Buff's GT5 Early Review

[Buffalo Six]

Ok so I have had GT5 for a week or so now and I am impressed. You know how games have uber cool looking into movies and trailers that look damn near cinematic to show off all the eye candy and whatnot but what you see from in the game pales by comparison? GT5 the game itself looks like a trailer, not just little parts or "picture" mode.....the entire game. I have seen a split screen between GT5 and FM3 using the same cars on the same track sync'd up and GT5 blows FM3 out of the water. That being said there is one visual issue I have to point out. GT5 has a problem with some shadows. These are most noticeable on the grills of cars and the shadows over the rear license plates. They clip and shudder almost like the AA needs to be turned up. But I think this is a hardware issue, not that you can do anything about it.

Ok, the meat of the game....the cars! Something like 1000 drivable cars. 300 of which are "premium" cars the rest are called "standard" cars. Standard cars have no in-car views, its either front bumper view or a couple of over the top views. This is disappointing, but its not like they had 5 years or something to make 1000 in-car views.......oh wait. The cars that have interiors are very cool. Any car you buy new from the dealership will have the in-car view, they also cost more. You can also save some money (credit) and buy used cars, these can be either type and the variations of Japanese cars is crazy. Some of the car prices are insane, i.e. a '70 Hemi Superbird is $50k or so but a '69 Z28 is almost $70k. The reason I bring this up is there are races that have restricted car sets and typically you dont get the car you need for special races in the rewards, but......sometimes you do. I got a reward of a VW Fugo Cup Racer, basically a VW compact club race car.............which I then proceeded to race on the full old course Nurburgring against 16 of the same cars. GT5's old course Nurbrugring is even better than the one in NFS Shift. I think its even correctly mapped as the one in NFS is places is much to narrow and tight. I say this after watchign a lot of real in car video on that track. It was a hoot and that little car was dialed in big time. Another race challenge is a tour across Italy, 6 races total all in different cars. Imagine 16 Ferrari's (of all types) on the grid at Monza, then imagine those same 16 cars trying to get thru the 90d right and 90d left chicane at the end of the frontstretch.......yes carnage ensued. BTW in the 16 car pack you start 15th and have 2 laps to make 1 thru 3. That chicane brings me to the biggest "problem" with GT5.

NO DAMAGE. Not that I'm all into smashing up cars, but I drove head 1st into a wall at 100+ mph (I blame Fenway for trying to crawl on top of my back while I was driving) and other than a really loud thump/crash sound was able to keep right on going. Some have speculated that in order to get the licensing from the likes of Ferrari etc.... they had to not put damage in the game. Who knows, I just try to not hit things...........except in the aforementioned Ferrari race where to get thru the chicane I had to use 4 other cars as a bumper pad to force my way thru....otherwise the 1st 3 cars get so far out ahead you can never catch them. Yes I hang my head over using such "brutal" driving tactics.....but hey, they gave me the car, I didnt have to buy it!

All you can do is paint the cars and paint "premium" cars wheels, no custom graphics etc.....just paint. I might add that its the correct paint and color. I know this because when I bought the '69 Z28, it had correct paint names and colors for '69 and looked cool to boot. You can also paint the wheels if your into that sort of thing. You can also change your oil (yes its a money sink with a performance issue.....i.e. dirty oil will cause lower performance) fix all the abuse you do to the structural integrity of your car (remember Monza?) and can rebuild the engine (again its a money sink performance issue) and if you have a premium car, you can change the wheels, you know so you look like your going faster!

The racing is pretty fun. I swear in one race I got passed by a Japanese Minivan. If you have a PS3, GT5 is worth the cash.

I will report more once I get out of the beginner series................and work got busy so I lost my mojo for typing this up...........

[Softball]

*Wishes I had a PS3*

If I had a PS3, GT5 would be a must get for me; loved the series on the PS2. Although I'm not a hard core racer when it comes to racing games, I still enjoy the occasional jaunt around the track with friends. Gator and I have had a few races with FM2 in the past, it was a blast. I'm waiting for my Sharp Blu-Ray player to croak so I can get a PS3 to replace it.

[Buffalo Six]

They have a GT5 edition for $349 comes with a 160GB PS3, 1 controller, GT5 and a Blu-ray movie (Grown Ups). A standard 160GB system is $299.

Anyway, I get that buying a PS3 is a chunk of change, I waited a year to get mine, as i wanted GT5. BBuy also has if you buy 2 PS3 games you get a $50 gift card so its almost a buy 1 get 1 free offer.

I'm not hard core with this thing (yet) as I'm just using the game pad, but I did enter the GT5 GT Academy. You compete for best lap time on 3 courses against everyone in your region (I'm in the west) and the top 3 from each go to the next round and then the top 4 compete for a slot at the Nissan Racing school where they get to drive real race cars and the top one out of that competition gets a 1 race deal in an real endoro race driving a Nissan team car. I am ranked................3048th or so last I checked......yep, not quitting my day job

[VEGETA]

GT_Hawk is my PS3 name. and I have this game and love it. tho need to spend more time on it. Last few months so much crap on go its nuts.


also note there is some damage, they patched recently to improve this even. but not sure how much and form what I gather u can't kll car completly whcih can be done in say dirt 5 (Buff get that game if you like offroad/rally).

[Buffalo Six]

Hookecho6 here Veg.

Also, little tip, when you see it, grab the VW Golf R32, spend the cash to max it out in the tuning shop, bring the caster in about 3-4 notches, stiffen the roll bars by 1 and away on the Euro Championship (in the top tier level 22 or 23) and run the Rome course for $100K a win and make some money! I did this to buy a Audi R-10 LMS open seat racer (which I think sort of sucks, BTW) for $4,750,000.

Between that car and a BMW E46 M3 (full tuned) I have made a lot of cash and in the BMW have turned laps at Nurburgring (old course) at just over 7 mins. Yay me!

[Gator]

buff - you playing with the wheel or the gamepad?

Also, didn't see you mention it, but do you think it's a little slow to load each race for a game that took an hour to install to the hard disk?

[Buffalo Six]

game pad here and yes it seems slow......can only imagine how bad it would be without the HD load.............

[VEGETA]

I have a logetic force feedback system, its 7 or 8 years old but still works, even tho it was meant for pc lol. Tho been using both that and controller trying o decide what i like. plus wheel is a pain infront of tv, n good spot to mount.

that said i have not played much at all, been just way to tied up with the SLOW moving in thing, visiting relatives, meeting the the extended family on her side lol and all that lol. But things clearing up now.

[PanzerMeyer]

Let me know if you want to do anything this week online Veg.

[Tach Deneva]

It would be cool if somebody came up with a reins and saddle controller. Even though there are no reins...