First off, I hate reviews. I am not going to tell you how fun I think the game is. I am going to list off how I feel the technical aspects of the game hold up to the competition. I am one who hates reviews, so why should I give one :)
Let's start with my setup. Here is what's in my living room at the moment.
- G25 Racing Wheel
- race frame from Bob Earl Racing
- Sony 50" 1080p TV
- Denon 5.1 surround sound with Polk speakers
Here are a few photos.
Graphics.
Oddly, I am not overly impressed with what I saw. If I had never seen anything about the game, I would have thought they were amazing. However, they do not live up to the movies we saw. I was lead to believe that this game would look photorealistic. It does not. The cars do look amazing in replay mode, and it's the best graphics to date on a racing game, but not what I expected. The shadows in the cockpit have some issues, and a few of the lighting effects pop in and out. The people still look a little goofy on the side of the track. I have gotten a flicker once or twice in cockpit view (like a camera flash went off inside the car), and the pace car seems to pop in and out on some tracks.
Sound.
The sound is amazing, it's what we come to expect from the GT series. They perfected it in GT4, so not much to say here. It's as good as it gets :).
Physics.
The Physics are great! You slide into a turn a little to fast and slam on the breaks, and the car acts like you would expect. if you enter a chicane to fast on an incline, and the car gets too light, and reacts accordingly. (never good). The tires grip as you would expect. I could not find one issue with the physics that were not spot on.
Controls.
I am happy with the controls. For some reason, I don't need to use the clutch to change gears. It would be nice if I did, for realism. It might be a setting I couldn't find. The force feedback is fantastic. if the front end got light, it "felt" like the car was floating a bit through the wheel. A great effect. When tires would get loose a little, you could feel the choppiness in the wheel. I could not ask for more here.
As for a personal note on if I like the game, I happen to really like it. You can tell it's an unfinished product, but it was always advertised to be. I play a lot of GT4, and this game seems like it's far less (because it is), but I can see myself playing this for a long time. When GRID comes out, I suspect it will be the game of choice for me, but I think that will only last until GT5 proper comes out :).
LEAGUE
