Gran Turismo 5 Release Date Announced. Finally!

Woohoo! We racing and video game geeks have been jonesing for this one for much too long. Gran Turismo 5 has finally announced a firm release date: November 2, 2010. From the screenshots shared at E3 yesterday, it looks like we’ll be seeing more vintage machines than we have in recent episodes of the series as well. From vintage ground-pounders in what looks like a pretty well stocked Trans Am field; to early iterations of the Lamborghini LP400 Countach; and an Alpine—we’ll have some real vintage machinery to sink our virtual teeth into this winter.

From the looks of things, we’ll have some fantastic tracks to try them out on as well. The Nurburgring looks incredibly well detailed with changing surfaces and grafitti. We’ll also get to try our skills on the Top Gear test track! Oh how I’ve wanted to try and keep from lifting in the Follow Through bend. Their takes on some fictional tracks in Rome and Madrid also look spectacular. The Gran Turismo series has always pushed the envelope of what is possible with each generation of gaming platform and the 5th episode looks like it’ll be leveraging the Playstation’s hardware in ways we haven’t seen yet. Looks like it’s time for me to start saving for that steering wheel interface. And with technical direction from Adrian Newey, I imagine that GT5 will stick to the series long history of unparalleled on-track realism, including the long-overdue implementation of car damage on impacts.

• 

• 

• 

I’ve always understood the car manufacturers that license their designs to video game developers have always been reticent to let their cars look all banged up at the end of the race; or become damaged in ways that might not represent the real-life safety systems in the cars. But GT5 has finally been able to sort the hesitation to bring added realism to the series. Hooray!

Pre-Order at Gran Turismo’s site.