[comments] GT5: The First Five Hours Review

[charlesr]

GT5: The First Five Hours Review

Thanks to Blair for the words.

[kernow]

What is 'drafting' ?

[charlesr]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drafting_%28aerodynamics%29

[kernow]

ohh, I get you now, I thought it was a typo. Maybe slipstreaming would have been clearer or something. Nice writeup otherwise.

[charlesr]

Ah, yeah, could have been confused with drifting I guess.

[JP]

Hour One
When you get to navigate the menu screen you will be confused by the different size boxes. Some are oblong and tiny and some rectangular and massive.

Some are oblong and some rectangular, I'd certainly agree with you there but telling people they will be confused is perhaps a little presumptuous and unfair on the who are people playing the game.

People of course will and should have their own opinions but personally I've not found it to be at all confusing, it's not really been noticed as I've used it which I think is a good sign.

I suppose ideally it would be a simple list of words which would then take you to another screen when selected. They could of course have gone the other way and used one of those 3D Codemasters menus. Coming from a design background I've found those to be uniformly awful but again, that's merely my opinion.

Hour Two
The second hour of GT5 is nearly as excruciating as the first. Your first car will be a ?standard? car.

It will be a standard car but only if you chose to buy a standard car, you could of course choose to buy one of the available premium cars. People do have the choice to do something that they excruciating but it's perhaps worth mentioning that this what you chose to do rather than it being mandatory.

Hour Three
You still haven?t won any cars though.

Again, that's really a choice you've made rather than an absolute fact which the sentence suggests.

Although you tell people they won't have won any cars after playing for three hours it may be more appropriate to tell them that they may not have won any if they've chosen not to enter the introductory events which let them win cars.

Overall though, I'd certainly agree that it may all seem a little...daunting perhaps? I know I felt a little overwhelmed as there are so many different things to do and many of them are brand new and this morning was my first look at the motor museum as I was just so busy that I completely forgot about it.

I liked your comment on the NASCAR section. I've only just touched on it myself but it really isn't anything like and NASCAR game that I've played before.

Although I've only just started on that part it reminded somewhat of F1 2010 as I get the feeling that at the higher levels it really is going to be a matter of making a tiny mistake and not having any chance of winning the race, maybe being just a couple of inches out with the positioning of your car could be the difference between winning and losing.

It's really tense and I can't believe I'm actually enjoying it but it's nothing like I was expecting it to be, luckily.

[Neon Ignition]

I read the 5 hour review and prepped myself then found myself becoming well puzzled when within the first couple of events I won 5 cars

[ItsThere]

Without wanted to be defensive but in response to your points John.

I still find the main menu annoying. I can't seem to get to Special Event consistently from where I am. Sometimes when you think you press up it takes you left or right when you wouldn't expect it to. Perhaps frustrating would have been a better description.

Re: first car - I couldn't find a premium car for less than 20,000 credits (your starting balance). Is there one?

Re: not winning any cars. I understand your point but at no stage was I told that to collect the cars (that I had actually won but didn't realise it) I had to click on the new delivery lorry. I still fail to see what this adds to the experience, other than more loading. It is also odd that for a game with so many explanatory screens, there isn't one for this.

I need to probably be clear that this peice isn't a review, it is just my first five hours with the game, warts and all and because of that there is commentary on things that would normally be skipped over in a proper review simply because GT5 is so vast.

But I am loving the experience and I will probably have to go and get a wheel to see what that is all about soon.

[Brad]

I think the issues John's had are to with the fact that you've written it as your experience in the first 5 hours but because you're used to writing reviews you've still used that review writing style, which is understandable. If you replace the word 'you' with 'I' it all makes a lot more sense. I already accepted the writing style when I first read it so it read really well to me and summed up my thoughts quite well.

Oh, I'm pretty sure you do get told that you need to retrieve your new cars from the lorry but I might be wrong. I'll check next time it happens. I'm pretty sure this part is only there so as not to upset the artist at Polyphony that drew the lorry.

[Neon Ignition]

I think there's 2 or 3 premiums you can buy with the initial 20,000 credits. My first car was a premium, some little white dinky thing that turned out to be one of the slowest cars in the game so I ended up saving for a used standard version. My current car is a decent Megane from the Premium section.

It's annoying with the lorry that if you have say 8 in there, you have to click through them one by one rather than it unlocking them all at once.

[charlesr]

I added "probably" to the first car bit.