Ben-DutkaYou know those real-time endurance races in the Gran Turismo titles? Well, I pansied out and B-spec-ed these suckers in GT4 but for GT5, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi knuckled up like a man . In real damn life, too.
I think we all know that Yamauchi is a bona-fide car nut; his passion for racing and everything that involves the sport is well documented. We've seen him driving the Nissan GT-R on the legendary Nurburgring track in Europe and now, we learn he actually participated in and completed a 25-hour endurance race at Thunder Hill Raceway in California. Obviously, he didn't do the entire thing himself; he was part of the "Spoon Sports" team and shared the driving responsibilities with two other Japanese drivers. And you know what? Although he's not exactly a professional driver, this guy clearly learns pretty fast:
"Not having a lot of experience in circuit driving, and not knowing what to expect in a 25-hour race, I was very relieved to find that I was able to reduce the 20-second gap between my laptimes and my teammates' at the beginning of the practice to almost zero at the start of the final race. It was a great feeling to confirm first hand that 'Gran Turismo' has a positive effect in not just learning specific tracks, but also in raising the level of driving technique in the drivers themselves."
How awesome is this? The guy not only makes the finest racing simulator around, he also heads out to prove that playing such games really can help you become a better driver. He may not be used to real-life circuit driving but it's a guarantee that he's played his fair share of GT, and we're willing to bet he learned faster than someone who had never touched a racing simulator. If you want to see Yamauchi in action, visit Kotaku , where they've got a video.
Related Game(s): Gran Turismo 5
25 hours? Does that mean driving in shifts? brb, internet research…
Yep, driving in shifts. Anything from teams of 25 to a single guy that drove the whole thing himself.
yh, they drive in shifts most often.
anyways, GT taught him how to get better, i love this. i am so gonna get in on the ralying in gt5 just for the 'experience'. rallying is just my favourite type of motorsport.
:O
what he said.
Amazing. An untrained driver can hold his own by practicing with a video game. Gt5 is going to be damn fine.
Ok at first I was like, "Wow there are 25 hour endurance races in Gran Turismo 5"…until I read on…and nearly fainted from just seeing the world "real."
25 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOD DAMN!!!
Next we'll see Stig Asmussen ripping the eyes out of giant monsters and ascending great mountains on the backs of titans!
ROFL
Such dedication/passion will reflect in the greatness of the game when it releases.
Kazi is a beast.
My race will be all over within 2 minutes, after I've thrashed The Stig's time on the Top Gear track.
WOW!
Yamauchi-san is crazy! CRAZY GOOD!
Speechless (let's see those Forza bastards attempt real driving lol)
Watching that vid re-affirms that GT is the closest thing to real driving(consoles). That said, LOVE how he was driving. Sticking close to the curves and maintaining that balance when accelerating.
Wow, Yamauchi's so badass!
He's like Kojima, but in his own field
Damn!
Exactly, THIS is the guy I want creating my Racing Simulator.
Kaz is THE MAN.
He also did a 24hr Nurburgring Nordschleife race some time ago this year. Where he was awarded the top prize for a particular class.
Can't wait for WRC! Hey…
Maybe he should try racing in a real Rally car 😉
Then I'll respect GT sooo much.
Last edited by Banky A on 12/23/2009 3:19:54 PM
I hope GT5 kicks ass. I have never played a GT game though… I played the time trial demo and I'm not sure what to think. I could be going 30 mph around a curve then lose control and end up the dirt.
Yeah, I know it's supposed to be a realistic but I could make that turn at 30 mph… in fact, I have.
Is there some trick to learning how to control the damn cars in GT?
The GT5 demo is painfully awful(worst demo I've ever played);I also couldn't control the damn car.I hoping that was a early build of the game or something.
I think the game was meant to be played with a wheel…though I was able to make the sticks work it doesn't feel as natural.
The demo was set on professional physics, which makes it much harder. The game will let you choose amateur physics, where I don't believe the car spins out at all. You also start out in slower cars where you can build your skills before advancing on to the faster ones.
^Yup
It's always been that way with GT. Each GT has advanced so much in terms of realism that we always have to re-learn (level up if you will) your skills.
The GT demon was beautiful. It fixed some of the problems GT5P had, weight, and overall speed (acceleration incrementation is more fluid than GT5P).
BTW, they actually show you the true difference between road cars(what we drive everyday) and racing cars (the tuned version of said cars).
If you like racing (regardless if real or not) picking up GT is a wise decision. Trust me is more than just realism.
It's the experience you get out of it*
Arcade racing games like NFS and Midnight Club, and even Forza (sorry to say) will lead the majority of this world's gamers to think driving is as easy as throttling hard on the gas on sharp turns.
What GT5P and the GT5 TT Demo does is clearly show you that it's never about punching that gas on turns like we'd do on arcade games, but throttle control on every turn if necessary.
This is why a wheel is so much recommended to witness the full experience in GT since you can really feel those understeer/oversteer.
But as someone says, there will be a mode for amateurs so no worries there. Professional physics is best dealt with a wheel anyway.
Kazunori Yamauchi puts his pants on just like the rest of us — one leg at a time. Except, once his pants are on, he makes multi-million selling racing games.
GT5 = A genius' work
Take a bow, Yamauchi…..You deserve it!!!!
As for me, nahhhh….not so much.
I tried the new demo, but I'll be damned if I couldn't keep from "slide & crash syndrome" at almost every turn.(and yes, I did brake)
If there's a platinum trophy for becoming the world's greatest frigging wall-magnet, don't none of you even bother, cause I've already won that bi-tch.
And ya know what's even funnier? Just to piss me off even more, that damned ghost car of my own, still beat me every frigging time too, LOL
Oh well, guess it's time for me to find a good wheel, 4 sticky Eagle GT tires, & some very big anti-wall crashbars. And then if I still suck, I hope some of you will visit me either in the hospital…
or at the junkyard!
Last edited by BikerSaint on 12/23/2009 5:17:46 PM
given polyphony's relationship with Spoon Sports this doesn't come at a suprise….
"The Real Driving Simulator."
Is there anything more to say?
Possible game of the year, yes.
C'mon, we haven't even started the year!!!!!
I already knew he was a car enthusiast from interviews he did for Road & Track, so this comes as no real surprise to me. I hear that he really likes Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany. He said it was one of his favorite tracks in the world.
Since GT5 made him a better driver, will it be able to teach me how to drive?
I don't know anything bout driving except driving games using my Dual Shock 3.
well apparently the GT time trial was set up in professional mode thats why it was so dam bloody hard.
but i dunno, playing this really sunk my expectations.
i know its suppose to be a racing simulator, but the demo is far to sensitive.
you tap the brakes and the tires lock up and you go sliding into a wall.
hows that realistic?
dont cars have ABS any more?
Were you playing with a wheel or your DS3?
DS3, im waiting off till the actual game comes out till i get a wheel.
I don't know the hate towards to demo, how in depth did they take the time they had with it? are they regular racing sim players?
It it great but steering with a controller in this demo just takes extreme gamer skills and patience.
😉
Last edited by Banky A on 12/25/2009 12:38:22 AM
the steering i can handle.
but whats with the wheels locking up under light breaking.
seriously i tap the brakes and i go spinning out into a wall.
its impossible to slow down for the corners without going off the track, and once your on the sand it takes forever to get off.
since its set in pro mode, ill wait and rent it because if its anything like the trial i certainly not buying it.
NFS shift was the perfect simulator, not to life like and not to arcade like.
hard but manageable.
I want full simulator/
I don't want iRacing though that's costly.
my point exactly thats not simulator thats being over sensitive.
20 year old cars would react the way new ones do in the GT5 trial, now all new cars have ABS.
so when you use the brakes they will not lock up there for you wont go spinning into the wall.
i want full sim too, but realistically and fairly.
not throwing in crap thats completley unrealistic just to make it harder.
Yep, I've tried the TT demo both with a logitech and a DS3 and it worried me both times, tbh. I used to, when I had more cash and was well enough to work, go to a lot of track days and was also lucky enough to wangle the job as car and motoring correspodent on the last local paper I worked for and, seriously, the realism just wasn't there for me. Prologue feels a lot more realistic than that oversensitive pos. It doesn't reward correct, thoughtful driving the way a real car on a real track would whatsoever and is easily the worst thing I've ever played from PD. If anything, even with a wheel, it rewards those prepared to drive their sports prepared vehicle like they're actually racing in a bus, and a double decker at that-the steering is way to indecisive and the braking just OTT in it's skittishness-if a real race car performed like it the team would be working on it to a massive extent to cure all it's problems to the point they'd possibly scratch the race!
I'm sure it takes some skill to master that TT demo but, in my opinion at least, it's not the same skills as real driving in real race cars on real tracks takes. Not at all. I expected a lot better than ending up feeling that GT4,Prologue AND GTPSP are a LOT better, alot more reralistic and a lot more enjoyable. Honrestly, having driven fast cars around circuits from BH to Donington to Silverstone to Oulton Park in the UK I can safely say that the TT just isn't good enough and isn't much fun either and if GT5 isn't a lot more accurate in it's portrayal of all things racing then PD are onto something really poor here.
I realise it's old code and slimmed to keep the D/L file size down(hence the fugly backdrops and track textures that don't exists-don't mention the "crowd"!)but it's going to put a lot of people off and the worst bit is that they'll be put off by something that's just hard for the sake of being hard rather than from any nods toewards reality or simulation, seriously.
Not that F3 was any good either-calling THAT minor step up from the more entertaining F2 "definitive" is one of the biggest lies I've ever heard from ANY developer. The physics were a joke, the interior view a less funny joke, the way you can't ever see the engine bays through what's meant to be glass as they shaved off some polys to keep it running a decent framerate is an even less amusing gag as well. So it's not like PD have any seriously good competition so if they mess up like with the TT it'll be tragic -Yamauchi would be much better off making his game work in a way which sort of resemble a racing car rather than playing guest dreiver at endurance races while his demo stinks the place upm like month old salmon left ungutted on your car dash to decay fully. A devilishly realistic driving experience with all the oversteering issues that entails is all we wanted but what the TT brings us is a lot more like a slapped together effort where they just haven't managed anything like what we've come to expect from them-it's weak and, worse, it's less accurate an investigation of track racing than MKWii atm. Not difficult in driving terms, just annoyingly over sensitive at times and under resposive at others. It's just WAY, WAY out.