Gran Turismo 5

[Sonny]

As many of you know, Gran Turismo is the pinnacle of Motor Sports simulation in many people’s minds, its release is fast approaching and I for one cannot wait for it to arrive! It may not be quite as realistic in terms of absolute feel but it offers such a glorious virtual garage that I have to have it, I also happen to believe its physics engine is much improved for GT5 which I’m looking forward to testing!

I've preordered GT5 The Signature Edition because 1. I'm a geek, 2. I can't help myself and 3. Cars, tracks, hmmm, cars and tracks....etc.... Unfortunately with its arrival along with F1 2010 which I shall also dabble with I think my iRacing will suffer as it has been for months due to my lack of time as it is! iRacings expense may be the end of me renewing my subscription but that’s a long way off yet and the F1 car and Spa could sway things for me but the point I'm trying to make is that for a one off payment of £40 for the standard edition of GT5 you get an enormous amount of content due to its mass sales, with iRacing we wait with baited breath for one car or one track as its so limited in areas such as international series and international cars. Maybe its time iRacing offered some more variety and cut its fee's in order to attract a larger base as once you're online and competing its quite addictive with its brilliant stance on safe racing etc.

The big shark is once again entering the ocean which could engage fans to find alternative waters or it could trounce the simulation market totally due to its accessibility and market appeal.

Anyway, enough thinking aloud about business... What are your thoughts with this imminent release? Will you be buying it, will you be buying a PS3 just to play it or will it pass by unnoticed in your world? Teamredline and its members are both hobbyist and professional and I believe GT5 manages to do what so few Sims can do, cater for the masses whilst finally seemingly able to please the absolute hardcore Sim Racer in us.

[Dom]

Im defintely getting it I liked gt academy (though didnt spend that much time on it). I love the choice and the cars and the gfx are unbeatable

I'm not sure if it will cater toward purists though, there are still many arcadey elements - damage for instance

[EZeemering]

If I had a PS3 I would have got it. However I do play it a lot with some friends just for fun with the controller. Need to hook my wheel onto it sometime soon to try how that feels

I also have the GT sponsored Pescarolo team shirt and cap. When I wear that I'm actually offered quite a lot of money for them by GT fans

[Sonny]

Im defintely getting it I liked gt academy (though didnt spend that much time on it). I love the choice and the cars and the gfx are unbeatable

I'm not sure if it will cater toward purists though, there are still many arcadey elements - damage for instance

Dom, damage is included in GT5, the premium models have a full damage, seperation of panels etc whilst the standard models in the games collect scratches, dents and dirt. Both types of cars sustain handling damage too so if you wreck your car its not going to drive so well! Unfortunately you can't wreck it beyond driving so no matter what you do it will still be able to take part in a race.

If you dont mind you'll have to let me have your PSN ID and maybe we can have a race with a few of the others too.

[Dom]

Ah nice, i didn't realize it affected the handling

[Sonny]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWguMO83SOM

Enjoy! Blurry but i think they've managed to cram everything into this game, Damage, Dynamic Weather with temperature changes, Rally, NASCAR, GT, Concept, Road etc etc etc. There has been a long argument in the PC Racing Sim community about the GT Racing series and its alleged sim status, i personally think from what I've seen so far it looks like its going to surpass many peoples expectations. Roll on November 3rd!!

[Dom]

yeah its all in but how realistic!

lets see, i have it on pre order

[Sonny]

I think it will probably be the most complete racing sim on the market, commercial in many aspects but fun and realistic in equal measure. I can't wait to try out Le Mans and the Nordschliefe in a perfectly detailed Lamborghini/Ferrari/SLS whilst the sun rises at dawn and theres a slight fog visible in the distance...

So far with iRacing I've found a brilliant physics engine, a very reliable netcode and race structure but I'm just not having much fun with it, i practise, get quick, do a few races and realise its pointless because to progress I'm going to have to spend another £30. Its an expensive system due to its structuring and lets face it, the only realistic thing in iRacing is its tracks and physics engine, the car models are ok but nothing special, it has no weather effects and i'm not aware of any dynamic track conditions at all such as rubber build up/marbles etc? The drivers dont even move in the cockpits, it looks silly in the year 2010, these little details add up to create the feeling of being a racing driver. The races can feel lonely and ultra tense because of its safety rating... They've stripped the fun out of racing with that bloody 1x incident for every wheel that slightly oversteps the white lines, so annoying but the SR does a good job in stamping out wreckers. I've got a good safety rating but I've got it by not pushing to my own limits which isn't very good in my opinion. I'm thinking about how to position the car rather than just doing it naturally and you can lose time just by going through that thought process!

The question for me now is whether to bother with the Star Mazda in order to progress or not, I've tried Volkers setups from last years season, they dont work on this new build for me at all! Very twitchy and require throttle balance downshifts which can't be done on this new transmission model. The setups are brilliant on the front end but you can't carry much braking into the apex although I'm new to the Mazda so may not be use to its characteristics properly. On the other hand I'll have F1 2010 to amuse me until GT5's release on November 5th. Thinking out loud, sorry I'm blabbering on...

[Sonny]

Sensational considering PS3 has a sodding 7800GTX GPU and only 256mb of RAM!!

[Timppaq]

Here's my mate Grandi with Motul GT-R at Nurb, sorry about the lightning..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMfc8yy5rvA

[Dom]

Timpaqq , do you know if this version is more sim based?

[Timppaq]

It certainly feels so The builds I have tried have not been final of course. Imo it can be seen that the hours that Kaz has spent racing a real car have benefitted the series.

Especially the tire model has come a long way. I recommend.