My brother and I have played the Gran Turismo series since number three. I enjoy them in spurts and my brother has played them obsessively in past. We were both fairly anxious for a full HD upgrade to GT4 and the list of new features and cars made GT5 out to be exactly what we both wanted: more straight-up car racing in real model cars. Not an overly ambitious goal, but sometimes I need to unwind with a down-to-earth title and Gran Turismo fits the bill admirably. 

We have been playing GT5 for about 4 hours now and while the core concepts of the game are still intact, it has totally failed to impress me.

The graphics are not good. Yamauchi has an eye for detail and his passion for the cars is made obvious when you try to discriminate any of the cars from the real thing--you have to try, and that is testament enough to their craftsmanship. But the cars only make up a fraction of your viewing area while racing and it is equally obvious that a comparatively meager amount of time went into the environment. Trees are classic doubled sprites, the grass has no tone to it, the audience is as unconvincing as it ever was...but the worst offenders are the distant backdrops which look universally terrible. No effort was put into them at all; you get the impression that each track is suspended in mid-air, a thousand of feet off the ground.
 
The menus are garbage. Nearly every race has stringent requirements for entry, requiring you to scour the globe for cars on a regular basis. This doesn't really bother me; in a game with over a thousand cars I want to be swapping them out on a semi-regular basis so I can at least see a sizable portion of what's on offer. But the dealerships are arranged alphabetically, the cars in each are arranged by price, and there is no other way to sort or search them. This is a nightmare when looking for a European FR mobile made between 1960 and 1979 (a dreampipe attempt to use the same car in three different cups). Is this any worse than it used to be? No. Is this acceptable after five years of development on an unmodified premise? No. The sting here is that the garage has a ton of filters that make finding the car you want a breeze. Polyphony simply didn't put this functionality in the other browsers.
 
Loading times. Holy shit. We installed the game; it took over 40 minutes for the PS3 to soak up 8 gigs from the GT5 Blu-Ray, and if this is the result I shudder to think what the game must be like without the install. Browsing for cars is a mostly text-based affair, as it can take upwards of 5 seconds to bring a car on-screen after highlighting it in the dealer menus. The races also take a ridiculous amount of time--an amount made even more frustrating by the quality of the environment the game renders once its done. Load times are even frustrating between menus. 
 
This does not sum my complaints totally, but it is more than enough text-based rage for one blog post. I certainly hope that Polyphony puts some major patchwork into this game, because most of my problems with it are completely fixable post-launch. 
 
I'm sure plenty of other people have been harping these things over the last two days. I just need some catharsis from the BLAEGHURGH is all.

My brother and I have played the Gran Turismo series since number three. I enjoy them in spurts and my brother has played them obsessively in past. We were both fairly anxious for a full HD upgrade to GT4 and the list of new features and cars made GT5 out to be exactly what we both wanted: more straight-up car racing in real model cars. Not an overly ambitious goal, but sometimes I need to unwind with a down-to-earth title and Gran Turismo fits the bill admirably. 

We have been playing GT5 for about 4 hours now and while the core concepts of the game are still intact, it has totally failed to impress me.

The graphics are not good. Yamauchi has an eye for detail and his passion for the cars is made obvious when you try to discriminate any of the cars from the real thing--you have to try, and that is testament enough to their craftsmanship. But the cars only make up a fraction of your viewing area while racing and it is equally obvious that a comparatively meager amount of time went into the environment. Trees are classic doubled sprites, the grass has no tone to it, the audience is as unconvincing as it ever was...but the worst offenders are the distant backdrops which look universally terrible. No effort was put into them at all; you get the impression that each track is suspended in mid-air, a thousand of feet off the ground.
 
The menus are garbage. Nearly every race has stringent requirements for entry, requiring you to scour the globe for cars on a regular basis. This doesn't really bother me; in a game with over a thousand cars I want to be swapping them out on a semi-regular basis so I can at least see a sizable portion of what's on offer. But the dealerships are arranged alphabetically, the cars in each are arranged by price, and there is no other way to sort or search them. This is a nightmare when looking for a European FR mobile made between 1960 and 1979 (a dreampipe attempt to use the same car in three different cups). Is this any worse than it used to be? No. Is this acceptable after five years of development on an unmodified premise? No. The sting here is that the garage has a ton of filters that make finding the car you want a breeze. Polyphony simply didn't put this functionality in the other browsers.
 
Loading times. Holy shit. We installed the game; it took over 40 minutes for the PS3 to soak up 8 gigs from the GT5 Blu-Ray, and if this is the result I shudder to think what the game must be like without the install. Browsing for cars is a mostly text-based affair, as it can take upwards of 5 seconds to bring a car on-screen after highlighting it in the dealer menus. The races also take a ridiculous amount of time--an amount made even more frustrating by the quality of the environment the game renders once its done. Load times are even frustrating between menus. 
 
This does not sum my complaints totally, but it is more than enough text-based rage for one blog post. I certainly hope that Polyphony puts some major patchwork into this game, because most of my problems with it are completely fixable post-launch. 
 
I'm sure plenty of other people have been harping these things over the last two days. I just need some catharsis from the BLAEGHURGH is all.

So all I have to say is... lol. Six years for this, and it's not even better than Forza. Oh, how I'm loving my one year old Forza right now. 

I'm not sure what you expected from a 4 year old console.  The gpu in today's consoles are several generations behind (they're from directx 9c era).  If you want better backgrounds and more detail, try PC directx 11 racing games (dirt 2 or the formula 1 game).

" So all I have to say is... lol. Six years for this, and it's not even better than Forza. Oh, how I'm loving my one year old Forza right now.  "

" I'm not sure what you expected from a 4 year old console.  The gpu in today's consoles are several generations behind (they're from directx 9c era).  If you want better backgrounds and more detail, try PC directx 11 racing games (dirt 2 or the formula 1 game). "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" I'm not sure what you expected from a 4 year old console.  The gpu in today's consoles are several generations behind (they're from directx 9c era).  If you want better backgrounds and more detail, try PC directx 11 racing games (dirt 2 or the formula 1 game). "

The game would not be any better on PC. It was delayed to many times and did not live to the hype.  "

" @The_Laughing_Man said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" I'm not sure what you expected from a 4 year old console.  The gpu in today's consoles are several generations behind (they're from directx 9c era).  If you want better backgrounds and more detail, try PC directx 11 racing games (dirt 2 or the formula 1 game). "

The game would not be any better on PC. It was delayed to many times and did not live to the hype.  "

I was responding to the OPs comment about the graphics.  Of course it would have been better in that respect on the PC.  (The backgrounds and tracks could've been more detailed.) "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @The_Laughing_Man said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" I'm not sure what you expected from a 4 year old console.  The gpu in today's consoles are several generations behind (they're from directx 9c era).  If you want better backgrounds and more detail, try PC directx 11 racing games (dirt 2 or the formula 1 game). "

The game would not be any better on PC. It was delayed to many times and did not live to the hype.  "

I was responding to the OPs comment about the graphics.  Of course it would have been better in that respect on the PC.  (The backgrounds and tracks could've been more detailed.) "

I doubt it. They would have just delayed it more. Who know why they really delayed it. Lots of stuff seems crappy in the game. Long loading times seeming to be the worst.  "

" look its a pc gamer "

Japanese game design strikes again.

" I'm not sure what you expected from a 4 year old console.  The gpu in today's consoles are several generations behind (they're from directx 9c era).  If you want better backgrounds and more detail, try PC directx 11 racing games (dirt 2 or the formula 1 game). "

" @cjmabry said:

" So all I have to say is... lol. Six years for this, and it's not even better than Forza. Oh, how I'm loving my one year old Forza right now.  "

I didn't see the OP compare this to Forza. "

" So all I have to say is... lol. Six years for this, and it's not even better than Forza. Oh, how I'm loving my one year old Forza right now.  "

It didn't take 6 years to make

Nobody was waiting for this 6 years ago

GT5's premium cars have polygons per car than any other racing game so far by a factor of multiples.  PC, console, no matter.  The only problem (which is pretty big really) with GT5's graphics is only some of the cars got that treatment.  Same can be said for the tracks, some of the tracks look great, and some are basically ports from previous GT games with a few tweaks.
 
GT5's standard cars are running about 4000 polygons each, and supposedly Forza 3's cars are around 200,000 each.  And the difference is that obvious.  There probably isn't a single other current gen racing game with car models that low.

I don't see what that has to do with anything. "

" GT5's premium cars have polygons per car than any other racing game so far by a figure of multiples.  PC, console, no matter.  "

Developers got PS3 dev kit's WAY before the PS3 launched in 2006. All those games that launched in 2006 had to have been made beforehand obviously (Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, etc) and it probably took around a year or maybe longer. So GT5 could very well have been started right after GT4.

And even if you don't have the devkits, you can start development on other fronts: research, concepts, 2D.

" @teh_pwnzorer:  In theory many things are possible, but even Dirt 2 in DX11 doesn't use tessellation on the cars at all, it's used for superfluous stuff like water surfaces, the crowds (which it actually butchers), and flags.  In theory you could also create a rig with 20 GPUs and design a $500 million game and yes you could outclass GT5.  For now though, GT5 has more polygons per car than any other game by several times.  True too that car paint shaders and lighting can really help the way a game looks, but GT5 really has high quality shaders too (better than Forza 3 IMO).  I'd say Need for Speed Hot Pursuit has the best car shaders of any game at this point. "

" @teh_pwnzorer:  I hear Solitaire is pretty awesome on PC. The cards look photo realistic now. I wish had that for my Xbox :( "

" @sofacitysweetheart said:

" @teh_pwnzorer:  I hear Solitaire is pretty awesome on PC. The cards look photo realistic now. I wish had that for my Xbox :( "

On an xbox solitaire would play at 20fps and with heavy screen tearing. "

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

He should have expected less out of the game which claimed it was one of the best looking console games ever made? That's just as bad as me saying I should have expected more out of Uncharted 2's graphics.

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

He should have expected less out of the game which claimed it was one of the best looking console games ever made? That's just as bad as me saying I should have expected more out of Uncharted 2's graphics.

"

" @xyzygy said:

He should have expected less out of the game which claimed it was one of the best looking console games ever made? That's just as bad as me saying I should have expected more out of Uncharted 2's graphics.

"

There is a difference between art design and pure graphical detail.  The "best looking" game of 2010 could be Kirbey's epic yarn, if you're so inclined. "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

I don't think you should have been expecting less. There are games that do look great on the 360 and PS3, and Forza is one of them. At least better than GT5 is looking.  Someday I will be a PC gamer, though. Someday... "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @sofacitysweetheart said:

" @teh_pwnzorer:  I hear Solitaire is pretty awesome on PC. The cards look photo realistic now. I wish had that for my Xbox :( "

On an xbox solitaire would play at 20fps and with heavy screen tearing. "

That and the auto-aim would make it a cakewalk. "

" @xyzygy said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

He should have expected less out of the game which claimed it was one of the best looking console games ever made? That's just as bad as me saying I should have expected more out of Uncharted 2's graphics.

"

There is a difference between art design and pure graphical detail.  The "best looking" game of 2010 could be Kirbey's epic yarn, if you're so inclined. "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

I don't think you should have been expecting less. There are games that do look great on the 360 and PS3, and Forza is one of them. At least better than GT5 is looking.  Someday I will be a PC gamer, though. Someday... "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @xyzygy said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

He should have expected less out of the game which claimed it was one of the best looking console games ever made? That's just as bad as me saying I should have expected more out of Uncharted 2's graphics.

"

There is a difference between art design and pure graphical detail.  The "best looking" game of 2010 could be Kirbey's epic yarn, if you're so inclined. "

Don't play dumb, you know what I meant. Realistic. "

" @xyzygy said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @xyzygy said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

He should have expected less out of the game which claimed it was one of the best looking console games ever made? That's just as bad as me saying I should have expected more out of Uncharted 2's graphics.

"

There is a difference between art design and pure graphical detail.  The "best looking" game of 2010 could be Kirbey's epic yarn, if you're so inclined. "

Don't play dumb, you know what I meant. Realistic. "

I have no idea what you mean, ever.  And usually I just suspect you're actually a team of Microsoft employees. "

Every fucking thread about GT5 gets turned into a discussion on graphics.

" @cjmabry said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

I don't think you should have been expecting less. There are games that do look great on the 360 and PS3, and Forza is one of them. At least better than GT5 is looking.  Someday I will be a PC gamer, though. Someday... "

To convince you to join the dark side, I will show you Forza 3's jaggy shadows.  :)
 

"

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @xyzygy said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @xyzygy said:

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

" @cjmabry said:

"
@teh_pwnzorer: We all know console's can't touch a PC's power. We're talking console games vs. console games. "

I was specifically talking about the original posters comments.  He's a PC gamer and he said the graphics were underwhelming.   I was just saying he should've been expecting less.  I have Dirt 2 for PS3 and PC and there's a world of difference. "

He should have expected less out of the game which claimed it was one of the best looking console games ever made? That's just as bad as me saying I should have expected more out of Uncharted 2's graphics.

"

There is a difference between art design and pure graphical detail.  The "best looking" game of 2010 could be Kirbey's epic yarn, if you're so inclined. "

Don't play dumb, you know what I meant. Realistic. "

I have no idea what you mean, ever.  And usually I just suspect you're actually a team of Microsoft employees. "

Now you're just spouting nonsense because you have no idea what to say. Nice. At least now I have something to back myself up with when I say I can't take you serious in the future. And where the hell did the Microsoft thing come from? Who's to say that I'm not a massive Nintendo fanboy? Or massive PC elitist? Because my name is in Green? How very naive and shallow of you.  "

Meh, I'm not looking at shadows while I'm racing, and games are more than how many polygons we can fit on screen. And besides, the best sim racers on PC look like garbage - it's the gameplay that matters. rFactor ftw! "

" @teh_pwnzorer said:

I have no idea what you mean, ever.  And usually I just suspect you're actually a team of Microsoft employees. "

Now you're just spouting nonsense because you have no idea what to say. Nice. At least now I have something to back myself up with when I say I can't take you serious in the future. And where the hell did the Microsoft thing come from? Who's to say that I'm not a massive Nintendo fanboy? Or massive PC elitist? Because my name is in Green? How very naive and shallow of you.  "

Exactly what have I said in this thread that makes you think I'm a Microsoft fanboy? In fact I clearly stated earlier that Uncharted 2 has some of the best visuals I've ever seen and that it's wrong to expect anything more because they're just that good. Now tell me how in hell does that make me a Microsoft fanboy? By your logic, everyone on this site with a color in their name is a massive fanboy of that respective company. Don't be such a tool. And I'm not being neurotic, I just don't like being treated like a lesser being or being treated with contempt.

As far as the game part of the game goes I'm having a blast, but as someone who was obsessed with customizing the appearance of his car in Forza I'm super bummed to be so limited. I'm also missing the ability to rewind, which was really helpful when learning tracks with new cars and such. Still, It's pretty fantastic so far.

" As far as the game part of the game goes I'm having a blast, but as someone who was obsessed with customizing the appearance of his car in Forza I'm super bummed to be so limited. I'm also missing the ability to rewind, which was really helpful when learning tracks with new cars and such. Still, It's pretty fantastic so far. "

" @jasondaplock:

Exactly what have I said in this thread that makes you think I'm a Microsoft fanboy? In fact I clearly stated earlier that Uncharted 2 has some of the best visuals I've ever seen and that it's wrong to expect anything more because they're just that good. Now tell me how in hell does that make me a Microsoft fanboy? By your logic, everyone on this site with a color in their name is a massive fanboy of that respective company. Don't be such a tool. And I'm not being neurotic, I just don't like being treated like a lesser being or being treated with contempt.

"

Well... 
 
Does the game work functionally well? The driving is what counts.

" Well...  Does the game work functionally well? The driving is what counts. "

Sigh, PC elitists..
 
And those are some massive load times, holy shit. I've never been a big racing fan, but I can enjoy them from time to time. But wow. And if that picture of the shadowing is accurate to the game.. also pretty bad. And also not because of hardware, thinking that is ridiculous.

"Only after searching through menu's did i find which cars the opponents were driving and could i go back to the dealerships to buy the right car."