Gran Turismo 5. We've teased you in the past with constantly shifting debut dates and posted most every video we can find. But today is a new day, and this time we're going to show you... another video. GT5 creator Kazunori Yamauchi sat down with GT Planet to discuss how much work goes into the five-year project known as Gran Turismo 5, along with some speculation as to which vehicle will grace the game's cover.
It's no secret that the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG will be featured in GT5, and Yamauchi actually took the uber-exotic gull-winged supercar for a spin on the legendary Nürburgring to ensure that GT5 has the proper driving dynamics. Both the 'Ring and the SLS AMG were digitally rendered pixel by pixel, aided by the game's physics calculation model. Yamauchi calls the game a driving simulator because the calculation model adds exact information about every physical aspect of each vehicle, ensuring that each one behaves in the game exactly how it drives on the road because "that's something we can't actually touch. If the original car is made well, it'll drive well."
Yamouri likes the SLS AMG so much that the vehicle could hold the honored position of being the cover girl on the upcoming game's packaging. And speaking of the game's cover, the video also shows a few seconds of Yamauchi handing over what appears to be a GT5 box set to a co-worker. The glossy box contained what appears to be black, red and blue Blu-ray cases. We're thinking it's a special edition box set for the most rabid of fans, and we hope we're right
Each year at SEMA, a select group of editors and contributors from the world's largest automotive publications scour the show floor to hand out prizes for the best hot rod, Japanese import, European import, domestic automobile and SUV. But not the overall Best in Show award. That'll be handed out by a video game programmer.
Well, not just any video game programmer. The video game programmer: Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the Gran Turismo racing game franchise. As part of the seventh annual Gran Turismo awards, Yamauchi will hand pick one custom ride at the SEMA show to be rendered by his team of electronic wizards in high-resolution splendor and featured in an upcoming edition of the game. Nominations are being accepted in advance of the November 4 awards ceremony at the Palms, so if you know a ride worthy of Gran Turismo.
We don't know if the marketing folks at Polyphony Digital are messing with us or if building one of the most impressive racing simulators of all time is just really, really hard. For some reason, the rumored release date of the hotly anticipated Gran Turismo 5 is jumping around like the rear axle of a gen one Cadillac CTS-V. We've heard December 29, 2009, late 2009 and even a March 2010 Japan release. Now comes word on the Amazon website that GT5 is going to be released on March 31, 2010. Frankly, we liked "late 2009" a lot more, but it appears we have little say in the matter.
Who knows, the constant date-shifting could be a heartless attempt by Kazunori Yamauchi and his minions to keep their perpetually forthcoming release in the news. We're thinking it's time to stop with the tomfoolery and get this thing launched. Five years and an all-new gaming console is long enough to wait for the answer to GT4.
