RogueyWon's Journal: Gran Turismo 5: Event Mode and some corrections

First things first, a couple of quick corrections and clarifications. I'm trying to give a balanced and accurate view of the game in these posts and while I stand by 99% of what I've written, there are two corrections needed:

First of all, the long "mini" installs I complained about on the first day were, it seems, as a result of congestion on Polyphony's servers. I didn't realise that the game accessed the net constantly (if a connection is available) during singleplayer play. With the congestion now somewhat relieved, the loading delays navigating the menus are much reduced and the mini-installs tend to be over in 10-15 seconds. Of course, how comfortable you are with a game that accesses the net constantly while you play singleplayer may vary.

Second, I found other ways of making cash in-game (which I'll cover in a moment) which reduce the amount of time you will have to spend grinding the same few events for cash. Note, however, that I say "reduce", not "remove"; you'll still have to repeat events from time to time, which doesn't tend to be the case in other games these days.

With that out of the way, I thought I'd cover GT5's event mode. Event mode in GT4 was pretty poor, really; a sequence of fixed-car races which demanded a level of cornering perfection that was mostly impossible on a Dualshock 2. GT5's event mode has been expanded upon significantly, with quite a few unique-vehicle races and even a few cutscenes locked away here. I spent a few hours in event mode last night and had experiences which, while mixed, did include some positives.

I'll start with the positives; the kart racing is fun. Kart racing is the first of the event mode races to be unlocked (they all have level restrictions) and, based on the ones I've seen so far, certainly the best. Yes, the same problems that plague the proper races, such as braindead AI and a horrible implementation of slipstreaming, are still there, but the nature of the kart races tends to shift the emphasis away from them. The karts are nimble and slightly tricky to control, which pans out very well; you need a lot of finesse to manage both the steering and the acceleration and braking. Happily, the degree of finesse required is not beyond what's possible on a Dualshock 3, so overall. Better still, the collision physics, which feel vastly inappropriate in the rest of the game, actually feel just fine for kart racing.

Some of the other events are rather less impressive. I found the NASCAR one deeply dull, though at least the slipstream stuff feels vaguely appropriate in the context of NASCAR. A race in camper vans around the Top Gear Test Track is a good pun but a bad event, and demonstrates the irritating uber-perfectionism of GT4's events. The Nurburgring events are ok, though timed point to point runs are hardly anything new (Forza 3 did them too). The rally events lie further into the event mode, but I've not yet gotten around to trying them out.

One curious fact about event mode is that it is absurdly generous with its cash rewards. Getting a gold in a single event, some of which last only a few seconds, can give more cash than an entire comparable-level 3-race event out in A-Spec mode. Interestingly, while completed events can be played again, they only give out each level of cash reward (gold, silver, bronze) once. They don't want you farming these for cash.

Back in A-Spec mode, I spent some time with the "classic" car events. These form three out of the nine beginner level events, so they're prominent right from the start of the game. For the most part, they're not too bad. The classic cars handle convincingly enough, though all of the flaws of the other races are still present. One irritating fact I did find with these heavily restricted-entry races is that there tends to be one or two cars on the AI roster for each whose performance is completely out of line with the rest. For example, in the Japanese classics series, you may find yourself facing a 1978 Dome Zero; this beast is going to be completely unbeatable unless you have either a fortune to spend boosting the power of one of the other cars, or get lucky enough to snag one for yourself (and I've not seen one on sale). I ended up quitting and reloading one race several times until the game's random number generator decided not to put that car on the grid. The game is in desperate need of a Forza-style "Performance Index", which can be used to keep events reasonably balanced (not least by preventing the player from "cheesing" them with an overpowered car).

I also spent some time with the car tuning menu last night (as opposed to the upgrade menu). This is, irritatingly, tucked away on the garage menu, rather than on the tuning shop menu or the race menu, meaning a lot of clicking through menus if you need to change a car's setup between races). This became necessary for me when I hit a race around the Cirque de la Sarthe, which the default gear ratios for my car was rendering unwinnable. Aside from tweaking gear ratios, I was slightly disappointed by how limited the tuning options were; there wasn't that much else I could do. Maybe more will unlock later.

Good critique

[PopeRatzo]

I didn't realise that the game accessed the net constantly (if a connection is available) during singleplayer play.

This is the way of the gaming world, these days.

I've been playing Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (I'm a little bit ashamed to say I enjoy burnout racing games) and during the single player, there are these long periods during which a lot of bytes seem to be flying up and down the pipe. Sometimes a couple of minutes worth, and this is before any "loading" screen appears. During this time, the gr