Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo 5 is in many ways a fantastic racing game, but it suffers from relatively severe deficiencies. The damage model is unforgivably weak, 800 of the 1000 cars are of low quality and the sound is too cheap. The handling is impeccable, however.

It'll probably be years again before Polyphony Digital delivers another Gran Turismo, but I think it's pretty clear what they need to work on: treat all the cars with equal love, give players more options to fine-tune the AI, make driving something to be enjoyed rather than endured, improve all aspects of the online functionality, and re-prioritize all those features into something more focused on fun than a back-of-the-box list.

Gran Turismo 5 is like a restored classic car: beautiful on the outside and it drives like a dream, but in time you'll miss the modern parts that new cars have.

Ultimately, fans of GT4 are going to find a great deal of value in GT5. Just don't expect to see the same advances that have been made in racing games over the last three years.

So, if you've already sat through an excruciating wait for your next fix of this hugely popular franchise then strap yourself in and prepare to play long into the coming year. For everyone else, there's always Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Started in 2008 with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the High Definition corner for Gran Turismo ends in a somewhat chaotic way with a Gran Turismo 5 disappointing at almost every level, moreover proving that Polyphony Digital didn't put itself in question.

Gran Turismo 5 feels old and confused. There are glimpses of amazing stuff hidden under the muddy menus, but there are also some truly bad design choices. Give it time and it will open up. But perhaps not as much as you had hoped for.

Sometimes great, sometimes just a mess. The disappointment of the year.

Gran Turismo has lost its mojo and become a dinosaur among modern racing games. It still drives brilliantly, but it's also bloated, scrappy, unbalanced and majorly dull for prolonged periods of play.

While Gamestyle loves the on track handling, the pursuit of new vehicles and driving excellence, Gran Turismo 5 fails to achieve its goals or address its bad habits. Full of distractions and pretty eye candy, beneath the bonnet, the chassis is in serious need of attention.

But this is a production that feels increasingly aged in the face of modern game design. The creeping and eventually overriding feeling is that this meticulously precise simulation, and its lovingly constructed catalogue of automotive history, deserved a little more game to come along for the ride.

It requires a significant investment of time before players will begin to enjoy themselves. It has loading times which are pretty bad at best and unacceptable at worst. Oh and for a lot of the game the only thing you'll be racing is your own PB time.

The developers seemingly reside within a bubble where no other recent simulation racing games have been released (including, apparently, Gran Turismo 4). Thanks to studios like Codemasters and Turn 10, a revolution may be occurring within the genre, but it has nothing to do with this obsolete franchise.

Years of waiting, and we're presented with a title that still feels unfinished. Gran Turismo 5's main frustrations come from the fact that, at times, the game is entertaining and a joy to play. At other times, it had us questioning if Polyphony understand what the current generation of consoles are capable of.