
The failure of Gran Turismo 5: the power of menus and UI - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/12/the-failure-of-gran-turismo-5-the-power-of-menus-and-ui.ars
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PatrickTulskie
Honestly, the menu system does suck a little bit, but I don't find myself
spending tons of time trying to find cars or remember the makes/models/years.
I know "ok this requires 1970s cars made in Europe." ...nothing in the used
cars section so I'll do something else. The author on Ars blew it out of
proportion a bit.

What is frustrating is navigating around the dashboard page because sometimes
the selector jumps to an area I'm not expecting based on the direction I
pressed on the d-pad. Also, some shortcuts could have been implemented to make
buying cars for races easier but it's not much different from previous titles
in the Gran Turismo franchise.

My only gripe with the game has been that you can't invite someone into a game
in online play. Call of Duty makes this very simple and GT5 missed it by a
long shot. Hopefully an update will fix this but I doubt it.

Otherwise, the game has been great and I'm having a blast playing it.

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e40
I was actually considering getting this for my son, since we are huge fans of
Top Gear (UK) and would love to drive the Veyron around the TG test track. Of
course, I'd have to get a PS3 first, but this and his luke warm reaction to my
suggestion of getting it... well, that clinches the deal. No thanks.

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Legion
Get your kid a 360 (if you lack one) and Forza Motorsport 3 instead. The
driving model is superior to Gran Turismo (at least as of GT5: Prologue, which
really disappointed me as an old GT fan) and the interface is not the hell
described in this article.

Gran Turismo is the grandaddy, and I still look back incredibly fondly to the
old Gran Turismo games. But the place to get that game now is Forza.
Definitely for the Top Gear fan that wants to drive cars as "realistically" as
possible on a video game console (there's neat hardcore stuff in the PC realm
to check out as well, but they're definitely not as accessible as a Forza).

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amackera
In my opinion the driving model of Forza is not nearly at the level of GT5.
Methinks this is highly subjective though.

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Legion
Like I said, I've only gone up to GT5: Prologue, and not the actual GT5
release. But I found that I could take corners at ridiculous (for a
simulation) speeds with street tires on and every available "assist" disabled
in GT5: Prologue. It was _incredibly_ forgiving for the so-called "Real
Driving Simulator".

I would be happy to hear that GT5 has taken the training wheels off and amped
up the realism of the driving model. But with GT5: Prologue, I could easily
demonstrate poor driving that was forgiven by GT5: Prologue that would spin me
out in the more stringently realistic Forza model.

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erso
I played Prologue after having played a lot of FM3, and being a long-time GT4
fan, and found it to be terrible. There was a demo out at one point released
some 8 or 9 months after Prologue that was leaps and bounds ahead of it. I
haven't yet played the final product but I'd assume it's more in line with
that demo that's no longer available.

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yosho
this post would be a lot better if they actually had screenshots of videos of
the menu system so we know what all the frustration is about.

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warp
See <http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-gran-turismo-5/17-3535/> for a video
which shows some of this.

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bonzoesc
My favorite part of the video is how it takes them twenty-five minutes to
start racing.

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Dramatize
Battlefield Bad Company 2 has one of the worst interfaces too.

