Pre-ordered it and it arrived today. Based on past games, I knew there would be a slow install, and even checked I was up to date on system software before I started.
Not that any of that helped. Most operations seem to hit the network, which is particularly slow and unresponsive. First it wouldn’t sign me in. Turned out there was a new user agreement which had to be accepted outside of the game. Then everything still goes slowly in game while you create your profile. A few bits timed out and I think it lost the stuff, not that I had much to put in there.
Maybe it’s just the “new out” everyone on it factor, but hope it gets better than that. Now if I can just get into any gameplay… had two cups of tea getting this far.
had a quick arcade earlier, looks great… and it’s pretty hard with a lot more realistic physics…
however trying the gt mode and my controller pointer has been “lost” a few times so I can’t interact with the game, and it’s hung on loading screens a couple of times.
I’ve now cleared enough space to do the full install, so will see if that sorts the issues :rolleyes:
Saw you online 
Got bored waiting for the game to do anything last time, so now I restarted it. Says it can’t connect to the network so either my ISP are failing or the GT5 servers are getting hit badly. Bad thing is this game doesn’t seem to respond well even if you don’t want to race online…
Edit: ok, not as bad as feared. Just avoid the network side after you make a profile and it seems fine now 
aye online stuff is being hammered apparently, a few other peeps are grumbling too. full install appears to have stabilised my issues too, just hope the game itself gets better as it’s all rather dull straight off
I only done a few of the licence tests so far, seems pretty much the same as earlier games apart from better graphics.
Have played with it a bit more now…
The racing, what I’ve seen so far, is pretty much the same as the earlier games. Kinda helps as the circuits are vaguely familiar to me but I still need to relearn them. The Top Gear track has only been offered to me as a special event so far, going around what looks like VW campers, but that isn’t fun as the rules are pretty tight. Stray off the track and you’re out! Dunno if it gets better later, but you’re not going to do suicide runs around Gambon as it is…
For those needing to give their thumbs a rest, or if you want to earn some credits while doing something else, you can do the B-spec where you get a computer driver to erm… drive and you direct them. Not that there’s a lot to direct as you can only tell them to speed up, slow down, stay the same or overtake. Most of which seem to end up with them flying off the track. The driver AI is still as stupid as ever. I’m no natural at this game and in the equivalent A-spec race (you drive) with the same car I can easily cream the opposition. So as said, I think I’ll mostly use this as a way to earn stuff if I’m doing something else, like writing about the game while I get tonight’s food sorted.
There’s also a photo mode which looks nice but I’m not sure about the overall value of it. For wannabe photographers you can control various camera aspects manually.
So my current rating would be to call this “more of the same”, if a bit nicer looking. But there’s still a lot I haven’t touched at all yet…
I’ve played it a bit more too, and I’m pretty disappointed and unimpressed tbh.
The one thing that the GT games really did will (imo) and the thing I enjoyed most about them was the upgrades… In other words, you buy a naff car, you win a couple of easy races, you upgrade, you win some tougher races, you upgrade more, things get interesting and challenging and it’s all good 
Each upgrade you can feel the car change, you learn your favourite car and how to drive it, all the while improving it.
In GT5 it seems to me they’ve thrown this out of the window and force you to buy a new car for each series (well, most) due to very tight eligibility rules. Sure GT3/4 had things like the “lightweight cup” and f/r or f/f races that needed specific car types to compete, but in GT5 it seems every race series needs a different car with zero crossover so you spend all your credits buying cars to compete in the specific races that you’ll barely ever drive again 
Special Challenges are nice though, and that Top Gear track in the VW’s is ~HARD~ but I enjoyed it - cracked it after about 8 attempts, think I only needed to break at hammerhead and the last corner (gambon?)
Hmm… the car limits were always there? At the rate I’m going at, I’ll probably do the harder ones with recycled cars before going back and filling in all the odd gaps in the lower ranks.
Been playing more Age of Empires to let my thumb recover while letting my B-spec driver do some work. He’s not too stupid now.
I noticed you’ve done the first license to all gold level? How do you have the patience to do that? I was like, feck it, a pass is a pass and went through it as quick as possible. The Top Gear challenge annoyed me too much after a few attempts for me to finish it.
Car limits were always there, but much less so in GT3/4, and felt more like bonus races rather than a hindrance to progress.
As for the all golds… I’m a pedant, and probably borderline OCD About half I did on the 1st attempt though, a few others were seriously irritating mind… Trial and error and occasionally ignoring the racing line did the trick 
I just unlocked the end credits, which was a bit boring actually. Now 40% of way into game according to built in stats, with 60 cars in the garage and a B-spec driver that isn’t totally stupid.
Actually, I think B-spec racing was a surprise to me how exciting it is. I never thought I’d say it, but watching the AI race for you is as exciting to racing yourself, if in a somewhat different way. The graphics are really nice and the camera angles flow really well. It is a pleasure to watch and doesn’t get boring. It’s like watching F1 but much more exciting Maybe I’m getting a taste of what team bosses go through, shouting at the screen when there’s a silly move and even when things go well and you’re in the lead, you keep praying the driver can keep the pace up without falling off the road, which occasionally happens if you push them too hard. Getting him up to speed doesn’t happen instantly, as early on in the game he’s totally stupid and you compensate by giving him an overpowered car if you want to win. The regulations and credit crunch hit in not long after so the racing gets very close. There’s more action in one race than a whole season of F1, winning by hundredths of a second is nail biting stuff.
I haven’t given up on driving myself. I did the national A licence just for the sake of it, and the last test in that was seriously annoying. Starting at the back of the grid, you need to move up to I think it was 7th or higher to pass in a single lap. Fall off the track or hit someone else too hard, and you’re out. The AI doesn’t make it easy for you either and it took many attempts to get a balance of clean and fast to scrape a pass. Dunno why I did it anyway since the game hasn’t asked for a licence requirement anywhere I’ve seen yet. Main racing wise I’ve still got gaps to complete in the amateur series due to lack of qualifying vehicle. I just finally picked up a couple cars which qualify so I’ll have a go tomorrow. How hard can it be to get a pickup and a classic US muscle car? Can’t get either new as far as I could see so there was much checking of the used cars to find one.