Suitably late, but having finally been able to play GT5 for a few days now, here's my impressions.
+ Nurburgring + Night + Rain = just incredible. A truly terrifying experience...especially in my insanely souped-up SLS-AMG :lol (I love that car btw)
+ Night racing in general is sublime...I love how the dashboard instruments light up when it transitions from day to night. PD have really nailed night racing, graphically...but it's a real shame that there are only a few tracks where you really need your lights.
+ Special Events are a stroke of genius, and I can only hope that more types of motorsport are represented in the future. It's a great way to introduce yourself into new types of racing, and while there are certainly still AI/realism problems - I won my first kart race by some twelve seconds, even though they're all the same power..wtf? - they're enjoyable to learn and to participate in.
+ Weather effects are solid start...but looking forward to their evolution on PS4. Again, it's just a shame so few tracks support weather. Rain looks pretty good, though snow looks a little more suspect.
+ Course Maker too is a solid start...but definitely a few more options needed. A setting for Reverse or Mirror, plus an option to define elevation changes would be welcome. But it's quick and easy...and generated tracks load faster than the normal tracks, so that's a plus. It's also a missed opportunity that generated tracks don't play more of a role in A-Spec events.
....
- Speaking of, A Spec is hideously out of date. To see virtually the same structure from previous GT's is really disappointing, and I hope that for GT6 there
is a revolution, and PD get with the times and introduce a career mode.
- Truly baffling game design choices. No mincing words...I hate the levelling system. It seems like a cyncial way to artifically prolong the life of the game. If I have the credits, why do I have to wait until I'm a certain level before I can buy the car? Hope this RPG element is gone by GT6.
- AI...don't really need to elaborate.
- Standard cars have only served to undermine PD. Now make no mistake, I'm glad standard cars are there; I would rather have them than not.....but I'm not the sort of person who's going to zoom in to the nth degree and find every jaggy/low texture/etc and post it on the internet from everyone to laugh at. A huge mistake to include them. Not to mention the many people who would have been surprised to find that 800 cars are not what they thought they would be.
But my single biggest issue with GT5 are the technical problems, which are frankly awful. The frame rate drops - and tearing especially - are absolutely disgraceful, and for a studio that prides itself on technical excellence, it makes you wonder who signed off on releasing the game in this technical state.
All-in-all, a great game, but it's unfortunate to discover that we'll have to wait until the PS4 to see GT6 be able to do the things PD want GT5 to do, but can't. When a simple action such as turning on the windscreen wipers causes huge tearing, it's becomes pretty obvious that the PS3 isn't to up to the task. Same for the shadows...once PD have a more powerful piece of hardware underneath them, the shadows could be something really special.
Factor in that by PS4 there should be at least four or five hundred premium cars, so PD can get rid of the standards. Plus, now that PD have broken their weather "duck" if you like, they can only improve and build upon what's definitely a solid start. So the future's bright I think...just a shame it's probably around four years away...
