Gran Turismo 5- Will It Be Worth The (5 years) Wait?

Vehicles

What do we love most about Gran Turismo? Why, of course! The vehicles, baby! And guess what? The vehicles in Gran Turismo 5 are cooler, bigger and better than any vehicle we have ever seen in any GT game before. Biggies such as Lamborghini, McLaren and Bugatti will be marking their historic debut into the Gran Turismo franchise, and other new vehicles, like the recently unveiled Ferrari 458 Italia and the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, will be making their way into the game as well.

Here is the full list of the vehicles that have been announced to be in Gran Turismo 5 yet:

• 458 Italia (Ferrari)
• SLS AMG (Mercedes)
• McLaren F1 (McLaren)
• Prius (Toyota)
• Insight (Honda)
• Roadster (Tesla)
• XJ13 (Jaguar)
• 330 P4 (Ferrari)
• GT40 Mark IV (Ford)
• X1 Prototype (Red Bull Racing)
• 370Z (Nissan)
• GT-R (Nissan)

Other vehicles that have been known to be featured in Gran Turismo games will definitely be making a return, and we (most probably) haven’t seen ever half of the new vehicles that will be usable within the game.

Yamuchi says he wants to hit the thousand vehicles mark- and he looks well on his way to achieve his target. 16 cars and 32 karts will be usable from the very beginning of the game, and many, many others will be unlockable. Add to that the fact that a kart/car creation mode may well be on the cards, the number of usable vehicles in Gran Turismo 5 will be mammoth. We just hope Polyphone keeps up with the trends, and signs deals with the biggest and the most “happening” car producers.

New Innovations For The Franchise

Kart Racing

Kart racing is the genre that can provide gamers with the most fun and laughs. With games like Mario Kart, Sonic All Star Racing and to an extent, ModNation Racers, already having proved just how fun games of this genre can be, it is a no brainer that Gran Turismo’s kart racing should be immensely fun as well. If only they make sure that no realism and damage is added, they will have struck gold. If they try to make it too realistic though, they can go suck it.

Creation

Polyphone have confirmed that they will be including track creation in Gran Turismo 5, which means win-win! If the track creation is half as detailed as that in this year’s Sony exclusive kart racer, ModNation Racers, it’ll be a hell a lot of fun. What’ll be even better is if you will be able to create your own cars and karts, with your own custom parts and stuff, which would make the experience more addictive, compelling, and on some level, more personal.

In The Face Of Competition

Titles like Forza Motorsport and F1 have recently sprung up, and WRC is making a return soon as well, so the competition against Gran Turismo, the racing simulator genre big daddy, has grown heated, especially due to its long hiatus, during which long leaps have already been made for such games.

The question is, will Gran Turismo 5 actually be able to hold its own in this genre anymore? Or will it, like so many other franchises (Resident Evil, Final Fantasy) become a follower, rather than a leader? Well, it sure seems on its way to success and to achieve greatness. But will it be able to achieve the same level of acclaim and quality as other titles in the genre, like Forza Motorsport 3 and F1 2011 have?

We do not know yet- what we do know, however, is that Polyphony and Sony wouldn’t want to loosen their grasp on the racing sim genre, and Gran Turismo, the franchise, will definitely want to remain the trend setter, the bench mark for all games in the genre to follow.

We will see if Gran Turismo 5 manages to match up to its competition, meet with its hype, justify its delays and does a whole lot of other things when, whenever, the game releases.