Gran Turismo 5 goes 3D

Real-world driving moves a giant step closer to the gaming world when car racing simulator Gran Turismo 5 goes 3D in November.

The Gran Turismo franchise has crafted a reputation for unmatched vehicle presentation and driving realism, world-class racers and weekend warriors all use the game to learn the tracks, and the long-awaited fifth model promises to lift the standard again.

There are 1000, yes, 1000, photo-realistically rendered vehicles ready to roll on 70 tracks, ranging from radical rally cars to regular production models. The list includes more than 800 cars, with many from previous versions of the game, along with 200 "premium" models that faithfully depict everything from driving dynamics — data loggers captured the acceleration, braking and handling of the real cars on the real tracks — right down to the interior fabric and plastic textures.

That level of detail inevitably will drop a fraction if you play the game in 3D, but it is still high enough to encourage makers such as Ferrari to licence their cars for digital reproduction.

Then there's the dirt. It sticks. That mightn't be a big deal to average gamers, racers can put their cars through the carwash to clean them up, but the accumulated grime, water spatters and scrape marks reflect the level of commitment the game's creator, Polyphony Digital's guru Kazunori Yamauchi, to generate near true-to-life detail.

Vehicle damage also will make its mark. One of the criticisms of earlier Gran Turismo games was that hitting the walls or other drivers slowed the cars, but didn't mark them. Now there will be visual and mechanical consquences in a crash, with a physics engine calculating the speed and angle of impact to determine the severity of the damage.

The standard cars will have a basic damage system, while the premium models will have a more detailed system, right down to tearing panels off the cars.

Other innovations include online play for up to 16 racers; night racing, with the option of high and low beam headlights on the premium cars; and the ability to look around (if using a PlayStation Eye).

The game will launch in three flavours: a standard version, a collector's edition with special artwork and five "ChromeLine" performance-enhanced cars and the signature edition. The signature version will be packaged in a contoured steel case finished in Mercedes-Benz SLS "Obsidian Black" paintwork, with a coffee table book showing the cars and tracks in the game and six extra "Stealth" cars, including the McLaren F1 and SLS Gullwing, along with a scale model of the SLS machine and a USB key with a video showing the collaboration between Mercedes and Polyphony.

For more details on the game and how to win the Gullwing, go to www.gran-turismo.com.

THE CARS

Virtually every carmaker in the world is on the GT5 bandwagon, with Porsche as the only notable absentee. Ferrari has loosened its notoriously tight hold on its image to officially allow the 458 Italia to get a run, while Bugatti and Lamborghini also feature for the first time. Electric cars also earn a start, led by the Tesla Roadster, while hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight return.

THE TRACKS

There are 20 sites and 70 tracks to play with in GT5, from the Nurburgring to Daytona and the Top Gear test track. The Top Gear track alone took more than two years of coding, with Yamauchi admitting the development team had several big crashes — just like The Stig — while capturing data. Equally the Nurburgring circuit is as realistically reproduced as possible, right down to the graffiti — though Sony had to delete some of the more profane slogans.