I'n not much of a gamer but I like racing games

Posted 10-08-2010 at 12:52 AM by populuxe
Updated 10-08-2010 at 04:06 AM by populuxe

I've only ever bought game consoles for just one franchise: Gran Turismo. I love cars and I love the GT games. A friend bought me the first game back in 1995 (he already owned the Playstation console) and I was hooked. It was the best, most realistic driving simulator I had ever played. I've now been playing Gran Turismo in some form or another (and its motorcycle racing sibling Tourist Trophy) for the last 15 years. I bought a PS2 when GT3 came out, and a PSP when GTPSP came out. I haven't yet bought a PS3 because GT5 isn't out yet.

I got tired of waiting for GT5 (I know it's a big job, but five years? It feels like GT5 is the racing sim equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever), so I bought an XBox 360 and Forza Motorsport 3 last month. I was disappointed at first. I had to return the 4gb XBox and exchange it for the 250gb version since the 4gb version lacked many features. I was highly annoyed. I bought the game and the console and I still couldn't get something as basic as replay? Typical Microsoft bullshit. But now that I've got the correct (re: the most expensive) console, it works fine.

I just paid for an XBox live gold membership for the next year and spent the evening downloading every available car pack and racetrack that didn't already come with the game. I spent $60 for the game, and another $50 for points to download the additional content. Again, typical M$ bullshit. Still, I do it because I love the cars. If the game itself wasn't so much fun, I wouldn't be wasting my money. And it is fun. I've really been enjoying it. The selection of cars is excellent, the racetracks are fun, and the racing feels natural and is very entertaining. So I may grump, but I'll pony up for the additional content because the game delivers.

So what about GT5? I just prepaid for the deluxe version of the game. Fortunately I don't have to pay for the PS3. The week after I got the XBox 360, my roommate got the PS3. GT5 drops next month, so I'm all set. With two consoles and two top level racing games, all my gamer needs are met for the foreseeable future.

Comments 10

Total Comments 10

Comments

	I've always felt that any racing game (like any flying game) that doesn't let you blow your opponents up is missing the point. But thats just me. Gran Turismo (the only one of which I played was 3, like, 10 years ago or something) really would have benefited from a blue shell.
	Posted 10-08-2010 at 02:26 AM by Fencedude

Gran Turismo may not have blue shells, but GT3 and 4 have a race track called the Test Course that's something like 4 miles long. It's just a giant oval with really long straights. So for fun, I do a 180 and head right back toward all those other cars doing 200+mph. Watch the 400+mph closing speed carnage as cars go flying! Better, you can save the replay then take photos of it all to impress your friend and terrify your enemies.

Posted 10-08-2010 at 04:14 AM by populuxe populuxe is offline

	If I had the money, I'd get myself 4 or 5 copies of those GT5 Ultra Editions or whatever. They'll be worth serious $$$ on the after market once the game has been out a while.
	Posted 10-09-2010 at 07:49 AM by Senku

	I have GT2 and 4, and GT2 is my favorite despite the fact that it doesn't let you fully complete it due to no drag racing. 4 is kind of lame but it does have the Shuichi Shigeno edition AE86 which is cool.
	Posted 10-09-2010 at 09:54 AM by Zeether

	I liked GT3, but never got far in GT4 after blowing all my cash upgrading a car only to discover opponents level with you. I mean, a track like the Nurburingurungerbung is great and all, but I'll be damned if I'm going to learn it well enough to win through skill alone!
	Posted 10-11-2010 at 06:47 PM by Isuzu Inugami

I love the Nurburgring. I want to drive it for real one of these days.

Honestly, I care less about the racing and more about the photography in GT4. That's what's kept my interest up these last 5 years.

The photography in Forza is annoying. There's no phototravel mode, only in-race photography. So I can only take photos of the car with a driver in it. Unless I photograph it in my garage with no background and only some of the car in the photo. Then I can't just save the photograph to the USB port, even though there are two USB ports. I have to save it to the console, then upload it to the Forza website, then wait for the slow as molasses Forza servers to pull the image up, then I can finally download it. Oh, and I only get 18 images at a time on the Forza site. It would have been so much easier to just let us save the photos to the USB port already provided.

Posted 10-11-2010 at 09:31 PM by populuxe populuxe is offline

I've had GT5 for about 3 months now, and I am thoroughly unimpressed. I'm so disappointed, I've gone back to playing Forza. Here's what I've been doing lately:

I've been using the livery editor to recreate famous racing schemes. The first image is a Porsche Carrera GT painted in the classic Gulf colors of the Porsche 917 that won the 1970 24 Hours of LeMans. The middle image is a Lancia Stratos in the AlItalia paint scheme worn by the Rally championship winning Lancias of the mid-1970s. The final image is a late 1960s Plymouth Barracuda painted in the classic Sox & Martin NHRA drag racer of the same era.

I've been having fun making these. I've had to create a lot of those logos from scratch. The Gulf logo, all the AlItalia logos, and nearly every logo on the 'Cuda I made myself. For some reason, I'm having more fun doing this than actually racing the cars.

Posted 02-28-2011 at 04:24 AM by populuxe populuxe is offline

Yeah, GT5's got a lot of work to be done (namely on the premium/standard car front because the AE86 is only standard)

I love the Lancia Stratos. It's a fantastic and beautiful car, and I'm glad that it's making a return soon as a production car. It still has the styling of the rear end of the old car but the front looks more like a newer car entirely.

Have you tried looking in the auction house for anime decals? There's a lot of them.

Posted 03-01-2011 at 05:55 PM by Zeether Zeether is offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeether

Have you tried looking in the auction house for anime decals? There's a lot of them.

That's a thought, although I'm having plenty of fun right now recreating classic racing liveries. I'm working on a couple of different cars right now. An AMC Javelin painted like Mark Donhoue's Trans-Am winner from 1971, and a Datsun 240Z I'm painting like the East Africa Safari rally car from the early '70s. Both should look good when I'm done.

Posted 03-01-2011 at 06:57 PM by populuxe populuxe is offline

	Oooh. I like the BRE paint scheme for the Z.
	Posted 03-01-2011 at 07:27 PM by Zeether

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