Arnold-KatayevA collective holy sh*t has probably dropped from every last one of you guys reading this. Or maybe not. Yes, you're looking at a Gran Turismo review that has scored, for the first time ever, nowhere near the practically perfect grades we've graced this franchise with since day one. Okay, maybe some of you have read some of the other reviews out there and are aware that something has gone really wrong. Well, first off, allow me to preface the remainder of this review by stating that Gran Turismo for the PSP has, allegedly, been in development for five years. I say allegedly, because I'm certain that the development cycle for the game had been temporarily sidelined numerous times in between all of the work Polyphony had to do for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Gran Turismo's development was most certainly not a continuous effort of five years…and unfortunately, it shows.
Now, after re-reading this review, it definitely comes off harsh, but with good reason. Gran Turismo PSP is a flawed game. But, on the other hand, I still had a lot of fun with it, as at its core, GT PSP is still very enjoyable, accessible, and fun game. I put in tons and tons of hours into the game just making money and collecting cars, which is one of the purposes of GT PSP. Many of these cars are transferable, allowing you to sync GT PSP to GT5 and transfer cars you've bought or won into your PS3 game. Again, GT PSP is a very fun game. But a "fully specced Gran Turismo", Kazunori Yamauchi said, this is not.
The first major disappointment came when I realized the tiny little size of the game file Sony had forwarded me. 937MB? Gran Turismo 2 was a PlayStation 1 game and it boasted two separate discs, essentially making it a game worth 1.2GB. Okay, so I held out hope. So the game boots up, and immediately I run to the dealership to look through the list of amazing cars, only to realize I can only choose between Bugatti, Bentley, Chevy, and Polyphony. "Oh," I said, "Sony must've sent me a demo file accidentally. Oh, those crazy guys, I'll just contact them agai…what? This is normal?" You see, as the days cycle in-game, the dealerships you can browse through change, as do the cars you can buy.
Allow me to explain in a bit more detail. When you boot up the game, you'll have four dealers to access and 100,000 credits to spend on a car, which is a gracious sum. Once you buy a car, you can participate in a few events. As the days roll on in the game, a new set of four dealerships will be made available to you. But, just because you can access a Nissan dealer, doesn't mean you can have the ability to buy any of their cars. No, no. If you don't see a GT-R or a 300ZX TT, you have to wait until the next time Nissan becomes one of the four dealers you can shop at and see if the assortment of cars features the ones you want. Yes, it's that complicated, confusing, and stupid.
Some of you may say, "but Arnold, why didn't you mention this in your GT PSP hands-on preview? Why is this such a shock to you?" Because when I played Gran Turismo PSP a few months ago at a New York City event, I recall being able to sort through a complete listing of every car in the game, through every single make; none of this four dealers only bullcrap. So to see this absolute lunacy on my PSP, in a game I had so long waited for made me livid, quite frankly, as I'm sure you can tell by the tone of this diatribe.
But things get worse, as GT PSP commits the ultimate sin, in my eyes. No customization. Sure, you can enter the game's Quick Tune menu and adjust suspension components such as camber, toe, ride-height, spring rate, and damper, but that leaves the other half of the gearhead spectrum (the straight line guys) alone in the dark. Yes, you can add some horsepower to your car, but you can only do it for drift trial mode. And you're not actually adding any components, you're just increasing a little slider that adds up to 20% more power to the car you're in.
Honestly, I could sit here and ramble about how utterly stupid this is. GT has always been about taking a car and making it faster, in some cases, absurdly fast. I've spent dozens and dozens of hours in GT4 just taking random cars that I like in real life, buy every little component for them to see just how much of a difference it makes around a specific track and in the 1/4 mile. GT PSP has taken all of that away from me, and has left me with an open-ended single-player mode that allows me to choose a car, track, set the number of laps (1-120) and race on it against three others. Yes, the total number of cars per track is not eight or even six, it's four, including you. And once you win a race, you earn prize money, and then you have the ability of racing that same track three more times. You see, the first time you race, you race it on an easy difficulty rank called D. Once you win, you can race against C-rank racers, then B, and then A.
The game boasts a total of 800 cars, but only 200-250 of those are actually unique models. And there are 35 tracks, with a total of 70 different layouts and variations. Unfortunately, there are some key tracks missing, most importantly, both Special Stage Route 5 and 11, series staples. I've also noticed that no aesthetic changes have been made to real life tracks such as New York City, to reflect their modern day changes. For example, the New York City track in GT4 depicted an area of Manhattan known as Columbus Circle (the roundabout portion), back when GT4 was developed and released, the area was under a lot of construction, so understandably the in-game track reflects that with cranes and such all around the area. But, five years later, Columbus Circle is brimming with beauty as the Time Warner building has been long finished…but unfortunately, the in-game track shows none of that detail, and instead looks precisely as it did in GT4. This tells me someone was forced to take away Polyphony's attention to detail and, in turn, forced to maybe…rush the game in time for the PSP Go launch?
I'm not quite done, yet, though. You see, beyond the standard races are also the Driving Challenges, which are nothing more than License Tests in disguise, and are not a requisite here. Although, taking 15 minutes and completing a few set of challenges will unlock the custom soundtrack feature, and they are strangely addictive, as well. Moreover, they're good for accumulating a ton of money in a relatively short time-span. And if you really dig the challenges, upon completing them, the game will reward you with a whole new bonus set.
Lastly, the multiplayer here is…well, disappointing. There is no online to speak of. None. Not even a meager two player battle. You're limited to four-player Ad-hoc, which is great and all, but finding someone, let alone three others, with a PSP and a copy of the game directly next to you is very unlikely. And I highly doubt you'll be making an event on Facebook inviting any would-be competitors to a multiplayer session at your house. Beyond a few new tracks and Professional physics loosely based on GT5's, Polyphony added little-to-nothing to make this GT feel fresher and revised.
Visually, the game looks really great. It's running at 60 frames per second and boasts some really nice car models for a handheld title. It's not quite Gran Turismo 4 caliber stuff, but if the framerate was brought down to 30, it probably could've been. Regardless, beyond the slick car models and super framerate, do lie some visual issues. Seams break up and textures and polygons all over the screen frequently, and it's more noticeable in some stages than others. These seams are white lines that run across various parts of the stages, flickering about. Also, there is no light emitting from the brake-lights of cars, as it's just a red and flat texture that gets drawn on when you hit the brakes…cheap. Moreover, the rims are two-dimensional and paper-flat when in a race, which I thought ended with GT4, but I guess PD couldn't get even that going on the PSP. Again, all in all, this is a very good looking game, but it does fall short in a lot of places I didn't expect it to, and it kind of takes a lot away from the overall look and feel. Shame.
The audio is acceptable, and you can hear that Polyphony put in a decent amount of work into the sound, especially when the PSP is running through an external speaker of some sort. The standard soundtrack is pretty good stuff, but the ability of a custom soundtrack is what I love most. Sound effects such as tires screeching and crashes are pulled right out of GT4, which is good and bad. It's good since they weren't that bad sounding to begin with. But it's bad because, well, not being bad doesn't mean they couldn't be improved on or made to sound a bit newer or fresher. Also, I noticed that a lot of the cars don't quite sound like their actual counterparts, as their engine and exhaust notes don't roar like they should – I mean honestly, a Ferrari Enzo sounds like a wind-up car in the game. The American V8s sound burbly and nice, but a lot of cars with defining characteristics in their engine/exhaust notes are missing said characteristics.
As you can see, I'm one of the few critics who isn't annoyed with this game for its lack of an expansive Career mode. Quite frankly, to me, the career is there with the open-ended single-player races. What bothers me is the lack of the fundamentals, the very basic and general things that have made Gran Turismo such a superb game. Yes, the physics are great, yes there's a ton of cars and tracks, and yes, despite all of these drawbacks the game is still quite a bit of fun. But this is a game that could've been perfect, it could've been the epitome of handheld to console ports, but instead it continues the age-old pessimism of handheld iterations of console blockbusters being nothing more than stripped down quick-flings. If there was one brand, one developer, one game franchise to end that stereotype, it should've been PlayStation, it should've been Polyphony, and it should've been Gran Turismo.
Geeze. What a dissapointment.
This is hardly surprising. GTs punishing, barely playable difficulty is finally catching up to it. GT5 might be next.
for the longest time, i have already abandoned GT series, to me, it is the same thing again and again and again, i never seriously played another GT after GT2 on PS.
GT PSP's big disappointment is just a natural consequence of "this gen's hype up" trend. GT5 will be the next and then they can formally shut down this franchise.
So many other racing games are much more exciting than GT, Motostorm is one, Dirt is another one, Burnout Paradize is another. GT is always the same and nothing really innovative. They just add more cars and more graphics after GT2, nothing more.
Last edited by BigBoss4ever on 10/11/2009 1:27:54 PM
That was the most unexpected thing ever! Gran Turismo? Bad? Was never a much fan of racing but… Gran Turismo on PSP is this bad?
Bad?! you haven't seen any game like the NFS series on PSP now thats bad OH YEAH!!
NFS shift on psp is actually pretty damn cool.
NFS Carbon OTC on the PSP SUCKED.
:O
diasspointment? wow.
do you think gt5 may fall flat like this?
Last edited by Zorigo on 9/21/2009 3:02:20 PM
I HOPE NOT, I HAVE BEEN ANTICIPATING FOR A LONG TIME NOW.
GT5 bein like this? BLASPHEMY!
A 7.5 is hardly a disappointment.This is after all a portable game and of course it will not bee on the level of GT5.This game seems to be what I expected,maybe everyone else expectations were TOO high?
Last edited by DarthNemesis on 9/21/2009 3:01:54 PM
But…it's gt….it just can'ty fall under 8 at least.
Indeed, it appears many, if not most of those making comments (and perhaps Arnold) hold very high expectations for GT PSP. It seems to me that they have been heightened by the exceptional standard of GT3 and GT4 along with the expected very high standard of GT5.
Folks, please remember the PSP is not a PS3, nor is it even a PS2. It's a hand held gaming device with less CPU and GPU power than either the PS2 or PS3.
If you took the average of the 5 categories it's actually an 8.1. No qualifier shown saying whether or not they use averages here, I've never actually checked other than this score. Seems he didn't like the stripped down functionality and the dealer set-up.
But he did say it was fun, just apparently a "rush job."
his gripes sound above and beyond this simply not being GT4.5… sounds like there are some real issues!
Certainly raises quite a few questions concerning the features withheld given the time this game has been in development.
I do wonder though if the negative scores this game is receiving are influenced by its comparisons to previous GT games or it as a stand alone game comparable to other hand held racers
I completely agree. Whether reviewers wish to recognize it or not there is a great danger of comparing the portable iteration of a game against it's home console equivalent.
You can't compare GT for PSP against GT5, not even for a second, that's insane. Nor can you really compare GT for PSP against GT4 on the PS2. The PS2 is more powerful than the PSP, it has more GPU and CPU oomph. Even expecting the game to be as good visually as a PS2 game of the quality of GT4 is expecting a lot.
Soul Calibur Broken Destiny is another such game. There are things there that fall short of the standard set by Soul Calibur 3 on the PS2 and far short of the standard of Soul Calibur 4. But come on, the PSP is a hand held device, not a state of the art, home super computer (as Sony pitched the PS3).
Flat instead of 3D textures on wheel rims and such – shocking. Limited customization? OMFG!
The game is intended to be a portable racing game. I am not sure why people expect portable titles for PSP and DS to be clones of games from the home consoles. The whole mode of play is different. You're not supposed to spend hours on end customizing your car in GT PSP, you're supposed to play the game and race. Why would anyone spend hours on end modding a car on GT PSP when GT4 for PS2 or GT5 for PS3 offer so much more? Portable games are targeted at short gaming sessions, not 4 hour marathons. Games on the home consoles are typically targeted at longer gaming sessions, not 10-15 minute quick dips into a game. The design of the game and the features offered in it reflect that.
Arnold, I understanbd every criticism you made, but to me the heart of your problem with GT PSP isn't actually the game itself. It's the high level of expectations that you have built up in your own mind, the expectations that the game that comes out after GT4 would be as good or better than GT4 in spite of being on a technically very inferior platform. So you expect all the customization and choice that you had in GT4 – in a portable version of the game running on a console with less CPU and GPU?
Come on, evaluate the game as a game itself, rather than against the expectations that have been driven by months of GT5 hype.
If you must compare it against another game, why not pick one of the other recent PSP car racing games? How does it compare there?
TheHighlander, the message you conveyed is beautiful. I agree with you 100%.
TheHighLander; what you say is correct for the most part.
I must point out though, some of the "technical" glitches could have been worked on. Not too worried about non 3D wheel hubs, but vector glitches and seams coming apart is not good.
I am under the impression that this was rushed as Arnold suspects.
Give GT PSP another six months to a year, and half of the problems Arnold described would probably not be relevant.
Again, the tracks being re-hashed from the GT4 is proof (to some degree) of huge time constraints leveled at Polyphony…
Like any platform, the PSP can be pushed and optimised for. If you have the time, anything is possible. In this example, if the game were running at 30 frames per second it would have been good enough, and probably released additional resources to making the game look a little better… maybe have 6 cars instead of 4. I think that should have been a minimum. 2 player online should have been included really…
All in all a little disappointing; not because the PSP cannot do it; but because Polyphony did not have the time they needed to give it that extra cote of polish 🙁
I am sure a Zune version of Forza 4 Mobile would probably be worse 🙂
Q!
"i am home"
Last edited by Qubex on 9/21/2009 10:19:56 PM
Qubex…
They spent YEARS of development on this game any lack of polish has nothing to do with time.
Damn. I was really looking forward to it. Everything missing is exactly what I was hoping would be there.
They better not DARE messing up GT5, Ill wait til next year. Man, Id rather wait one more year than another 5 for an upgrade that shoulda been GT5.
Last edited by Wage SLAVES on 9/21/2009 3:09:00 PM
You shouldn't for a second think the scores for a GT hand held game are reflective of the latest and greatest GT coming out.
If they release GT5 too soon, they may mess it up. That is, if they release an incomplete game for the sake of getting it out ASAP w/ major updates to follow as FREE DLC, it will get raked over the coals in reviews.
@LV – we are sharing a mind on this one I think.
Great minds think alike, sometimes. haha
Bummer. IGN gave this a poor review and I was waiting to see what PSXE had to say. While Arnolds review score higher it's not by much. I may still pick this up if I get a Go.
waste of time developing the game when all people just want GT5
wow, i'm a little curious to see if GT5 gets a similar score… i'm not even gonna buy GT5 at all… i don't get into racing games much but, with all the hype surrounding it, what if it turns out to just be a better looking version of GT PSP? lol, i'd find that to be quite funny…
like i said, i don't care much for racers… the only one i own is midnight club: los angeles… but, there's too much hype around GT5 and it could very well be just as disappointing as the PSP version…
Last edited by bOnEs on 9/21/2009 4:04:49 PM
GT5 will be better. Most of the IGN complaints where that it wasn't close enough to the GT that most know and love. It's a hand held. I don't know what everyone expected. I never expected to hold up to previous GT games. But it did score lower then I expected.
If you have experienced the awesome might of Gran Tursimo 3,4 and Tourist Trophy I would really doubt Gran Tursimo 5 will be like GT portable.
There is huge difference between home console and a portable Playstation you know open your eyes!!!
I think the "random four store" thing seems stupid, I must wait til I get it myself to judge if I like it myself.
If the driving still feels like GT experience then I am fine with it, but not to be able to "freely" pick my cars that I want and have to get it on a lottery draw with only 4 manufacturers.
I highly, HIGHLY doubt GT5 will suffer from any of these problems. I wouldn't even say there's a slight chance. I expect nothing but the utmost perfection from GT5.
I am with you Sir, in your belief 🙂
Heck, it's a fact you're stating!
Last edited by Victor321 on 9/21/2009 4:15:15 PM
True thing i guess Polypony Digital and wanted to rush at his they were claiming that this game woudl be so amazing at E3 and this is what the reviews are. well it goes to show that hyping something, isn't what game makers hsould do at all. I;m sure this game might get decent sales.
For anyone that assumes that GT5 will also be as bad as GT PSP (in terms of GT Standards of course :P), please don't, as I assure you guys, GT5 will be an excellent and revolutionary title.
Polyphony Digital have said that recreating a GT experience on the consoles to the PSP was very hard, as there were hardware limitations.
However, I believe that what they did to make GT PSP was still very good, as the GT feeling is there, just in portable form. I also believe that it does seem a little impractical to play GT the same way on a console, on a handheld, even one as strong as the PSP.
Therefore, I do find it sad that due to hardware limitations, the GT experience I and many of you guys know and love, is not there. However, think of this GT experience you're going to get on the PSP, as its early form. "Baby" form is what I mean.
It's alright and perfectly find to think of GT PSP as a dissapointment, but as a PSP game, it is still fantastic in its own level, considering this is a PSP game and meant to (literally somewhat), to be played on the go.
P.S. I do not wish to be rude, nor am I angry at the people that this message is being directed to, but I find it immature that you guys are starting to believe that if GT PSP gets an ok score, so will GT5. Boy, where did the loss in faith go?
This faith that has been lost was very strong and prevalent in the months leading up to the release of GT PSP, and hopefully, I hope you guys will get that faith back, in the months leading up to GT5's release.
Have faith guys :), don't get all sensitive or feel like as if part of your soul was broken, when stuff like this happens to our beloved PS franchises. I sure felt like I lost part of my soul when I saw IGN's review and its accompanied score for GT PSP.
Just keep believing ;), it's gotten us this far, for us, the PS brand, and its games that withstood the test of time.
Thank you to anyone that read this.
i hate the thumbs down u got its ugly!
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 9/21/2009 5:19:33 PM
Lol, Thank You man, but hey, everyone's entitled to their opinion; thumbs down or thumbs up, I'm fine either way.
The important thing, as long as I am able to convey my message effectively, there will always be people that agree with me, and there will always be people that disagree with me.
Tis the way of the world 😉
I was wondering the same thing as I began to read through the comments here. It totally baffles my mind! In no way will GT5 fail. There are unlimited possibilities with the PS3 hardware and there are absolutely no limitations concerning size whatsoever.
GT5 will undoubtedly look outstanding.
GT5 will not fall short in terms of attention to detail (realistic environments, exact real world replications of cities, landscapes, etc).
Audio will be fantastic. No worry there.
And I'm positive they'll be a career mode of some sort that dumps on any other racing sim out there.
However, the only thing I am concerned with is the online multiplayer, as they haven't touched that area too extensively yet, excluding GT5P. Same goes for exterior customization and damage modeling. But the latter two I don't really care for that much anyways.
Besides, I think Arnold is spot on. Polyphony must have repeatedly suspended work on GT PSP in order to make its console counterparts the amazing games they are.
Looking forward to the release! =)
Last edited by Daedusian on 9/21/2009 8:12:56 PM
No customization? I dont see that in GT5P either. GT for PSP and GT5P should be a direct reflection of what GT5 will be. I hope they have customization then. That is really the whole point of racing… Win a race and get stronger.
How in hell is GT PSP going to be a reflection of GT5?
The PSP isn't even as powerful as a PS2, so how can you hold it up to GT5? You can't really even hold it against GT4.
People are doing a whole lot of reacting, prejudging and jumping to conclusions that have no basis in fact.
yea highlander i agree with you but in terms of power is not the issue. no one compared GT psp to GT5 either. And i understand when people do compare GT PSP to the franchise though because it strives on excellence and all the parts of the game combined are what makes it excellent. If you remove some of these things its quality dips a little. yea yea its a PSP title well so this is a give and take thing now?
For example, what does Socom rely on? it relies on team tactics and stealth, and ultimately the MP. if you take any one of those things out its just another shooter. btw socom has entries on the PSP as well. im sure you know but i dont want u to think im comparing a console game to a handheld.
What about KZ2, its realism and graphics.
You see where im coming from. again this game was never compared to GT5, no one said o this game is nothing like what we had hoped GT5 is going to be so its horrible and that means gt5 might be horrible. Never said. but comparing it to what we have seen in past GT franchises is legit because PolyPhony brought excellence in so many ways, and may have left a couple of those ways out in this hand held title.
you are right about one thing though it is a handheld and maybe for what it brought to a handheld makes it a good game.
all in all though Its not having customization thats the issue.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 9/21/2009 5:10:28 PM
I think that the customization was deliberately made simple because the game is on a handheld. When you design a game for a handheld device you don't design it the same way as you would for a home console. You design for much shorter play sessions, and an in depth customization/tuning interface encourages much longer play sessions. I think that what Polyphony did is design the game and it's features around being a portable game.
yea i undersand that point of view…
i just think too many of us took this too heart as too what gt5 would come out as when we shouldnt have at all. And it most likely wont.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 9/21/2009 5:15:29 PM
what? no engine modifications.WTF is that
I hope they don't screw up GT5 & leave modifications out
well there goes one of my top 5. at least a game is eliminated from my wishlist and i dont have to get it.
im with godsman,
I remember distinctly gt5 prologue not having mods. i understand alot of, or most of i should say, of the final build were left out. But that and the fact the gt psp dont have mods, is sort of pointing in the direction of an indication.
This makes me wonder, and is a little upsetting considering i was just about to buy a g25 wheel for gt5 specifically, but now im gonna wait til i hear what gt5 offers, and this coiencidence and wondering may have talked me out of spending the $300 for now lol! You said it yourself Arnold not having customization is the cardinal sin and i agree yet you gave prologue good reviews so what was the difference? It's always more fun to see how much power you can eek out of a car, along with how nice you can make it look, only to finally be able to see it wrecked in a gt game! If that's not there atleast we got the great racing experience and graphics right!?!?
Then again i dont see why they would get away from classic GT too much so i have all the hope in the world for this title but still things are getting out of hand here! I'm tired of waiting, and im tired of skepticism!
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 9/21/2009 4:48:53 PM
Mods on GT?! to hell with that its for NFS nuthuggers.
But they better include a vinyl editor, like Supercar Challenge
what r u talking about lol!
So ud rather your car have vinyl and look edgy than perform well?
I didnt really understand what you were trying to say. but customization is what GT is about well besides the great racing experience.
Is this just the PSP version if so then I'm not too fussed, its the PS3 version that I'm concerned about after this!
i think i should point this out now though lol since i re read my own and other comments…
We are acting lke this is a review for GT5 and its not its for a handheld game with the GT logo. It's obvious that GT has always been and GT5 is gonna be a powerhouse and i think we are all getting away from that because of a review for a handheld game. All the previous console entries have had all the things Arnold said GT PSP didnt. I dont think we should expect anything less out of the GT franchise than what we've gotten in the past which were quality titles.