granturismo 5

When Gran Turismo 4 came out in 2004, smoking was still legal in pubs in Britain and George W Bush had just won a second term as American president.

Gran Turismo 5 has been in production for that whole time. Six years. The Need for Speed series may have sold more overall, but GT is the grand dame of racing franchises. Developer Polyphony Digital and CEO Kazunori Yamauchi, himself a professional racing driver, have cultivated a reputation for pathological attention to detail.

Anticipation has therefore been running very high for their first full-sized excursion on the current generation of consoles. 2008's GT5: Prologue was basically just a large demo, and it says a lot about the pull of the franchise that nearly five million people paid for it.
Arcade mode is as good a place as any to start, dropping straight into the action, with a two-player split-screen mode, time trials and races, and also the interesting – if difficult to master – drift mode. Driving feels immediately weighty and communicative through even a standard controller, though the experience is considerably improved with a full force feedback wheel.
The bulk of gameplay – and what a bulk it is – is in GT mode. You start your career journey with 20,000 credits, and have a choice between going for new vehicles (a predictably vast range of options lies before you, most of it for the moment unaffordable) or browsing the more eclectic second-hand collection. Your 20k isn't much to play with, and the cars you really want cost millions, but there's always the arcade mode if you want immediate access to the good stuff.

GT mode is a bit of a slog, actually, especially if you're impatient to "own" something impressive and take it online, but there's a huge number of things to be getting on with. There's the A-spec races, some open series, some requiring specific types of car, which will be familiar to players of the previous GT games. There's the License Tests section, which teaches you slipstreaming, cornering techniques and so on, which is exhaustive and no doubt very useful for budding professional racing drivers, but can be tedious.

Much, much more fun are the Special Events. Each event provides you with a car and drops you straight into the action. It's astonishing how flexible Polyphony's engine is: NASCAR feels just as right-on as dirt rallying or go-karting, or mucking about on the Top Gear test track.
Astonishingly, this feast is hidden behind a much smaller and more modest button than the one that offers "B-spec" – an eccentric mode in which you pick an AI driver to race for you, in your car, and then watch and attempt to issue instructions. I found it odd that such weight was given to part of a driving game where you to opt out of driving, but I'm sure many will find the tactical considerations rewarding.
Online play is being given a real hard-sell, which is surprising because it lacks almost all of the charm and innovation of the single-player game. That's not to say that it isn't accomplished; there are a couple of interesting modes, such as one that randomly selects a set of cars, and you can bring your lovingly customised baby from the GT campaign – but there's no way I could find to match your car to ones of similar power or drivetrain. As if that wasn't irritating enough, the lobby system is clunky and race modes are comparatively limited.

Another gripe: while the headline figure promises a thousand-plus vehicles, only the few hundred fully modelled premium cars do justice to the PS3's graphical capabilities; the rest have been imported from the PS2 and given a cursory brush-up. The premium cars are so exquisite, however, that you can understand why the new collision damage mechanics – a first in a Gran Turismo game – feel half-hearted.

But it has a sheer appreciation, and love, for cars and driving that is difficult to resist. At times it feels less like playing a game and more like indulging in a hobby. Clearly it's no longer the sole pretender to the title of Best Racing Game; competitors snap at its heels in terms of graphical pyrotechnics, driving feel and immersion, and there are certainly better multiplayer experiences out there. But there's nothing with this much charm. If you want simply to bask in a deep love for cars, then there is still no better franchise.