Forza 4 is coming out shortly, and by complete coincidence, Gran Turismo 5 is now getting a makeover.
In what Polyphony Digital are calling a screamingly unsexy “Functionality Update”, there are some major changes afoot. So is it going to be snog, marry or avoid? The early signs are it may be a candidate for marriage, and the date is already set for 11th October.
GT5 is now a year old, and whilst it’s still a fantastic title there have always been some major gripes with it. For example, the inability to save the game during endurance races – in order to complete the Le Mans 24-hour race, you would have to leave your PS3 on for at least 24 hours, and factoring in things like screen, toilet, sleep and food breaks. You would be lucky to do it in much less than a week. But good news – the 2.0 update will let you save your game DURING the races. Hurrah!
The other big changes are that all ‘standard’ cars will now feature an in-car view (previously only ‘premium’ cars did), some tweaks to the driving physics, and weather settings will now be much more customisable – with players able to “incrementally adjust weather settings for race start and race end”.
I believe GT5’s main weakness to be the clunky menu interface and loading times between screens, and this too is being addressed, with “shortening of load times and improved menu response” and “improved and enhanced user interface” in the pipeline. There will also be 11 new NASCAR’s added to the game (surely these are just liveries?), some new online features and the thing everyone has been screaming out for – updates to the ‘Travel Photo Mode’. At last.
One might argue that these things should have been in the game from the start, but there’s no denying this is an improvement, and fair play to Polyphony Digital for not making everyone pay extra for it… oh, hang on a minute… what?
Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi says: “I can also advise you of more great news – very shortly we will be sharing with you details of a forthcoming package of exciting DLC [downloadable content] for GT5 that will include new vehicles and tracks plus a host of other additional new content. “
Oh right, butter us up with the free update news and then reveal it’s just to make room for all the new stuff we’ll have to pay for. Great news indeed.
Needless to say when we have any more details on this we’ll bring them to you, but maybe don’t book the church just yet.
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