Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo 5 is a fine racing game with piss poor execution.  I won’t waste much time talking about the driving dynamics of the game because they are probably the best in the racing game world at this very moment.  Where GT5 really falls flat is the presentation.

The most important thing about a gigantic racing game like this is the menu system.  The menu is pretty and the music makes me want to throw on a robe, sit by the fire place, smoke a cigar and drink scotch.  Once you try to navigate around the menu however, it’s a totally different story.

WTF is going on here? Over 30 buttons on one screen!

Let’s do the most basic task.  Let’s pick a race after you first start the game.  You’re greeted by a home screen and you have to select GT Life.  From there, go to A-Spec and choose a racing class.  Amateur series sounds good, let’s do the Sunday Cup.  Okay, pick a car; I’ll click my garage icon in the bottom left corner…  Oh crap, I don’t have eligible cars for the race.

At this point you have to navigate through at least 5 different screens to figure out what car you need and then you have to go back to the home screen to purchase it.  If the car you need is a “Standard” car, you may be screwed since the dealer doesn’t sell all standard cars in the game at all times.   This is just a colossal screw up in my opinion.

GT5 is one of the most anticipated games of all times and the thing that really drags it down is the damn menu system.  Another thing that irks me is the lack of brake upgrades and the “Standard” and “Premium” thing.  There are 200 total premium cars which look amazing and then 800 standard cars lacking the detail of the premium since they were imported straight from GT4.  I’d much rather have 500 premium cars instead of 20% nicely detailed vehicles and 80% shit detailed vehicles.

Hopefully some future updates will completely rework the menu system (which is frustrating as hell to us) and add more premium cars.  At the very least, I wish the menu system had car classes like Forza 3.  At least my biggest complaint is the menu system; they really got the driving spot on with this release.  Next on my list is a racing wheel very soon, maybe Christmas.