Gran Turismo 5 Review

Hello everyone. Gran Turismo 5 came out recently, and I must say that I was very excited to play this game. So let's get this review started.
Unfortunately, I was only able to start this game on a standard TV, so my view of the graphics may be arguable at times.


The first thing that I saw with GT5 was the into sequence. I'm sure it was really cool to watch, but I just did not care enough to watch the whole thing, so I skipped it. I really like this new interface overall, with the smooth menu scrolling, going between each of the modes. In GT mode, you start off customizing your home or "My Home." This is a cool feature that will interest racing fans who like to customize random stuff. I don't really care for this, but it's a good start to the game. Next I had to buy a car. Things are not as simple as going to the used car dealer and just buying whatever you can afford. There's a leveling system in addition to earning credits, and I think this is a huge change from previous GTs. At times, I feel that winning credits from special events can become too easy and in too much of one quantity, because when I play the real A-Spec events on beginner, I race around in a crappy car only to win 4000 credits for winning a gold medal. If any other reviewer who has not really taken enough time (IGN.com cough cough) to review this game thoroughly would say without a doubt that not much has changed. Well I'm pretty sure that a leveling system is a pretty big change, and having an online mode is also a big change. Also those annoying driving missions which were a huge fail in GT4 have been replaced with "Special Events" which as I mentioned earlier help you win more credits and level you up faster than regular A-Spec races. Speaking of A-Spec mode, why is B-Spec mode still hanging around? No one wants to use it unless it's for that 24-hour race thing that I haven't seen in GT5 yet. These special event races can be really fun, but at the same time really challenging. For example the special event race at the Test Track is more frustrating than fun, because even on beginner mode, I feel it would be very hard to win first place without being disqualified while racing against a bunch of really slow VWs. Spinning out is Lotus Elises is not very much fun either, while the car oversteers easily sometimes before the first turn. Maybe I'm just nit picking. The main career menu has the usual stuff, such as the custom shop, where I turned my 445hp Audi R8 into a 789hp monster.
If there's one thing I suggest to potential players it's this: INSTALL THE FREAKIN' DISC!
Without the install, loading times could take up to at least 45 seconds. This doesn't seem like much, but when you switch between license tests for specific licenses, it becomes annoying to wait 45 seconds between each test. I have played this game with and without the install, and I must say that the difference between the two is 45 and 15 seconds. This is kind of a huge difference.
Now let's look at the online mode. Recently (about a couple days after the game came out), there was a patch released to prevent the online server from overloading, so PD had to disable some of the more useless online features to prevent most of the common problems with the online. I didn't really seem to notice a difference. Anyway, the online mode is great, because there isn't noticable lag. My only problem with the online is that when there's a "nascar only" server, people don't know how to race properly. I ended up playign with about 4 or 5 other people in a nascar race; Two of them boxed me in when I tried to make a clean pass, and the third player spun me out. That gets annoying because I try to race clean while others do not. Also, there isn't much limitations on hp most of the time, so I could be racing with people who have faster and slower cars than myself. Then again, there isn't a drop in framerate at all, and the graphics online seem consistent with the regular single player.
Then there's arcade mode. They brought back the nice feature of split screen, now limiting only two camera views. It's a bit surprising, but I can't really complain considering that they worked hard on keeping the graphics good. This mode is most useful for practicing, and it is designed to allow you to dive right into racing Not much was changed between GT5 and GT4 in this mode. That being said, nothing was really needed to be changed, so overall it's pretty good.
Graphics. This is an amazing looking game. Even the standard cars look fantastic. For those people who say that the standard cars were imported for GT4, are WRONG. This game was made from scratch, and sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference between the standard and premium cars, other than (the lack of) the highly detailed cockpit view. Again,  I'm looking at this game on a standard TV, so you don't have to agree with me, but this is just my take on how the game looks. Yeah, there's that occasional jaggedness with certain standard cars, and backgrounds, but overall, this game is a huge improvement from GT4 (I don't count GT5P sorry).
Overall, this game is most certainly worth the wait, and definately a full $60. It offers the same content that GT fans have loved the past 4 games and offers some newer features that help keep the game up to par with the other competators, such as Grid and Forza. The damage is limited in GT5, but you shouldn't be bumping into cars anyway. As for the license tests and special events, bumping into someone generally disqualifies you, so don't bump in  the first place!
Overall 9.2/10
Thanks for reading this!