Just look at the history of console racers online:
I started with V8 supercars but quickly moved to V8 supercars 2 which had a 4WD cheat, corner cutting and a bug in the aero which meant you simply set the downforce to 0 to set great lap times.
Then came PGR2 with the wall riding and pirate hacked discs.
Then V8 supercars 3 with corner cutting (didnt play it long enough to find out what else).
Next PGR3 which had wall riding, glitch shifting, corner cuts, hacked roms etc.
Forza 2 with glitches in the car class maths, shifting glitches, 4WD glitches, corner cuts, boosting.
PGR4 with physics glitch that lets a car do wheelies, wall riding, corner cutting.
You should try
Formula One: Championship Edition. It has a great online racing system and can be set-up very easily to create a very accurate and fair race with no short cutting and "bouncing" off cars... which one can do on Forza 2 just as easily as any other. The damage in Forza 2 is almost entirely cosmetic, and the "crash" physics are far from realistic. Try doing the same "stunt" on F1:CE with crash damage on and you'll quickly find yourself stuck in your garage while the remaining drivers finish the race.
With this fine history, does anyone believe GT5 will be any better?
Of course it will be better, but how much is still obviously in question.
And from PD who could not even get GT4 to work over a lan?
Huh? I've play GT4 over LAN networks several times.
Dirty driving will be king in GT5. Driving clean is always more fun and its the only way I will race. But if you are clean you are never going to see your name in lights on top.
I certainly hope that is not the case, as it has ruined the leader boards for GT3, GT4, GT:HD, Forza, Forza 2, PGR4, etc... but seeing as Sony developed F1:CE and it's online racing system is quite good at offering racers plenty of options for creating realistic and fair races, maybe they can use some of the same features.
As has been mentioned in this thread, developers for games like GT5, Forza 2, and even PGR4 face far more challenges than a game like F1CE so who knows.
If they can't incorporate realistic crash damage and mechanical failures due to the restrictions of the licenses from the car manufacturers, at least I hope they incorporate some optional stiff penalties for online races, so drivers are not rewarded for unrealistic driving, like short cutting a track, riding a wall, and bouncing off cars. 👎
Of course we really won’t know anything until the game actually comes out though right?
