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MightyJordan I was going to send you a new horn as a gift, but I installed it myself, sounded quite good :p

We all need to do a karting race today, it's so much fun speeding spinning around.

i think its a good thing that it has to be installed... it means that it can be patched, unlike if it was running straight off the discs

It doesn't have to be, it's just about shortening load times.

Although even with the install some things still get cached later when used (you'll see installing in bottom right hand corner when this is happening).

By the way I recommend going into audio settings and changing from "Living Room" to "Small Theatre" if you have a 5.1 setup.

Lastly,

Whole Online section of official Polyphony Events (Public Lobby races, time-trials and challenges), leaderboards and such is not up yet.

Well, we are just going to have to learn to live with it. Just use the premium 200 cars and don't bother with the rest.

The exact number of premium cars is 231 IIRC.

Just bought my second car, Ford Focus ST '06. Cost me just over 30,000 credits.

I'm amazed I've already managed to amass 170k in credits and I have only just done the first race in amateur league.

The go-karting gives you WAY too much money IMO.

But hey I'm not complaining, means I can buy a smexy car when I'm ready for the big boy leagues.

BTW,

Please add me on PSN, username is same as on here, we can get some games going :p

Even if you stick with premium alone, 200~ is a pretty good number. I think some standard cars look better than others though. The MX5 seems to blend in quite well to me, but that Celica looks terrible. Could have done with someone going through the standard cars and improving some of the models slightly. Not loads, but just increasing the polygons on bad wheel arches, etc. Maybe Polyphony need to hire more staff too. With the increasing complexity of modern games, they must surely be stretching themselves with such a small number of staff.

But what I like most about GT5 is the racing itself, not the number of polygons. I played GTR Evo on my PC for a while, and before that I played Grand Prix 4 well into 2009. Why? Because they are good racing games (something GRID isn't), not because the graphics are mega awesome. Although I love my console (and barely touch the PC for games now), I sometimes feel the "console crowd" is a little too obsessed with graphics. Just look at the endless supply of stupid comparison videos...

I'm amazed I've already managed to amass 170k in credits and I have only just done the first race in amateur league.

The go-karting gives you WAY too much money IMO.

But hey I'm not complaining, means I can buy a smexy car when I'm ready for the big boy leagues.

BTW,

Please add me on PSN, username is same as on here, we can get some games going :p

Start tuning up cars and watch your money plummet :p

Gran Turismo 5 Reviews: Can They Be Trusted?

There was, of course, a minor meltdown this morning when the review scores for Gran Turismo 5 – the longest-awaited of all the Gran Turismos ever (mainly because it took so bloody long to come out) – were unleashed. Some high numbers, some less-high numbers and a lot of discussion came out of it as a result. But I have one question in particular I think is reasonable to ask: can these reviews really be trusted?

The game arrived in our office on Monday, and I seriously doubt it arrived much, if any, earlier in the hands of other games writers across the UK and Europe. This means a conservative estimate would put the review at two days of play, one day of writing. If you're not a typing idiot, two-and-a-bit days play, the end of Tuesday writing it. Sony specifically requested that online was included with all reviews of the game – a fair request, and something a lot of places would clearly do anyway.

But online was only activated yesterday, meaning those who have put their reviews up this morning really haven't caned the game in the online world as much as they maybe should have. There will be teething problems, there will be issues with lag, stability and whatever else – these might be ironed out, they might not. Either way it's a huge disservice to your readers to write off an online mode based on less than a day's play, on what I would call (from what I've played) 'something that needs a bit of work'. If it's still dodgy after a while, fair enough – the system is flawed. But if it's fixed swiftly, all these first-past-the-post reviews will look a bit… well, wrong, in comparison.

Now I'm not stupid enough to think a person is incapable of coming up with a genuinely held, honest opinion on a game from a couple of days of play. I'm not stupid enough to claim people are incapable of coming up with a genuinely held, honest opinion after just a few hours of play. I know I still hold opinions from games I only put a couple of hours into – that's not what I take issue with here.

What I take issue with – what I'm questioning – is how much faith you can put in a review of a massive title like GT5 that has literally only had a couple of days put into it. It's a release that's been five, six years in the making, and people are ****ting out reviews as quickly as possible just because it's the internet and they have to.

I'm sitting here in my ivory tower of print publishing casting judgement down on the world around me, which is a little unfair. I know how the 'net works – I've worked there for many years. If you're not first, you're nothing. But in the case of Gran Turismo 5 I think a more careful, considered approach is the right way to do things. Take a few extra days, make sure you've seen everything the game has to offer – or just as much as you can fit into a reasonable amount of time. That's 'reasonable' as in 'enough to do the game, and your audience, justice'.

Source: http://www.nowgamer....they-be-trusted

Gamespot and Examiner are waiting till they've played more.

IGN has already proven they haven't played much of the game by saying you can't upgrade brakes when you can....

Some more drama for the neutrals :p I would agree 1~2 days play of a game with as much content as GT5 is a bit lame for the basis of a review, but what's done is done.

I think its just a rush to be one of the first reviews out rather than lazyness or how inept they are. Its all about traffic and ads than writing a decent review, most of the reviews ive read werent even reviews they were just observations of the first small portion of the game.

I think its just a rush to be one of the first reviews out rather than lazyness or how inept they are. Its all about traffic and ads than writing a decent review, most of the reviews ive read werent even reviews they were just observations of the first small portion of the game.

Exactly, come back once you've put in over 100 hours or so into it then give us an opinion of the game :)

What we are seeing right now are reactions, not reviews.

IGN has already proven they haven't played much of the game by saying you can't upgrade brakes when you can....

Some more drama for the neutrals :p I would agree 1~2 days play of a game with as much content as GT5 is a bit lame for the basis of a review, but what's done is done.

True, you can upgrade "some" cars brakes, but not all.

But the reviews are no different than any other product review and the timing. So we need to hold these reviews with the same accountability as all other reviews. It does look like it's not going to even average in the 90s when all is said and done. And that really isn't a surprise after seeing some of the glaring issues.

True, you can upgrade "some" cars brakes, but not all.

But the reviews are no different than any other product review and the timing. So we need to hold these reviews with the same accountability as all other reviews. It does look like it's not going to even average in the 90s when all is said and done. And that really isn't a surprise after seeing some of the glaring issues.

That still doesn't make it any less embarrassing for IGN, you can't write a review for a product saying it doesn't have something it does if you want to have credibility, and if gamers on forums are correcting your paid gaming journalist, that's bad :p

That still doesn't make it any less embarrassing for IGN, you can't write a review for a product saying it doesn't have something it does if you want to have credibility, and if gamers on forums are correcting your paid gaming journalist, that's bad :p

I agree. However, like anything else, you have to take the good with the bad. IGN can't be discounted when they have a lower score and an error, and then be praised when they have a higher score and no errors. In the end, it doesn't matter really. Visit neogaf and GTPlanet, and the users have spoken. They love playing the game, but are not happy with some of the issues of the final product overall.

In the end, all that matters is that you enjoy playing it, not what others think.

I agree. However, like anything else, you have to take the good with the bad. IGN can't be discounted when they have a lower score and an error, and then be praised when they have a higher score and no errors. In the end, it doesn't matter really. Visit neogaf and GTPlanet, and the users have spoken. They love playing the game, but are not happy with some of the issues of the final product overall.

In the end, all that matters is that you enjoy playing it, not what others think.

I completely agree there, a review score can be as high or low as the outlet wants based on the reviewers feelings if he/she has the evidence in their written output to backup what they're saying.

Issue here is if IGN can make a mistake about something as simple as brake upgrading, and in the whole context of things, it really is a tiny part of a whole game, people start wondering if online went up yesterday how much time, if any, has this journalist put into it if they don't even know about something as simple as a car upgrade?

Nothings going to change, but you definitely can respect Gamespot and Examiner for holding off because they'll happily admit there is a lot to cover and they haven't finished doing so yet, they're not going to diarrhoea out their review(s) because of the floodgates opening and the internet spazzing out.

Nothings going to change, but you definitely can respect Gamespot and Examiner for holding off because they'll happily admit there is a lot to cover and they haven't finished doing so yet, they're not going to diarrhoea out their reviews because of the floodgates opening.

I agree with you 100%. I don't think any game should be shown reviews on release day to be honest. I think they should spend substantially more time with them for more accurate reviews. But with same day reviews in most games, including GT5, Forza 3, NFS Shift, RacePro and most other racing games, it has happened and will continue to happen.

Just playing the game ourselves is the best review it can receive...and that will be over time. It's not like I can come back today and say "GT5 is a 1, or GT5 is a 10" Maybe after 4 good weeks of online and offline playing, campaign, and checking out all the online community items, I could give the game a score.

I have to say though, based on many of the issues we have seen, some of the reviews are indeed touching the same base with the same concerns.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
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