I remember watching my fiancé at the time and our mutual friend play Gran Turismo 3 and 4 for hours on end. I remember hearing my friend curse about how he had to get all these licenses and how time consuming it was, yet he still loved it. For me, my racing game of choice was Burnout, SRS, the Rush series and so on. I did enjoy watching them play, however I didn’t play that much of Gran Turismo.
Everyone knew that GT5 would be eventually coming out, but it was unclear when. After delay after delay, this loving racing simulation game finally hit the market. With the holidays nearby I asked my husband if he wanted me to get him GT5 for Xmas or another game of his choosing. He choose GT5 and we were off to Best Buy to get a copy.
I knew the install time would be a bit long, so we placed the game into our Ps3 and switched over to watch a new DC cartoon, Small Justice. It took around twenty minutes to install, a bit less than from what I heard from other people, who waited forty minutes.
The long opening shows how a car is made and then shows the gameplay, which had my jaw almost to the floor. By this time, I’ve played other racing games and the opening made me think, “Forza who?”. Then the fun part happened. Once the opening was out of the way, a nice black screen with the GT5 logo appears, along with music that you would hear if put on hold by a call center. This screen stayed up there for quite a long time and for some reason, I found myself laughing uncontrollably. I knew the load times would be a bit long, but it felt like forever before my husband finally got to the screen that he was getting to. While still laughing, I grabbed my XB360 harddrive and went into the bedroom to play some Forza 3, just for the heck of it. I kept hearing “WTF” each time the loading screen would pop up, it was truly hysterical.
Forza 3 loads straight away and I choose my race. Yes, it does take a bit to load the race, but not nearly as long as the load screens that take you to view what car to purchase, among other menu screens.
I finish my race shortly after my husband finishes his. I didn’t see how long it took GT5 to load it’s track, but I am assuming it is faster than Forza 3, however to navigate through GT5 menus, that, my friends, will take some patience.
Forza game that installs unto the system and has taken ages to finally be released, you would think the load times would be a bit better than what it is. Sorry, but when I play a game, I don’t want to wait. Yes, I am inpatient, but if I’ve waited x-amount of years (or decades) to play a game, I don’t want to sit in front of a loading screen for several minutes on end.
However, this won’t stop me from playing GT5 myself, but can the beauty of this game and the ability to play on Top Gear’s test track really make me prefer GT5 over Forza?
UPDATE: After the update today, Saturday, GT5 is loading A LOT faster than it did yesterday. This is fantastic news.
