I've played everything, but of the games I have...

Just as a tl;dr reminder -- I do recognize the parts that are solid. Clearly it's not fair to compare it to F3 graphically and then just forget about all their gameplay accomplishments. I'm still hopelessly addicted. I'm just surprised. Maybe they can hire some guys from the recently closed Wipeout studio..?

[antwan]

lol, you had me until the Forza comparison
ontopic: I have a wheel now, but the game is hard as nails initially when you use it. 'Normal' cars behave like I expect them to/ close to real life. But racing cars are very hard to control once you gain some speed. Looks like I need of lot of practice.

[Arwin]

Originally Posted by poopypoo

Just as a tl;dr reminder -- I do recognize the parts that are solid. Clearly it's not fair to compare it to F3 graphically and then just forget about all their gameplay accomplishments. I'm still hopelessly addicted. I'm just surprised. Maybe they can hire some guys from the recently closed Wipeout studio..?

Just keep playing ...

For me, driving the big K version of the Alps track and driving Le Mans and especially the Nurburgring with day-night and variable weather is a real generational highlight.

[milk]

Originally Posted by antwan

lol, you had me until the Forza comparison
ontopic: I have a wheel now, but the game is hard as nails initially when you use it. 'Normal' cars behave like I expect them to/ close to real life. But racing cars are very hard to control once you gain some speed. Looks like I need of lot of practice.

Don't see why. Forza is a great racing sim as well and GT's closest competitor this gen. The way you've put it makes it sound very biased.

[poopypoo]

It's all good. I'm not out to convince anybody. I was just surprised after some of the talk.

Arwin, I intend to keep playing... so looking forward to racing in weather! I just know I won't be playing as much as I would, with all the waiting. My wife's already given up and insisted we buy Forza 4 immediately :facepalm:

[djskribbles]

At least for me, GT5 got better as I played. I put hundreds of hours into it. By far my favorite game this gen. And yes, I have played several hours of Forza 4 as well. To each their own. They're both great games, but I think Forza 4 is bit arcadey for my liking. I mean it's no arcade racer by any stretch, the handling just feels a bit off. One thing I like in Forza is the sounds, though.

[Arwin]

Originally Posted by poopypoo

It's all good. I'm not out to convince anybody. I was just surprised after some of the talk.

Arwin, I intend to keep playing... so looking forward to racing in weather! I just know I won't be playing as much as I would, with all the waiting. My wife's already given up and insisted we buy Forza 4 immediately :facepalm:

It's so long ago I've already forgotten, but it is very important that you realise playing through the special events is a much more fun and rewarding way of playing through this game. You can use those to boost up your credit quite a bit to make your A-spec road (which I found the most boring part of the game) more interesting. Then in a-spec, use a car you enjoy bought with the special events prize money and grab a price-car list so you can win races in an order that allows you to race new events with the minimum amount of grinding. Also, online events are a great way to make a quick buck generally (though not as much as it has been, it's still good and occasionally you can win good prizes and even cars there too).

Forza 4 is great, but ultimately for me the tracks and events were extremely boring and by the numbers, and the car handling has a super initial feel, but then gets extremely boring as all cars handle too similar, all the realism from Forza 3 is gone for (an admittedly good feeling) arcady driving model, and the handling of many cars is so far from their real life counterparts at times, it's almost insulting (if you care, that is).

So for now, special events is where it's at! I loved them, highlight of the game for me and of the whole series.

Also, if you ever need to borrow a car, you can ask us here and we can lend it to you from within the game. Don't know if you've got me in your friends' list, but add me, and I'll be able to follow your progress through the game through your in-game blog that everyone can see and follow, quite neat.

[antwan]

Originally Posted by milk

Don't see why. Forza is a great racing sim as well and GT's closest competitor this gen. The way you've put it makes it sound very biased.

I believe that Forza is a nice racing game, not sim. But saying that the graphics are in favor of Forza 3 is laughable at best. Compare any track or car and you will see what I mean. That is without even taking into account content and features.

Also this:

the loading times would be hilarious if they weren't murderously bad

< the loading times are shorter then either F3 or 4 installed on HDD. So I don't believe the person making such a claim to be qualified to make such statements. The same for the framerate argument; he either is playing an old version or he is just repeating what he read on the internet in 2010 or 2011

[Arwin]

Let's be fair here, he is probably referring to loading times in menus, and the framerate, while much improved (like the shadows!) over time, still isn't as steady a 60fps as Forza 3 or 4, and it can be worse if you run in (1280)x1080p mode.

[Phil]

Isn't the framerate also a bit dependant if you're using the dashbord view or not? Anyway - I haven't started this up for ages, which is a pitty. I guess my home isn't set up optimaly for a racing sim anymore - a 120 inch projector screen and lounge don't mesh well with this sort of game - and since I do several track days a year, the motivation to do it on in a virtual environment has kind of lost a bit of appeal for me...

I have to say, what I find the most unpleasing with the GT games is the sound. How a guy like Yamauchi who is probably the biggest car enthusiast on the planet can create such a masterpiece, but totally stuff up the sounds of the cars is beyond me.

I've gone through various tuning stages with my (real) car - and admittedly, while the performance increase is something that accounts for a lot of fun beyond the wheel, putting on that race exhaust is what makes me grin the most when I step into my car, on the accelerator, or driving through tunnels or when being close to the limit. It's the same grin that gets me every time a Ferrari drives by - namely a 360CS or a 599 GTO (and yes, I have heard and driven along side them to know).

GT5, even all the other GTs preceeding it, fail miserably short at replicating the sounds of the real thing. They might have been recorded accurately, but the only thing they representate is the noise the engine makes (at best) - and not the sound that comes from the exhaust. Some cars might sound better than others (in the game), but it all just sounds very muted, boring and most cars sound the way too similar. Even my old BMW with its lovely straight 6 sounded better at full throttle from inside the car than any exotica manages to sound in GT5, regardless if you're driving from the dashbord view or with "behind-the-car cam". It pains me to say, but even Need-for-Speed: High Stakes back on the PSone had better sounding cars, than GT5 has. At least there - for real or not -, the cars at least sounded 'stressed' and on edge when at full throttle.

And I'm not even going to bother to bring up the boring tyre screetching noises that pain my ears every time I go through a corner in the game.

For a game that is such a masterpiece, modelled to perfection in pretty every single way - this to me is an epic fail.

Pitty.

I think I'd get more kicks out of the game if it had half the graphics and an accurate representation of car noises.

[Arwin]

No arguing with you about the sound ... they need to hire a better sound engineer. I am nog against the principle of using a synthesizer for modelling car sounds, but at least hire someone who is capable enough to do the real thing justice. Weirdly enough occasionally you do get a car that sounds right - Ferrari's at a high RPM can sound very convincing, or for instance the Lupo/Polo Cup Car etc. But very many cars, especially in the low RPM ranges, lack oomph. I'm pretty sure that if they'd invest in hiring an expert in the field, perhaps work together with some universities/audio institutes, this could be much better.

Many other car games just use samples, and that generally means that the game either has few cars, or cars don't have a unique sound.

I don't really mind the tire screech - at least it gives the exact right audio cues I need for when I start losing grip, which is what many other games utterly fail at.

My track days have all been at the Nurburgring, and if anything, they have prompted me to play GT more rather than less. I'm guessing your track day track isn't in the game.

[Nesh]

Originally Posted by Arwin

No arguing with you about the sound ... they need to hire a better sound engineer. I am nog against the principle of using a synthesizer for modelling car sounds, but at least hire someone who is capable enough to do the real thing justice. Weirdly enough occasionally you do get a car that sounds right - Ferrari's at a high RPM can sound very convincing, or for instance the Lupo/Polo Cup Car etc. But very many cars, especially in the low RPM ranges, lack oomph. I'm pretty sure that if they'd invest in hiring an expert in the field, perhaps work together with some universities/audio institutes, this could be much better.

Many other car games just use samples, and that generally means that the game either has few cars, or cars don't have a unique sound.

I don't really mind the tire screech - at least it gives the exact right audio cues I need for when I start losing grip, which is what many other games utterly fail at.

My track days have all been at the Nurburgring, and if anything, they have prompted me to play GT more rather than less. I'm guessing your track day track isn't in the game.

I dont know what is wrong with the sound of the cars, but its kind of funny that PD records the sounds of the car engines since.....GT1....but the sounds in the games are so different from the real thing.
Most of the cars seem to have convincing sounds when you accelerate directly from a full stop, but once they reach high RPM and the car moves the sound transforms from an awesome "vvvrooomm" to a high pitched "brzzzz". Why?

I sometimes get the impression that the sounds they implemented were taken from the engines when they are stripped out of the actual vehicle, thus no other vibrations or mechanical parts that should have been heard are actually there.

[Arwin]

Originally Posted by Nesh

I dont know what is wrong with the sound of the cars, but its kind of funny that PD records the sounds of the car engines since.....GT1....but the sounds in the games are so different from the real thing.
Most of the cars seem to have convincing sounds when you accelerate directly from a full stop, but once they reach high RPM and the car moves the sound transforms from an awesome "vvvrooomm" to a high pitched "brzzzz". Why?

I sometimes get the impression that the sounds they implemented were taken from the engines when they are stripped out of the actual vehicle, thus no other vibrations or mechanical parts that should have been heard are actually there.

Well, for many cars the sound of the wind does take over a lot more than you realise. Most car noise from our car park (which is one of the most modern in the world because so many people lease, and second hand cars older than 6-8 years are sold outside our borders) today comes from friction of the wheels and friction of the air, and the actual engine is drowned out almost completely in comparison.

But of course there are many non-modern cars in GT and these are still an issue.

I mean, this is recorded in-car, with a crappy camera, in a humble little cup car:

[Phil]

Ok - I just googled for videos from the PSone game NfS:HS and it definately sounded better in my memories....

Anyway - I guess some cars are better represented than others in the game, but just to illustrate my point:

SportAuto with a Scuderia on the Nordschleife


GT5 nurburgring onboard 430 Scuderia 8'05''371


I'm aware that some cars, when tuned to be quicker, sound a bit different, but judging by the non-spectacular lap time of 8'05"371 around the Nordschleife, I'm figuring it must be a standard 430 that's being driven in that video... and listen to how it sounds...

In the real video - just listen to the air being sucked into the engine as he lifts off the throttle. Or the sound it creates at full throttle, that power you can hear.

Watching those videos also shows how much more bumpy the real-world nordschleife is - in the SportAuto video, he's really driving on the limit and you can hear how he is at the limit of grip as the engine speeds up over the bumpy section (around 3:08 compared to the GT5 section 3:18). Yes, he's not as much on the limit in the game through that passage, but it's still night and day - and yes, I also know that GT5 is an as accurate representation of the Nordschleife as there is currently...

About the tire screeching noise... I agree, it's important and is a good indicator on how the car is losing grip in the game, but there's just too little variation there. It would be nice if there was a little more than the constant high-pitched screeching... this is just a little annoyance though, perhaps emphasized/exagerated by the mundane sounding car noises...

[Arwin]

Suspension and tire model did improve by the way with the 2.0 updates. Note also that the in-car camera greatly exaggerates all the shakes and bobs because it moves a little independently from the car, so it is shaking around a bit more than the car itself, to which the cockpit view in-game simulates the drivers view more (but even then is probably 'conservative' and doesn't shake as much as a real driver's head would)

[Phil]

I have to say, I haven't tried the 2.0 update, because I remember there being a bit of controversy that you could only use the update on the account you bought it. Since I use my US-PSN account (but am forced to buy off the local PSN account, because it won't accept my creditcard in the US store anymore), I never really tried the 2.0 update.

Anyway, the video you posted shows quite nicely what I think is off:

The tyre grip seems to be vastly superior, which IMO is not the problem, but the grip while the tyres-bounce is too good. In other words, when he drives over the bumpy section of the track, he never really loses grip - where as in real life in the other video I posted, you can actually hear the engine rev up as he momentarly loses grip while going at full throttle over those bumps. Even if the tyre contact remains, simply going over those hills or bumps should be enough to make the car light enough to get the wheels to spin up. This would be even the case with the worlds most 'sticky-tyres' on a bumpy track like the Nordschleife at those speeds.

I guess the video could also be down to a softer suspension setting, but a softer-suspension setting would have other drawbacks - more weight shiftiing etc.

Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, it's still a game, a simulator - and a damn good one at that. I'm really more concerned about the lackluster engine-car-noise in the game. If I had to close my eyes and guess which car is being driven simply by listening to these GT5 videos, I'd be hard pressed to distinguish any car from each other - the only indicators being how high the sound gets pitched (RPM limit) and how quickly the gear changes are (sequential gearbox or normal automatic/manual). Apart from that... well... I think it would be quite a challenge.

BTW: You are right by the way - the tracks I've been to aren't modelled into the game. I wish they were and if they were, I guess I would be playing it a whole lot more though. I've been to Spa though, which I know is in the 2.0 update (but as mentioned, I never bought it) and many other smaller tracks, Anneau du Rhin among others, which are definately not in the game. The Nürburgring is quite a drive away - I think about 530km and 320km it is to Hockenheim (I guess that not *that* far away, given some people drive a lot longer to get there).

And compared to others, at least the Swiss alps are only a 1 hours drive away.
EDIT: and just to add - the roads in the Swiss alps are a lot better than what the Eiger track is in GT5.

[poopypoo]

So many good posts in here since then; Antwan doesn't really deserve a response. Fanboys and their offroading bumper car "sim"...

Anyway, yeah, the engine sounds are terrible and sound to my ears very GT. It's always been sort of a whine with them. I figure the sounds in Forza are probably a bit "juiced", likely recorded from the engine compartment and the exhaust, and not from the cockpit. But they're glorious. The tires sounds in GT are not only weak but misleading -- as the game ramps up in speed I'm increasingly unsure whether I'm going to understeer all the way into a corner, or recover at the last moment. I have to mostly judge based on the tire heat diagram -- this is one example of a great UI improvement over F3's. I play using controller, though, so obviously the feedback in general is pretty poor in both games.

Edit: I should note, though, that actually I'm usually antagonistic to recommending that kind of workload to devs. My favorite things about both racing games aren't the graphics or the sound. I'm not sure what Yamauchi's real budget or plan was,but I like to think that GT5 tries to make the best of what they have done by not trying to one-up anyone with more premium cars and sounds. It would be nice, but if it makes the game better, then screw it. I feel the same about most games which suffer from photorealism and mocap and voice acting ruining the designers' flexibility. If you can make it procedurally and make it more engaging, or make something else mnore engaging by saving time and money, then go for it. Honestly, I'd be happier with GT1, with faster loading times (seriously, menus have always been absurdly slow in PD games, just not as absurd as in 5), better physics, proper tire modelling, damage, better upgrades, more cars, more wheels, more aero parts... But we do get some nice treats in GT5 like weather and better proportioned tracks. One hand giveth...

[Nesh]

Originally Posted by poopypoo

So many good posts in here since then; Antwan doesn't really deserve a response. Fanboys and their offroading bumper car "sim"...

Anyway, yeah, the engine sounds are terrible and sound to my ears very GT. It's always been sort of a whine with them. I figure the sounds in Forza are probably a bit "juiced", likely recorded from the engine compartment and the exhaust, and not from the cockpit. But they're glorious. The tires sounds in GT are not only weak but misleading -- as the game ramps up in speed I'm increasingly unsure whether I'm going to understeer all the way into a corner, or recover at the last moment. I have to mostly judge based on the tire heat diagram -- this is one example of a great UI improvement over F3's. I play using controller, though, so obviously the feedback in general is pretty poor in both games.

Edit: I should note, though, that actually I'm usually antagonistic to recommending that kind of workload to devs. My favorite things about both racing games aren't the graphics or the sound. I'm not sure what Yamauchi's real budget or plan was,but I like to think that GT5 tries to make the best of what they have done by not trying to one-up anyone with more premium cars and sounds. It would be nice, but if it makes the game better, then screw it. I feel the same about most games which suffer from photorealism and mocap and voice acting ruining the designers' flexibility. If you can make it procedurally and make it more engaging, or make something else mnore engaging by saving time and money, then go for it. Honestly, I'd be happier with GT1, with faster loading times (seriously, menus have always been absurdly slow in PD games, just not as absurd as in 5), better physics, proper tire modelling, damage, better upgrades, more cars, more wheels, more aero parts... But we do get some nice treats in GT5 like weather and better proportioned tracks. One hand giveth...

You know my experience with GT5 has been mostly with a wheel with simulation on and everything set to.realistic. I have to say that with the wheel and force feedback I can feel the car, even the slightest bump from the road to that push to the limit where that extra small push will cause me to oversteer or loose control. This is why I am not very familiar with some if your complaints. The game was clearly designed with a wheel in mind. Truely amazing experience with that set up. The controller doesnt do the game's justice in terms of realism, feel and handling. It removes many variables that should be present while racing but are present with the wheel. PD is kind of bad at replicating the realism on a controller but the work was emphasized on the steering wheel where the game is ment to be played. Another thing is that the career mode does not have damage. I have tried it in the arcade mode with full realistic settings and full damage and I ve got to say it was an extremely unforgiving game. Much more than Forza 4 in professional mode. But GT5 is so lost into its content and settings, not to mention the ideal settings that have to be chosen manually that its real spleandor can be missed

[Arwin]

Originally Posted by Phil

I have to say, I haven't tried the 2.0 update, because I remember there being a bit of controversy that you could only use the update on the account you bought it.

You remembered falsely though, I think. The controversy was about buying the DLC only, and if you bought the DLC, then other accounts on your PS3 did not have access to it for some reason. They fixed that in a later patch. Now the only requirement is that if you buy the DLC from, say, the US store, then only US accounts can access that DLC.

There are no regional locks to the game itself (as a rule of thumb, on the PS3, if there are regional locks, they are really only ever relevant to DLC if at all), and I think you should be perfectly safe to upgrade, and probably safe to buy Spa as well (and Motogi, the fun kart tracks, etc.)

But at the very, very least, do just update your game.

Decreased grip if you're in the air is actually present in the game though. It just doesn't happen quite as soon, and I don't know if you can setup your car that rigidly, so there is still a disconnect to some extent. But I remember even in GT4 that front wheel cars would start spinning through, and not fully but subtly, depending on how little downward pressure you had. I remember exactly in what car I tested that, a Golf V GTi, and I remember being startled by its realism because my car at the time, an Alfa 155 1.8, behaved exactly the same. Very cool.

[antwan]

I think the game+all the DLC boxed for 29 euro's is a pretty sweet deal.
Does anyone know if the savegame is compatible?