Gran Turismo 5 - PS3

Even though damage is more or less a staple in racing games these days, one major developer has stayed completely away from it – Polyphony Studios. Many would agree that Gran Turismo is the premiere game racing franchise, but since it’s never allowed for it’s cars to become damaged, some fans of the series have become quite jaded.

Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi has leaned on the fact that car manufacturers have told him that if he wants their cars included in his game, they can’t take damage – but since many other games for the past few years have all included and often times relished in damage modeling, it’s not an excuse anymore.

So after I interviewed Yamauchi at this year’s GamesCom yesterday (full interview hitting G4tv.com next week!) and he told me the Gran Tursimo 5 demo on the show floor included damage, I was beyond excited. I’m quite the Gran Turismo fan, so I rushed to the floor to get my hands on the demo. Either something was wrong with this demo or Polyphony is barely finished with the damage model for the game– but I walked away shaking my head.

Upon launching from the starting gate, I gained speed and started slamming into other cars, and then slammed into the wall. Nothing. Repeatedly slamming into everything I could it took a few good crashes to see the drivers’ side door open. A few more slams and the passenger side door opened. That was it. Not only that, there were no dents or scratches on the car, either. It also didn’t affect how the car performed after I beat the living snot out of it. I watched someone else playing the game, and I think they loosened up the fender a bit but that’s about it. Hrmpt.

When I get back to the States next week I’ll be looking into this a bit further, because I really came away unimpressed. C’mon, Polyphony, I really hope I was missing something here, because if this is what you consider damage, you’re going to continue to have your fans lose faith in your product.

Including me.