Reviews// Gran Turismo 5

To start off with you are presented with a list of all the active rooms (i.e. races) available. These rooms allow people to chat amongst themselves and practice on a chosen circuit (by the host, there is no voting in this game) before each race. You can filter all these rooms (typically there are about 50-100 at any given time) via the three filters on the left side of the screen - track, region and skid recovery force.

The problem arises when you host a race; you can specify the type of cars, track and horsepower limitations, there’s no way of filtering on these outside of each room. So, I ended up joining and leaving room after room until I found one I could race my chosen car around.

Then as I was participating in a pre-race practice session, the room owner decided to change the car limitations to - Lotus cars only - which unceremoniously kicked me off the track and back to the room. Also I had a host change the track in use without any notice whatsoever.

One minute I was belting down the main straight on the Fuji Speedway, then the screen went black and the High Speed Ring started to load. WTF? Soon after this I was then informed that “due to heavy network traffic there are problems connecting me to a room.” Uggh, this is not fun at all.

Another problem with Gran Turismo 5’s multi-player is you need to have played a lot of the single-player game in order to:

(A) Have the right car to be able to enter a race.

(B) Have a snowballs chance in hell of winning.

Many of the most powerful and commonly used cars in multi-player either cost a massive amount of money (Pagani Zonda R ’09 at 2.6 million Cr.) or have to be unlocked (Bugatti Veyron and most of the Le Mans cars). Unless you’ve completed a lot of the A and B-spec races you won’t have these cars and can kiss any chance of a race win goodbye.

Then I had the misfortune take part in a race involving the Red Bull X1 car, which nearly lapped me, twice, in three laps. No, my car (and driving) is not that shabby! The Red Bull X1 is the ultimate Formula 1 car which, unless you’re driving one, you have no chance of beating in a race.

Acquiring it takes a serious amount of commitment as you need to complete the “Sebastian Vettel Challenge”, which appears at level 30 in the single-player game. Yes, grinding races for experience will be required to get to level 30 in case you were wondering.

There is also an alarming amount of people driving the wrong way around many of the tracks seeking out head-on collisions. Suddenly I’m playing Gran Turismo Dodgems. Now that Polyphony Digital has added car damage to the online races, this frequently means the end to your race winning chances. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do in-game (there’s no setting for forward racing only) to stop this depressing behaviour happening.

Just when I’d almost given up hope for Gran Turismo 5’s multi-player, I come across a room advertising a full 24-hour Le Mans race around the Circuit de la Sarthe. Eight people had signed up tto take part in this race. Now that’s commitment. Even with the balked multi-player experience as it stands, people are still prepared to stick with it. I decided not to join them; turns out I didn’t have the right car anyway.

Conclusion
Whilst there is a hugely entertaining driving game buried within Gran Turismo 5, it takes some serious commitment to unearth it. Whereas game design and execution has moved on in the 13 years since the first Gran Turismo game, Gran Turismo 5 is still stuck in first gear. If you have the time and the patience and have a healthy interest in cars then Gran Turismo 5 is for you. Otherwise, steer clear.

SPOnG Score: 72%

This has been a guest review by Nick Silversides - a games blogger from The Average Gamer.