By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sony - Gran Turismo 5 Inside Sims Racing Review - Part 1.

lestatdark on 14 December 2010
goforgold said:
lestatdark said:
Chairman-Mao said:
lestatdark said:
Chairman-Mao said:

GT5 is great but it has a lot of shit I don't like.

Should be more car customization, the B-Spec is complete garbage, the AI needs to be improved, etc. 

Other than that its great though.

In what aspect it should be improved?. It's to be noticed that the AI isn't the same for every event.

During the Extreme events and Endurance events, i've seen some of the best examples of race AI in any simulator, especially in the NASCAR event, where they use drafting in very creative ways, even going out of the way to draft behind cars that purportedly break out of the optimal racing line. 

I've also encountered some very creative over-taking. In the Super GT cup, racing with a MOBIL NSX, I had an A.I Garaiya JGTC car brake much too late into the spoon to get out much faster than my car and then after he overtook me, he defended the place instead of continuing to follow the optimal race line.

But in contrast, there are events where the A.I is virtually non-existent. Licenses and Special Events that make you go from last to first place in one-two laps have scripted, tank-like A.I, with the added aggravation of the immediate disqualification should any forceful contact happen between your car and the A.I cars, even if it's the A.I car contacting you from behind are the prime example of this.


Part of my hate of the AI is license tests/special events where they get in your way and cause a collision which makes me fail the event. I've literally been hit from the side by an AI driver and I "failed" the challenge.

Also during regular events they get in your way and cause you to spin out frequently.

 

I can live with both of those things though, but the most annoying thing of all about the AI is B-Spec. My driver is an absolute retard. I'm only level 7 or 8 in B-Spec (22 in A-Spec) so maybe your driver gets better, but right now he is an absolute idiot. He refuses to overtake other drivers on turns, instead of going around another car he'll slam into the back of it, and stuff like that.

I share your B-Spec pains...that's one of the things that's keeping me from investing more time into it (that and my "obsession" with unlocking the X1 )

I rarely ever dare to push him or to have him overtake. Even with Racing Soft tyres and a seriously over-powered car, he looks like an idiot on an ice ring >_>.

quite the contrary, my driver is straight pro. avoids cars, follows orders to the down to the letter. I remember somewhere in the review they mention if you push your driver to hard he become frustrated and extremely aggressive, maybe you guys are just pushing your driver to hard. 

my advice, take it easy on the commands, let him do his own thing for as long as possible, and don't keep hammering objectives every time you can.

It depends a lot on how quickly both the physical and mental resistance bars drop. I had the bad luck of drawing a Hot tempered driver, and his bars drop very fast, even when asking him to take it slow. On the contrary, my second driver has a cold temper, his bars stay high during a race, but he rarely overtakes, even when asked to.

I have to draw a mild tempered driver to see the effects, but so far my  experience hasn't been that positive on B-Spec, even though I've won all races I've participated.



Current PC Build

CPU - i7 8700K 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz turbo) 6 cores OC'd to 5.2 GHz with Watercooling (Hydro Series H110i) | MB - Gigabyte Z370 HD3P ATX | Gigabyte GTX 1080ti Gaming OC BLACK 11G (1657 MHz Boost Core / 11010 MHz Memory) | RAM - Corsair DIMM 32GB DDR4, 2400 MHz | PSU - Corsair CX650M (80+ Bronze) 650W | Audio - Asus Essence STX II 7.1 | Monitor - Samsung U28E590D 4K UHD, Freesync, 1 ms, 60 Hz, 28"

Around the Network
makingmusic476 on 14 December 2010

I appreciate this review.  Plenty of the other reviews I've seen did one of the following:

  • Pointed out that the game is a top of the line simulator, then penalized the game significantly for other, minor faults (GUI issues).
  • Completely ignored numerous features that set the game apart from other racing sims (gifting/trading/sharing cars with friends, b-spec mode, kart racing, rally, NASCAR, day/night cycles, etc.), while focusing on the game's minor faults (*clunky* online - entirely a GUI related issue).
  • Claimed the game is excellent, but knocked its scores since we all knew it was going to be excellent beforehand.

Complaining about the online mode gets me the most.  I've seen people malign the game for not having things like matchmaking, when its possible for people to prefer making their own lobbies (PC gaming community says hello).  And usually they only comment on the GUI issues of the online mode, while ignoring the wealth of community features to be found in the game, like gifting/sharing cars and making online photo albums.

Some examples of reviews (imo) not giving the game a fair shake:

Joystiq - 80

If you're one of those car nuts I mentioned earlier, here's your game. Have fun, we'll see you in a year when you finally leave the house. If you're not in that group -- you like, even love racing games, but care less about tuning and more about the thrill of the race -- GT5 is like walking in on a group of physicists discussing string theory and asking who wants to go toss around a ball for a bit. You're looking to have fun; they're only interested in studying the math behind how it bounces.

What'd you expect from a racing simulator?  This isn't Burnout.

GamePlanet - 80

The game is a triumph for pure racing aficionados, and is without doubt the best racing simulator available on the PS3. The only real disappointment is that we knew it would be, and hoped that the wealth of new features long touted by Polyphony would be produced with the same level of dedication and perfection shown in the heart of the game.

So it's disappointing that we knew it'd be this good?



Skeeuk on 15 December 2010
lestatdark said:

Yup, they'll be showing more features in future shows, including the features that are added via the patches, like the mechanical damage and online leaderboards (coming late december). 

For a game with so much content (they even admitted it tops the grand majority of PC sims in content as well), it's normal to have such a massive review. 

I pity those "reviewers" who think that a couple of hours with GT5 is enough to give an actual review of it.


i agree ive been on gt5 so much my wife has started to complain. i just go in a zone with gt initial D ost playing.

they must have spent so much time on the handling physics its absolutly awesome.

im not trying to bash forza get it its a stunning game, but on gameplay the driving isnt as good. the best test mark for this is to load up both circuit de sarth or nordshliffe on both and take the same car round the track, the track gradient modeling on circuit de sarth is mindboggling



...not much time to post anymore, used to be awesome on here really good fond memories from VGchartz...

PSN: Skeeuk - XBL: SkeeUK - PC: Skeeuk

really miss the VGCHARTZ of 2008 - 2013...

Reasonable on 15 December 2010
makingmusic476 said:

I appreciate this review.  Plenty of the other reviews I've seen did one of the following:

  • Pointed out that the game is a top of the line simulator, then penalized the game significantly for other, minor faults (GUI issues).
  • Completely ignored numerous features that set the game apart from other racing sims (gifting/trading/sharing cars with friends, b-spec mode, kart racing, rally, NASCAR, day/night cycles, etc.), while focusing on the game's minor faults (*clunky* online - entirely a GUI related issue).
  • Claimed the game is excellent, but knocked its scores since we all knew it was going to be excellent beforehand.

Complaining about the online mode gets me the most.  I've seen people malign the game for not having things like matchmaking, when its possible for people to prefer making their own lobbies (PC gaming community says hello).  And usually they only comment on the GUI issues of the online mode, while ignoring the wealth of community features to be found in the game, like gifting/sharing cars and making online photo albums.

Some examples of reviews (imo) not giving the game a fair shake:

Joystiq - 80

If you're one of those car nuts I mentioned earlier, here's your game. Have fun, we'll see you in a year when you finally leave the house. If you're not in that group -- you like, even love racing games, but care less about tuning and more about the thrill of the race -- GT5 is like walking in on a group of physicists discussing string theory and asking who wants to go toss around a ball for a bit. You're looking to have fun; they're only interested in studying the math behind how it bounces.

What'd you expect from a racing simulator?  This isn't Burnout.

GamePlanet - 80

The game is a triumph for pure racing aficionados, and is without doubt the best racing simulator available on the PS3. The only real disappointment is that we knew it would be, and hoped that the wealth of new features long touted by Polyphony would be produced with the same level of dedication and perfection shown in the heart of the game.

So it's disappointing that we knew it'd be this good?

The joystiq one is interesting, hadn't read that.  Really shows some poor professionalism in the approach, particularly insulting the idea of someone who may be more interesting in a simulator vs a quick and easy racer.   GT5 is supposed to be a simulator first and foremost, not a racer, not for online fun, etc.  In many ways its closer to the PC driving simulators or something like Flight Simulator.

The more I look at some reviews the more I see some strange bias coming into play where they are punishing GT5 for being a great simulator vs being a fun, arcadey racer, which is clearly a poor review standard.  You review the title for what it is and how well it achieves that - not for what it isn't and isn't trying to be.  A fair few scores are definately low relative to GT5's design goals and how well it achieves them and instead represent a review taking of points against its very design goals.

I mean, I like Burnout, etc. but in fact arguably the genre is swamped (relative to demand) given how many arcade/fun racers struggle to sell.  I think the sales of GT already make clear, particularly in EMEAA, that a sim vs a racer still has huge demand and interest, and really reviewers should be up to scratch to handle something like GT.

I certainly welcome GT5 as something that compliments titles like Burnout in my library, while offering something distinctly different.  I also recognize it's very good at what it does.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

ethomaz on 15 December 2010

My God!!!

I'm loving GT5... yesterday I played the Go Kart and it's so funny and different... the NASCAR is amazing too... I can't stop do play.

B-Spec is weird... not the mode but the stupids AI pilots.



Around the Network
lestatdark on 15 December 2010
Skeeuk said:
lestatdark said:

Yup, they'll be showing more features in future shows, including the features that are added via the patches, like the mechanical damage and online leaderboards (coming late december). 

For a game with so much content (they even admitted it tops the grand majority of PC sims in content as well), it's normal to have such a massive review. 

I pity those "reviewers" who think that a couple of hours with GT5 is enough to give an actual review of it.


i agree ive been on gt5 so much my wife has started to complain. i just go in a zone with gt initial D ost playing.

they must have spent so much time on the handling physics its absolutly awesome.

im not trying to bash forza get it its a stunning game, but on gameplay the driving isnt as good. the best test mark for this is to load up both circuit de sarth or nordshliffe on both and take the same car round the track, the track gradient modeling on circuit de sarth is mindboggling

I did this, not to compare the differences between the driving in both games, as I feel that both capture the essence of racing simulation quite well (GT more than Forza though), but to compare track layouts.

I was amazed and quite shocked to see the difference in track width between both versions. In GT5 the track width feels quite right, especially if you compare the Le Mans track to it's real counterpart. In Forza 3 the track width is way too long. You can easily fit four cars side to side and still have some maneuvering space. I hadn't noticed this when I first played Forza 3.





Current PC Build

CPU - i7 8700K 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz turbo) 6 cores OC'd to 5.2 GHz with Watercooling (Hydro Series H110i) | MB - Gigabyte Z370 HD3P ATX | Gigabyte GTX 1080ti Gaming OC BLACK 11G (1657 MHz Boost Core / 11010 MHz Memory) | RAM - Corsair DIMM 32GB DDR4, 2400 MHz | PSU - Corsair CX650M (80+ Bronze) 650W | Audio - Asus Essence STX II 7.1 | Monitor - Samsung U28E590D 4K UHD, Freesync, 1 ms, 60 Hz, 28"

Mummelmann on 15 December 2010

That has to be good news. Finally someone who knows what they're talking about and doesn't base a review on development time and hype.



DonFerrari on 15 December 2010
lestatdark said:
DonFerrari said:
lestatdark said:
goforgold said:
lestatdark said:

and what I find funny is how they praise things most reviews bashed.

the menus for example, straight forward, no confusion everything at all, yet almost every other reviewer "but but teh menus are too complicated, bad menus blah blah blah"

even the crash sounds.

they could give this game a 6/10 and will agree whole heartedly

this will be 1 in the 1% of GT5 reviews that will be actually creditable in my opinion.  

next part they said will be out sometime next year, wow 

Yup, that's why I loved their punchline in the end. Really put to light all the bad professionalism that most reviews had. 

Next part will probably be when they unlock everything, meaning they'll have to reach level 40 in both A-Spec and B-Spec to unlock Nurburgring 24H endurance. 


Anyone that played GT in any of the iterations knows that it's impossible to judge how good it's without some 1000 hours of love =]

You're completely right, since that's about the time that it took me to get 100% in GT4 xD. That's one of the things I love about GT games, the amount of content they put out is staggering.

Even GT3 (the less content filled GT game), lasted me for some good couple of hundred hours before putting it down.


Doing a SP count experience.... GT4 1000 hours for 40 bucks (or GT5 probably 1500 hours for 60 bucks) 4 cents for hour 

For a Shooter Like Halo, GoW or KZ... 6~8h for 60 bucks.... 10 dolars for hour of game...

Which has the best cost-benefit for you?



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

ethomaz on 15 December 2010

Another interesting article.

GT5 is ruining reviews for us all

GT5 >>>>> Reviews IMO



lestatdark on 15 December 2010
DonFerrari said:
lestatdark said:
DonFerrari said:
lestatdark said:
goforgold said:
lestatdark said:

and what I find funny is how they praise things most reviews bashed.

the menus for example, straight forward, no confusion everything at all, yet almost every other reviewer "but but teh menus are too complicated, bad menus blah blah blah"

even the crash sounds.

they could give this game a 6/10 and will agree whole heartedly

this will be 1 in the 1% of GT5 reviews that will be actually creditable in my opinion.  

next part they said will be out sometime next year, wow 

Yup, that's why I loved their punchline in the end. Really put to light all the bad professionalism that most reviews had. 

Next part will probably be when they unlock everything, meaning they'll have to reach level 40 in both A-Spec and B-Spec to unlock Nurburgring 24H endurance. 


Anyone that played GT in any of the iterations knows that it's impossible to judge how good it's without some 1000 hours of love =]

You're completely right, since that's about the time that it took me to get 100% in GT4 xD. That's one of the things I love about GT games, the amount of content they put out is staggering.

Even GT3 (the less content filled GT game), lasted me for some good couple of hundred hours before putting it down.


Doing a SP count experience.... GT4 1000 hours for 40 bucks (or GT5 probably 1500 hours for 60 bucks) 4 cents for hour 

For a Shooter Like Halo, GoW or KZ... 6~8h for 60 bucks.... 10 dolars for hour of game...

Which has the best cost-benefit for you?

That's why my two favourite and most played genres are both RPG's and Simulators. Those are the two best cost-benefit genres out there. 



Current PC Build

CPU - i7 8700K 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz turbo) 6 cores OC'd to 5.2 GHz with Watercooling (Hydro Series H110i) | MB - Gigabyte Z370 HD3P ATX | Gigabyte GTX 1080ti Gaming OC BLACK 11G (1657 MHz Boost Core / 11010 MHz Memory) | RAM - Corsair DIMM 32GB DDR4, 2400 MHz | PSU - Corsair CX650M (80+ Bronze) 650W | Audio - Asus Essence STX II 7.1 | Monitor - Samsung U28E590D 4K UHD, Freesync, 1 ms, 60 Hz, 28"