Review!!
Gran Turismo 5 offers an absolute feast for car lovers. This is a game stuffed with over a thousand driveable cars (1031 if you want to be precise) and dozens of things to do with them. You can race vintage sport cars through gorgeous mountain valleys. You can race wild concept cars on famous real life tracks. You can take part in rally racing, or fire up the engine for the American NASCAR circuit. Race at night. Race in the rain. You can even race in your underpants (just don't blame us if you get funny looks). Basically, if there's anything to do with cars, it's in this game, OK?
The Gran Turismo series is famous for looking sweeeeeet and since this is the first one to appear on the PlayStation 3, you can expect some seriously amazing graphics. The cars look like the real thing. Seriously! Just look at the pics! And the backgrounds! It's like a photograph. This is the sort of game you could use to trick your dad into thinking he's missing an actual race on the telly!
The only weak spot in the game is the online racing. It's not bad, but it's a bit clunky to get into a race and there aren't many options. When you look at games like Need for Speed, Split/Second and Burnout Paradise have done with multiplayer, it makes Gran Turismo's online offering look a bit old fashioned and boring.
It's taken five years to get here, but Gran Turismo 5 has finally rolled out of the garage and roared off down the street like a dog with his bum on fire. It's sleek. It's shiny. It's very very fast. But is it any good?
Previous Gran Turismo games didn't feature damage, which made them look a bit weird next to smash and crash racers like Burnout. It's great to race a lovely new sports car, but you want it to fly to pieces when you crash, not bounce off like a toy. Thankfully, realistic damage is now in the game, so you can destroy millions of pounds worth of luxury motors without worrying about the bill!
Gran Turismo 5 is absolutely essential for all petrolheads. This is a game that loves cars so much it wants to cover them in chocolate and eat them up for pudding. There's so much to do, you'll never get bored, and it's one of the most amazing looking games around as well. Buy it!
