Gran Turismo 5 Message Board older than one year ago

At last night’s Gran Turismo 5 panel at the Tokyo Game Show in Makuhari Messe, Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamauchi gave an extensive update on new features coming to GT5. Highlights included new community features related to My Home, weather effects such as rainfall, returning legacy tracks, and new cars. For more details, see the full announcement on Gran-Turismo.com. But first things first! Watch the new Tokyo Game Show trailer for Gran Turismo 5 below.

My Home Detailed

Gran Turismo 5 will include a big focus on social media functions and community interaction. The record of your playing experience, as well as your future objectives, are all organized on the “My Home” screen — a sort of “home base” for GT5 players. In addition to your PS3, My Home will also be viewable from your PC’s web browser starting on November 2nd, GT5’s release date. Kazunori explained that while console gaming and web browser gaming are separate fields, GT5’s My Home function will help bridge this gap.

My Home is made up of three modes: GT LIFE, Profiles, and Community. Today, Polyphony Digital primarily touched upon the Community element. Kazunori explained that, while the major feature of the Community element is the ability to privately communicate with and race your PSN friends online, there are many other communication features built into GT5. Sharing photos and user-created courses, mail, and even a BBS bulletin board will all be included in the Community section of GT5. These functions will also be available for use in a web browser on Gran-Turismo.com as well as your PS3. You’ll also be able to “gift” cars or car parts to your PSN friends.

Inside Community is “My Lounge,” in which up to 16 friends can gather to hold online races. Lounge rules are up to you and can be changed from lounge to lounge: A Spec allows you to race from behind the wheel, while B Space allows you to give commands to an AI driver as a sort of “director’s mode.” The AI driver feature also allows you to “rent out” AI drivers, and they’ll gain experience as they race.

Remote Racing is a special mode in Commmunity that also ties into the AI drivers and web browser support. In Remote Racing, you can set up an AI driver as “public,” and he may race against one of your PSN friends while you’re away. When you return, he’ll have gained experience while you were away. In Remote Racing, you’ll be able to watch these races, but not give AI commands like you would in the standard B Spec mode.

New Cars and X1 Prototype Reveal

With over 1000 cars in the final game, Polyphony Digital showed off a selection of new cars, starting with the X1 Prototype Project, a dream car that was designed in a partnership between Red Bull Racing and Polyphony Digital. See the mysterious X1 Prototype in the new video below.

Kazunori explained that both teams were interested in building a car that “throws aside all rules and regulations,” and was built for maximum performance — “the fastest racing car on land.” The X1 Protoype will be playable in GT5. In addition to the X1 Prototype, Kazunori also introduced a selection of new cars that will make it into GT5 on November 2nd.

Isuzu 4200R ’89

Citroën GT by Citroën Race Car

Volkswagen typ2 (T1) Samba Bus ‘62

Volkswagen Kubelwagen typ82 ‘44

Volkswagen Schwimmwagen typ166 ‘42

Returning Legacy Tracks

Kazanori also confirmed that some popular legacy tracks from GT’s history have been rebuilt and remodeled for GT5. Check them out in the screens below.

Trial Mountain Circuit in Gran Turismo 5

Laguna Seca Raceway in Gran Turismo 5

Sarthe 2009 in Gran Turismo 5

Weather Change Effects

Finally, the Polyphony Digital team also confirmed that environmental changes due to rain and snow have been implemented — down to functional windshield wipers. Combined with other new visual effects such as day-and-night cycle, lightning and tire smoke, Kazanori explained that the weather effects will allow for more immersive racing experiences. Kazanori also confirmed that the weather effects wouldn’t be available on every course, but primarily courses focused on endurance racing.

For more details on Gran Turismo 5′s Tokyo Game Show announcements, visit Gran-Turismo.com.

A Polyphony Digital press briefing is like a class, but the classroom is full of race cars.

In addition to all the crazy new features announced for Gran Turismo 5 at Sony's TGS press conference, Polyphony Digital has unleashed a flood of new assets. Detailed in pictures are some silly cars (like the Volkswagen Samba Bus!), some returning favorite courses, and the truly detailed weather system.

#granturismo5 Next year, my family and I are planning to buy a new car. So who better to ask about that than a guy known for creating "The Real Driving Simulator". More »

#tokyogameshow2010 Kazunori Yamauchi, designer of the Gran Turismo, is showing off the latest entry Gran Turismo 5. There is a Logitech steering wheel clamped to a table. Driving ahoy! More »

At some point, Kazunori Yamauchi and his team at Polyphony Digital are going to be forced to stop adding functionality to the eternally in-development Gran Turismo 5. Until then, they continue to announce new features at every major press event. At this year's TGS, it's "Gran Turismo Anywhere," a new web portal for the racing sim. Features of GTA - actually, let's just call it Gran Turismo Anywhere - include My Home, which includes message boards, photo sharing, and the like, as well as Remote Races, which isn't real-time racing over the web, but rather a racing team management simulation.

Yamauchi also announced the X1, a virtual super car in Gran Turismo 5 that seeks to answer the following question: "What would a racing car, freed of all technical regulations look like?" Because F1 cars, rally cars, NASCAR cars, and go-karts just weren't enough, now GT5 also has make-believe cars in its virtual garage. Some more pics of Yamauchi's presentation after the break, but first a poll!
View Poll

#granturismo5 Gran Turismo 5 features car damage — a first for the series. Does developer Polyphony Digital do, dare I say, a bang-up job? More »

Find out how much space you'll want for a "smooth" experience.

#ps3 Gran Turismo 5's base installation is just 256 megabytes. There's also a 10 gigabyte install for roomier drives, according to the series' top designer. More »

Yesterday, while answering Gran Turismo 5 fans' questions via his Twitter feed, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi made a fairly startling announcement. Though the game will only require a 256MB pseudo-install on the PS3 hard drive in order to be playable, Yamauchi suggests players reserve 10GB of HDD space for the smoothest possible gameplay experience.

Yamauchi's 140-character missive wasn't able to explain exactly why the game has two install options, or how much of an improvement the 10GB installation would offer. Not that this should matter much to folks who own a newer PS3 with a beefier hard drive -- though folks with one of the older 20GB models probably have a few difficult deletion decisions to make if they pick up Gran Turismo 5 when it launches November 2.

#ps3 GT5 designer Kazunori Yamauchi wasn't kidding when he said there might be "too much" detail in the game. Just look at that engine! Detail out the whazoo. More »

#screengrab 1987's Test Drive had five cars. 2009's Need for Speed: Shift had more. And at the other end of the spectrum, we have GT5 and its 200 "premium" cars and its 800 standard cars. As seen on Pixel Counterrr. More »

Deletions can be done instantly, but would be unfortunate, says Yamauchi.

#kazunoriyamauchi Officials from the Italian city of Siena are ticked that the city's Piazza del Campo is a track in Gran Turismo 5. There have been legal threats with Siena saying it'll seize the game. More »

#gamescom These aren't the games we think were the best of GamesCom. They're the games that an "independent expert jury" has deemed to be the official best in show. More »

#herewegoagain Officials of Siena, the historic walled city in Tuscany, Italy, are unhappy that their Piazza del Campo is a race course in Gran Turismo 5's new kart mode, and will demand that Sony remove it from the game. More »

#gt5 Oh boy. There may not be any blue shells or banana peels lying around, but Gran Turismo 5's kart mode still looks like a lot of fun. And that could be crucial to the game's success. More »

#gallery Well, okay then. Here you go. We've already posted more GT5 screens than you can shake a Prius at, but have some more. Go on. You deserve it. More »

Leave it to the makers of Gran Turismo 5 to take all the "cute" out of kart racing. At Gamescom this week, Polyphony Digital is showing off the two newest features of the ever-expanding sim racer: incredibly realistic go-karts and a track editor (which were unceremoniously revealed a few months ago). The track editor, dubbed "Course Maker," is described by the EU PlayStation Blog as featuring "a dizzying array of settings to tweak" -- no surprise there! Actually, Yamauchi and company appear to have connected with reality just long enough to pare down the editor to four selectable themes for custom tracks.

Of course, by not sinking resources into a more full-featured track editor, Polyphony Digital came up with plenty of time to expand GT5 in other directions. Did you know the Photo Travel mode you'll never use now supports 3D images through the use of technology you don't own? Don't worry -- you won't miss out on the complete "racing simulator RPG" that's been added. At least, that's how Yamauchi described the enhanced B-Spec race manager mode, which has you coaching up to six racers and their varying personalities throughout a simulated lifetime.

"In GT5 we have been able to create what I originally intended," Yamauchi said of the updated B-Spec mode during his Gamescom presentation. The team's even created what was originally intended for GT6: kart racing. And why not? Gran Turismo 6 could be a while.

Guten Tag Gran Turismo fans! We’re coming to you semi-live and sort-of on-location from ze lovely German city of Cologne, site of this year’s gamescom, with a quick update on the latest news on Gran Turismo 5 and some of the features we’ll have ready for you come November 2nd. Below are some brief notes on these features, but for a more detailed break down, brand new screenshots and some cool historical bits, visit the official Gran Turismo website.

Single Player Career Modes: A-Spec and B-Spec
In A-Spec, you are the driver and it will be your driving skills that decide where you stand on the grid.

B-Spec, you are the Team Director, and your job is to study the competition and properly play to your driver’s strengths to come out on top. Winning will be a team effort, with every race a chance to improve your driver’s technique and help him develop into a top-tier driver. This is a brand new style of racing.

Garage: A Virtual Rolodex for Your Rides
Gran Turismo 5 gives you the chance to own over 1000 hyper-detailed cars, and the Garage section will be their home, complete with numerous easy-to-use categorizing tools that would make Melvil Dewey rethink his system.

Your personal collection will come from a couple of different areas, two of the main ones being Dealers (for new cars) or Used Car Dealers. But regardless of where you purchased, every car will be more than welcome to enter the Tuning Shop for body and suspension kits, exhaust systems and more performance parts than you can shake a stick at.

My Lounge: Virtual Track Days, Anytime, Anywhere.
Gran Turismo 5’s new revamped online system takes the essence of spending a day at the track and recreates the same level of excitement and competition in your game room (minus the smell of burnt rubber and bald tires).

Course Maker: Unleash your Inner-Architect
Be inspired by Gran Turismo’s 70 track variations to generate a super-hybrid course or come up with a dream course the likes that no one has ever seen before …

Kart Racing: A Pro-Driver’s Training Wheels
A large majority of real-life professional drivers had their start on karts, as they are a perfect way for first time drivers to learn racing theory and seasoned pros to hone their skills … and the same goes for Gran Turismo drivers. Gran Turismo’s Kart racing mode gives you a chance to experience this kind of training (virtually of course ) … click here for a preview of what is in store for you.

The items above are brief blips on a much more robust breakdown (complete with screenshots) available on the official Gran Turismo website.

See you online! Tschüs!

Polyphony's driving sim draws near - and it's looking better than ever.

#gt5 Karts, custom tracks, it's been a big week for Gran Turismo 5 at GamesCom. And if you like screenshots of the game's garage, online modes, and, yes, its karts, it's about to get bigger. More »

#gamescom2010 Gran Turismo 5 is coming to the PlayStation 3 later this year, stuffed with nearly 1,000 cars, over 70 courses, new racing leagues (NASCAR, WRC, Super GT), a track creator and, finally, high-speed kart racing. But wait. There's more. More »

Sony readying special hardware bundle for Japanese buyers.

#gamescom2010 The course count for Polyphony Digital's real driving simulator Gran Turismo 5 is now approaching infinity, thanks to the game's just revealed Course Maker, shown off today at Gamescom in Germany. More »

Karts also confirmed for PS3 racer.

#ps3 Upcoming driving simulator Gran Turismo will be roaring into Japanese retailers come November 3. More »

Gran Turismo 5, the racing game with the most ironically slow development ever, will arrive in Japan November 3. It'll be available not only in a ¥7,980 ($93) standalone pack, but in a Limited Edition with five DLC cars and a 308-page book.

Sony is also releasing a ¥35,980 ($421) PS3 bundle, called the Gran Turismo 5 Racing Pack, including the LE of the game and a special "Titanium Blue" 160GB PS3 Slim. This joins the recent white version and the Final Fantasy XIII Lightning edition in the set of awesome PS3 Slim variants unavailable to most of us.

If you're willing to believe any Gran Turismo 5 date announcement, you'll be glad to know that the game will -- allegedly -- be racing to retailers in Europe on November 3. Sony announced as much at its Gamescom presser this morning. That's one day after the North American release date.

Gran Turismo 5, already set for a November 2 release date in North America, will be out on Nov. 3 in Europe, as declared at Sony's Gamescom press conference today. More »