Effo_Nienforr_S
The licenses are totally inconsistent. GT3 made sense. The B Licenses were easy, A was a little more difficult, IB was harder than that, then IA and finally the S licenses were the most difficult.
It appears that with the success of GT3 and all the anticpation of GT4, it was decided that the game didn't really need to make sense. It was just easier to make it look great.
That's a lot of whining! I wonder how many people bothered reading past this part.
For example, what is the point of full lap time trials in B and A??? It's ridiculous.
Are you joking? The full-lap tests are obviously there to teach you the new courses. In A and B they also have Trial Mountain and Laguna Seca. Trial Mountain is a big course used in a lot of tests and Laguna Seca is a pretty difficult course for new players. They're certainly less difficult than a lot of the other tests, and you can't deny that being able to do a lap in a reasonable time is useful.
Secondly, and this is my main gripe, the programmers obviosly set the times with very nice $150 logitech wheels, and if you can't compete with your DS, then your just a loser, and they are arrogant enough to not care. Struggle for your bronze and feel like a loser because you can't steer as delicately, or throttle as accurately with the poorly implemented dual-shock controller.
What makes you think that? I have a DFP (which isn't hard to get for $100) and I found it easier to get 80 golds using the regular DS2 controller. There are many other people here who have done the same. I would think using actual pedals with your feet would be a disadvantage on the tests when you have to have such quick control over the accelerator and brake.
Thirdly, the exams are wildly inconsistent. On one of the exams I got gold on my FIRST finish, which was only my second start in that license. There are several on which I got silver on my 1, 2, or 3rd try. There are a few I got gold in just a few minutes, and then there are others that took 1/2 hour just for a bronze. like, ummm, NURBURGRING. I just spent 2 hours on S-9 and ended up with a bronze., still 0.443 away from silver. Two hours and no silver, when I can get gold on some of the others in 10 minutes???
It took you 1/2 hour to bronze Nurburgring? Are you talking about the first one with the pace car? I think it would be pretty hard not to bronze that test if you don't simply fail by going off the track or ramming the pace car. That said, if you only spent 1/2 hour on it you simply can't know the track yet. I probably spent 4 hours on S-16. When the track takes 7 min for one lap you really can't learn the back half of it without putting in a few hours. I found that a little irritating myself; it'd be nice to be able to start half-way through when you know the first part but keep screwing up the turns on the east side. Still, the bottom line is that if you have anything close to a decent knowledge of the ring you can get silver on S-16. The demo car beats the gold time by 8 sec and his run isn't perfect.
Sorry you're having trouble with El Capitan, but let me assure you that it's your fault and not the designers. It took me a couple hours to gold that one, but silver isn't that hard. This is probably your first time having to do a full lap at El Capitan, and it's one of the last tests you have to take. How easy do you want it to be? If you want to cheat a little you can bump the outside wall in the first big hairpin and gain about a second on the demo car.
One or two of the golds are sort of easy, and the rest are very very difficult. A few of them are just absurdly difficult, and I don't plan on ever getting gold on those. It's BS, because I know if I had the right controller, I would not have to settle for silver.
Why exactly is it BS? If the designers made it easy to get gold just to shut you up how do you think the better drivers would feel? GT4 is a huge game, and you've really got the wrong attitude if you think you need to get 100% and all golds for it to be fun. If you don't plan on ever getting gold on the hard tests that's cool, but why be so bitter about it?
Sure, the times given for licenses are probably fair. *for an ace with $150 controller, and no daytime job.
What's fair? Having a gold time wouldn't mean much if everybody could do it. I got all golds and I know there are a ton of people on this forum who are much better at the game than I am. I see in your next post you randomly decided that the gold times should be slow enough that 2% of players can get them. I'd say it's a safe bet that less than 2% of the people who buy GT4 will ever even bronze the Super License. I'll bet less than 1% of people who buy the game (if they actually bothered to try S-16) could complete a lap on the ring without running off the track and failing, regardless of whether or not they come close to bronze. Should it be made easier? Absolutely not. You shouldn't be able to get all golds without knowing the tracks.
If you're so disgruntled by the license tests I'll just assume you haven't started the missions yet. I can't wait for that post.
) - when you get your cheats installed do yourself a favor and go buy the lil' Beemer Z4. Get full weight reduction on the thing, install a set of super-softs, and get the upgraded brake. Nothing else - just those 3 things. After drilling yourself with the license tests, you won't believe how støøpid-arcady those super-soft tires feel!!! You can stop on a dime, and the car sticks to the pavement like some kind of magic Velcro... lol. It's a blast and good for a laugh. 
It's maddening as hell trying to figure out just how he clears such a fast lap, yet very instructive at the same time.
p
