Gran Turismo 5 opens with a lengthy, ostentatious video that chronicles the construction of a car, from the mining of the metals that comprise it to the moment it rolls out of the factory, race-ready. These precisely edited visuals lead into a user interface that's so pristine and so polished that it left no doubt in my mind: the reason GT5 has been in development for so long, so delayed, is that it was never going to be perfect enough for series boss Kazunori Yamauchi. He's clearly a perfectionist, and as a result has made a good game, albeit one that's been driven down a very narrow path to end up something only a subset of gamers will truly enjoy.
I love cars. Not as much as Yamauchi clearly does -- and few people probably do, really -- but I can appreciate the attention to detail lavished on every aspect of simulating the handling and look of the game's autos. GT5 is akin to a car-obsessed billionaire letting you come over to his mansion and take his cars for a spin, only you have to wear white gloves so you don't leave any fingerprints on them. All the layers of game design varnish that makers of other racing games have applied to make them accessible and visceral are stripped away, revealing what can only loosely be called a game. It's a true simulation, and more than the g-forces of taking a turn at high speed or the impact of crashing into another driver, I felt cold, hard calculations and algorithms.
Now, before you get the wrong idea: I think that GT5 is great at what it does. For the true car lovers of the world, the folks who tweak and tune to drop milliseconds off lap times, who strive for precision above all else, this is the new paradigm. You'll find myriad modes and options; with the series' infamous license tests and drift challenges, kart racing, Formula One and NASCAR, the game dips its metaphoric toe into just about every facet of the stock car racing world. There are, of course, somewhere around two zillion cars, give or take 1.997 zillion. Courses range from revamped originals from earlier games to lavishly detailed locations like Rome and London. Of course, after nearly six years in the works, there was never really any worry that GT5 would skimp on content.
from Joystiq.com
