Yes people, the GT Academy 2010 time trial (basically, a Gran Turismo 5 demo) is now officially available, and will allow you to compete for best times until 24 January next year.
Not only does this give you a sweet preview of the upcoming Gran Turismo 5, it allows you to fight it out for some sweet old prizes too: a REAL driver training programme to qualify for an international race license and a full race season in the European GT4 Cup driving a race-spec Nissan 370Z.
Oh. My. God. Is likely to be your reaction if you're a really, really big race fan and a dab hand at the wheel.
GT Academy 370Z time trial
GT Academy 2010 is open to gamers from 17 different countries, and anyone who's over 18 and holds a full driving license is eligible to get involved.
You can download the time trial from the PlayStation Store, where you'll get to hare around the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway in standard, road and tuned versions of the Nissan 370Z.
Head on over to the European PlayStation Blog, which features Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauchi talking about the new game.
this really sucks for me personally, played it for 30 mins and hated it, seems an improvement on prologue tho but being a time trial you cant see if theyve improved the bumpercar physics when your in a pack.
will give it a rent when its finally released but my hopes have faded. think i will be sticking to forza 3
Kaz seems to be saying that the GT trial demo is to allow fans to test out the new physics model, which is probably why he didn't include the damage in the demo - more people would have probably focused too much on that aspect.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the difference in the physics because, for me at least, that is the most important part of any driving game.
I'm going to try my hardest to get into the top 10 of the UK leaderboard. Bring it on!
this really sucks for me personally, played it for 30 mins and hated it, seems an improvement on prologue tho but being a time trial you cant see if theyve improved the bumpercar physics when your in a pack.
will give it a rent when its finally released but my hopes have faded. think i will be sticking to forza 3
playing NFS shift. with the right driver aids on, its a great game. the second setting along.
was playing with everything off, then pro for a good while, but its just frustrating. went down one again and it becomes great fun. but you to turn brake assist off, crap option, stops you from passing people at the corners.
dont think i will bother with a time trial of GT. TT's are so boring.
Around the web there's a lot of people defending the time trial (why does it need to be defended?!), stating that it's "not a demo". Having played it, let me reiterate the text directly from the menu, "This is the demo version of the upcoming Gran Turismo 5, due for release in 2010."
Around the web there's a lot of people defending the time trial (why does it need to be defended?!), stating that it's "not a demo". Having played it, let me reiterate the text directly from the menu, "This is the demo version of the upcoming Gran Turismo 5, due for release in 2010."
Around the web there's a lot of people defending the time trial (why does it need to be defended?!), stating that it's "not a demo". Having played it, let me reiterate the text directly from the menu, "This is the demo version of the upcoming Gran Turismo 5, due for release in 2010."
shut up you little roach.
coming from a grasshopper thats classic
grasshoppers are damn annoying noisey freaky looking things.
Granted I haven't tried this since I don't own a PS3, but what is the blooming point? There is already one demo out and many people seem to be highly anticipating the main game. Time to focus and finish the actual game already! Sheesh. It's going on what, 5 years now? "Get 'er done, son!"
Around the web there's a lot of people defending the time trial (why does it need to be defended?!), stating that it's "not a demo". Having played it, let me reiterate the text directly from the menu, "This is the demo version of the upcoming Gran Turismo 5, due for release in 2010."
Granted I haven't tried this since I don't own a PS3, but what is the blooming point? There is already one demo out and many people seem to be highly anticipating the main game. Time to focus and finish the actual game already! Sheesh. It's going on what, 5 years now? "Get 'er done, son!"
you need to pay for prologue, and it doesnt represent true GT5 physics.
so there isnt a demo already out.
you'd download it if you had a ps3, so thats the point.
this really sucks for me personally, played it for 30 mins and hated it, seems an improvement on prologue tho but being a time trial you cant see if theyve improved the bumpercar physics when your in a pack.
will give it a rent when its finally released but my hopes have faded. think i will be sticking to forza 3
Your completely missing the point of this trial.
which would be as a promotion for gt5????? not a very good one i might add
oh how silly of me, polyphony just start racing teams because they have nothing better to do (finishing gt5 would be a suggestion).
If this isn't representative of the final product then Sony have shot themselves in the foot by allowing this out the door before a proper demonstration.
Granted I haven't tried this since I don't own a PS3, but what is the blooming point? There is already one demo out and many people seem to be highly anticipating the main game. Time to focus and finish the actual game already! Sheesh. It's going on what, 5 years now? "Get 'er done, son!"
you need to pay for prologue, and it doesnt represent true GT5 physics.
so there isnt a demo already out.
you'd download it if you had a ps3, so thats the point.
and now theres loads of people saying this time trial doesnt represent true gt5 physics
if the final game disapoints as much what are they going to say then?? oh its not finished theres a patch coming???
Granted I haven't tried this since I don't own a PS3, but what is the blooming point? There is already one demo out and many people seem to be highly anticipating the main game. Time to focus and finish the actual game already! Sheesh. It's going on what, 5 years now? "Get 'er done, son!"
you need to pay for prologue, and it doesnt represent true GT5 physics.
so there isnt a demo already out.
you'd download it if you had a ps3, so thats the point.
Doubtful considering I don't even plug my Xbox 360 in to my internet connection in order to sample demos at present time. For online activities I currently stick with my PC and my mobile phone during rare emergencies.
very unimpressed by it to be honest, but then again im not much for racing games, but after enjoying need for speed shift i just downloaded this demo to give it ago and one thing i thought was how rubbish it looks but each to their own eh.......oh well back to the god of war collection!!!!
The whole point of this time trial is to find another potential driver for the GT team.
Anyway, back on Earth....
I've just tried the trial at dinner time and promptly received a smack in the mouth with the difficult stick. I'm sorry that I took the p**s of your video, CVG. I didn't realise that it would be so realistic to drive the cars. I'm currently (and embarrassingly) sat at rank 888. Saying that, I only had 3 laps and I've never tried the track before so don't discount me just yet!
The whole point of this time trial is to find another potential driver for the GT team.
Anyway, back on Earth....
I've just tried the trial at dinner time and promptly received a smack in the mouth with the difficult stick. I'm sorry that I took the p**s of your video, CVG. I didn't realise that it would be so realistic to drive the cars. I'm currently (and embarrassingly) sat at rank 888. Saying that, I only had 3 laps and I've never tried the track before so don't discount me just yet!
Right, carry on...
no the whole gt team thing is just a promotion for the game, i would imagine it was supposed to be part of the final game but due to polyphony taking forever it has been reduced to a fairly low key download the whole point of the gt team project is to make people play the game in the hope of getting offered a place, NOT to find a new racing driver and since theres no game to buy yet and the time trial isnt exactly awe inspiring its not going wel
i much prefer the feel of the standard car too, physics feel much more realistic. tuned one feels like a competition go cart, tho in the finished game im sure you could tweak the twitchy oversteer out id recomend turning down the traction control an using the right analogue stick or R2 to accelerate
Before everyone has a go I'm a fan of the GT series...BUT What an utter disappointment....I can sum it up as Dull and Boring! Nice Cars, 1080p yes but that's it. And yes I know its a demo but come on this games been in development for years and delayed by years. Where's the atmosphere the fun gone, I'm as excited as the flat crowds, where's the realistic damage modeling, weather effects, tire wear etc etc. And whats with the crap sound effects! The list goes on and on....for f**k sake you don't even get tire marks on the bland tracks.....next gen this is not. My advice buy NFS Shirt or Grid or Forza 2...
hmmm brainless trolling that puts people trying to make a point about theyre own opinion in a bad light its still going to be better than nfs shift and supercar challenge by the looks of it, but not a patch on forza 3, if you only have a ps3 then its still hopefully going to be better than its competition dont know how itll fare against grid and dirt 2 tho, but we will see, and most people will of played those to death by then
I wanted to like it, I really did! I had a good few laps with both cars, watch the replays from all angles but I cant shake the feeling that this is a massive dissapointment. Dont get me wrong, I know this is just a very small taste of whats to come but with the huge development time spent on this game you have got to ask what the f*ck have they been doing all this time? At the moment at least,it looks like Forza 3 has very little to worry about. Roll on the finished game to prove me wrong!
Looks like you guys hyped yourselves up for nothing!
It's a time-trial ffs.
How can you compare a time-trial to a full game?
Honestly, the last time I shook my head this much was at a Maiden concert.
It's obvious that Forza fans want GT5 to fail, but surely wait until it gets reviewed. Then you can slag it off all you want. At the moment, you guy's are coming across as the next Nostradamus.
Also, the demo is only 220mb, so PD must have left a lot of stuff out, only giving us the bear bones for the sake of the trial. In contrast, the first GTHD demo was 630mb - almost 3 times the size! And that was only a time-trial too.
Trust me - this demo only serves as a test-bed for the new physics (in terms of feedback for PD) and will not be representative of the final game. Not in the slightest. Unless your a Forza fan, obviously.
Looks like you guys hyped yourselves up for nothing!
It's a time-trial ffs.
How can you compare a time-trial to a full game?
Honestly, the last time I shook my head this much was at a Maiden concert.
It's obvious that Forza fans want GT5 to fail, but surely wait until it gets reviewed. Then you can slag it off all you want. At the moment, you guy's are coming across as the next Nostradamus.
Also, the demo is only 220mb, so PD must have left a lot of stuff out, only giving us the bear bones for the sake of the trial. In contrast, the first GTHD demo was 630mb - almost 3 times the size! And that was only a time-trial too.
Trust me - this demo only serves as a test-bed for the new physics (in terms of feedback for PD) and will not be representative of the final game. Not in the slightest. Unless your a Forza fan, obviously.
Why would us Forza fans want GT5 to fail? Surely if it's amazing then it'll only make Forza 4 all the better...
Looks like you guys hyped yourselves up for nothing!
It's a time-trial ffs.
How can you compare a time-trial to a full game?
Honestly, the last time I shook my head this much was at a Maiden concert.
It's obvious that Forza fans want GT5 to fail, but surely wait until it gets reviewed. Then you can slag it off all you want. At the moment, you guy's are coming across as the next Nostradamus.
Also, the demo is only 220mb, so PD must have left a lot of stuff out, only giving us the bear bones for the sake of the trial. In contrast, the first GTHD demo was 630mb - almost 3 times the size! And that was only a time-trial too.
Trust me - this demo only serves as a test-bed for the new physics (in terms of feedback for PD) and will not be representative of the final game. Not in the slightest. Unless your a Forza fan, obviously.
Why would us Forza fans want GT5 to fail? Surely if it's amazing then it'll only make Forza 4 all the better...
I'm only guessing that because of the fact that everybody seems to be mentioning Forza 3 in this thread.
Looks like you guys hyped yourselves up for nothing!
It's a time-trial ffs.
How can you compare a time-trial to a full game?
Honestly, the last time I shook my head this much was at a Maiden concert.
It's obvious that Forza fans want GT5 to fail, but surely wait until it gets reviewed. Then you can slag it off all you want. At the moment, you guy's are coming across as the next Nostradamus.
Also, the demo is only 220mb, so PD must have left a lot of stuff out, only giving us the bear bones for the sake of the trial. In contrast, the first GTHD demo was 630mb - almost 3 times the size! And that was only a time-trial too.
Trust me - this demo only serves as a test-bed for the new physics (in terms of feedback for PD) and will not be representative of the final game. Not in the slightest. Unless your a Forza fan, obviously.
Why would us Forza fans want GT5 to fail? Surely if it's amazing then it'll only make Forza 4 all the better...
I'm only guessing that because of the fact that everybody seems to be mentioning Forza 3 in this thread.
Trust me, the hate is strong with this one.
We may not want it to fail, but drawing comparisons with a comparable game is simply inevitable.
Looks like you guys hyped yourselves up for nothing!
It's a time-trial ffs.
How can you compare a time-trial to a full game?
Honestly, the last time I shook my head this much was at a Maiden concert.
It's obvious that Forza fans want GT5 to fail, but surely wait until it gets reviewed. Then you can slag it off all you want. At the moment, you guy's are coming across as the next Nostradamus.
Also, the demo is only 220mb, so PD must have left a lot of stuff out, only giving us the bear bones for the sake of the trial. In contrast, the first GTHD demo was 630mb - almost 3 times the size! And that was only a time-trial too.
Trust me - this demo only serves as a test-bed for the new physics (in terms of feedback for PD) and will not be representative of the final game. Not in the slightest. Unless your a Forza fan, obviously.
Why would us Forza fans want GT5 to fail? Surely if it's amazing then it'll only make Forza 4 all the better...
I'm only guessing that because of the fact that everybody seems to be mentioning Forza 3 in this thread.
Trust me, the hate is strong with this one.
We may not want it to fail, but drawing comparisons with a comparable game is simply inevitable.
Your comparing a full retail game to a time-trial of a game that comes out next summer.
Looks like you guys hyped yourselves up for nothing!
It's a time-trial ffs.
How can you compare a time-trial to a full game?
Honestly, the last time I shook my head this much was at a Maiden concert.
It's obvious that Forza fans want GT5 to fail, but surely wait until it gets reviewed. Then you can slag it off all you want. At the moment, you guy's are coming across as the next Nostradamus.
Also, the demo is only 220mb, so PD must have left a lot of stuff out, only giving us the bear bones for the sake of the trial. In contrast, the first GTHD demo was 630mb - almost 3 times the size! And that was only a time-trial too.
Trust me - this demo only serves as a test-bed for the new physics (in terms of feedback for PD) and will not be representative of the final game. Not in the slightest. Unless your a Forza fan, obviously.
Why would us Forza fans want GT5 to fail? Surely if it's amazing then it'll only make Forza 4 all the better...
I'm only guessing that because of the fact that everybody seems to be mentioning Forza 3 in this thread.
Trust me, the hate is strong with this one.
We may not want it to fail, but drawing comparisons with a comparable game is simply inevitable.
Your comparing a full retail game to a time-trial of a game that comes out next summer.
That, my good sir, is inevitable - yet pointless.
Yes, it may be pointless. But it's difficult not to compare this playable demo - which for the vast majority of us is the first chance to get our hands on any form of GT5 close to completion - which is from a game that's claimed to be the best driving simulator ever, to the one that's currently at the top of the genre.
To an unconcerned observer, it makes no sense to compare the games, but in reality when it's your first opportunity to experience GT5 you simply cannot play this demo and not think "the in-car does look better than Forza", "the car handles badly", "I don't like the scenery" or whatever your opinion is.
But think about this: if the graphics in this demo blew everyone away then I very much doubt GT fans would be saying "you can't compare Forza to an unreleased game", do you?
So in a nutshell, is this demo s**te looking and sounding as I've read? It's not supposed to be representative of GT5 final for some reason. Is it true they took the current version of Indianapolis for GT5 then made all the textures crap in order to make it unrepresentative? And likewise with the Nissan's sounds? That's cunning!
Can only assume it's to keep the download size down if they have made compromises.
Although 250ish MB is very small even compared to most demos, with compression it should still be able to be representative of the final game if they wanted it to be.
i dont want gt5 to fail, i want it to be good. everything ive seen of it points to the fact that it isnt.
forza 3 demo blew me away forza 2 demo was quite nice and impressed me enough to buy it forza 1 demo was so bad i didnt buy the game for ages, whole physics set up was totally different to the finished game almost entirely because of the bad feedback.
and all over the net right a lot of people are giving a hell of a lot of feed back. when people are comparing gt to forza 3 its in basic feel, not features or anything like that. i even did a few laps in a 370 on fm3 on a couple of tracks time trial style for comparison
i have a lot of complaints about fm3 but none of them revolve around the basic gameplay or feel.
and if they dont allow you to play your own music instead of the godawfull MUZAK im definately not getting it if they had made this demo accessible only from prologue but with no changes it probably wouldnt be getting the grief it is now. which is ironic since it is free
so you dont download patches/updates for your games?!
That is correct. I have had no need to so far with the 20 games-and-counting that I have for my Xbox 360. Should I discover that one of the games starts to act up then I will consider connecting the Xbox 360 to the internet.
Can only assume it's to keep the download size down if they have made compromises.
Although 250ish MB is very small even compared to most demos, with compression it should still be able to be representative of the final game if they wanted it to be.
The GT Academy demo is 219MB (EU) old chum. The Japanese version is even smaller at 201MB.
It should be pretty clear from the quality of the textures and the same repeated and mirrored 'crowd / spectator' texture that the demo is very much cut down. Even the track and grass textures are worse than those used in GT5P. Soundtrack quality is also reduced due to compression such that the difference is audible.
Sony & PD's aim has been to get the GT Academy demo out to as many people as possible. Keeping the download size small helps to cut the bandwidth and helps to ensure the servers aren't overloaded as people rush to download their copy.
People are going to take what they want from this demo and it's rather frustrating in a way to see a heavily cut and compressed GT shoved out the door. I think those in the know always knew that it was going to get jumped on by Forza fans and even by GT fans.
The demo doesn't make a lasting impression and on that point it could even prove harmful to sales, but GT is such a well known franchise - I wouldn't expect so.
As I've been trying to inform people over the past week or so, there's a point to the GT Academy demo. Many people know what that is - whilst many other people will use the demo as fuel for more FUD.
if they had made this demo accessible only from prologue but with no changes it probably wouldnt be getting the grief it is now. which is ironic since it is free
To make the point again... This mentality is not logical.
1. The point of GT Academy is to find best driver to represent GT on the 2010 GT4 European Cup circus. The GT5P physics engine has been superseded with something more realistic, so it would make most sense to find the GT driver with the best chance of becoming a great real driver. Hypothetically, a legendary GT driver who became a legendary real driver would make for spectacular press and a lot more GT5's and PS3's sold.
2. GT5P has sold around 4M units (Blu-ray and PSN), while there's approximately just under 30M PS3s in circulation - meaning potentially almost 7 times as many people could be tempted to create a PSN account to play it. More PSN accounts = more potential PSN sales. It's another good hook. Please don't bother to comment on how broadband access is limited and how it's really not as much as 7 times.
3. Updating GT5P Spec III to Spec IV using a recent GT5 physics engine, plus adding another track (Indianapolis - to cater for the US reward - i.e. tickets to the Indy 500) and another two cars would require significantly more work to implement, plus it would need a lot more testing - on a now dead build, plus it would completely obliterate the GT5P rankings and furthermore, it would require an 'event' download, which in the end is more trouble than it's worth and would just as likely end up being a bigger download than the GT Academy demo!
I would be interested to hear your speculation on why they needed to degrade the graphics in such a way to keep a reasonable download size?
The final track has to fit in memory on the PS3, as well as 16 different car models with all their LODs. So I wouldn't think a 200MB download size (if that's where they drew the line) with any reasonable compression on the assets, would necessitate compromises at all. And if it did, what harm would another 15-20 MB of textures do?
What purpose would spending art time reducing asset quality for this demo serve? (Besides getting people talking about it!)
It's obvious that Forza fans want GT5 to fail, but surely wait until it gets reviewed. Then you can slag it off all you want. At the moment, you guy's are coming across as the next Nostradamus.
And GT fans were the same about Forza 3. There were loads of people pointing out flaws before the demo was even released.
Before I start here, let me just tell you that if any thing, I would be labelled as a Playstation and GT fanboy - I owned the original 1995 Playstation, bought my Playstation 2 on launch day and now obviously have a PS3. I have bought and still own every Gran Turismo game ever released, including the wacky Concept expansion on PS2. I've been extremely excited about GT5 coming out, despite the endless delays.
This demo - and I'm sorry but it is a demo in essence, it's demonstrating the most important core feature of GT5 with its 'new' physics engine - is a huge, overwhelming disappointment. A complete waste of rubbish, time spent downloading/installing and bandwidth.
The physics are appalling, and even presuming the textures etc HAVE been cut down in this Academy (which I'm not entirely sure they have) this is far less realistic or fun than Prologue! WHY o WHY must be still have the **SAME** tyre screeching sound that we had one the PsOne in 1997?!? It's 2009!
I picked up an Xbox Arcade on Ebay pretty cheap last month PURELY for Forza 3 (£117 with 7 games), after trying it at a mates house. I was driven to this because we have had to wait so_bloomin_long and I really fancied a good car sim. Driving Prologue or Academy after Forza 3 is like eating a Tesco Value cheese and tomato pizza after having a bite of some Papa Johns deluxe.
The physics, engine sounds and immersion factor is way way down with this. It's still a whole generation behind.
I would be interested to hear your speculation on why they needed to degrade the graphics in such a way to keep a reasonable download size?
Who's speculating?
The final track has to fit in memory on the PS3, as well as 16 different car models with all their LODs.
Actually that's not true. The track, textures and car models in GT5 can all be streamed into memory from the PS3 HDD as and when needed.
So I wouldn't think a 200MB download size (if that's where they drew the line) with any reasonable compression on the assets, would necessitate compromises at all. And if it did, what harm would another 15-20 MB of textures do?
Before speculating on what another 15-20MB of textures might or might not do, you should probably take a look at the demo for yourself.
As I've already mentioned, the road and grass textures are low-res and there's a lot of duplication. You can even see the difference between low and high res textures within certain parts of the demo. Those with the demo should take a look coming off the main Indy straight to the inside track section. The road side grass has 2 tiles of higher res texture compared with the rest which is a low res blurry mess (IMO).
What purpose would spending art time reducing asset quality for this demo serve?
Purpose..? How about the Indy circuit is not finished? How about GT5 is still in development?
It seems pretty clear IMO, even though people keep asking and as has been said by many people hundreds of times, it would serve the purpose of reducing the size of the download and ensuring the demo is adequately fit for purpose.
if its not a true rep of the game, then cool, cant wait for it.
my opinion on the "demo" or time trial is that the car looks nice. graphically perfect. the track it terrible graphically. ive seem more polygons on GT3.
But like i said, if its just purley a little comp that has no true likeness to the final game then bring on the full demo of GT5, should be good.
just seems inevitable this time trial (the loading screen just says GT5)will presumed to be the demo for GT5. We know it isn't, but millions of people will think it is. And if there is a full demo with damage and better physics and graphics to come soon, then bring it on, im sure we would all love to see it.
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Saying that, I only had 3 laps and I've never tried the track before so don't discount me just yet! 
