It might have been five years in the making, but Sony’s Gran Turismo 5 has managed to outsell everything else since its release on Wednesday, topping the all-format charts in the UK. Polyphony Digital’s racing sim has knocked the evergreen Call of Duty: Black Ops from the top spot, showing that, despite the delays and a few visual niggles, Gran Turismo 5 is a monster.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood sits in third place, down from second, whilst FIFA 11 and Just Dance 2 retain their fourth and five places respectively. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit drops from third to sixth, whilst RockStar’s zombie take on Red Dead Redemption is the highest new entry (pop pickers) at fourteen.
You can read our massive, labour of love-esque review of Gran Turismo 5 here, complete with exclusive, hand-taken photographs from within the game’s photomode system. You can also read the same review in Turkish if you know where to look, complete with cropped images and alternative watermarks and a complete lack of morality. That’s the magic of the internet.
3shirts
Boo to the Turkish pirates.
Good to know what despite all the moaning, GT5 is still selling as it deserves to. It is epic
SpikeyMikey23
anyone up for a blackops mission to turkey? we take tha basterd out and then while we’re there we may as well shut down turkeys internet! We can stop off for a kebab on the way home!
Jaffa-the-Cake
Bit racist don’t you think? Thought the community here was better than other sites. Obviously i’m wrong.
bunimomike
Mike was definitely joking, fella. Obviously, Mike’s going to now make me look stupid by telling me how Turkish pirates raped his ancestors and has scarred generations of his family for life. However, until that happens, he’s just having fun. :-)
SpikeyMikey23
lol, no raping and piliging here lol. Im just struggling to see why that was racist. kebabs are a national dish of turkey arent they? and jaffa – the internet comment is directed at the gits who are nicking nofis design and the tsa staff’s work and passing it off as there own. No racism here fella
SpikeyMikey23
how is that racist?
Dan Lee
I’ve heard Disneys Epic Mickey didn’t even chart.
JamboGT
I wonder if we will get an HD port?
djhsecondnature
Didn’t make the Top 40 no.
Charmed_Fanatic
or Top 10 Wii chart
Tuffcub
Neither did Splatterhouse.
Raider197
Well to be honest, Splatterhouse has had little-to-no promotion besides the average reviews, but it’s failure is still a bit surprising. I’m a bit disappointed Epic Mickey didn’t chart (even though I don’t own a Wii), hopefully we’ll get a PS3 version as it does look like a great game.
kivi95
In usa it has dome pretty good
cc_star
Defjam Rapstar was another new release not to make the Top 40 despite the odd TV advert, music games seemed to have peaked in customers minds
Porcupine_I
how far are you guys into the game now? have you unlocked the full Damage model yet?
Grey_Ghost13
Will you be doing a follow up review of the game once you reach the max driver levels and everything is unlocked?
JamboGT
Am level 23, nearly 24, not got full damage yet but got some, bumpers breaking, dents scrapes, surprised that the standard models damage is impressing me, there was a BMW M3 GTR race car that had a really impressivly damaged bumper following a crash
djhsecondnature
You know that you can play with damage in Arcade?
Gigaflare
After playing the game all weekend I can’t believe the “low” scores the critics give the game. Yes, it’s a pretty clear difference between the Premium and Standard models, but its not as horrible as people make it out to be. The menus can seem clunky at first, but after you know where everything is it takes to time to navigate to where you want to go.
What’s really important is the feeling of the game, and GT is still the standard other racers have to strive for. The driving is top notch. Bought myself a Corvette last night, behaved like a tank, but after reducing the weight and new tyres it is now drivable and leaves every other car breathing my exhaust in Daytona.
Sympozium
Critics didn’t give it time I guess
cc_star
If A+/5/10/100 is the top mark a site can give, and reviewers found flaws somewhere in the package as a whole then it shouldn’t be surprising it doesn’t max out scores.
If we remove GT5 from the conversation so as to lower people’s emotional involvement (& an agenda of it scoring either as high, or as low as possible) and talk instead about The Orange Box – a great package of games whose niggles stop it scoring higher, or LBP an amazing unmissable game but the actual platforming action is a bit floaty and imprecise, or Dead Space an amazing immersive experience but the early levels are a bit silly style being ‘fetch this fetch that’ … or Heavy Rain an astounding movie-like creative effort but ultimately a lot of the choices you made, made very little difference & a lot of it was a mess, albeit a likeable one.
All the above are great games but have a downside. If some reviewers opinion is that GT5’s downside is to be the game that the near perfect simulation is wrapped up in, then that is why its not been hailed as the second-coming (except by the franchise’s many core fans, of course). Doesn’t stop it being unmissable though.
seedaripper1973
Bloody hell cc, that stings…
KeRaSh
It’s not the standard cars that bother me… it’s the shadows of the cars that look like sun is falling on a Lego car. Makes me cry at the beginning of every damn race…
stonyk
CC – just to respond to what you say, some of those games get marked down slightly because of much bigger issues than the menu system being clunky or the damage is only available as you progress through the game etc. Some flaws are gameplaying flaws. I’m not sure whether to get this game and from what I’;m reading it sounds as though the actual gameplay of GT5 is the best available for racing, but the menu’s system isn’t great, there are some shadows here and there that aren’t perfect.
I feel so confused about whether to get GT5. Some people are saying it’s pants – some are saying it’s amazing. Do I get NFS instead? Once I get passed the menu problems in GT5 would I prefer it?
I just get the impression people who like GT5 love it, people who don’t hate it because in this day and age I find NO-ONE is impartial with their opinion – to the extent almost all reviews refer to the fact it took 5 years to make. Will taking 5 years to make mean the game is less/more enjoyable? Which one do I buy? My misses just said she was going out to buy me GT5 and I told her not to as I was still undecided.
djhsecondnature
@stonyk – You get both GT5 and NFS:HP!
cc_star
@stonyk
Anyone who’s ever enjoyed a sim-racer will love it more than anything, so if that’s you, then go for it.
On your point about development time then there are pluses & minus (IMO)… pluses are the huge amount of content, even ignoring the last gen vehicles there is more content than any other racer, ever can dream of.
The minuses are summed up in a thread like this, if those minuses don’t bother you as they don’t millions of fans, then the unrivaled wealth of content and as perfect a sim-style handling as you’re going to get should be the over-riding factor.
Although djh summed it up better
stonyk
@djh Would love to :-)
@cc I think I will get GT5. Suppose no matter the critisism I should probably still get my enjoyments worth.
Actually I don’t know why I stress out so much as in the current climate I could get GT5 and give it a week or so. If I don’t like it I could part exchange it for NFS.
Hurrah for 2nd hand games…..i believe that’s another topic for somewhere else.
Boomshanks
Although I would like to agree with you on that point CC I simply cannot. Given that the online portion of the game went online hours before the first reviews showed up it is impossible for the reviewers to have played the game entirely and thus give it a proper score
skibadee
very happy with GT5 masterpiece imo. some of the complaints are silly its like having a supermodel & being pissed because she has a cut lip madness.
cc_star
@boomshanks
Which point are you disagreeing with me on, I didn’t say anything against GT5, I was merely offering my opinion as to why it hasn’t got the whole round of perfect scores people seemed to think it would get?
I never mentioned online and if the online is your point, then that happens with nearly all games.
Servers are usually only ever turned on a couple of days at the absolute most, before an embargo lifts and reviews are published, even then reviewers will find nobody online as nobody has bought the game, these other games don’t get special attention, reviewers just make the judgement call on what limited experience they can get, and readers of whatever site seem happily enough with that since online options were added to games.
Boomshanks
You say that GT5 is not perfect and that this is the reason reviewers all around the world have not given it a 10, which I agree with. My problem is that you and the reviewers look at GT5 as the whole package, with online. But because the online portion only came online hours before the reviews it is unfair to give GT5 any score at all.
cc_star
I said IF reviewers found it…
Not that I found it…
If I was talking about me, I could have been far more negative (although that might not be fair because I’ve only played it for 4 or 5 hours, although saying that that’s about the same time I can prove many reviewers played NfSHP for before publishing their reviews) about a variety of aspects rather than talking about it objectively.
bunimomike
Spot on, cc. Couldn’t agree more. I know it would be very time consuming but we should have a Hindsight Reviews section, although that in itself would kick up a massive fuss. Ho-hum. You can’t win.
tonycawley
A ps3 game exclusive topping the all format charts is impressive stuff. The fact that it has knocked black ops off that spot is almost unbelievable. To say i’m impressed is a big understatement!
Grey_Ghost13
I hadn’t thought of it like that. It indeed does make it even more impressive!
cc_star
Many (well… Halo, Gears & Forza) 360 titles top the all formats charts in their respective launch weeks, but this is the first time I can recall a PS3 one doing so. A great, impressive result that highlights GTs undoubted stature at the top of the gaming tree
3shirts
Does it not also indicate, perhaps, that the PS3 is becoming a more popular platform?
jacklum
Heavy Rain also topped the chart.
jacklum
God of War III and Killzone 2 also topped the chart as it happens.
kjkg
Glad to see this. For some reason it makes me feel all warm inside on a very cold morning.
dirtyhabit
Pickled onion monster munch make me feel warm inside.
SpikeyMikey23
see, im a roast beef man myself. In the old school yellow packaging, they just taste better!
Crazy_Del
GT5 wow I never thought an exclusive game would top all format charts. I’m so glad Blops is beaten. This is a message to every games (No more Delays lol except for LBP2 it was understandable)
This has made my day looking forward to go home and Play GT5 for the whole evening.
Ed the Penguin
Fantastic news! I have to say I’m enjoying all aspects of GT5.. The menu system’s fine once you get the hang of it!!
3shirts
There are some odd choices (especially pressing triangle for a windows-right-click-style context menu) but if you have played previous GTs or give it a bit of time, it is fine. It’s not like you can’t work out how to use it!
DR-DAVROS
GT5 awesome game im not a car nut but this game has made me understand them a lot more. Just awesome.
As people have asked and said above + questions:-
1. Menu is now understandable after usage for a while.
2. Will TSA give a final review
3. Hope something like AUTOLOG gets implemented like nfs hp even nfs shift showed friends times for tracks.
4. Is there a way to do a private online party
Now can’t wait to get behind my DF GT wheel
DR-DAVROS
cc_star
Leaderboards are coming, but whether there will be a social mechanism under-pinning it isn’t known. It’s probably doubtful for now, but who knows if they will in future – PD will certainly be developing GT5 until its something like GT5.5 & of course until they’re ready to start on GT6p
DR-DAVROS
Good Job, would be nice to also be able to compare what cars your friends have online to organise online games and would make the gift easier. Talking about the giving a car as a gift does that mean if a friend needs a certain car for a particular race you can gift it to them and then get it back after as a gift without any damage etc? (That leads me to damage Im level 14 I think at level 15 you get some kind of damage so if I gift a car to someone at level 10 i presume id get it back in working order but if they are say level 40 then i could potentially get the car back in pieces)
Anyway great game just needs the social aspect upgrading a little.
DR-DAVROS
TSBonyman
Great to see GT5 take pole position, even as someone who never really got into the GT series i’m finding GT5 a lot more accessible and enjoyable to play.
Foxhound_Solid
GT5 – what a game….it deserves it. I love it!