GT5 - Money, Menus & B Spec

Money – I don’t have enough to buy any decent cars but thanks to a tip from Zo I completed some special events which gave me a shed load of money to buy some faster cars. Abbas has been playing A Spec more than me and has managed to complete quite a few events on Gold. I now have a few decent cars for the next GT5 PMG.

Menus – How painfully slow is this game when going through the menus, they really need to patch the game to remove some pointless options. I find the most annoying is when you have won a car & it goes to the delivery truck, you then have to click on it to accept the ticket to take delivery of your new car. What’s the point ??!! Just stick the darn car in my garage !!

B Spec – You create a driver & just sit back and watch him race. I created a driver & sent him on his first race. He only made it to the first corner before I quit in disgust. What a stupid STUPID mode. Pointless utter waste of time playing it & why the hell did they waste their time developing it. That time could have been better spent on improving the menu system & releasing the game earlier.

GT5 - PS3 Online

Online Gaming - This has been the defining technology for me this console generation. The xbox 360 does it very well, combined with chat & friends list you can pick up any title & within a matter of minutes be playing with a friend.

Gran Turismo 5 was the guinea pig for my first PS3 online test. I managed to sync up my bluetooth headset quite easily & loaded up the game. Finding the online access in the game was well hidden but thanks to some advice from Hurricane Pilot I managed to find his private lobby.

We had a very decent turnout with 7 or 8 at times coming and going throughout the evening. It's difficult to know who is talking in the lobby because you do not get a flashing speaker icon like the 360. But after a while we managed to figure out who was who or at least those of us that had mics. The voice quality was very good & I would say maybe even better than the 360.

It was now game time, choose a car & the correct tyres (always racing:soft). You then have the option to do a free run on the track or start the race which gives all players a 30 seconds countdown to get to the track. I am quite a bullish racer & my bump & pass tactics helped me get ahead. Only up until the next sharp corner where I would go straight on into the wall because I did not brake enough. A crazy rally track, provided the most entertainment for us just by trying to keep the car going forward & to stop it slipping or sliding all over the place, I finished 1st. A few race's later we played a city track with Golf GTI's I started 1st on the grid & changed my driving style to a more focused approach & making sure I was taking the best lines on corners in the correct gears. I managed to finish 1st in the event but more importantly it changed my driving style for the remainig races from a mad man to a more realistic approach. I wished I had gone for the option to save my replay's for glory & to also see where I could improve my driving.

Throughly enjoyable evening of racing & one I hope will become a weekly PMG fixture.
same agin next week please

New Game - GT5

Only a few weeks ago I contemplated getting rid of the PS3 (21/12) it was never used, I would always be playing the 360 or my iPod touch. I picked up GT5 before the year was out & yesterday gave it a spin. It's basically the same tried & tested formula that Polyphony have used in the previous games. After waiting for the game to first download a 650mb update & install to the hard drive it was time to play.

The initial home page is daunting with so many options but A-Spec is basically the crux of the game, we started the game with 20K credits to purchase our first car. The used dealership had some useful cars but you had to be at level 1 to drive these. So we ended up purchasing a new Honda Civic Type R (EK) '97 and went racing in the Sunday cup event.

My son is a 360 fanboy & even though I have been trying my best to teach him that each console system has it's own merits, sometimes it's just easier to show them. So I passed the controller over to him & said give it a try. He hates the positioning of the analogue stick so went for using the d-pad instead. By the first corner he quickly realised that this was a realistic racing experience & adjusted his driving style to finish first. With 5K credits I then showed him the tuning shop to which his eyes lit up. It's like taking my younger daughter to a candy shop. Browsing through the various options he announced "Tyres !" "We need better tyres". I smiled and replied "ok". This was a reflective moment for me because it reminded me of my experiences of playing the first game on the Playstation, the various tuning options that were available & the cars you could purchase once you had enough credits. My youngest son then wanted to have a go at the game & through some coaching managed to finish first, I again smiled and he said "it's good fun".

Going to bed I could hear Abbas tell his younger brother "I never thought I would like a Playstation 3 game"

Job Done :)