GT5 - IT'S THE POLAR BEAR OF CONSOLE RACERS!

Polar Bears are cute.  Fluffy white bundles of joy that are rewarding to see and observe.  That is until some cute innocent seal wanders by and before you can say 'Oh look there's a seal' the once cute and cuddly Polar Bear has killed the seal, sucked out it's insides and is rolling about in the gore turning it's pristine white fur into a crimson mask of death.

This is exactly what playing GT5 is like.  Everything starts out cute and cuddly.  Nice cars, gentle handling and an almost nurturing feel to the game.  Then, just as you are starting to feel at ease, out come the claws.  It beats you soundly about the head, face and neck, pulls your head off and leaves you in a crumpled heap in the corner of the race track.  What's more, it actually seems to take a perverse pleasure in doing so.

The true nature of GT5 is reserved until later on in the game.  There is one series of races where I found this unique behavior especially frequent and that is the Formula GT Championship in the Extreme racing section.  Such misery this has wrought me I have now renamed this the Widow Maker World Championship.

I kicked off my first attempt at this yesterday afternoon.  Having finally amassed the money necessary to purchase the Formula GT car and also enduring the patient wait for it to become available in the 'Used Car Dealership' I quickly acquired one, gave the car a damn good clean, changed the oil, did all the necessary renovation on it, slapped on some nice soft tyers and skipped off with a spring in my step to the race track.

Noting that all the cars were the same, I merely shrugged and presumed that my superior skill and judgment not to mention a small helping of aggressive driving would be more than enough to suffice to win the series. 

This was roughly 2.30pm yesterday afternoon.

24 hours later and it is a small miracle that the GT5 disc and box are still in one piece.  You see, the game went from cute and cuddly to all fearsome and toothy!  I just cannot shake them off, the pressure over 20 laps is too much.  I lose concentration once and the car spins and they all blast past me!  I can't do it captain! I don't have the power!

The game box sits next to the PS3, mocking me with it's presence.  I WILL win every race in this game even if it means playing it until GT6 comes out!

You see this is the power of GT5.  Now I know it is not to everyone's liking and there are those that were expecting the second coming when it was released but the basis of this seemed to stem purely in the protracted development time.  Whether the end product is a fair reflection on the time spent making it is for another blog, but there is no doubt that this game has some sort of hold over me.  Despite the urges to take the game and fling it out of the window, I still feel compelled to come back to it and try again.

The lifespan of most other racers is tempered by the fact that they quickly become boring due to the fact that once mastered they offer very little in the way of a challenge and the races become a mere trudge to the finish line.  In GT5 there is always the nasty Polar Bear that is waiting to leap out from behind the seeming innocent exterior and this type of gaming I find more compelling and addictive than any other.

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson likened the new Ferrari GTO as the 'Kato' of motor vehicles due to the unpredictable nature of it when all the fancy computer assists are turned off.  Kato and the Polar Bear are more than apt to describe GT5 on the PS3.