Gran Turismo 5 - Review

Early Impressions - I just got GT5. I'm not the biggest fan of the Gran Turismo series. I like racing games, but favor the arcade-style racing games over the technical driving simulator. But I couldn't imagine owning a PS3 and not having GT5.

 

The game is very familiar. I think the last version I played was GT3 and the menus and even sounds of GT5 are traditional Gran Turismo. The career mode is familiar. I started with a used Miata. It was by far the best option considering the 20,000 credits available to me. I quickly won some races and got to level 3 or 4 before I knew it. After exiting back out to my Home menu, I was awarded several cars and felt like I was well on my way.

 

I didn't even get into the online lobby or try out acade mode. The track designer is also untouched. There is definitely the feeling of barely scratching the surface of the vast career mode.

 

The graphics are solid. I am a little disappointed in the vehicle damage. Also, some of the track backgrounds seems unspectacular. Yet, there is no game that could live up to the delays GT5 has gone through. There are some waits for tracks to load, but I also haven't made room for the 8 gig of memory to properly load the game.

 

I have since read that special preference is given to the "premium" cars. Graphics are better and a detailed in-cockpit view is available. The vehicle damage is more advanced for these cars as well. So, with only a couple hours of driving a "standard" car my review is lacking, but even more so until I test drive a premium car.

 

Right now the best part of the game is knowing it's scale and that I have so much to uncover. I am eager to get back to racing, winning, and advancing my skill level and garage. I might try out a premium car in arcade mode. But for the most part I'll just plod along. A great game pulls you in for hours and hours. I don't think they messed with that part of the Gran Turismo formula.

Holidaze are here!

Well, once again Christmas has snuck-up on me. The last thing I remember was trick-or-treating, now it's Cyber Monday. I haven't even begun to think about Christmas gifts. I had a business trip to Japan that stole a week of time and felt like two weeks. Then, I had a week off for Thanksgiving. And now it's practically December.
I love the holidays. There are several traditions we have been following. Decorating the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Baking lots of cookies for friends and neighbors. Building gingerbread houses with the Chans. Renting out the ice rink and playing hockey with the family. Golfing with my Dad.
With all this stuff going on, I have to remind myself to enjoy the moment and not get too caught up in the planning or expectations. It's easy to be too busy. I'm going to make a priority of taking it one weekend at a time.

SEMA 2010

I am a huge auto fan. Pretty much all things automotive. Mostly classic & muscle cars & station wagons, but trucks, vans, motorcycles, trikes, lowriders, dragsters, motorized barstools you name it. It is at the core of my being. So much so, that I don't really blog that much about it. I guess I am interested in everything, which makes finding a specific topic to blog about hard to find. On the other hand, I am probably too critical of anything about muscle cars or station wagons to feel the need to repost it here.

 

But SEMA is another thing all together. It pretty much sums up my automotive interests. I like a variety of stuff and the weird stuff is interesting to me. That's SEMA. Here's a cool highlight by Wired.

 

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/11/the-15-craziest-things-we-saw-at-sema/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher&pid=276&viewall=true

LAKings game!

CCM Quality Issues?

I have been playing a CCM U+ OCTO 05 hockey stick. I originally bought it thinking that I needed more shaft flex and I wanted to try a one-piece composite stick. I'm a pretty short guy and when you cut down a stick it gets stiffer. My transition from roller hockey hasn't been very smooth in the puck shooting department. So, having too stiff a shaft is one more problem I don't need.

After only a few games, I had chips come out of the blade around the toe. I wasn't happy with that, since these composite sticks are way more expensive than I am used to. I used some surfboard resin from my surfing days to do a makeshift repair. More recently, a guy on my team had the same type of thing happen with his CCM stick. I am starting to think it's a common problem.

I have been using aluminum shaft or composite shaft & blade combination sticks most of my life. I have very little experience with one-piece composite sticks. So, maybe it's not just CCM. But if this is standard wear for one-piece sticks, I don't have the equipment budget to handle that lifestyle. I am starting to look at buying up the old tech shaft & blade sticks, since they are built like tanks and I'm used to the heavier weight.

Trick or Treat

The kids had a moderate Halloween haul this year. I think we got a later start than usual or we walked slower. But for some reason we didn't cover as much of the neighborhood as we have in the past. There seemed to be large packs of kids roaming the streets with us while we were out.

We got home to hand out some candy of our own, and there were no more candy beggars to be found. Granted, we have a Grinchy-looking street that doesn't appear as candy generous as the blocks to the South. But I think a total of 5 kids came to the house. Things got pretty quiet by 7:45 PM. So, we ended the night with a huge supply of Tootsie rolls and Smartees.

The best costume of the night was a very large, adult Fred Flintstone. He had a beer in one hand and was dragging a cooler with the other hand. It was inspiring. I want to get a group together for next year's celebration. Why leave all the treats to the kids?