Sony Europe: Don't worry, Gran Turismo 5 will be out before Christmas. Maybe. (We hope.)

I've played the game, and i'm not saying it isn't fun to race. I'm saying that it gets old fast. Having to resort to the benchmark ring layout A trick just to be able to afford upgrades. I got as far as midway through the R2 championship, and when they are asking me to do 15 laps around Sedona when i just did 7 around the same circuit in the previous championship i don't see how that can be called fun.

I got all the way to the R1 championship and past, doing over half the races. And I never raced a car that was already at level 5. I never re-ran a single race. And I never even unlocked the test ring (even though the code is free in the box).

And I had cash coming out my heiney because I ran most races with everything maxed except for the clutch, giving me a 95% bonus on cash (85% when buying enough upgrades to beat the computer cars on hard was less cost effective than just dropping the skill to medium). I had several millions of credits on hand when I finished the R1 race.

Did you ever stop consider that perhaps you suck at racing games?

In general, the essence of car racing is doing the same thing over and over again lap after lap. If you don't like that, you're going to have a lot of problems will all simish racing games.

Also, I swear, Sedona full circuit reverse has to be the most annoying track by far. Try it in a S car, pure nightmare. It's actually a little better with an R car than the S. There are just too many falling away braking and turning zones. And having the sun in your face at that chicane ain't fun either. And yeah, they make you run it in the R2 series and the R1 series.

I like Sedona, but doing it on reverse sucks because of that damn supernova sun that shows up right when there's a chicane.

Meant for LS2LS7

Hmm. I don't know what acceptable levels of upgrades means. But I had well over 2 million credits before starting the R2 series.

In general, my strategy was not to overupgrade any car. Because once you get a car to level 5 experience, there's no advantage to racing it anymore, you'd do better to go to another car. So why spend a ton on a car when you're going to stop racing it shortly?

I bet the biggest difference is I believe I actually finished the game (finished R1 series, which doesn't actually give any kind of "you win" screen afterwards) without buying a car after the first one I bought (Chevy Aveo, really awful). I just raced what I had been given for free. Sometimes I got to race cars I liked, sometimes I had to race stuff I didn't like (the V8 Supercars Holden is nigh undriveable with the restrictor out and traction control off, even with downforce maxed).

Then I decided to max a car from every manufacturer (so I would know what every discount earned was) and I had to start spending. Some of the manufacturers only sell expensive cars and you don't get any free cars from them (like Shelby, Bentley, etc.). After that I thought I might win every series, but the game started locking up on boot, I think maybe their servers were down or something. I gave it up in disgust and then checked yesterday and it's working again. I dunno if I'll go back or not, probably not.

The R2 and R1 series are a real slog. But I tell you, the R8 (race car, not street) is heaven to drive. If you haven't driven it and maxed it out yet, drive it. Better yet, drive it with the restrictor out. It's wonderful. And the R10 is fun on open tracks, especially drive it on La Sarthe, it was built for that track and it shows. It just goes and goes and goes. I'm not sure it's as fast as the 908 HDi FAP on the La Sarthe with the old Mulsanne straight (no chicanes), but it feels great to drive on that track too.

I couldn't drive the R15 because I didn't buy the special Gamestop edition. I can't get an R15 online either since I don't have Gold. Screw MS jerks.

Alan Wake already has a definitive release date of April 10th. So I'm willing to put my money on that.

@ soatari

You're probably right but you never know these days. Remember Alpha Protocol being delayed the day of its release.