Well, cometh the year and cometh the game.  After 5 years in development and countless amounts of delays, Kazunori Yamauchi’s baby has finally been handed over to the general public.

One of Sony’s biggest franchises has had, to say the least, a bit of a troubled schedule as Polyphony Digital strived for perfection and were not going to release this until they were happy with the product.  With the tagline “The Real Driving Simulator” and Yamauchi’s passion for automobile racing history, the cars that raced and the drivers that handled them you would excuse a little delay or two.  But does Gran Turismo 5 stand up to today’s console sim racing games, most noteably their direct competition, in the form of Turn 10′s bohemoth, Forza Motorsport 3?

I have been a Gran Turismo fan ever since the birth of the original, have owned every single version of the game since its original Playstation roots and have loved every minute of it.  I must admit though that during the time it has taken to make Gran Turismo 5 I have been swayed towards the 360 counterpart as it is the only true next gen simulator on the market until now.

So with that in mind my initial reaction to how Gran Turismo 5 will play was with nervous excitement.  There is no denying the amount of content that has been crammed into the game.  Featuring over 1,000 cars and 70 real world and fantasy tracks there is more than enough to satisfy the most discerning car collector and it is very hard to get bored of the variety of venues on offer.  Components of the game have been mixed with a blend of traditional Gran Turismo fare along with some new features that are all woven together through your main GT Life hub.

Alongside your traditional licensing tasks plus A and B spec career modes comes a whole host of additional features.  First up is the Special Events section enabling you to take on specific races which include rally modes with Polyphony’s newly acquired WRC licence, Nascar action, VW Camper racing on the Top Gear test track as well as very entertaining karting events amongst others.  Events are unlocked as you level up by completing licences, races and other events and each event introduces you to something a little different and also teaches you how to handle each driving experience a little better.  Gran Turismo 5 also comes with a Track Editor function so when you get bored of all the tracks that are in game you will be able to tweak some base tracks that are given out of the box to create something a little bit different to race on.

Although this is not what I expected in terms of a track editor, it does function well.  Moving sliders around to change angles, heights etc of track will throw up endless amounts of original road and dirt to drive around on.  I must admit though that a fuller track editor or designer would have had jaws dropping.  Before I knew about what the editor entailed, I was expecting to be able to build faithful recreations of tracks that were not in the game which would have been amazing.  Brands Hatch for me is steeped in history and is very close to where I live.  As simulator games rarely include this track as well as many other well know British circuits like Oulton Park, Thruxton etc it would have been great to be able to measure up the sections of these circuits and, in effect, faithfully recreate them within the game.

Graphically, Gran Turismo has good news and bad news.  The good news is that GT5 does look absolutely stunning with a smooth frame rate, well designed premium cars, changing weather effects as well as night and day dynamics.  These really do show off the best of the best of what the game has to display.  Cameras flashing as the sun goes down on a rally stage, the cockpit views for premium cars look plush with working windscreen wipers that clear away excess water that is spraying on to your windshield as you strain to look for the net apex adds a real depth to your driving experience.

Unfortunately, there is also the bad side.  I am really not sure if development time ran out or Polyphony thought they could just bypass it but some of the tracks do look a little too clinical when compared to the ego engine efforts from Codemasters.  Don’t get me wrong, the tracks look stunning but does suffer from the odd 2D modelling in places, something reminiscent of Gran Turismos of old that can take the heart out of certain tracks. Take the Monaco circuit, for example.  This is a track that is steeped in history and pride.  Even if you are not a motor racing fan the Monaco track is still known to everyone.  Unforunately, with the odd piece of 2D modelling put in and other features missed out has made the track soul less.  Luckily, this oversight does not, thankfully, apply to all of the tracks, only a couple.

Also, the 800 or so standard cars that are in the game have no cockpit view at all and, I feel, is something Polyphony really needs to sort out and quick.  It feels lazy, it feels incomplete and as I love the cockpit camera I felt a little cheated.  The bumper cam works fine but to add that realism in your driving then a cockpit mode for all cars is a must!

One of the biggest draws of the Gran Turismo series has always been the physics and handling.  Never before, apart from Race Pro, have physics like Gran Turismo titles been recreated and the improvements on each title has been phenomenal.  Gran Turismo 5 is no different and even the precision of handling and car physics has gone way beyond my expectations and surpasses GT5 Prologue’s offering.  The cars feel weighty, getting on the accelerator is precise to get out of the corners at the right speed and braking into corners is dealt with in a very realistic way.  Adding the numerous upgrade packages and tunes has the desired effect and changes the dynamics of the car to the point where going that extra mile for power may result in the balance of the car being undone and thus having to go back and re-tune the car to get a premium balance.  Testing and refining could eat away 10′s of hours of true gameplay and the car tuning geeks out there will embrace the depth that GT5′s tuning system has to offer.

In terms of content available out of the box, there is no denying that Gran Turismo 5 stands head and shoulders above all of its competitors but the quantity over quality moniker does ring true as some areas of the game feel lacking in the polish and sheen that you would expect from the development time of the game and Yamauchi’s drive for perfection.

We all know that in the end, a racing game lives and dies by its multiplayer.  There is plenty of things to do in the hub in terms of single player elements, don’t get me wrong.  You could easily lose hundreds of hours to Gran Turismo in the main component itself but Gran Turismo 5 offers, for the first time properly, its own multiplayer elements too.  The 360 competitor has had this nailed for a long time now and refines itself with every outing so it is important for Gran Turismo fans to get a real taste of online racing and all that it can potentially offer.

The multiplayer is easy to access for either joining or creating an open lobby or creating a lobby for your friends.  Although there are no ranks that I am aware of the multiplayer is very smooth indeed and has some nice little features too which I will come to in a minute.  If you are a Forza fan then you will notice areas that Gran Turismo 5 has missed but after the amount of updates that seem to be coming then you may well see leaderboards and things brought into the game soon.

The online lobby is very user friendly allowing to set up your track, race restrictions, cars etc in game and all at a press of a couple of buttons.  You can also describe the type of race you are doing to let random people know what to expect once inside.  The online lobby is set up with options to go directly to your garage and choose cars, even stock cars for races, along with a text chat system if you feel the need to turn the in game talking options off.  The ability to kick a player that isn’t racing fair is also enabled as well as the ability to free run for as long as you want before the host starts the race.  During this time you may come back to the lobby at any time to change cars, change setups etc and even view the free runs from each of the other players perspectives.  The ability to look at some of their telemetary is also available and will provide a great way of looking at what a good racer is doing to get their times down.

Live timing is also there so you can see your progress against other racers and change cars accordingly.  Although it is not as complete as Forza, Gran Turismo has made a great start in introducing PS3 owners to online sim racing.  The ability to also look at all of the available lobbies when finding a race, complete with race descriptions and also their network strengths, location etc will stop you going into one of those laggy races that we all hate.

The racing itself is very smooth.  I managed to join a lobby of around 8 players easily and suffered no lag at all when racing.  A little bit of screen tear was present every now and again but overall, Gran Turismo 5 has performed exceptionally well in this area, even if some of the drivers are still a little wet behind the ears.  Being able to go into a free run to test cars was delightful as the lobby started to fill up and being able to come out at any point was very easy to do.  Gran Turismo 5 boasts 16 player racing and although I was never in a lobby with that many people, quite a few were and their connections were showing as very strong which gives you an indication of how well his game performs.

There could be improvements, however, on how to get the best car for the race you are in.  At present cars are restricted by horsepower etc rather than classes and feel that a class system may be easier to manage online.

Overall, Gran Turismo 5 has a hell of a lot of pluses and what it does well, it does exceptionally well and has nothing to touch it at present.  What it does lack though is the advancement in some areas that Forza 3 has shown.  You can gift cars to friends although there is no online auction house.  You can paint cars but are restricted to just colouring and is something that should be looked into as Forza 3 is so far ahead in this area and would definitely add more depth to the game.  The special events, GTTV, arcade modes and online racing are a very welcome addition to the game as well.

We have been informed that Yamauchi has described Gran Turismo 5 as a living entity and is looking at the areas in which the game can be improved.  With that said, patches are already being released to put right some of the areas and specifics where the game is lacking.  If this continues then there is nothing to say that Gran Turismo 5 cannot smash any other console racing sim out of the park.  It is already far superior in terms of physics and handling than anything I have played so far on a console.  It is also, for the most part, the most beautifully looking racer I have witnessed so far and it definitely holds its own as a stand out racing sim that puts others to shame in a lot of areas.  Some may want to smash me over the head for saying that but PS3 racing fans finally have a game they can be relatively proud of.

With a little work Gran Turismo 5 can be the real driving simulator that Polyphony has envisioned and something that EVERY gamer will marvel at.