Gran Turismo 5

[Bassman]

You get the prize car for Golding the three main events. I presume you got a Gold overall even though one of the stages was a Silver. I got all Golds on that. Fortunately the prize car from the Ticket (at the first attempt) was the Nissan 240 RS Rally Car.

Just had another futile attempt at that FGT Championship. My control of the car seems to be better but still not perfect. Blasting around a chicane-less Monza in an F10 '10 earlier today certainly helped a bit. Can't see me completing that any time soon on A spec.

Having just bought a Zonda S 7.3 I have at least got a little money I can earn on my main account which at least will cycle the UCD as I am looking for that HSR, the VW Nardo and the Audi R8 (road car shape) LM Race car. Then there is the Jaguar XJR9- LM and the Sauber C9 to watch out for!

B spec progress on new races is also on hold until I can level up my drivers a bit more so they get more speed.

[Uli]

I started a Lv 0 driver on "Like the Wind" before, but that is Lv 22. Needless to say you can level them quickly. Lv 17 ought to be OK for the Historic. You may want to consider a Hot driver if you don't already have one. When I select a driver I usually go for the best Braking and Cornering I can get (with some accuracy). I figure if he can Brake and Corner he ought to be pretty Accuarate anyway!

With the Deep Forest race and a Cool especially (though true for any type) driver you need to give them overtake commands until the race settles down. By which time they ought to be in the lead. A Cool driver will then need some "pushing" to keep his pace up.

You might want to let your new driver run a High Speed Ring race (with a suitably overpowered car). I think there is one in the lower tiers I used to grind with until the better races opened up.

are you saying drivers don't need to have reached the respective Level of the event to participate?

for me playing B-Spec mode is only a way to grind for extra money - so i wouldn't want to grind in order to be able to grind

[Darwock]

You get the prize car for Golding the three main events. I presume you got a Gold overall even though one of the stages was a Silver. I got all Golds on that. Fortunately the prize car from the Ticket (at the first attempt) was the Nissan 240 RS Rally Car.

Is that good then? I passed that one up cos I wanted a Stratos!

[Bassman]

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. My overall B spec level was enough to do that race, its just that I entered my Lv 0 driver into it. Using the FGT he won easily.

Darwock you get the Stratos Rally Car on A spec as a prize car. It is from the Historic Cup in Expert. The 240 RS Rally is one of the rarer cars in the UCD (I had bought a few other Historic Rally Cars already and that was one I particularly wanted).

[C']

Well one week on, and many hours of simply driving the Schumacher S bend over and over I finally got gold on license test A-8 (time ended up as 13.781). Annoyingly, as the game doesn't seem to remember your settings for these tests when you return to the menus, it appears I cleared it with Traction Control on (everything else so far has been without any driving aids) but not returning to that test again any time soon.

Now I can get back to actual racing and enjoying the game again.

[Darwock]

That's why I didn't bother trying to get golds on the licenses first time around - I felt I would be missing out on everything else if I got bogged down with that. Will go back to try and gold them when I'm at a loose end.

[Bassman]

Did the HSR JGT Race from the Seasonals on another account and decided to see how quickly I could persuade the fully upgraded Diablo to go around the course. Best so far was 56.879 seconds which isn't too bad.

According to GTP the Honda Odyssey '03 (UCD) is apparently a bit of a sleeper and actually handles pretty well. I tried a partial upgrade (290 HP with just removeables, adjustable Centre Diff and Comfort Softs). Left the Centre Diff on the default 35/65 split. On a first run at the 'Ring (one off during the lap!) I managed an 8:40 which, I suppose, isn't too bad for 1.7 tonne People Carrier! No sign of any Understeer anyway.

[englishbob]

Well one week on, and many hours of simply driving the Schumacher S bend over and over I finally got gold on license test A-8 (time ended up as 13.781). Annoyingly, as the game doesn't seem to remember your settings for these tests when you return to the menus, it appears I cleared it with Traction Control on (everything else so far has been without any driving aids) but not returning to that test again any time soon.

Now I can get back to actual racing and enjoying the game again.

Surely after you have done the tests and the Special Events, there is no "game" left? The offline racing component of it is terrible.

[Darwock]

Moving on from that, I just did the world classic beginner series. My garage had very little in it that qualified, only the Shelby Cobra was viable and I knew that would be way too powerful. Actually though I still barely won the first event at Le Mans, cos the car on default tyres is a real handful! I was a little more used to it for the next two but it still wasn't an easy win. Great fun!

[Bassman]

I wouldn't say the Offline part was terrible. Just that there is not very much of it. Each new GT game seems to have progressively less racing. i suppose B spec boosts it but it is not the same.

I still have some Seasonals on the account I started with earlier. Ought to see Lv 25 or 26 by the time I do the rest! Ought to be approaching 10 mil on that account as well! These Seasonals do help with new accounts!

Check this vidro someone made of the X2010 at the 'Ring... insane!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuJ7pghPWBY

Here is my upgraded Samba. Wondered if the link would work OK...

http://www.thegtsaga.net/GT/album_pic.php?pic_id=2392

Used a Silver Chrome Paint Chip on the wheels. I can supply the Chips if nobody minds a duplicated one.

[englishbob]

I wouldn't say the Offline part was terrible. Just that there is not very much of it.

I wouldn't argue about the quantity, its the quality of it. It just isn't a good racing game. Other games give you a much better race, regardless of handling model. GT series needs to address this. However given this release's stubboness I doubt that will ever happen.

[saturn-gamer]

Terrible is spot-on imho. The career setup, progression along with the interface are downright stupid. GT5 is an incredibly bad racing game. When I start Hot Pursuit it reminds me how a decent racing game should be, I select online mode and seconds later I am in a race of desired class. Sure the prize winning screens suck in that game too but on the whole its much more on the money than GT is.

But GT5's handling is good, and the collecting of cars is somewhat addicting even though most of them are overpriced GT4 ported pixelated messes. Those are really the sole 2 reasons I play this game.

GT6 can be a classic if PD co-develops this with a western studio who can teach them a thing or 2 about design and efficiency. You won exp. Ok? You won Credits. Ok? Install parts, ok? Parts are installed, ok?

The seasonals are getting kind of stale for me. I did 3 of them yesterday and the exp. isn't all that good anymore either. The last seasonal fills maybe 15% of my experience bar (level 30 ish). So quitting grinding and waiting for them would still take a year or 2 to get to level 40.

Maybe its time for some point to point rally seasonal stages. Or genuine races with normal grid starts. I'm sure I did that Challenger on Daytona Road course once before?

[Bassman]

I would agree that the Exp model in GT5 is absolutely abyssmal. I think Forza 3 got it about right (and a prize car every time you levelled).

The biggest joke is the Lv 40 24 Hours at the 'Ring. Usual pitiful money (I presume) and (most likely) a stupid amount of Exp points which do you no good whatsover because you are Lv 40. Why they didn't unlock that race at Lv 39 so the Exp would be of benefit I have no idea.

The car side and the driving side of things as you say is good. I must say the whole thing is beginning to bore me somewhat on occasions. May have to fire up NFS: HP (360 - Christmas Present) or Fable III (Birthday Present) as they seem to be somewhat neglected. Then there is the cheap DLC I got for Mass Effect 2 over Christmas (abandoned that soon after it came out when I had problems with a mission). Trouble is GT5 seems to keep drawing me in, warts and all!

[saturn-gamer]

Biggest crime is that you can't save during the endurances. Keep in mind that a true 24h is being completed by 3 drivers. You can't fast forward b-spec too. In GT4 you could.

[JU!]

Check this vidro someone made of the X2010 at the 'Ring... insane!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuJ7pghPWBY

Oh my it's like F-Zero.

As much as GT5 is flawed the handling models for some of the vehicles cannot be beaten imo. That's why I like to play it. When you do find a great online race it can be fun too. Agree the grinding is a bit too much sometimes.