Hands Off Gaming

When i recently picked up Gran Turismo 5 again, it was so that i could get in some quality time on a couple of the best tracks........ in the world. But after a couple of days, and the completion of the beginner and amateur levels, i realised that i had hit something of a brick wall.

And at 200mph that's not very much fun at all.

The thing about Gran Turismo, and it's something i've always liked, is that Polyphony always have their invisible hand on your shoulder, cajoling you along a certain career path. The gifting of a Mini Cooper for winning the Sunday Cup series, and then the knowing look of approval as you decide to tackle the FF challenge next (since you have just fortuitously acquired the very car to do the job) has always worked nicely. Yes you could eventually spend 100,000 credits on a sexy little super car and jump straight into the deep end if you wanted to, but that was the point, you didn't have to do that.

I only mention this because since the inception of B-Spec, the balance of the game has been a little off, and this is where the 322kph crash into a masonry barrier occurred for yours truly.

When i buy a racing game it's for one rather simple reason, i want to race. B-Spec is a nice addition if you've always wanted to be Ross Braun, but seriously you'd rather be Lewis Hamilton right? Playing B-Spec (and i use the term "playing" loosely here) is like buying some sexy sleepware for the mrs, and then inviting the next door neighbour over so you can enjoy watching the action rather than getting stuck in yourself. You may marvel at some of the tricks he can pull off, but you'd rather it was you fumbling around in the dark.

So, as i said, B-Spec is a nice diversion if you like the management side of racing, but it's not what i bought the game for. I very much doubt that many others did either, which is why it's so annoying that your progress in A-Spec seems to rely on winning cars in the management mode that are un-available if you race yourself.

So with all that said i have to ask, why did Polyphony decide that in order to progress in a natural and balanced way through the Driving career, you have to use B-Spec as well ?

The obvious answer would, i suppose, be that they want you to get the most out of the game by guiding you towards using both sides of the sim, management and driving. Much in the same way that their invisible hand once nudged us in the direction of the FF series in GT's past, they are now showing us that we need to use both functions in the game to get the best from it.

I guess i'm okay with that too, after all i play as much PES as i do Football Manager, and they are essentially the football equivalent of what GT5 has done here. Maybe this hands off gaming isn't so bad, but why must it be harder to progress if you only play one side of the coin rather than both?