By Cody Heintz
The king of racing sims is back and is well worth the wait. Gran Turismo 5, which was first announced at 2007’s E3, Electronic Entertainment Expo, has been long awaited since the showing of PS3 and Vision Gran Turismo at E3 2005. This Gran Turismo game has a large collection of cars and tracks. The game comes shipped with 72 racing tracks and a collection of over 1000 playable cars, and this edition comes with licenses from professional racing circuits, like Nascar, for the first time in the series.
As usual with the series, the visuals for the series are top-notch and the attention to detail is impressive. The bad thing is that premium cars are the only cars that come with an interior view and are vastly more visually pleasing than the standard cars. However, the eye to detail is still fairly impressive as every little thing about the vehicles is brought out – from the shine to the depth of the rendering done on the cars. Also what makes the visuals element even more impressive, is the damage system. The crashes and damage done to the cars use realistic physics, but they are also detailed as to what parts of the car fall off, and how the cars run after crashing. There are also many minor details that are displayed during races such as lighting reflects and the position of the sun to the car.
Even though the details and graphics of this installment are above average, what makes this game one of the best racing games is the gameplay and driving controls. The uniqueness of each car and the improved racing controls are excellent elements to this game, and helps the series retain the exceptional gameplay that has become known to previous GT games. Each racetrack has its own unique characteristics such as different lengths, and a different the amount of turns. Each car handles like a real automobile, which increases the realism in the game and makes the experience even more memorable.
The multiplayer mode is fantastic as it allows up to 16 players to play at a time. Also, the online multiplayer is flawless because the amount of lag is almost nonexistent and offers a new experience to the standard A.I. in GT games.
For those people that are GT fans or enjoy racing games, this is a must buy. The amount of custom parts that can be added to the cars is enormous and players can spend hours trying to find the best configuration for your car.