Quick Look: Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo 5 is finally out and for two days I have been racing my way through as many as possible of the racing tracks included in the game using as many as possible of the cars, preferably of the Premium variety, in an effort to see as much as possible of what the new Polyphony Digital game has to offer.

Bottom line: there is a lot of racing game in Gran Turismo 5.

After about half an hour in the GT mode of the game I got access to a kart and then I took a look at the Special Events category to see that Nascar, a few driving academies and some rally races are also unlockable at some point.

There are also a whole lot of races in both A and B Spec events, again unlockable as the gamer progresses through the game and acquires more cars and more levels.

And I spent about 2 hours trying to get Gold trophies for the challenges that are listed under the License section, although they play a very limited role in the leveling up which leads to more events and to better cars.

And, for those who are more interested in customizing than in racing there's a whole lot of tweaking to do on the cars that the player owns, not to mention a whole lot of window shopping to be done both at legit car dealerships and at used game stores.

And, beyond the lure of a big amount of content, Gran Turismo 5 is the sort of game which challenges the player to master the mechanics, understand the tracks, learn the patterns and take the front in the first corner and then lead for the entire race.

The initial races might seem a bit hard, with cars slow and handling close to atrocious, especially after experiencing a bit of Arcade races, but after just a few levels the game opens up and becomes challenging and exciting at the same time.