Lots of people like to make the claim that its as real as it gets, or that the physics are "spot on" and other absurd claims. Folks, none of the Gran Turismo "games" should be called simulators, they should be called advertisements, but I guess Test Drive name was already taken, so they couldn't call it that. This is the game for people who like the beauty of cars more than they like the sport or realism.
Ok, before I'm hammered by people, I know that prologue is a demo of sorts that's just far too overpriced, its the entire series in general that I'm talking about here. People like to claim that these cars handle like the real world, but its just not true. If it were, then race car teams would be practicing on there Playstations instead of using actual simulations like RFactor and GTR-2. Both of those are found in various forms in full motion simulators found around the world. Chances are, if you paid 5-10 dollars for a chance to drive one of those moving hydraulic racing games at an actual race track, they were powered by the same engine used for RFactor and GTR-2 games (though I have seen some crappy ones that weren't). They are also used by some of the official real race teams, from GT to Formula One, for practice and warming up. Gran Turismo can't even let a car flip over, regardless of what you do, sound realistic now? How many people flipped there cars from mistakes, driving to fast in real life on highways, in the past year alone? Its not that hard to flip a real car, I did it 9yrs ago while racing an amateur touring race. Further, there are loads of real life racing maneuvers that can't be done in any of the Gran Turismo games. Even worse, they want to use the excuse of "licensing issues" for reasons of no damage up to now (and even in the full version of GT5 there will be lots of cars with no damage, and lots without cockpit view, as stated by them). A 60 million dollar budget and we don't even get the OPTION of real racing rules, terrible AI drivers that act like you don't exist, no adjustable seats (don't REAL cars have those?), no dash cam (people don't drive from the back seat..) and a lot of other missing things available for years in other, actual simulations. I'm really getting tired of people acting like its the ultimate in sims when the only thing it has going for it is the car lists. Yes it does have a LOT of cars, which is nice, but when the rest of the game is so lacking, whats the point except for a digital auto-museum?
Lets look at GTR-2, which came out 5+ years ago for comparison. GTR-2 had realistic damage and consequences to mistakes. The temperature of tires, air around/in the tires, and on the road are taken into account. The wear you place on the gearbox from bad shifting matters. The loss of a wing looses downforce and matters. Even the amount of fuel you have left effects the weight and handling. None of that is used in Gran Turismo, and probably never will, yet is important in real racing. These are just a few of the things not simulated in Gran Turismo games even today, but was available for years in other sims from companies less than half the size of polyphony, and in full sim games that can be picked up for less than the cost of the Prologue "demo". I just don't know why it continues to get such a following of people claiming its "so realistic". And before you ring in and claim "they have to balance gameplay with realism", remember, they are claiming there product is a "simulator". It even says it right on the box as part of the tag line. Don't claim you are simulating a sport and leave half the sport out.... which leads me into..
The sport of racing is exciting, the speed, the wrecks, the razor's edge the drivers must walk in order to keep their very expensive and tuned machines (and themselves) alive on the track is thrilling and addictive(as many adrenaline inducing activities can be). The thing that makes all dangerous sports exciting is the DANGER. If it were not dangerous to drive 160+mph, then we'd all be doing it on the freeway without care. Its the danger, that huge chance that the smallest mistake at the wrong moment -could be the last- that gets the adrenaline pumping and the fans on edge of their seats. When you take the danger out, you take a huge part of the excitement out. In Turismo, if I win, I feel like I just learned how to avoid being ran into for a few laps, but in GTR-2 for example: My first full race was an 82 lap race of Silverstone that I came in 8th, but felt far more like an achievement than any of my gold's in Turismo. About 20 laps in, I had a small hit with an opponent cause I tried passing at a bad time, and 3 laps later had to pit cause I had damaged my front left brake, and knocked the same tire out of balance, in the impact, and I could feel it in the handling, and force feedback. It cost me a good bit of time since I had to pit and get it fixed to drive accurately again, but I needed new tires anyway so it only added a little more time. Thats what a simulation of the SPORT should be! GTR-2 even had night and day cycles, and changing weather, while you drove! Plus, the argument that it would be boring or not sell well enough is absurd also. Millions tune in just to watch real racing events, and more than enough people buy hardcore sims like the ones I mentioned to keep those companies alive and still making officially licensed racing games (GTR-3 is in the works, and I can't wait).
Seriously, how angry would most people be if they bought a product claiming to be a simulation of football or basketball, only to load up NBA Jam or NFL Blitz??? Sure, they are general representations of the sport, but nowhere near a simulation of them. If Turismo didn't claim to be a simulation, I'd loose a lot of my beef with them on those grounds alone, as I simply hate misleading advertising, and even worse, the people brainwashed by them. If GT5 actually ends up including decent damage modeling, and realistic race rules at least as an option for those who want it, I'll be glad to pick it up. Seriously, how hard is it to just make it an option if much smaller companies can do these things with less than a 20th of the budget and for a lesser asking price?
In conclusion to this long (sorry bout that) review, only get Gran Turismo if your looking for exactly what it has to offer. If you want an actual simulation of the sport called Racing, try one of these- RFactor, GTR-2, Live for Speed, I-Racing(expensive), or one of my favorites, Richard Burns Rally. RFactor, GTR-2, and Richard Burns Rally all have huge amounts of FREE content to download, and huge followings that still play online every day, and all 3 are over 4yrs old. When people are still playing and loving the same sim years later, regularly, you know its solid, but when you can even race full seasons and win THOUSANDS of dollars in REAL money([...]), you know its hardcore!Get more detail about Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
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