As I was lying half drowsing this morning, I had a dream...
Kazunori-sama was giving the Gran Turismo press conference, saying, "I know you really came to see this, so let me remove myself." The room darkened, and a big screen came to life.
A Japanese child with his parents walked up to a race car, stroking its side in awe. The camera rotated, closing in till only his upper face was visible. The scene behind him grew fuzzy and began to rotate, and as it did, his face began to morph. His eyes grew older and wiser, his hair lengthening greatly. As it pulled away, the child had become a man wearing a flashy racing suit (Kazunori?), standing next to a Silvia. He put on a helmet, climbed in, and started the car with a deep thrumm from the exhaust. A nearby car's headlight cracked as he revved the car. He gunned it down the road in an explosive flash as it evolved into a race car, and like a bullet it was off. The glorious version of Moon over the Castle from last years E3 presentation began to blast as the car tore its way through a pack of cars that seemed to go on forever. He floored it down the straightaway as the Japanese girl from the Enthusia intro was snapping his picture, but she had to grimace and flinch away as he roared past her, just like she had in the EPR video.
Remarks from the various gaming sources began to flash at the bottom of the screen.
"Gran Turismo 5 gives you everything you've ever wanted in a GT game, but more. Much MUCH more! You can get lost in Career Mode, and you'll never want to come back" - GameSpot
"Those who were crying for the return of racing modification will be in heaven with all the licensed mod companies, and the Photoshop-like paint tools" - GameFan
"This Gran Turismo is going to have even die hard PC gamers sitting up and taking notice" - EGM
"This is the fastest Gran Turismo yet" - IGN (I really wonder about that)
"Eh, it's pretty decent. It's just a shame it took five tries to get it this good" - Peter Erskine, head of Microsoft Entertainment Division
The camera rose into the sky and kept going, the track shrinking, until the entire country of Japan was revealled. then a crosshair flashed over a spot, and the camera zoomed down in dizzying warp speed to a convention center.
At the E3 section where the playable GT5 booths were set up, Vash the Stampede and Wolfwood were fighting over who would play first (characters from the Trigun anime).
As people were racing, little message boxes popped up at the lower corner of the screen from gamers around the world, and minimized to a stack of tiny icons on the left edge of the screen to be opened when the gamer had time for them.
A 240SX was tearing its way around some cones, tires squealling, looking like a data collection test for the game developers. As it roared to a stop, the driver got out and removed his helmet, revealling a head made of polygons, like Jackie from Virtua Fighter. It was actually in-game, but you couldn't tell it! The driver said in a deep voice, "Experience the enthusiasm for yourself."
Kazunori was fending off members of Team Forza in a very Bruce Lee-like display of martial arts mastery, exclaiming, "No way! You wouldn't let me get within ten feet of Forza 2!!"
Modifications were done to the car in a visible way, with the parts flashing into place with the sound of airtools spitting. The paintshop began with a stream of paint pouring over the car for its base color, then an X-Y axis cross hair with three digit axis began moving over it and applying details with the hiss of a paint sprayer.
A Skyline won the race, and as the crowd roared in applause, the driver looked to the camera and said through his helmet, "Now, for the true power of Gran Turismo to be revealled." He began doing donuts and spinouts across the grass, and as the camera pulled back, he had spelled out FORZA SUCKS. Half of the crowd roared with laughter, but many people were offended. "How can you say something so outrageous like that?!" The driver blinked in a comical way and went back to doing his spinouts, and as the camera drew back, he had marred his previous message and replaced it with JUST KIDDING. Hugs and kisses were shared by all as rose blossoms drifted down.
A heavily modded TT Quattro drove past the V-Dub doctor and his saxxy assistant, who looked to him, beginning to ask in her thick German accent, "Doctor, should ve-?"
He put his gloved fingers to his lips with a quiver, looking sideways towards the disappearing car, murmuring in a conspiratorial way, "Nott zis time... respect, ve must respect..."
Eh, I know it won't be nearly this cool at the E3 or Sony's press conference, but it was a fun little dream. You can tell where my head has been spending the last month.
Oh yeah, and the game looked lifelike and colorful, not the video look of GT3 and 4. We'll see something definitive in a few days. I just wish they would hurry the heck up!!
"Do you dream with girls?"
I would have fantasies about wich car I would buy first (real let down though, the car I had in mind couldn't be bought, the normal not rally Peugeot Turbo).
