Can't be bothered to read through the whole thread, but I'll throw my vote on the Pro Hybrid side.
If feel like a lot of the people who are anti-hybrid are very close minded, and selfish to a degree. There's a lot of complaining along the lines of "waaaah, hybrids ruined my racing fun, they ruined time trials". I think these people forget that there are tens of thousands of people who play this game that don't give a damn about racing, or time trials. There are so many other aspects to car culture - and while hybrids may have caused some hiccups for the racing community, they blew doors wide open for other aspects of car culture to really explore the possibilities of the game.
As someone who primarily drifts in GT5, hybrids nearly tripled the amount of potential drift cars....not to mention making some of the lower powered or slower driftable cars (eg s13, s15) actually competitive with the big dawgs (supra, ss10, etc).
As someone who had been a loyal GT fan since the first game, I almos feel like PD is stabbing me in the back by removing hybrids (perhaps kicking me in the nuts is a better metaphor). Aside from the obvious updates, gt5 feels almost the same as gt1. I feel like I've been playing the same game for over 10 years.....the same game that, although has the best physics on console, has always had very very limited tuning options, especially compared with its modern rivals.
Finally, hybrids gave is the ability to do things we the fans have been asking for since day one. Not only that, they gave is the ability to do things that SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE GAME FROM THE START, BUT WEREN'T BECAUSE PD'S PRIORITIES ARE MESSED UP!!!!!! Things like wing deletes, the ability to pain stock rims, drivetrain conversions, the "secret list"....etc etc etc, I could keep going.
Anyone who has built a hybrid know just how easy it is to remove a stock wing. There is absolutely no reason that feature should not have been included in the game. But instead of useful customization options, we get useless Jeff Gordon cut scenes and fancy menus that take an eternity to load.
I'm glad I got a chance to mess around with hybrids...a chance to see what gt5 could have been. If I get banned, I don't really care....it will be the last time I play a GT game though. It'll be a sad way for a 14 year partnership to end, but after 14 years, I'm tried of giving my hard earned money (multiple copies of each game, DLC, and two ps3 solely for GT) to people who, more than ever, constantly come across as a group of elitist old men who are completely out of touch with modern car culture.
I remember an interview with Kaz thst I read a few years back. In it, he said one of the goals of the GT series was to bridge the gap between car culture and video game culture....to turn gamers into petro heads, and petrol heads into gamers. No other aspect of the GT series did this better than hybrids. Because of the stance capabilities hybrids introduced, even car culture institutions such as Fatlace were gettin in on the hybrid action. But, I guess all good things must come to an end.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. And it gave me hope that maybe one day, a game will come along that really encapsulates all of car culture....
