It's finally here
Gran Turismo 5 is a hard game for me to review. It's been 5 years and I've been incredibly patient, surprisingly the wait was still worth it.
This game is flawed. It's not the cohesive package I'd like it to be, but where it matters it is unmatched. Gran Turismo has always strived for something that no other racing series has and because of that unique experience it's kind of hard not to enjoy if you're a fan.
But that's just it, if you're not a fan of Gran Turismo, GT5 is not going to change your mind at all. If you are I'd say you owe it to yourself to pick up this game.
I wish the details in the tracks looked as good as the Premium cars. I wish they figured out a way to render the smoke and snow not at like 1/4th resolution resulting in aliasing all around the car models. I wish they figured out a way to render soft shadows and still maintain a solid frame rate at 1080p. All of that is a difficult undertaking when we're talking about the sheer amount of polygons that make up these premium cars and their interiors. Sadly though consoles of this generation are just not powerful enough to render dynamic soft shadows without sacrificing detail in other areas.
One thing that's really great is a full 16 player online race. It's incredible seeing other racers tear around these mostly beautifully rendered tracks. If only the computer AI was capable of mimicking some of that realistic driving.
The menus leave something to be desired as well, but at the end of this day, this is still Gran Turismo and it's worth the money if you're a fan of the series. Plain and simple. There's nothing like it and I can only hope for some updates that might fix some of the problems. Until then, I'll still be enjoying this game.
