Gran Turismo 5

[Darwock]

Thanks to (I think) Kubrick for sending me that gift Celica! I've barely started on the A-spec races so all I have in my garage is an MX5 and a go-kart - thought I could use it to go rallying in the specials but found that it exceeds the bhp limits, oops!

I don't get how people are finding it a grind, I'm level 13 with lots of things keeping me occupied, and my money just keeps going up and up. The only car I have actually paid for was the first one I bought (the MX5). Other than that it's just been sets of tyres etc, so I've got 50 mil just sitting there. No need to buy any extravagant cars yet.

[saturn-gamer]

GT5 is a train wreck but also my favourite game of this year. Its how this game is; extremely schizophrenic. Standards and some races are tedious, other races feel awesome. The 16 premium ferrari car race on Monza seems to go to sub 30fps levels on the other hand. This game is unfinished, yet so long in production. And yet so awesome still.

Balance is also all over the place. You can win about every A-Spec race with an overpowered car. There are no power restrictions, ever. Collision Penalties or diqualification in Rally, why? To hide the damage model which I think is the most useless, most unclear ever?

I'm almost level 20. I did lots of special events but not many licenses yet (just B and A). I've golded Beginner, amateur and Professional and a few in Expert.

Anyone know if it's possible to tune my RAM 1500 Laramie Pick-Up truck to deal with the Pick-Up truck race at Daytona?

All I get is a cough and splutter at around 125mph

I've got a pick up that easily wins that race (its the Amateur series right?).

I'm looking for a car that can win the All Star races of Expert Series. Oh, and the classic car cup of that same series.

[Kubrick]

I've got 50 mil just sitting there.

I'm guessing the JP version has higher prices and winnings than the EU one! That was the case in the previous games anyway. 100x more or something.

[hudson]

I've got a pick up that easily wins that race (its the Amateur series right?).

Brilliant. Doesn't help me much does it?

I want to use my RAM 1500 Laramie Pick-Up. Two other RAM trucks in the race and with lots of powerful parts bought and installed, I am getting hammered on straights.

I imagine it's a case of more tactful tuning rather than my noob "buy all the best parts and whack 'em on" approach. Would appreciate some advice if anyone can help?

[JSR]

Brilliant. Doesn't help me much does it?

I want to use my RAM 1500 Laramie Pick-Up. Two other RAM trucks in the race and with lots of powerful parts bought and installed, I am getting hammered on straights.

I imagine it's a case of more tactful tuning rather than my noob "buy all the best parts and whack 'em on" approach. Would appreciate some advice if anyone can help?

If you buy the custom transmission, you can increase the vehicle's max speed, at the cost of its acceleration. A must for some cars, especially older ones.

[Kubrick]

The Toyota pickups in that race are super-fast on the straights, but go quite slow around the bends. That's where you should try and get in front of them.

[hudson]

If you buy the custom transmission, you can increase the vehicle's max speed, at the cost of its acceleration. A must for some cars, especially older ones.

Ah great, this worked a treat. I cranked it up to achieve around 225mph. I could of cranked it up to reach almost 300mph tho!

Thanks Alex. This explains why a few of my tuned cars are struggling.

[saturn-gamer]

Brilliant. Doesn't help me much does it?

I want to use my RAM 1500 Laramie Pick-Up. Two other RAM trucks in the race and with lots of powerful parts bought and installed, I am getting hammered on straights.

I imagine it's a case of more tactful tuning rather than my noob "buy all the best parts and whack 'em on" approach. Would appreciate some advice if anyone can help?

What I meant is that I could trade.

But the custom transmission usually does the trick, its overpowered imo.

[Bassman]

As usual no Save option in the Endurance races. I had to abandon the Grand Valley one through lack of time. No danger of me ever doing any of the longer races then. Are PD ever going to give us a Save option for those without huge amounts of free time? Even the Le Mans game on the Dreamcast allowed you to save when you were in the Pits soo you could return to the game later to complete some more of the long race.

Been using the Tier 6 European Race in rome for money. 83K (and 4.7K Exp) for a 5 lap. My tuned Veyron can complete it in under five and a half minutes. I now have over 8,000,000. I decided the only car I currently need is the Formula PD car as I can win other cars that are useful to me using that in various races.

The Veyron's handling seemed off, so I restored the body (for 500,000) and it seemed to cure the problem. That after only 1300 miles. I must be doing something wrong!

[saturn-gamer]

I'm gutted. Another one of those ridiculous omissions. I thought PD were perfectionists like blizzard but they aren't... I mean, a 24 hr Le Mans race without save? lol..

They better start patching big time. And also some more 400bhp events please. I want more reasons to beast with the Lexus LS concept. Kill the Yaris crap.

[Adam]

Really enjoy racing with some of the top end cars. Have a Lamborghini Gallardo and a Ferrari 458 Italia and they feel so good to drive! Really feel with time I could push these mofos round corners like a mad man. I've managed to stick this game out longer than I thought I would. It's when the winning requirements get rediculous that I stop, but so far so good.

Todays complaints:

Doing the Top Gear special races, the CPU cars go off the course quite often and hit the traffic cones into the middle of the track where I hit them and get disqualified...

CPU push you aside like you don't matter, they have their racing line and if they want to get on it they will, even if you're in that position. Been pit maneuvered a million times by the CPU. But if you try to push them, intentionally or not they dont go! even when you practically have them going sideways round a corner they miraculously right themselves the second you break contact with them.

I'm nearly level 20 and about to hit the top tier events in A-Spec and I've not seen any damage to any car yet?

[saturn-gamer]

I haven't seen it in extreme series yet, too. I just stopped caring about it. I want to race, want to collect rides. PD shouldn't have listened to people who wanted damage so badly.

The AI needs a tweak indeed. They can really stall you because they don't ever stray or don't bother to adjust their steering. They go over your dead body. Its really bad. There is no other option than to just out-tune your car and smoke em right away. You can't really battle them anyway. I could be wrong but didn't Prologue have a better AI?

Maybe thats why about no single event has restrictions regarding Horsepower whatsoever.

I also found that their main weakness is cornering. I kill the AI on very technical Advanced GT Rally tracks (even when I get penalized), while they use the same car and can compare with me on straightforward layouts. They are especially bad on Snow tracks.

[Neon Ignition]

A couple more hours in and it's grind city. There are enough events to not have to grind but I personally find B-Spec mode to be a waste of disc space, the licenses a chore and the Special Events to be quite bitty and dull. It's all about the A-Spec mode for me and in there they've simply put too many walls in place. 'Well done! You got a gold! Want the do the next cup? I'm sorry, you don't have the right vehicle, level of tuning, money, XP rank'. So I spend ages getting it, beat that one cup and then stuck again.

It's not really a GT issue, it seems like the big thing for racers to do in 2010 is to stop me from actually doing any racing as much as possible. That said, when you do get into a race its great, for the last 20mins I redid some early races with a (might have the name wrong) Nissan FT-86 Concept which has one hell of a cockpit hud.

I'm gonna give it a couple more hours but it feels more work than play so I might end up giving up and waiting to see what Test Drive Unlimited 2 is like.

[saturn-gamer]

Special events are kind of hit and miss. Karting is fun but should be placed into some kind of championship and not just seperate races.

Top Gear is the biggest waste of a license ever, I hate all 3 challenges. They are easily the worst this game has to offer and they highlight the ridiculous AI and collision system. A slap in the face as I expected Top Gear to be one of the drawing points of this game. But since The Stig challenges were more or less renamed I suspected something was wrong.

Loeb challenges are good, I like the Rally in general. A huge step up from GT4. Except for the contact penalties.

AMG challenge is good, but only Section 1 has split times... wtf? Times are too hard to beat too.. one contact with another driver and wave goodbye to gold.

The premise of Grand Tour is really great, I like the way it progresses. But its obvious that a Fiat 500 Piazza del Campo race was supposed to be in.

Nascar.. could live without. Some may love it, but its only with 12 cars, so...

[Bassman]

I can't see myself unlocking the Top Gear track anytime soon. Camper one I found difficult and was relieved to get a Bronze with. Elise one I just gave up in disgust. Then there is the Kubelwagen one. I got Gold on the second clean attempt (out of 4 or 5 total). That was (to my mind) way easier that the other two. It is just drive flat out all the way around. There are less cones to worry about as well. What were they thinking? It is a pity the track was not unlocked with that one.

The XFR prize is inevitably a standard car. It's shape looked a little odd when I put some oil in it... maybe my imaagination. Not a fan of the colour I got, so a quick Black repaint sorted that. It doesn't drive too badly fortunately.

I have a nasty suspicion that I am going to have a long wait for the Formula PD to appear again. I am still seeing cars I have not seen before. I have sufficient money (6,5m) left for it after buying more cars to run in the 5th Tier European Rome Race. Favourite is definitely the Italia.