For 4 years, I’ve been waiting for this moment, and now, it’s finally here.
Look at it, look at it. It’s so preeetty…
And now that I’ve finally gotten my mitts around a copy of the game, I’m going to gush even more about it like some excited little girl. But importantly, I can now try it out for myself and neglect my work. 800 real-world cars (!!!), including the Nissan GT-R, the Ferrari F2007, and the Le Man Prototype Audi R8 race car, and around 40-something tracks. Yes, I know, most of the tracks don’t really exist in the real world, and you don’t see what all the fuss is about because you’re boring, but still, 800 cars… That’s pretty awesome. And with so many cars and tracks, it seems like a game I’ll be playing for a really, really long time to come. My CAP score screams in horror as I spend hours playing the game everyday, but I love Gran Turismo. Until I get my results…
And that’s not the only drawback with this game. It may have a “Challenge” mode, where you learn more about driving on a track through series of challenges, but there’s no career mode… which is fine actually. Also, I can race with a maximum of 3 other cars at the same time. Yes, not 1, not 2, but 3 opponents. That’s even more than the number of girls I’ve dated.
So exciting…
But then again, the silliness of a 4-car race is justified by, and probably caused by, the frame rate of 60 frames/sec(which is almost unheard of for a driving game on the PSP), and the mostly immaculate modelling of the cars. No grainy, vague looking shapes here. The shape of each car model faithfully conforms to the appearance of its real world counterpart. You can really tell which car you’re looking at just by looking at the shape of it, because here, unlike in NASCAR, a Ford Mustang really looks like a Ford Mustang, which is brilliant. And it’s not just the shapes of the cars that are accurate. You can really discern the different handling characteristics of each car as it pitches and rolls through the corners as well. And if you’re driving a Ferrari Enzo or a McLaren SLR or something that’s supposed to have spoilers that extend at higher speeds, the spoilers actually do that in the game! The first time I drove up behind the SLR in the game and watched the spoiler come up on the SLR, I was so impressed, I drove into its rear end.
It’s this attention to detail that makes Gran Turismo stand out from the rest of the games out there, especially on the PSP, because it’s first and foremost a simulator. If you’re a fan of arcade-style racers, you probably won’t be very fond of this, because this is something that actually requires you to brake 200m ahead of a hairpin turn. It requires you to drive sensibly, and driving sensibly is good. All drivers should learn how to drive sensibly. That way, we’d have fewer women driving on the roads…
One thing that did bother me though, was that you can only purchase cars from 4 manufacturers at any one time. The manufacturers randomly rotate after every other race or event that you enter, so theoretically, you should eventually see all the cars from all the manufacturers after a few lifetimes, when they’ve all become obsolete. I wouldn’t mind this too much, but my PSP seems to be incredibly fond of Nissan, Toyota and Mazda, which is annoying, because I don’t want to buy Nissans, Toyotas or Mazdas anymore. But that’s pretty much the only thing I don’t like about this game. Otherwise, it’s a simulator, and simulators rock. Especially good ones.
After all, who needs 3 girlfriends when you can race 3 other cars around the Nordshleife?
Shine Jesus Shine FAIL
FOC2009’s gone, and so is rally, and bidding, which means the summer break is about to follow suit as well. And so far, the whole summer has been strangely unsatisfying. There’s no reason for this, but I’ve spent the entire summer with dread, this sense of impending doom. What kind of doom, I have absolutely no clue.
I thought the “doom” would go away after FOC, but it didn’t, because we jumped straight into the Rally project. So I thought it would go away after the Rally, which was MM’s last major project, and it didn’t. There was no “Thank God it’s finally over,” not immediately after the rally, not 3 days after, not a week… not ever. It just felt like any other day.
It’s like as if the fact that I can finally put my feet up and chill never really sank in. I’ve still got this overwhelming sense of dread, like as if Facebook is going to be revamped with a Hello Kitty theme, but I don’t use Facebook, so that wouldn’t be so bad… Or like as if BMW’s going to pull out of Formula 1, which is actually going to happen. They’re leaving Formula 1 at year’s end and leave the Sauber Team to die an even more horrible death than they already are this season. It would make my BMW Sauber cap a really cool cap to have though, because the team wouldn’t exist anymore, or at least exist under a different name…
And then there was the CSS AGM, which didn’t help to reassert any sense of normalcy either. Not that it was an extremely important personal thing for me or anything, but I’m just glad we didn’t have more freshmen present, or who knows what they might start thinking of us. I shan’t delve into anymore details. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t entirely bad. It was just… extremely weird, as I’m sure most people would agree.
But I’m not dreading any of that nonsense. I’ve spent the entire summer like this. I can’t even take a proper break and take my mind off everything, ’cos I don’t even know what my mind is on. Is it the impending semester and all its work? Irrational paranoia that I may lose some good people this semester? Money problems? IPPT? That I’ve lost my mind because I don’t know what it’s on??
I’m dreading something, but I don’t know what.
Many thought it would be nothing but vaporware, relegated to the depths of the eternal trash can of development hell. But my faith in Kazunouri Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital has finally paid off – the reason that I really got my PSP is finally here!
Well, at least it’s going to be here. First announced with the original PSP, and with its latest announcement on the same day as the new PSP Go, it’s been christened Gran Turismo Mobile, and is set for release on the 1st of October this year, which means I’ve gotta wait 5 more months to get my hands on it. Unless it gets delayed again, in which case, I’ll probably have to wait for a PSP Come before I get any wind of it again… But my faith in Kazunouri Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital shall prevail, and I trust they will deliver on October the 1st.
And the new Gran Turismo 5 makes me wanna get a PS3, because it just looks absolutely stunning:
I feel so infatuated now…
Filed under: Ramblings
Final Exams FAIL
The final exams are finally over, which means the semester has concluded, which doesn’t quite equate to me getting a bit of a break. The summer break is shaping up to be a rather busy one, for the first few weeks at least. Meetings, outings, lots of tasks to do. I just opened the drawer in my nightstand a few days ago, and realised that I’ve yet to count my ang pow money. And it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to count it anytime soon, so if you’re in my house and you’re short of money, DON’T TOUCH MY NIGHTSTAND…
Yeah, like as if you’ll actually obey that…
I’m back to my my post-exam tradition of falling sick within the 2 weeks after the last paper as well. I’m supposed to be playing squash right now, but I’m not feeling 100% yet. So instead, I’m sitting here updating my blog so you folks will know that I’m still alive.
Yes, yes, I hear your groan of despair. I’m still here to terrorize you folks with mindless banter and swine flu. So that’s just too bad for you.
Photo: CNETAsia
On a brighter note though (for me), I’ve finally gotten my hands on my new phone. The Nokia N85. It’s got everything I need on a phone, everything I want on a phone, and everything else I never knew I wanted on a phone. There’s GPS, WiFi, a 5MP camera, a music player, a PDF and Office document reader, and it’s all quite complicated, just because there are so many features. But it’s a good phone. Nice camera, good size, feels solid, and it’s pretty responsive too, for the most part. I’m pretty happy about it. But it cost me a good $548, which means I’m gonna eat grass for the next 2 months and disappear.
Yay, no more mindless banter and swine flu… Aren’t you glad?
