GT5: New DLC - A total waste of time??

Got round to buying the new DLC and yes, I am quite a bit disappointed. Firstly Polyphony Digital have reportedly made tens of millions from the DLC release already and as GT is their only investment you would expect that for a quarter of the game price, they could deliver something akin to a quarter of the game. I guess £10 for 14 cars and 2 tracks (forget the gimmicky Paints / Outfits) isn't bad value when compared to something like CM DIRT3's shameless integration of dozens of paid downloads into the story line itself, but for a game as big as GT5, which has a huge design team, hundreds of endorsements and a wealth of old material that can be and is quickly ported forward... well, I just expected more. Some sort of expansion to the game was called for, not just some add ons that can only be used online. I would be much happier to pay £25 for an expansion roughly the size of GT5 Prologue. If we've another year to wait for DLC of a similar nature then I'm not looking forward too much.

I'll start with the 14 new cars. 3 of them are karts. Well OK I guess this fraction of the game does need some variety, but 2 new classes and no new karting events? As for the mostly non-real "Touring Car" collection, jeez, who didn't see those coming. Some die hards are saying the last thing GT5 needs is more new cars, but it needs exactly that; more new cars. Not just these constant rehashes of the same old JDM crew, headed up by no less than four more Skylines! I have been wanting a wide-body R32 for a long time now, but three more with similar specs in a pack this small is desperately close to filler material. Let's not forget this is on top of the new car added to the Dealerships with the 2.0 patch, the Schulze N24 GTR, and the new car awarded with the most recent Time Trial event, another Spec V GTR... OK PD, we get that Nissan let you help design the GT-R and we respect that. Skyline is king of Gran Turismo and we love them, but too much of a good thing, eh, when there are so many other brilliant new cars on the market since GT5's release. As for the Eunos, RX-7, EVO and Impreza TCs, all nice, but again too familiar and they don't perform great either next to existing versions, so lack application [I've only raced the Eunos in the 4-Hr Endurance just to make use of one]. I will give some credit to the Dodge Challenger Touring Car though. It's unlike any tuned American car I've seen on GT before and looks like a good tool for any USA Class racing, but I still haven't tried it. I guess the most original and exciting cars of the DLC pack have to be the two hybrids oddly enough. The Prius and CR-Z TCs are fresh looking and an all-hybrid race series is an interesting prospect, but alas thats all these cars are good for. You would expect them to be secret weapons for Endurance races with performance and crazy fuel economy, but I have found they're just not competitive at all against full blooded cars, even in the same PP band. With the 12+ months of development this DLC has had would it have been too much to ask for a properly special car, like one of the new Ferraris or Lamborghinis, to have made its way in - something that even GT5P got eventually for free. Updated NASCARs for free, but no Ferrari F11 even with DLC?! That might just be a personal thing. All in all, with the continued profits PD will make as players filter back off MW3 and co., a bigger, brighter car list would not have gone amiss.

However, the real disappointment to me was the two new tracks. Don't get me wrong they're both great circuits, but it struck me that they can only be used in Arcade, Practice and Online PvP. The latter is useful, but outside the Lounge they haven't been integrated into the game whatsoever and this, for me, is the biggest let down of all. No new events, no new specials, no DLC-only Online Seasonal events, no level-cap or completion percentage increase, no extra special licence, no new trophies?? No integration into the game at all - this is more like 1.2 than 2.0. They aren't even grindable, which for me is where I take time to learn a track. Given the several year lifespan of the game, I feel a proper overhaul could have been achieved by now, even if it cost us more than £10. I know Japan has had more to contend with lately than making video games, but less focus on the Academy and stuff and more on the actual GT please.

Oh, and I forget to mention the Red Bull X2011.

GT5: Elusive Cars Update

Thanks to the new B-Spec online event I've quickly generated enough money to get the Miura, Ford Mk.IV and F2007 to complete my big money collection, but there's still a few cars I just can;t seem to get on the UCD:

Audi R8 Race Car '01

BMW V12 LMR Race Car '99

Honda LOCTITE MUGEN NSX '01

Mitsubishi CZ-3 Tarmac '01

Nissan R89C Race Car '89

Pescarolo-Courage - Judd GV5 Race Car '04

Spoon S2000 Race Car '00

Message me if you have any of these to trade!

[all links to mygranturismo.net car pages]

GT5 Update : B-Spec Money Grinding in 2.0

As you probably know, the prize money system for GT5 Seasonal Online Events has been reset in the run up to 2.0 and all the ridiculously high rewards for short single-player events are a thing of the past, having been replaced by a consecutive daily login bonus. At the full 200% bonus, some prize amounts are back in the region they were before and some aren't [Tokyo Bay Kart - Compact Car Cup down from cr. 389,000 to **], so I'm still figuring out which A-Spec race is the best credits per minute.

B-SPEC PRIZES AT LAST!

B-Spec is better for grinding obviously because you don't have to do anything, even issue instruction commands with the right car and driver, but with double the number of laps and low rewards its not a very efficient process. It's high time PD brought some proper B-Spec into the big money Seasonal Events and the one that's come with 2.0 is no disappointment. They've included a mere 5 lap race of the short Rome track, ideal for grinding, and it's possible to imbalance your car more than in the other two races.

It's not a great imbalance though and the AI in these Online races is pretty tough and even right on the 500PP limit there will still be one or two cars in the pack that will give your driver a run for their money. Using a detuned racing car will give an advantage, but I've found that drivers still place 2nd and 3rd and it's more about finding the right race car thats close enough to the PP limit so it only needs a little power drop and won't lose its drivability. I'm compiling an ongoing list at the bottom of cars I've found that just seem to be faster here.

My level 35 driver completes the race in about 7 mins. 20 and will have passed pretty much any rival car by the last lap, but with an easy grid, basically one without a really high-power car like the Esprit V8 / Nür Spec Skyline / NSX Type R, and I have had repeat wins with my drivers down to level 28, still with no instructions given.

340,000cr. / 7 mins. 20 = ~50,000 cr. per minute!

cr. 340,000 @ 200%
cr. 255,000 @ 150%
cr. 170,000 @ 100%

At 50k per minute it would take about 6 and a half hours to make the full 20 million cr. needed for the classic Le Mans cars... not hard to rack up while sitting off doing other things. By far the easiest money grind solution yet!

Car List:

Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione - Only needs detuning slightly to make the 500PP @4 bhp. Lev. 30+ drivers will win without trying.

Acura NSX RM - Add a chip and racing exhaust, then detune it slightly to make the 500PP @ ~305bhp - very fast car. [Best time: 7 : 11 : 588]

Nissan GT-R SpecV (GT Acadamy SPECIAL)

Subaru Impreza Rally Car '03 - Power limited to 307bhp [324 standard] and the downforce turned down considerably front and back to get down to the 500PP limit. The weight stays low so the lack of downforce in corners shouldn't matter and top speed is increased for the Rome straight.

Ford Escort Rally Car - Reduce downforce to 6F/8R, lower it 40mm, add a Stage 1 Turbo and detune it the 2 PPs to make the 500PP limit @ ~340bhp. [Best Time: 7 : 15 : 165]

** Tokyo Bay Kart Track for Compact Car Cup

This was the best cash grind by miles before the update. With a car at the 450PP limit the race is over in 3 and a half minutes and the reward was 389k, so about 110,000 cr. per minute! It's no longer the best cr. p/m, but it is still the shortest A-Spec race at present and still worthwhile.

Yeah yeah, game-guides suggest well matched cars to make the competition amusing and where's the fun in winning by imbalance, but the whole point of grinding is to get it done quickly and I've been constantly trying to better my time and get on to the next race. I've raced it so much now that I reckon I've got some decent times, so I'll be posting a shortlist of cars / setups soon.