So for the thanksgiving I visited with family and friends. I also brought along Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. Of course my friend grabbed the Gran Turismo 5 first, but what happened next is unbelievable.
I guess you can say this was an intended experiment to see what my friend thought of these two brand new racing games. Gran Turismo 5 was still in the shrink wrap when I brought it over. I had already played the crap out of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and it's no secret that I love it. They writin' stories about my record times on the internet.
My friend immediately grabbed for the Gran Turismo 5, unwrapped it and put it in his Playstation 3. Of course we had to do a system update and an install. It's the Playstation what did you expect I told him. Reports on the internet was that there is a 45+ minute install time for GT5. Luckily we were distracted by family, football, alcohol and turkey. After the install I grabbed the remote and started to look through the menus. I just wanted a quick race so I can see it. I've been waiting for such a long time for this game and the internet has been an unstoppable buzz machine about everything GT5. Well I couldn't just race, I had to do a license test first. First license braking challenge. Ok seems simple enough. The countdown begins and then I'm off down the straight away. There is a giant checkered board at the end of the track, I guess gotta stop there. No problem. Perfect. Wait what? Failed? Aw fuck. I was called for the official turkey dinner start and left the game running right where I failed to brake. I was in shock that I failed the braking test.
After the meal I headed back into the game room and found my friend all up in the Gran Turismo 5. He was still trying to get a license so we could get into a real race. After each attempt at a challenge he handed me the remote and asked if I'd like to play. I respectfully declined. Watching was more than enough for me. 30 minutes later we had a license and entered a race. I still haven't seen anything really special, the game appears to be extremely in-depth and that kind of interests me. I watched my friend do one race and then it was my turn. After playing so much Need for Speed Hot Pursuit there was nothing special about driving a shit car in GT5 at 55 MPH. I was extremely bored with that type of racing. I imagine it would get better with more gameplay and more cars unlocked, but we didn't have time for that and I really wanted him to see the other game I brought at this point.
Finally we put in the Need for Speed Hot Pursuit into his Xbox 360. Within 3 minutes he was already racing. Then as the map began to open up and he unlocked more cop and racer events, it was clear to me we had a winner. He dropped subtle hints to his wife that he needed this game asap or a divorce was imminent. The funny thing about all of this to me is that my friend never asked me once if I wanted to play the Need for Speed, like he did in-between every GT5 load screen.
Gran Turismo 5 is a simulation. A serious simulation of a race car driver who must buy his own car collection, earn his own licenses and level up like an RPG. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is a straight up arcade racer that puts you into high speed racing action right away. I don't have an official opinion on Gran Turismo 5, but I'm sure I'll play it eventually ... if I can ever get off of Need for Speed and trying to beat all of my friends times on the speed wall. Thanks for reading.
