Gran Turismo 5 Review

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I am not a car guy. I can’t change my own oil, or rotate my tires. I just know that every 3,000 to 5,000 miles I need my oil changed and tires rotated. Just because I am not a car guys does not mean that I do not find cars fascinating. The yearly trip to the auto show with my family is always something to look forward too. Gran Turismo 5 is my yearly trip to the auto show anytime I want. Gran Turismo 5 was many years in the making. Dubbed the real driving simulator, GT5 does not fail at realism. The cars look, sound, and drive just like the real thing. As a player you can sit down behind the actual dashboards of a Ferrari, or Aston Martin (just like James Bond, but without the cool gadgets). GT5 strives for accuracy and nails it.

                Gran Turismo 5 has graphics that rival any game today. The tracks are beautiful, and a challenge to drive. But, the tracks are not the stars of the game. The stars are the cars. Development of GT5 was way past schedule, but once you get your hands on the over 1000 cars you will see why. Each car is accurate down to how the car sounds. It is impressive how accurate the cars are. Handling of the car depends on the car itself. I was driving a French car with rear-wheel drive, and the car handled awful. I got my back tires onto the dirt, or over accelerated out of a turn, and my car was doing a spin. It was really annoying, but accurate to how the car drives. I can not complain about that.  One of the new revelations into this fifth installment of Gran Turismo is the addition of damage to your car. It took a lot for the car manufacturers to show how their cars get damaged, but it adds even more realism to the game.  

                There are a few annoying aspects to the game. When first loading the game into your system it takes about 20 minutes for the game to be put onto your PS3. If the game is not loaded onto the system the load time is extremely long. Also, the AI in the game is overly aggressive. The cars will hook onto the rear bumper of you car and spin you out around turns. It is like driving against Kyle Busch in every race. The last major issue the game has is that certain races require certain cars. Sometimes those certain cars are harder to come by, and it can be really annoying to wait until you have just the right car to compete in a race. Finally, the view from the driver seat looks cool, but very difficult to drive in the mode, because a lot of screen is take up by the dashboard, steering wheel, etc..

                Gran Turismo 5 has great new features that allow you to drive in NASCAR cars, and learn to drive great raceways like Daytona. It also has features that allow players to build their own race teams.  It all adds to the realism of the game. But as with all of the Gran Turismos, the cars are the stars and in this latest installment of the series the cars do not disappoint. Overall, this Gran Turismo 5 earns a 9.0

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