Official GT5 discussion thread

[Nesh]

GT5 is an extremely underrated title.
The more I spend with it the more I understand that what makes GT5 so amazing is that it is not trying to be a game but a complete product for car lovers and I think this is one of the reasons why some reviews didnt do it justice.
It explains the tactics and mechanics behind each racing type, the physics behind cars, how each event works (damn it made me like Nascar. Who would have thought?), it tells you the history of cars, its got car programmes......hell I wasnt a car nut and this made me appreciate everything behind them.

This is the ultimate and best racing I have ever bought. Its beyond the level of what GT1-4 were. And what can I say? the physics is outstanding above anything any competition has offered on any console

I also managed to get my hands on the signature edition. I found a store filled with them. The best collectible I ever bought.

 

[djskribbles]

@Phil,

You have to deliver them to your garage to use them. From there, you can sell them. Some cannot be sold, in which case it asks if you want to remove them from your garage.

I also wonder about the delivery... it seems pointless. Previous GT games, it would tell you what car you won at the end of the race/event and it would automatically be added to your garage. Right now, it just seems like one unnecessary step of having to have to deliver it to your garage. Is there more to it?

Anyway, I'm up to level 19 now and I'm almost done with Expert. The game just gets better and better as you get more money and get to drive and race against faster cars. It's also kinda fun to play around with photmode. Just so much to do...

Nurburgring is intense. So many bumps, high-speed bends and narrow tracks... it can be really frustrating with traffic at high-speeds.

@Nesh,
Completely agree. I absolutely love this game. I honestly cannot see how any racing sim fan/car lover could rate this lower than a 9 if they've played to at least level 15. Even after L15, it just gets better. Even the visuals get better, because you rarely race against standard cars. The premium cars, even in-game, are jaw-dropping gorgeous.

 

[Arwin]

@Phil,

You have to deliver them to your garage to use them. From there, you can sell them. Some cannot be sold, in which case it asks if you want to remove them from your garage.

I also wonder about the delivery... it seems pointless. Previous GT games, it would tell you what car you won at the end of the race/event and it would automatically be added to your garage. Right now, it just seems like one unnecessary step of having to have to deliver it to your garage. Is there more to it?

It looks like they made a generic system that they could use for all car interactions, whether you win them from the game, get them from a friend, win them online, etc. For instance I got a Dome Zero from someone the other day and once I accepted it, it shows up as a white slip in my car delivery. You also have these slips that are worth a random level xx car that you for instance win for completeing a league.

Nurburgring is intense. So many bumps, high-speed bends and narrow tracks... it can be really frustrating with traffic at high-speeds.

Yep, but it's a useful skill to have that traffic to negotiate - for instance, on a real 'tourist day' I was driving on the real Nurburgring with a (modern) Fiat Panda, and then these Ferrari 430s and GT-Rs chasing each other have to deal with me (and other slower cars) too ... Not to mention of course driving online.

@Nesh,
Completely agree. I absolutely love this game.

Yeah. I never got to the 50% waypoint this fast ever in a GT game before in terms of time since release - I played so much already!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

GT5 has dropped from the top spot of the UK charts to 4th place. I thought the other GT's hung around the top for a while. COD and FIFA are 1 and 2 respectively.

 

[Rotmm]

I thought the other GT's hung around the top for a while.

I'm sure they did, but as I recall they weren't released during the Xmas period (GT4 at least wasn't) in the UK, but rather 1st or 2nd quarter where there was less competition.

I'm pretty sure that even at 4th place, GT5 is selling gangbusters at this time of year, as well as being one of those mythical titles that 'has legs' and will continue to sell well for many months to come (along with becoming an 'essential purchase' for any new PS3 owner in the future).

Any single platform title is going to struggle pre-Xmas against the multiplat behemoths of FIFA and CoD.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Any single platform title is going to struggle pre-Xmas against the multiplat behemoths of FIFA and CoD.

that's true GT previously ahd almost the whole market to itself with the platform's domination, whereas GT5 enters into a 'watered down' market where it can only sell to half the gamers, versus rivals selling to all platforms.

 

[warcrow]

I've stated before that I'm more of an arcade racer guy, but admittedly both GT5 and Forza 3 have entertained me quite a bit. I'm also not one to sit back for long periods of time and just watch someone else play video games. Last night was different.

A friend of mine--who's not a gamer at ALL but a total car nut--came over and I just couldn't wait to sit him down and show him GT5. What would his response be? Would he scuff at the thought of playing around with a "toy"? I fired up the game with my Logitech Driving Force Pro and sat him down. The entire experience lasted 2 hours and was surprisingly really interesting to see.

After I fired up the game he watched the entire introductory video and marveled at what the budget must have been to make it. In arcade mode his eyes widened when we first saw that the nurburgring was a raceable track and modeled to the real life counterpart ("Do you know how many times I've watched this tracked on TV?"). Then as we went into the vehicle selection he saw it, and then looked at me and says "oooooh my god I can drive the F40?!" It turns out it's a car he's always wanted to drive (he actually ended up not liking the way it handled). But he took several cars out on the nurburgring, and he just loved it. And he experienced many emotions too: happiness, stress, grief and relief. I sat there for the entire 2 hours laughing with him when he crashed, cheering him on as he passed someone and pointing out some of his flaws.

Throughout he commented on things too, like the accuracy of the handling on certain cars. The interesting thing was his negative comment mostly pertained to the specific car he was driving and not about the game stuff (like the menus, although he was constantly lost). When we were done he got up and said "I never knew video games could be this fun, thanks man!"

It was really cool, and a simple reminder that perhaps us hardcore gamers (this obviously includes me!) can have such skewed views sometimes--obsessing about the minutia. I wondered if the fact that I'm so into video games and it's culture that it can also be the undoing of the entertainment at times. I mean, he didn't even mention the load times despite the fact that I brought them up twice.

Anyway, just thought it was interesting and would share.

 

[zed]

GT5 has dropped from the top spot of the UK charts to 4th place. I thought the other GT's hung around the top for a while. COD and FIFA are 1 and 2 respectively.

its still number 1 (individual formats)
for comparison

------ halo reach ---- GT5
1st week #1............#1
2ndweek #3............#1

not too bad, since the UK is the most shooter orientated country in europe

 

[patsu]

...

The game is very friendly during racing. In the Special Events, because individual vehicles follow the same exact path for every round, I was able to experiment with different approaches.

The Special Events are more annoying because I got disqualified many times for bumping into folks and going off-course. Anyway, I ease on the accelerator and am doing better now.

If they have good AI for higher level races, it'd be "perfect". They should keep improving the core driving mechanics for old fans. The noob friendly events may bore them quickly. SambaBus is interesting though. I hated it at first (Thought it's impossible to win). I heard the Lotus challenge is difficult.

I don't think the UI is confusing. It's tedious (Too many steps).

Haven't played with Photo Mode. Probably never will.

 

[Arwin]

The first video in this blog post is great. I bet that if PD managed to make the game's internal presentaiton as sexy as that video, they'd sell even more copies, but this is great marketing .

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010...m_medium=social&utm_campaign=GTacademy_120612

Meanwhile, although it disappointingly gets out of sync pretty soon, this is a great comparison video of GT vs the real thing with the same car and same driver:

 

[Nesh]

Well I doubt it would have been completely synced even if the two videos were performed by the same driver in real life at two different tries.

Thats a hell of a track we are talking about

edit: btw one of the videos in the blog mention damage detection. What does it mean with that?
AFAIK there is no damage that affects your driving. Only realistic collisions. Right?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Meanwhile, although it disappointingly gets out of sync pretty soon, this is a great comparison video of GT vs the real thing with the same car and same driver:

That vid just goes to show how much more room we have to go regards photorealistic scenery! Also, regards the going out of sync, the GT version is a few seconds faster, right? I know with GT3, the Top Gear lot found they could achieve much faster virtual laps. I'm wondering how much closer to real life times GT5 gets through more accurate physics, although the whole fear factor can never really be reproduced. Well, maybe they could have a crash disable your PS3 for 24 hours!

 

[-tkf-]

although the whole fear factor can never really be reproduced.

I think this is one of the main reasons that times will be screwed, the guy in the real car risks his live, he breaks a tad earlier, lifts a tad more, etc. While the virtual driver will crash until he finds the limit. A limit he might only find once irl on that track

 

[KKRT]

! Also, regards the going out of sync, the GT version is a few seconds faster, right? I know with GT3, the Top Gear lot found they could achieve much faster virtual laps. I'm wondering how much closer to real life times GT5 gets through more accurate physics, although the whole fear factor can never really be reproduced. Well, maybe they could have a crash disable your PS3 for 24 hours!

He's faster in game mostly because of traffic in real life.

 

[RobertR1]

The real life vs game lap times silly.

Real life factors that can greatly effect laptime but are not considered in game:
Condition of brakes
Rotors, pads and fluid used
Tire model
Tire pressure (huge)
Ambient temp and track temp
Road surface
Wind

Enjoy the racing games for what they are, fun racing games. Digging deeper will just have you finding more holes.

GT5's driving model provides great chassis feedback which let's you push a car to it's game designed limitations. That is what makes the gameplay fun.

 

[Nesh]

The real life vs game lap times silly.

Real life factors that can greatly effect laptime but are not considered in game:
Condition of brakes
Rotors, pads and fluid used
Tire model
Tire pressure (huge)
Ambient temp and track temp
Road surface
Wind

Enjoy the racing games for what they are, fun racing games. Digging deeper will just have you finding more holes.

GT5's driving model provides great chassis feedback which let's you push a car to it's game designed limitations. That is what makes the gameplay fun.

Well in an old thread I gave my impressions about the Mitsubishi simulation cockpit which run GT4's rally mode. I tried it at a car exhibition. It basically simulated the Gforces and all the steering/tire pressure on the wheel. I couldnt do a lap properly. I was losing control all the time. It was so realistic and difficult to keep the car in the road. The same stage and car on a controller at home was super easy compared to that. Same game, but the gforces and the pressure on the steering wheel made it play like a different game.

Thats one thing that will be extremely difficult to mimic at home unless the developer decides to make the game control artificially more difficult which wont help since the car wont control as it should with a professional driver. My G25 mimics at least some of these forces.

I really hope they update GT5 with G25 settings. I d love to mess with the simulation difficulty of that

 

[patsu]

Patch 1.03 is out. No idea what it does yet. Noticed the patch after I started GT5 on PS3 3.55.

EDIT: Server will undergo maintenance tonight for an hour. Probably adding leaderboard as promised ?

 

[Phil]

Yesterday I decided to try out the online part of the game which to my absolute suprise is brilliant.

Hosted a game of the Nordschleife (seemed I was the only one, as all the already hosted games were smaller tracks) and it didn't even take a few minutes for the room to completly fill up. The game itself was good - a bit of lag, but nothing that would turn you off. The only thing that's a bit wierd is that at some point at the start of the race, some cars would look the opposite way!

Other than that, it's very good. Like that you can chose to turn of all driving aids which on a track like the Nordschleife makes things rather interesting...

 

[patsu]

Mechanical damage added to online:

 

[poopypoo]

i found the following vid very interesting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1KVKSIVdK8&feature=fvst

I have to come clear and say this really shows off the greatness of GT5's lighting engine. I honestly think F3 looks better at several points, but I would gladly trade all of that for dynamic lights and racing at all times of day or night!! GT5 looks absolutely wonderful for that, even if some bugs ruin the aesthetics... quite often. GT5 will simply feel more alive and have more replay value for that one feature alone.

I still worry about the physics model though. Watch the replays at the end. The F3 Ferrari moves a bit more convincingly over bumps (ignoring the disappointing lack of dust). And I feel that this is something that really stands out in F3 that I see very little evidence of in this video -- really subtle changes in elevation cause the wildest handling challenges. I do hope I'm wrong (I truly love GT and the competition between brands now is great!), but I also am happy, perhaps waiting for F4 (and I lack funds for a PS3 right now)...

I'll have to keep watching more of these videos because frankly, watching two F430s not lose grip through whole laps is pretty unenlightening (exaggeration yay!). Watching two X5s roll around the same track would tell a story every turn!