Gran Turismo 5

[Yegolev]

Someone implied car modification is not that great.  Confirm/deny?

[jakonovski]

Someone implied car modification is not that great.  Confirm/deny?

It's about the same as GT4, upgrades mostly give hp boosts and with other stuff there isn't much explanation. Weirdly there was no options for brakes, at least not on the cars I have modded so far (Autozam Az-1 & old Fiat 500).

[Falconeer]

As much as I am in love with this game, to the evident point of fanboism, I have to say that I am disappointed in some of the engine sounds. Sure, I'll cut them some slack, 1000 cars, I wasn't expecting perfection on all of them, but not even generic_engine_noise#1 repeated n times and crap like that. I mean, if you decide to make characteristics and weird cars like the glorious Fiat 500, and you spend enough time to make it a Premium car, how the hell can you completely forget to record his real engine sound? Whoever have seen a real 500 knows it has a unique, clunky shitty sound, you can't change that with the bland vacuum-like buzzing of modern cars. You just can't! It's unforgivable and immersion breaking.

That said, the Roma circuit is nothing short of incredible. I've driven through that part of the city every week for the last 36 years and let me tell you, it's pixel perfect.
Trivia note: when you turn around the Colosseo, the point where the road stops climbing and starts sloping down  (while still turning right around the monument), glance left: that's Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, official Gay Street of Roma  

[Falconeer]

For really curious people, this is the part of Roma you are driving through: Google Maps link

[MisterNoisy]

Someone implied car modification is not that great.  Confirm/deny?

As mentioned before, no brake mods at all, either improvements or even adjusting brake bias.  Additionally, as far as I can tell, you can't adjust individual gear ratios - just final drive.  No modification of wheels on the 'non-premium' cars (and even then, you're limited to the stock wheel/tire sizes anyway), no body mods save for the occasional wing for the 'standard' cars and a fair number of the 'premium' cars, though some of the latter have some decent options for stuff beyond the wings.  Race conversion ala GT1 is also (very rarely) available as well for certain cars.

Swapping drivetrains or even engines is a no-go.  As for actual parts/modifications to the engine, you just get a 'stage 1/2/3' tune + ECU and then either low/mid/high RPM turbo or supercharger forced induction options (limited by car type - American cars generally get supercharger options while Euro/Asian cars can usually use turbos) and sport/race intake/exhaust mods, but again, these aren't available on all cars either.

Paint is where it gets uniquely Japan-weird - you get a paint chip for the color of a car when you receive it initially.  You can then use that chip to repaint another of your cars the same color, but the chip is consumed in the process(?!).  If you're driving a 'premium' car, you can do the same with the wheels.

As an added bonus, the intensely stupid car maintenance shit is still in - oil changes, washes, and overhauls of engine/chassis.  Yay.  As an added bonus, all of these have unskippable animations and load times associated with them too.  As an upside, the oil change bug is still in - if you get a brand new car and change the oil immediately before doing anything else, you get a little HP boost.

[Yegolev]

OK, that's pretty fucked.  Racing sim where I can't tune my brakes, gear ratios, and other assorted details?  WTF?

[MisterNoisy]

Hilariously, you can also do an 'ECU upgrade' on a Citroen 2CV.  I wish they'd stop that shit.

[Rendakor]

OK, that's pretty fucked.  Racing sim where I can't tune my brakes, gear ratios, and other assorted details?  WTF?

Yea that's really stupid, especially since you have to micro manage fucking oil changes.

[NiX]

OK, that's pretty fucked.  Racing sim where I can't tune my brakes, gear ratios, and other assorted details?  WTF?

Yea that's really stupid, especially since you have to micro manage fucking oil changes.

Guess I'll find a copy of Forza then.

[jakonovski]

Hilariously, you can also do an 'ECU upgrade' on a Citroen 2CV.  I wish they'd stop that shit.

Yeah, I got a '68 Fiat 500 and the first thing I did was to get one extra horsepower with an ECU mod.

[Falconeer]

I don't know what's a ECU mod, but those 500 were modded into monsters back in the days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7FbBWGrW7w&feature=related

[jakonovski]

WTF, Sony is now claiming there is no unlockable damage, it's all right there from the start. This game is worth it for the drama alone.

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/113/1137446p1.html

[jakonovski]

I don't know what's a ECU mod, but those 500 were modded into monsters back in the days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7FbBWGrW7w&feature=related

I love all Fiat 500's.

[Yegolev]

WTF, Sony is now claiming there is no unlockable damage, it's all right there from the start. This game is worth it for the drama alone.

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/113/1137446p1.html

So it's based on car quality, which is based on your progress through the game.

[jakonovski]

That doesn't make any sense either, as I've crashed my premium AZ-1 pretty liberally. No damage so far. Maybe I need to go in excess of 200km/h to damage a car?

[MisterNoisy]

Once I hit about driver level 10-12, I could actually start to 'deform' the car models, which basically looked like it was just stretching the mesh and layering on 'damage' textures.  As far as I can tell, there's no impact on performance at that driver level.  Even blasting full-speed into the wall at the end of the long straight on Trial Mountain just mildly warped the front end with no other effects noticeable (I was curious).

That said, it's still a fun game - it just seems a bit behind the times in everything that isn't the 200 'premium' cars and the driving model.

[Yegolev]

I suppose you meant that the racing portion is fun.

[MisterNoisy]

I suppose you meant that the racing portion is fun.

Yeah - it's a fun game when you're driving.  Everything else, not so much.

[jakonovski]

Haha, apparently damage is divided among car types roughly so that standards do nothing, normal premiums get slight dents, race cars get fenders hanging loose, and one (1) car, the Subaru Impreza rally car, can be extensively damaged as shown in all the videos.

[MisterNoisy]

Haha, apparently damage is divided among car types roughly so that standards do nothing, normal premiums get slight dents, race cars get fenders hanging loose, and one (1) car, the Subaru Impreza rally car, can be extensively damaged as shown in all the videos.

Well, that explains why all of the pre-release demos only used that car.  It's strange that this game took six years to make and still feels incomplete in parts.

[HaemishM]

Haha, apparently damage is divided among car types roughly so that standards do nothing, normal premiums get slight dents, race cars get fenders hanging loose, and one (1) car, the Subaru Impreza rally car, can be extensively damaged as shown in all the videos.

That makes no sense except as a "shit we need to release something" fuckup.

[jakonovski]

The disappointments continue: I've been trying to win the Yaris race for 30 minutes now. A continuing theme is that a Yaris with less power than my souped up version suddenly slingshots past me at huge speed. It would seem that the AI is entirely governed by rubberband and car performance stats are just a guideline to be broken when needed.

[Falconeer]

While I am being silent because my fanboism impacted the reality of some obvious disappointments here and there, I think the Yaris race is your fault. I didn't have any problem there. Sorry for the stupid question, but you have a steering wheel, right?

[fuser]

The disappointments continue: I've been trying to win the Yaris race for 30 minutes now. A continuing theme is that a Yaris with less power than my souped up version suddenly slingshots past me at huge speed. It would seem that the AI is entirely governed by rubberband and car performance stats are just a guideline to be broken when needed.

The Yaris race for me was a huge being consistent and drafting. I had base euro spec yaris with a mild turbo upgrade. For the licenses I have been watching http://www.youtube.com/user/Stune5 videos which are really helpful. Nascar events on the other hand makes me weep at how they have so poor handling cars.

[jakonovski]

While I am being silent because my fanboism impacted the reality of some obvious disappointments here and there, I think the Yaris race is your fault. I didn't have any problem there. Sorry for the stupid question, but you have a steering wheel, right?

Dualshock, but it's not the issue. I blaze past the AI in corners, it's on the straights where they get huge boosts (no drafting). I did win it eventually.

[Yegolev]

It's strange that this game took six years to make and still feels incomplete in parts.

That makes no sense except as a "shit we need to release something" fuckup.

[Falconeer]

As mentioned before, no brake mods at all, either improvements or even adjusting brake bias.  Additionally, as far as I can tell, you can't adjust individual gear ratios - just final drive.

Quote from: Yegolev on November 30, 2010, 07:58:22 pm
OK, that's pretty fucked.  Racing sim where I can't tune my brakes, gear ratios, and other assorted details?  WTF?

You can change and adjust the break balance, you just can't buy brake improvements.
Also, you can adjust gear ratios, but you have to buy the improvement for that.

My take is that not all improvements and/or settings are available for all cars, which leads to confusion.
Honestly, the tuning menu (the one available when you are in the race menu, not the one available from the garage/dashboard) has pretty much all the settings I can think of. Don't know what you think it's missing there. Body Chassis, Engine, Intake System, Exhaust, Turbo Kits, Transmission, Drivetrain, Suspension, Brakes, Tyres. What's wrong with it?

My infos come from personal testing (I have the game in front of me right now), on a Toyota Vitz 1.5 '07, not exactly a racing beast.

[MisterNoisy]

Also, you can adjust gear ratios, but you have to buy the improvement for that.

Odd - even with the fully adjustable transmission, I could only change them all at once (pretty much just modifying the final drive ratio) and not fine-tune the individual gears themselves.  Is that one of those things that you can only do on certain cars as well?

[jakonovski]

I gotta say, for all the poo-pooing I've been doing, I still love this game to bits. It's got the GT spirit, and is addictive as fuck. I also kind of like the archaicness. Nostalgia!

[Falconeer]

I just won the FR level 4 race (from the beginner set) in my enhanced 1971 grabber yellow Mustang Mach 1 against all those silly RX-7s, Skylines and Supras. Priceless 

[jakonovski]

I just won the FR level 4 race (from the beginner set) in my enhanced 1971 grabber yellow Mustang Mach 1 against all those silly RX-7s, Skylines and Supras. Priceless 

The prize car for that is suhhhhh-weet!

[fuser]

Aced the sambavan top gear race on the 4th try, alas the Elise race is tough. Problem is the the weight transfer is so touchy in the car and the tires are crap. So if you mash the brakes or throttle the car is spinning.

[Falconeer]

Oh the Samba van Top Gear one took me a good full hour and about 30 retries! I kept hitting everything and being disqualified.

[Murgos]

I don't know what's a ECU mod, but those 500 were modded into monsters back in the days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7FbBWGrW7w&feature=related

It's pretty much impossible to upgrade the Engine Control Unit (computer) on a car built before computers existed...

[Falconeer]

I didn't know what ECU stood for. Now I agree with someone before me, I wish they'd stop that shit.