I played some more over the holiday weekend and have some more thoughts about GT5 for discussion:
- I love it when this game hits it's graphical stride. There are some times where I'm almost stunned at the level of graphical fidelity they managed to achieve. Technically it's impressive that it runs as smoothly as it does--especially at 1080P--but as someone who enjoyed arcade racers much more, I admit the lack of flare makes it appear a bit too "flat" at times. I understand that's the point of a Gran Turismo/simulation game, but I'm just saying my brain is wired to enjoy arcadey graphical pizazz more than this and I still find it gorgeous (at times). I know it might not appear so, I'm actually trying to compliment the game here.
I do have to admit that--and I know it's nitpicking, but I feel it's totally reasonable with GT5 since it's such a high profile title--at times I've wondered what Polyphony could have achieved if they bumped the resolution down to 720P. Perhaps less aliasing on shadows (it's bad, can we all admit that)? Better post-processing effects? A more solid 60 frames? To me the benefits for "a-bullet-point" 1080P is marginal over 720P. It seems the required processing power between the two is pretty large. I guess what I'm getting to is this: 1080P is a waste of time for GT5.
- If you do not own a car that fits the requirements of a race, finding something appropriate is too laborious. Last night I was trying to play the Lightweight Cup and none of the cars I own fit the bill. So a windows pops up with a lengthy list of all the applicable cars in the game, and I'm thinking "what am I supposed to do with this list? Write it all down? Why can't the game dump my into the new/used car lot with these cars available to pick from? I mean, this is the best they could come up with? I just found it unnecessarily tedious.
- Cart racing is a lot of fun! In fact the Special Events section is, so far, my favorite part of the game. Even though I use to own a 1970 VW bus (I was a totally hippy in a previous life), the Top Gear races have been the most frustrating races in the game for me. I understand the point of it all, so I've realized that I lack the skill or patience (or both) and have accepted the bronze medal mentally as a gold.
- Uncanny valley Jeff Gordon in creepy.
- Menus are still too slow to navigate. Not a new complaint, but worth mentioning.
- My absolute favorite feature in NFS Hot Pursuit is the "autolog" (a tracker of your race times vs your friends times, very easily presented to you before and after a race) and how well it's integrated into the game. GT5 doesn’t even have leaderboards, at least as far as I can tell. It feels like a massively overlooked feature, and I still find myself looking around for my PSN buddies scores after a race for comparison.
- Car damage being a progressive unlockable is a bad idea.
Lastly, I know it's going to sound like I'm trolling with this question but I swear I'm not: Do all the cars in the game sound like plastic boats when they bump into one another? You know the "bunk-bomp" sound? I'm hoping it's just limited to the Ford Taurus.