So ... has anyone actually stopped playing GT5 completely?

[TRC GeorgiaDawg]

I forgot about Burnout Paradise. I seem to remember Burnout 3 on the PS2 had more leaderboards than GT5.

John Daly's Pro Stroke Golf has more leaderboards than GT5. And a friends filter even. It amazes me that a 30 dollar budget golf title has more leaderboard support than a huge budget A list title like GT5.

What's funny is no leaderboards at all was my prediction for FM4, as T10 has the pedal to the floor racing away from being a racing game. Only real racing feature that hasn't been completely gutted yet is the leaderboard system and rollups. I figure the LB's on Forza are gone for FM4, but you'll have plenty of kinect casual stuff.

Which maybe explains the lack of LB's on GT5. As I do remember reading somewhere that the PD people were taking notes from T10 about LB's at one of the shows. Since T10 has been steadily removing LB and racing features from Forza, maybe the PD people were inspired by that in their notes and decided to ditch LB's.

 

[II IVORBIGUN II]

I play it less frequently but I don't ever see shelving the game for the next year or three.

With the UCD and Online Racing against non-Bob humans, the possibilities are close to endless really. Maybe I'm one of the few here who really saw the A-Spec and B-Spec as going through the motions so I can get some great toys to play online with.

I feel like people who completed A-Spec and B-Spec against the Ai and then shelved the game are depriving themselves and maybe missing the point a little.

You mention a couple of things that also annoy me with GT5.

Let me start with the UCD because this is beyond a joke. When the Rome time trial launched last Thursday I managed to get myself into 2nd position after only a few hrs. However unfortunately I messed up the build on my Peugeot Rally car 99 and had to seek another in the UCD. Now despite spending 4 days constantly skipping licence tests to update the UCD I still haven't found one. Im sorry but this is hardly enjoyable gameplay and to be honest its farcical. Some will say why did you spend so much time looking in the UCD and my answer is well GT5 only has 4 time trials and thats all I have left to do.

As for racing online and to be honest this is a farce racing against strangers. All I see is empty rooms and lazy hosts with no imagination who can't even be bothered to leave a comment descrbing their room. I personally preferred the matchmaking servers on GT5P because at least you could select which race you wanted to enter with minimum fuss. I would race against my friends but with the exception of TRC members the rest have already traded GT5 in. The main reason they did this is because of the lack of leaderboards.

I have no proof in what im going to say but something went seriously wrong with the development of GT5 and we might not hear about it for a few years. Seems to me that PD spent ages on some aspects of this game i.e tracks like Rome, Madrid, excellent physics but the rest of the game looks to be have been thrown together at the last minute. Didn't Kaz once say around 18months ago "We can release GT5 whenever we want" I tell you what I shudder to think what GT5 would of been like had they released it earlier.

 

[prymet1me]

I let bspec grind every now and then, buy a rare care from ucd, dupe it so i dont lose my money and check for seasonal events weekly. So I guess I am not really playing it, on a side note finished Assasins Creed Brotherhood story and it was great, had fun again on my ps3.

 

[Tornado]

Was actually thinking about starting GT5 again today, as I got me wheel mount repaired (yay!). Got to the main menu and went to the licence test screen to do all of the licence tests (like I've done in every single GT game I've owned in the past) before the game basically said "No, buy a car first you idiot" and kicked me back to the main menu. So, off to play something else instead, then.

 

[DarthRaiden666]

TBH

I think I have about a week left to play odd races in GT5, after playing it nearly for the 2 months and however many days, its time to stop I feel. I just don't have the time for the longer races or championships, seeing I finish work at 1030pm, and thats no time for gaming anymore. 5 lap races I can easirly do before I go to bed at 1am, but 20 lap 5 race championships take a lot longer.

Plus I am thinking of trading in the standard edition to help fund Test Drive Unlimited 2, don't worry I still have the Collectors Editon

I will play it just to do the seasonal events, if they are ever updated again.

 

[Destinkeys]

I actually started playing again after a hiatus. So many things with the game offline were just sucking the fun out of it, I needed a rest. Then I decided to go online and race...

Sorry, but hardly an improvement. Once again PD succeed in sucking the life out of it. Let's just take Shuffle Race as an example. It's a great idea, really. Everyone gets a random, but similarly spec'ed car at the start of each race. I can get behind that... BUT NOOOooooo! They are all POS daily drivers, on Comfort Soft tires! And fairly uneven in speed and power, a bit too much for even racing. Why not ballast the faster cars?

What the idea is, there's a feature you can enable that puts the winner of the last race in a slower car, and the driver that came last in a more powerful one. But all this does is penalize skill, and force you to race around with the bashers. Plus, there's something called boost, which helps the slower drivers keep up, From where, they start bashing everyone around again! Fortunately, you can turn both of these off (but not many do).

But, all that aside, where is the next Level..? And the next, and the next? Cars with 100hp more, with Sports Soft's? And GT cars with yet another 100hp or so, on Racing Hards? And finally, LMP type cars and RM cars on Racing Softs (and a full selection in the pits for weather)?

Once again, PD manage to take a good idea and totally miss the point...

Give these higher classes as a reward for reaching a certain Level, you have a REASON to want to progress through the game. Plus, you keep the GT and LMP cars out of the hands of noobs that can't drive them. Maybe have it open to S-Class License holders above a certain Level. Make something FUN a reward for leveling up, for a change

Then there's the race results... Once again, let's suck the fun out of things. Just the total time of the race for each car. Where's the fastest lap? Where's the fastest split time for each section? If you lose a race, there's still some satisfaction in getting the fastest lap. But NOOoooo! No fun for you!

It simply beggars belief that PD can come up with the concept, and then miss its obvious applications to the game. Un-freakin' believable!

Kaz, call me. You obviously have nobody on your entire development team that has the slightest idea about how to make something FUN. Or stay honest to racing's spirit and rules, for that matter...

 

[JackC8]

I said I'd stop by each week to check out the new seasonal events, but of course, here it is Sunday and still no new seasonals. It's almost comical because just last week they said they'd be up each Wednesday, or Thursday at the very latest.

 

[Red-Rice]

I've not played it much thanks to the time constraints, I do play slightly, well I switch on my PS3 find a random online room see that it's full of morons and switch my PS3 off =/
I did join a racing club but I literally can't afford any of their RM cars, hell it would be nice if people raced stock cars from either the dealerships or open online garage but the majority of players just want to use Red Balls or F1 cars, sorry going off topic.

 

[Nielsen]

I play less than I did during the first months but I still play it consistently. I'm slightly bored of A-Spec and B-Spec events because it really does feel like this part of the game is stuck in 1998.

I keep coming back for the driving experience and I still collect every car I come across. Overall still great fun. Also, I'm still waiting for those permanent leaderboards but first they need to fix the corner cutting problems.

 

[paulali1]

I have been playing for about 2 weeks just to grind to b spec lvl 40. After reaching lvl 40 i will have a rest from the game for a bit

 

[Aloha62_2]

Haven't played it since the first week, far too many inconsistencies and issues.

Went back to GT4 as it is superior in many ways.

 

[DaveS1138]

I have had an enforced 2 week absence due to being in California for work for 2 weeks and having serious GT5 withdrawls whilst out here. Can't wait to get back home and start playing again.

 

[Nuck81]

I wiped my Shift save and restarted. Having much more fun replaying Shift..

 

[southslider51]

I stopped playing altogether.Not much fun in doing gt4(basically gt5) again and again and again.(x20) Not saying it's in the trash,but it isn't on the top of the rack anymore either! Why? Online still does not work for me,i have less disconnects with Black ops!(nat type 1-2-3 or 51 doesn't matter!)

 

[gambleboyen]

I doubt many of those that stop playing it come on here anymore.

But I've reduced my playing time from 5-6 hours a week to maybe 30 minutes a week.

 

[Le Mans 88]

Haven't played it since the first week, far too many inconsistencies and issues.

Went back to GT4 as it is superior in many ways.

GT5 has many failings but I will never understand how:-

A. Some only played GT5 for a week or two then gave up given you will open up so little of the game in that time period.

B. How anyone could prefare a previous GT given the inferior physics, lack of online, lack of newer cars and substantially inferior graphics and sound.

I get the feeling those obsessed with single player, levels, seasonal events, challenges etc. are missing the point of GT5 and driving sims, it's all about driving cars online.

 

[Blade2322]

Im still loving this game and have no plans on stopping soon. Between all the single player events i still have to complete, along with online race. Also collecting, repairing, modifing, and tuning all of my cars I should be busy for a while to come.

 

[the Interceptor]

GT5 has many failings but I will never understand how:-

A. Some only played GT5 for a week or two then gave up given you will open up so ittle of the game in that time period.

After playing the game for one week, you will have seen most parts of the game. The higher races and leveling up which comes afterwards technically only is a repetition of the previous stuff. So if the game hasn't appealed to you after a week, it is unlikely to impress you afterwards. I'm not saying it hasn't happened for anyone, but I'd claim those were isolated cases.

B. How anyone could prefare a previous GT given the inferior physics, lack of online, lack of newer cars and substantially inferior graphics and sound.

Like most things in life, a good thing is more than just the sum of its parts. GT5 may have the most cars, the best graphics, online and everything, but it can still provide a less than satisfying gaming experience.

I get the feeling those obsessed with single player, levels, challenges etc. are missing the point of GT5 and driving sims, it's all about driving cars online.

Sorry, where does it say that GT5 is all about online? I respect that this is something which appeals a lot of people, but GT has always been about a very substantial and long-lasting A-Spec mode. The fact that there is online now can hardly be an excuse for ditching that, because it wouldn't hurt anyone and isn't difficult to implement either.

 

[Luminis]

I get the feeling those obsessed with single player, levels, seasonal events, challenges etc. are missing the point of GT5 and driving sims, it's all about driving cars online.

It's all about online, eh? Yet, we have no online leaderboards. Something doesn't add up here.

 

[Tornado]

A. Some only played GT5 for a week or two then gave up given you will open up so ittle of the game in that time period.

I played the game for a month and I had basically seen all it had to offer. Most of the races take place on the same 5-10 tracks, to the extent that there are tracks in the game that are almost completely ignored in GT Life (even though there aren't that many tracks to begin with). And most of the AI that you race against in GT Life is scaled up past real life stats, so there isn't even any incentive in doing races with more obscure cars because you have to tune them immensely just to compete (meaning you might as well use whatever car you originally had, which is what directly leads to grinding).

B. How anyone could prefare a previous GT given the inferior physics, lack of online, lack of newer cars and substantially inferior graphics and sound.

The game design is better in previous titles in the series (except GTPSP, but then again even GTPSP is better in many ways than GT5). This makes all of the above, except for physics, moot, because it makes the game far more enjoyable to actually play. I'm not going to stop playing older games in the series just because the newest game has a small handful of post-2005 cars that I would actually like to use, or because the previous games don't look or sound as good, or because GT5 gives me the privilege of going online and playing against punters and griefers.
And the GT series has always had physics that were acceptable, so it isn't as if when you boot up GT2 (for example) you are suddenly playing Burnout.

I get the feeling those obsessed with single player, levels, challenges etc. are missing the point of GT5 and driving sims, it's all about driving cars online.

You know, I'm pretty sure driving sims existed before online play was viable.

 

[Le Mans 88]

A gamer would prioritise game design over physics.

A car enthusiasts focus is physics and competition against real people.

 

[curtis_boy]

it is so boring to me I just cut it on and look at my garage, buy something out of the ucd see if theres any new seasonals and cut it off and play something else. I remember in the beginning I would play it forever doing a spec and special events, and me and my friends only had level 2 cars like s2k's and third gen rx-7's we would go to every room possible online and race each other but I start getting rare cars from the market here and it became no longer a racing game but like a trading card battle in who has the most rare cars. It sucked the fun out of really having to earn those cars and now I have so much cr. from seasonals I dont want to play the game anymore

 

[Tornado]

A gamer would prioritise game design over physics.

A car enthusiasts focus is physics and competition against real people.

Quite a shame, then, that GT5 doesn't satisfy either group particularly well. Which is particularly odd, because the series didn't have a problem with doing exactly that in the past.


This is, of course, ignoring the elephant in the room regarding how absurd it is to act as if people who want PD to get the "game" part of their driving game done properly are not car enthusiasts because of some arbitrary standard that you made up on the spot.

 

[Luminis]

A car enthusiasts focus is physics and competition against real people.

A car enthusiast might be all about customising his or her car to fit that persons individual taste. In that regard, GT5 doesn't deliver at all.

 

[OwensRacing]

Performace Car Enthusiast......Which would include things like, HP, TQ, Going Fast, Braking hard.....Basically Racing.


GT5 does not have to be about racing. I got a lady friend the enjoys cruising different tracks at a snails pace. She checks out the scenery. I try to get her in a vert with a dash. Should mention I use a wheel and cockpit. . so it has an appeal more so then a DS3 to females.

So on that it offers many venues for all types of enthusuasts. It is not focused on anything more the racing, but it opens doors with offering other things that appeal to people.

I personal dont need rims, wings, RM'd cars (I like to race them though), Oil change, wash, big parts store. I take three stages is fine. . . I am the racer type. If the racing is good then anything over that is purely bonus.

Also for Bspec, I used to be against it. Like whats the point. Till I read about a handicapped person that not being able to play A-spec, but B-spec they could.....they also got to purchase cars and enjoy the "bonus" things. So with that I say B-spec is great and should stay. It helped a person to be a part of GT.

 

[shirakawaa]

Quite a shame, then, that GT5 doesn't satisfy either group particularly well. Which is particularly odd, because the series didn't have a problem with doing exactly that in the past.

You nailed it.
As a game it's not very engaging. As a simulator, in addition to the almost complete lack of actual racing and racing rules, it's not particularly advanced in the physics department (although, it does have improved over last games. But it's still not on par with "light PC sims" such as LFS) and the tuning/settings (or even customization) department.

This is, of course, ignoring the elephant in the room regarding how absurd it is to act as if people who want PD to get the "game" part of their driving game done properly are not car enthusiasts because of some arbitrary standard that you made up on the spot.

True.
To me, the best racing game I played must have been Enthusia Professional Racing (PS2). It had great physics (probably on par with GT5 Prologue if not better) but also was a very fun game to play. It did both things great, but according to some, that's also probably the reason why it didn't have much following as a PS2 title since it was essentially an arcade racing game with sim physics.

 

[Daniel_Elessar]

It does get a bit boring, it feels a little to "clean" everything the cars are great i love racing cars and they include many great cars of a few era's. But I do sometimes miss something I can't describe. I hope the nest update will cover that "feeling"

 

[PSTC555]

I occasionally play the game once in a while, but not as often as I hoped. I really dislike the levelling system on this game, there are events I like to try out but tend to be greeted with "You need to be level XX to enter this event" even though I had the S License very early in the game (in fact what's the point of the license tests to begin when you're barred anyway because you haven't grinded enough?).

This tends to kill off the mood for me, its either I comply and grind for hours in boredom or not bother at all and unfortunately its usually the latter.

 

[aga080]

ive gone to GTR Evolution with my racing wheel, the driving realism of that game is miles ahead of GT5

 

[ianblake]

I haven't really stopped, but I only play it once in a while anymore