Regular fans of the Gran Turismo lineage will no doubt know of a certain Amar212, he’s a regular poster on GTPlanet, GTSurgeons.com and NeoGAF and always seems to know just that little bit more than everyone else. Well, he got his own copy of the latest in the series, GT5, a day or two back, and has been pushing out regular updates on the GTPlanet forums since.
With his permission, we’ve picked out the juicy bits and prepared them in an easily digestable form for your delectation, below. Enjoy.
The game’s install takes about 40 minutes. You’re warned that it might be closer to 50, but Amar’s installation was done in ten minutes less than that, so it presumably depends a little on your model of PS3 and the hard drive you’ve got installed. The space taken is actually about 6.4GB, but that space gradually unpacks as you’re playing to be closer to the previously mentioned 10GB. In short, better make some room before the game’s release next week.
Steering wheels that feature a clutch do work. Apparently it’s the same process as Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – you have to press triangle before a race, but clutch support is in.
The dashboard view is configurable. Anyone moaning that the steering wheel and dash take up too much screen real-estate when playing from the in-car view will rejoice in the news that you can tweak the ‘interior view angle’ in the game’s ‘Quick Options’ from Standard to Narrow and Narrower, pushing the field of view inwards so that more of the windscreen is visible and less of the dash. Perfect. The HUD map size can also be adjusted.
Tyre and fuel depletion is in. Before a race you can opt for whether you’d like GT5 to simulate the wear and tear of the tyres and whether or not fuel depletion should be a factor in the game. Indeed, revving hard and driving to the limit will use up more fuel just like in real life.
The distinction between Professional and Standard physics has been removed. There’s a new option – Skid Recovery – which helps to simplify some of the physics but there’s no longer a toggle between the two options. Amar says that the physics lay somewhere between Prologue and the GT Academy demo, they’re better and more complex than GT5P and yet more realistic than they were in Academy; they’re the best the series has ever had. Skid Recovery is locked ‘on’ for the early License Tests, too.
The sound is much improved. There’s a clear difference between GT5’s sound and that in previous versions, and the engines sound the best when heard from the roof-mounted camera. There’s no hood-cam, though, which might be disappointing to some. Bumping into other cars now sounds much better, and in 5.1 there’s a distinct doppler effect, especially in replays, that has to be heard to be believed.
Each car you can buy has a ‘demo’ mode. When in the dealership you can watch the car being auto driven on a test track with the car’s description and story scrolling past. The cars go all over the track, up and down, and the engine note is reflected appropriately.
Standard cars look fine. There’s been some internet chatter about the difference between the Standard (pulled from GT4) and the Premium (new to GT5) cars, but Amar says that the Standard ones, whilst obviously not up the level of the super detailed Premium ones, are absolutely fine.
Winning races doesn’t always unlock new cars. Indeed, cars are unlocked as ‘tickets’ which can be redeemed yourself or gifted to others (which is a nice touch) but you can also expect to win paint colours and new horns, both of which are collectable.
Other things of note: there’s 189 songs in the game’s soundtrack; 16 car races feature in the License Tests; the replays (which feature two internal views pointed at the driver, too) are amazing, with incredible lighting effects and the GUI, which we didn’t think that much of in the still shots, is genre leading.
Thanks to Amar for these early impressions of the full game, which sounds incredible. Six days, people, six days…
iiekka
yah been following that, its worth noting that he is gona be updating it more nad more as he gets through the game.
Michael
Holy moly. Excited.
spek
Bucking Frilliant !! Really can’t wait. Good to hear my brand new Logitech G27 clutch will work :)
Grey_Ghost13
Yeah but having to press triangle at the start of every race is going to be a pain, I was hopeing that they would have ironed this flaw out from GT5P!
stingraz
If you don’t mind me asking, how much did you pay for it, and where?
bunimomike
Any truth to the rumour that the new tire screech sound was created from the noise Kaz’s arse made whilst hitting the pavement outside Polyphony Digital HQ when he asked for an extension into 2011?
englishgolfer
sort of…. it’s not going to be used as a tire screech but it will be unlockable for the sound of the wipers when raining ;)
Kronik76
The tyre screech comments are getting really old now.
bunimomike
So are the tire screeches! No? Not even a tiny smile? Awww…no fair. :-)
Jas-n
I concur, same with replay renders and added delay jokes.
BLAGGER
What about skid mark jokes, or are they out too?
dirtyhabit
Although, to be fair as screech jokes go, it was a good one :-D
Michael
Just popped in to do a delay joke…
Oh, this thread is old.
Sorry!
NOTE: Delay jokes never get old. Ever.
News Hound says: LOL.
Michi
LOL
OnlineAssassinUK
Got the email yesterday its officially on its way WOOP WOOP ;~)
cam the man
The more I hear about the game the better it grts, roll on the 24th.
bajere
i got the day off on the 26th…have lots to do, so might not buy the game. same reason as im not getting AC:BH, i cant be trusted to work when i can see my PS3. Maybe get them both in december
Soild_Nat
Shopto.net please perform to your usual high standards and deliver this for Tuesday next week! If the game is getting this high praise from a true die hard GT fan then i am sure for the rest of us it will simply blow us away!
3shirts
I am hoping this too. I have Wednesday off work but post normally doesn’t come until about 11 so if it’s there when I get home Tuesday, that gives me a nice full day of racing!
3shirts
Sounds brilliant, especially the adjustable in-car view. I always liked that view but couldn’t use it for serious racing, perhaps due to having ‘only’ a 32″ TV.
50 minute install sounds like a case of; Throw in the disk and start the install THEN set up the wheel, make a cuppa, read the manual, sit and froth at the mouth in excitement, PLAY
GamerRiley
I can think of other things to do in 50 minutes, but I think I’ll get shouted at if I post them on here ;)
Crazy_Del
Please let me have it on Monday if not it HAS to be Tuesday pretty please.
Getting very excited.
danny_ken
Amazon France has it listed as in stock I have just changed my order to guarantee by Tomorrow. Hopefully they will not notice their mistake.