Gran Turismo 5 is a little more than a week away, which has many gamers writhing with excitement. Gorgeous graphics, tons of cars and hundreds of customizable options are sure to make this one of the more impressive games this generation. However, one option is missing in Gran Turismo 5, and I’m a little ticked about it.
After having viewed several leaked Gran Turimso 5 gameplay videos, most of which are easily viewable on sites like YouTube, it has been confirmed that players will not be able to change the wheels on used cars, or what the folks at Polyphony Digital like to call “standard cars”. For some, this is no big deal, and in the grand scheme of the game, it really isn’t. But the fact that we don’t have the option to make this modification is quite baffling and, frankly, ridiculous considering the amount of time devoted to development in order to make the game as realistic as possible; this isn’t what we waited all these years for.
What’s one of the first things that are modified on a cheap Honda Civic? More specifically, what’s one of the first things that a wannabe racer modifies on their cheap piece of tin, aside from the wailing muffler? The wheels. The wheels on a car are one of the first things that are switched out when one feebly attempts to make their terrible car look cool, not to mention that it’s always a blast in Gran Turismo to try and take an awful used car and turn it into a “pimped out” beast of a machine. Taking away a key cosmetic option such as this not only hinders creativity early on in the game, but also serves to push players into buying premium cars prematurely, just to attain this option. We can only hope that Polyphony Digital decides to offer a patch later on to enable this option, because there’s really no excuse for it’s absence.
Again, by no means is this a game-breaker, nor is it a cause for concern, as it is a very minor issue, but an issue nonetheless, and one that I definitely hope is addressed at some point, because we all love ourselves some used car customization, and there’s no reason for certain aspects to be missing when the key words for Gran Turismo 5 have been detail and realism. Sure this is a nitpick, but perhaps the future will be different as a result.
Look for Gran Turismo 5 when it hits store shelves on November 24th, and be sure to keep an eye out for our review when it goes live shortly thereafter.
