Much like in the previous Gran Turismo games, in the A-Spec mode, you’ll race and then use your earnings to purchase newer, faster cars. You’ll start out with a small bit of money (credits) to buy an inexpensive car, and you’ll take it to the track in some low-level, non-restricted races. The GT Mode also does a nice job of slowly guiding you through its various parts as you progress. While GT5‘s size may sound daunting, it’s all presented in a way that begs you to explore it. The word “comprehensive” doesn’t even feel big enough. It’s every bit of the racing world all in one place, on one disc. The game’s GT (career) Mode has so many menus and sub-menus that it took me a full workday to completely go through them all, and that’s not even counting a separate arcade mode, a track maker, a video collection and much more. The numbers that Sony and Polyphony Digital have been throwing at us (1,000+ cars, 70 track variations, several modes) don’t even begin to cover how vast the game is. Only after finally stopping to write a review after countless hours of play did I realize how massive Gran Turismo 5 is. Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America I just jumped in like the last six years never even happened. It just happened, and it just felt right. Although this is something racing fans have been waiting on for so long, slipping back into Gran Turismo was completely natural. Hundreds of virtual miles and a few sleepless nights later, I still haven’t had my fill of Gran Turismo 5. I was playing the game that PS3 owners have been talking about since the system’s release. I was playing something that is attempting to be the end-all racing simulator. It really didn’t hit me until a bit later that I was playing six years’ worth of work from Polyphony Digital. It didn’t really register that I was actually playing the finished version of Gran Turismo 5, after all this time. Here I was, in a slow car and on some standard track, going in a circle, rounding corners at a snail’s pace.

I put my review copy of Gran Turismo 5 into my PS3 and started it up, watched a lovely cutscene and then began playing.