First off, I'd like to begin with my closing comments as well as the score for those who don't want to read the whole extensive review. This review will include every facet of the game seen from the eyes of a lifelong Gran Turismo fan and car enthusiast, as well as just a gamer enjoying a game (there will be 2 scores). Trust me in that "I know what I'm talking about" in games and cars. I've been around them long enough. This review will not, however, just sing the praises of the game just because I'm a fan. The fact is that the game has flaws that I will state clearly and not just cover up for the sake of fandom; truly, I find it is my duty to point them out so that the next Gran Turismo can be better than this one.

Closing comments:

Gran Turismo 5 is a mix of some amazing things and some frankly shitty things too. From the eyes of a Gran Turismo fan rating a Gran Turismo game, it's a shock how low the series has gone. Because Kazunori Yamauchi has totally spoiled us throughout our lives with amazing perfection in his games, we have come to expect far more than this iteration is able to deliver. However, as just a gamer purely enjoying a game, it's one of the best on the current generation of consoles. All in all, while it doesn't compare well to the GTs of old, it outclasses every other racing game out there and delivers physics, gameplay, and artistry that rivals any other game franchise.

As a Gran Turismo game: 7.8

As Just a Game: 9.4

Gameplay:

This is where GT truly shines, and GT5 doesn’t disappoint. There is no game out there that can rival the realism of driving physics that GT5 has to offer. You can’t take a hairpin turn at 100kph and survive, even if you’re Michael Schumacher. It’s impossible to do an ‘S’ curve at full throttle. You can’t just keep abusing your tires with late braking stunts every lap. In this, you can expect perfection.

When they say ‘simulator’, they really mean it. It can take newbies a long time to understand how to not hit the wall or spin out because it does have a rather steep learning curve. Even for veterans, some cars offer a unique challenge every time you take to the track. The amazing thing is that they all drive in their own unique way, depending on the drivetrain and maker of the car. Fortunately for newbies, there are many driver assists that can help maneuver the car until one learns to drive without them.

Sometimes there are strange occurrences that are very unrealistic. The much promised mechanical damage isn’t available (I’m not sure, maybe only to higher end race cars?) to most cars, and so I have no fear of just slamming into the car in front to make him lose balance. Damage doesn’t carry over to the next race, and only a hidden chassis realignment cost gives you a feeling that you truly damaged the car (frustrating, because you don’t know what you’re spending until you look at it). Riding walls in some tracks net some faster lap times. Some cars handle like absolute shit though we know they can’t be THAT bad (some cars, you just touch the brake ever so lightly and they just spin out of control).

B-Spec is also a very welcome addition. Though there are some people who don’t see the point in this mode, it actually adds a lot of flavor into the game. Racing drivers are just a small part of the whole racing machine, which includes a huge team of engineers and strategists. Being able to get behind the team radio and dictate how the race should go is an interesting experience that I enjoy quite a lot. If only the AI drivers we have weren’t complete knuckleheads.

Customizing the car is still as good as it has been before, streamlined and simplified a little for beginners, but still as complex as before for enthusiasts. Included are detailed explanations for how to tune cars effectively. The amount of options available is as expected of GT, though more wheels and aerodynamic options would’ve been better.

Despite some nagging issues, there can never be any doubt with GT5’s gameplay. Some things could be fleshed out more for newbies, as the learning curve can frustrate some people into quitting altogether. However, its gameplay is, in my mind, the hallmark of the series. Even if everything else fails, the driving will always be enjoyable and realistic.

Gran Turismo gameplay score: 9.7

Just a Game gameplay score: 9.2

Graphics:

Looking at GT1-GT4, I can say without doubt, that in their eras, there were no other games on the planet that could compare with the graphical fidelity of the series. GT was always known for its amazing degree of photo-realism, pushing their respective consoles to unbelievable heights. I remember the firs time driving GT3 and thought, “how the hell can it look this good?” Now, however, things are just not as they were before.

The cars, premium or standard, just don’t look all that good. The premium ones look ok, but nothing mindblowing. Some of them look very beautiful, but some just ‘meh’. The standard ones look like last generation models, which is what they probably are. In a word, most of them are just quite simply ‘ugly’. I expected much more realism. Instead I see jagged edges and low resolution textures.

The worst part of the cars is that they come in two models. Graphical disparity? Since when does a GT game have such nonsense? Isn’t this series known for perfection and photo-realism? It feels ‘dirty’ to drive a standard model car because I just hate having in-car view in just 20% of the cars. I can just decide to ignore all the standard cars, but unfortunately I can’t because the races are set up such that I must race the GT4 imports no matter what I choose.

The environments are also ‘meh’. 2D generic trees and people are annoying to see, and when the screen tears every time you turn, it just makes you scratch your head in wonder. Just like in the cars, there are jagged edges and low resolution textures everywhere. Reflections on the cars are a mess and they sometimes just pop in without anything to base them on. It doesn’t look much better than GT4.

Damage implementation is also annoying. There are only so few cars where you can truly appreciate the extent of the damage modeling, which is actually pretty damn good. Unfortunately, it takes time to get the damage out and it’s frustrating to know that there is damage in the game, yet you have to play more than a week before you can see it, and when you do, only 200 cars are affected relatively realistically; damage on standard cars looks like crap.

On the plus side, however, there are some moments wherein the game’s graphics truly shine. In-car view, when it’s available, is a joy to see, especially when it’s raining or snowing. It’s quite amazing to see how well weather was rendered. Racing at different times of the day is also amazing to behold, especially when it dynamically changes.

There are cars that look just absolutely amazing, like the yellow Lamborghini Gallardo I bought. There are moments on track, such as when you exit the tunnel in Eiger Nordwand and the sun hits your windshield at high speed, that just take your breath away. Some of the track environments, such as the ones in Rome circuit, are very good looking.

Unfortunately, these good moments are just too few.

However, when you compare this game to other games in the market right now, you start to really appreciate the beauty of the graphics. Even the standard cars look good next to cars from say, Need for Speed. There isn’t any racing game in the market right now that has better graphics than this. In fact, it rivals games in other genres as well. The problems that this game has are also present in other games and in most cases, they are seen less.

The only reason GT fans are disappointed by the graphics is that we just expected it to destroy the competition, not just rival it. We have come to expect ‘perfection’ in GT, and sadly, it only delivered ‘good enough’.

Gran Turismo graphics score: 7.0

Just a Game graphics score: 9.5

Sound:

The first time my young nephew heard Jeff Gordon’s NASCAR racer with my 7.1 surround sound system, he started crying. It sounds like a lion! So now he prefers to drive around a Prius, because that sounds more like a little kitten.

Each car’s sound is obviously meticulously detailed to sound like its real counterparts, and it shows very well in design and execution. Brake sounds are also well done, and screeching tires burning at 200kph have woken up my brother twice.

The selection of music is also very well thought of. Good old American rock in the stereos while driving, classy piano pieces or slow jazz when in the showroom. Everything feels very appropriate, and since you can choose which tracks to play, it rounds up everything nicely. You may need a high quality audio system to enjoy it fully though. All in all, everything I expected of GT and much more.

Gran Turismo sound score: 9.5

Just a Game sound sore: 9.5

A.I.:

In one word, the A.I., as a GT game, is absolute shit.

There just isn’t any other way to describe it. After so many years of GT games having shitty A.I., I thought that finally, with this new console generation, they could come up with some sort of way to fix it. But no, they didn’t. It’s still shit.

The worst part of it is that they just ignore you completely wherever you are on track. They will slam into you, cause you to spin, keep on going, whatever, even if you’re right there in front of you; even if you’re just driving the racing line; even if you just park your car on the track. They will smash into you without a second glance.

The start of every race is always chaos. You try to get in the best possible position, avoiding everyone, braking before the first corner, then someone slams into you from behind and you smash into the wall. So very familiar. Even as you overtake a slower car, he will smash into you on the next corner that you have to brake on. This is how previous GTs went. This is still how GT5 goes.

They also drive like little girls most of the time. Few of them have the guts to dive down the inside and brake late to overtake. I see this especially in B-Spec but also in A-Spec, they’re just cowards following a routine. Following a race of AI drivers always feels like status quo; nothing changes.

As mentioned, B-Spec A.I. just absolutely sucks. You tell your driver to slow down and on the next corner he overspeeds and spins out. You tell him to maintain his pace and instead he slows down and gets overtaken. I tell you, whoever you hire in B-Spec is an idiot. You have to cajole him and give him such a huge horsepower advantage in order for him to win.

However, there are a lot of significant improvements in this game. Cars now frequently give way when a faster car moves to overtake. There are times that they are able to cut the lead on you despite you doing consistent laptimes, though this could be due to the ‘rubber band’ principle (cars in the back get a horsepower advantage), but I’m not sure of that. They are also far more aggressive and are very willing to go wheel to wheel with you, though sometimes they are just far TOO aggressive.

Of course, these problems are also present in other racing games as well, and in some games, they are far worse. There is no such thing as perfect A.I., and we should be aware that every game suffers from some clunky computer decision making from time to time. GT5’s racers are actually far more competitive and difficult than other A.I. racers out there. Sometimes I lose even with a faster car, especially when they get really aggressive.

It’s just that it’s already GT5. I expected more after 5 games.

Gran Turismo A.I. score: 5.5

Just a Game A.I. score: 8.0

Value and presentation:

As always, GT’s value never really ends. We will be racing forever and ever until the next GT game comes out, and online race mode adds even more to the value of the game over and above previous GTs. Unfortunately, the online mode is pretty jittery at the moment.

Since everything is online based, loading times sometimes suffer incredulously. I’ve suffered a 10 minute load time after exiting a race because, I dunno, the server crashed or something. Nowadays, if I just want to play single player, I disable my internet connection. It gets that annoying.

The online race mode isn’t as polished as I had hoped it would be. Lag is often and crashes are usual. It takes forever to load too. Improvements will likely come later, but at the moment, I steer clear of it and just play alone. Then again, every huge game has some clunky online starts, especially from Sony (Yeah, I’m looking at you LBP!).

Even in offline mode, however, load times are just too long. Every screen you go to requires one, and you sometimes get sick of seeing the silver GT logo flashing. Maybe it would’ve been better if they had a better looking loading screen than that, or optimized the damn thing to make it faster; I mean, I installed the game’s 8GB or something ridiculous. It should run much faster than that.

On the plus side, the elegance of the presentation balances out the flaws nicely. Starting out the game gives you a feel of walking into a lavish car showroom. Everything is nice and shiny, the menus, to me, are easy to navigate and intuitive, and though I don’t give a crap about the Facebook thing, I’m sure it’s a welcome addition to those who like networking.

Photo mode is also surprisingly addictive. The environments are very pretty indeed, and the customization options for taking pictures feels like a whole game by itself. I can spend hours getting the perfect angle and lighting for my car’s photograph.

It feels like the game was built less as a pure game and more as showcase for cars. It has so many menus that do take time to navigate, but it creates an epic feel for the game that serves as a large style advantage. Unfortunately, all that style must compromise with performance somewhere, and the game just didn’t create enough functionality to be totally streamlined.

Gran Turismo value and presentation score: 8.0

Just a Game value and presentation score: 7.5

Overall:

Expectations are the reason why it’s getting low scores from the fans and the media alike. Though lots of people threw up their arms in disbelief when the game got only an 85 meta, I have to tell you guys now, it deserves lower as a GT game. In my opinion, this is the worst GT game ever made (except PSP and prologues of course), considering the expectations we had after so long a wait.

However, as just purely a game to be enjoyed, it is one of the best on the system with never-ending bliss in just sheer driving majesty. Don’t try to compare the gameplay to anything out there because there is no comparison. To gamers, for gamers, and as a game, GT5 is absolutely amazing and people will enjoy it for years and years to come.

yeah, the low scores are because of the hype, and it's Yamauchi's fault. Because the game is really good, but he hyped it so much with its "perfectionism".

btw, great review, seems that you are really a true fan, and not just another fanboy.

Wow such a long review

but then, if i had reviewed the game positively, would i be called a fanboy? is it just coz i rated the game negatively that i'm not a fanboy?

well anyway i gave it all my honest and devoted thinking..