IGN, including other sites have referred to the AI, and driving experience to be subpar. I see alot of people only mentioning the clunky menus, and long loading times as reasons for a "good" scores overall, but there's more to it than that. Ignoring the on rails AI drivers, wacky damage, inconsistent textures/models, 800 cars that lack cockpit view, impractical and awkward online options and lobby system, and not being able to custom paint cars are all reasons for an overall AA game.

I've owned every GT game so far with the exception of GT: Prologue, but as it stands right now, i'm not excited for GT as i once was, nor do i think it's the better of the two when it comes to Forza. Maybe i've been spoiled by the Forza series now, or i'm just not into an all out simulator experience anymore (seeing as i love the rewind feature in Forza 3).

As for the Skeeuk saying that he's impressed that you can watch your friends do their timed runs....you can watch ANY online race in real time, check each person's real time telemetry, and even get their car's setup in Forza's online mode.

How the heck did you do IA-10? I can't do it :(

Through blood, tears, and sweat, just as it was with any GT!

I like this review. Glad they took their time with it. An 8 is a perfectly acceptable score.

I only managed bronze, another lap and I think I could have just pulled off the gold. But yeah, it was a bit of a pain. Lots of outbraking in ridiculous points. That and using the driving line feature whilst ignoring the suggested braking points :P

First corner's a complete pain though.

I don't get the complaints about the menus. It's different, is the worst I can say about it. Everything looks super slick. I find it more interesting than the rows of words you see in every other game.

Sounds in line with other reviews, albeit a bit lower.

Get the feeling some simply lack the capacity to be reasonable about this game, especially comparing it to its competition, "the definitive racing game of this generation" or in accepting the review scores out there (which there is not a ONE that is NEGATIVE on Metacritic).  Thanks for trying, though.

Why didn't a comparably huge release with a rabid fanbase (Halo Reach) get these kind of meltdowns over its lower-than-expected Metacritic score (91) ...?

For me, its not the looks that bother, its the creeping pace of it all. The game loads and saves all the time in-menu and especially the car delivery system is cumbersome at best. And when I start the game, it asks me three times if I want to log on to PSN for some reason. There's also the Arcade mode car select screen where you have to scroll through hundreds of cars as opposed to GT4 where it was sorted in a system based on make, nationality or favourite. Little things like these annoy me when I'm having a lengthy gaming session but the loading of tracks and races isn't as bad as some make it out to be, I remember GT4 being just as slow at times.

Thing for me though, is that the gameplay is just so incredibly awesome that all the nuisances all but disappear and the driving is very much in the lead role after all.

PS: When are they going to get rid of that ghastly menujazz?! The first thing I do every time I get a new GT game is enter the settings and turn all music off!

i understand the criticism but its only bc gt set a higher standard.. nitpicking shouldnt reduce scores from a 10 to an 8