My Christmas present for myself this year will be a PS3, and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting GT5. I've got a few questions though.
 
First, does driving in different weather drastically affect the handling of the car? Will a car aquaplane at high speeds and slide out if you're a bit too aggressive on the throttle in corners? Also, what sort of weather is in the game? Snow, rain and anything else?
 
Also, there are rally stages in the game too, right? How does driving on gravel feel? I've been playing Dirt 2 the last couple of days and driving on gravel just feels... I dunno, disconnected. The car doesn't handle the way it would in real life and it's way too twitchy.

• Yes on the weather and handling.  Rain and snow are your two conditions.
• GT5 has not one but two Rally Schools.
• GT Rally and Sebastien Loeb, both are hard as fuck and will test any rally car driver.
• GT5 also has full license of WCR.
• I used both the G27 and DS3, let me say that Rally Driving with the wheel is unique to say the least. 

Rallying is very different to DiRT 2's feel. It's very much focused on power sliding your way around corners - and therefore can be unforgiving in the sense that you need to understand how the car is going to behave, and commit to the correct angle/throttle for any given turn. I couldn't tell you if it's realistic, having never driven a rally car, but it's sure as hell a lot more challenging than DiRT2 was for me, and a lot more exciting. Great feel too if you're using a wheel.

I played rally for the first time game last night, one on of the licence tests. It started with a hill climb then sloped into a right hand turn. I was struggling to even get bronze, hitting the wall or just going to slow, until one attempt, where I absolutely nailed it and beat the gold time by 0.7 seconds.
 
It was a really good feeling.

Nice, just read that my old Logitech Momo wheel actually works in GT5 even though it isn't officially supported. I didn't expect a 5 year old wheel to work.

Yep, I'm using my old ps2 driving force and it works like a charm. The weather stuff in this game is amazing, especially the snow. Can not stop playing this...