I remember leaving high school during my lunch break to knock some time off of some of those marathon runs in Gran Turismo 4.
Are they doing anything that Forza 3 hasn't already done?

I just don't care anymore. I was a big fan of the GT series from the first one, but since GT4 I've grown accustomed to Forza's driving model and honestly a single Forza game (with the DLC) is plenty of racing game until the next Forza game.

That's pretty much how I feel about it. I played Prologue, and it just seemed stale somehow, not to mention awfully light on content.

What you seek, you shall find.

I've always really enjoyed the Gran Turismo series. For me it really is all about driving, not racing. I find the lower-class cars to be the most enjoyable because they are easier to handle and just do a great job of giving me the feel of actually driving these cars. The only other game that has given me that same level of fun was Test Drive Unlimited.

Actual competitive racing, especially with the higher class cars, has never been as fun for me. Partly because I'm just not skilled enough to really do well with them and partly because the AI has never been all that interesting. When it comes to racing I prefer more arcadey games but for driving I think GT can't be beat.

So... yeah, GT5 will probably deliver what I want. Even with the limited damage modeling they've added in I still doubt much will have changed. It'll pretty much be the same old game with a fresh paint of coat, which is probably good enough for many.

This should be an interesting experiment in what near unlimited development time and dollars can result in. To clarify my use of unlimited, I just mean that the developer has had pretty much free reign and investment to create the game they envisioned.

I'm not quite sure how GT5 might ever turn a real profit, but maybe through licensing back the technology to 3rd parties for demoing their cars etc.

Wow... completely forgot about the GT series. Which is really sad given the hundreds of hours I spent playing the previous games.

I think somewhere along the line Yamauchi got blinded by his own success. I understand why he has this cultural quest for meticulous precision but with each passing year he became less and less relevant. I cannot for the life of me understand how Sony has allowed him or Polyphony Digital to go this long without delivering a proper flagship racing title for the PS3. The GT series has become borderline vaporware for the past 3 years. Ought to make for an interesting post-mortem on Gamasutra.

I have no doubts it will be a gorgeous feast for the racing enthusiast crowd but I wonder if it will be a case of too little, too late especially with Forza having 2 successful releases already out there. Is there even a racing wheel for the PS3?

I don't know... I don't even have a PS3.

Actually the PS3 supports racing wheels like the G25 or G27 so you don't have to go out and pay ridiculous sums of money on a Fanatec just to get a clutch and H-shifter. PS3 supports peripherals much better than the 360.

Looking forward to trying it out, although after Forza 3 I'm not sure I will care enough to pick it up on release. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see what all the development time has resulted in.

Polyphony has done it. It may be a little early to tell, but (based on the demo) I think I'm done with the GT Series. And to think, the reason I first got a PS2 long ago was for GT3. After logging hundreds of hours in GT's virtual cockpits, time that actually helped me develop my actual racing career, I think my love affair with GT is over.

While I preferred GT5:P's driving model over GT4 and Forza 2, Forza 3 was a big step forward and GT5 is not only worse than Forza 3, it's somehow worse than GT5:P. Tracks feel like they've been generously coated with Pam and the lack of haptic feedback when traction starts to give is a mystery. GT5 does have much greater graphical fidelity and smoothness than Forza 3. But, the fidelity is wasted on assets with no richness or detail. I didn't expect it to look as good as Dirt2 or Split/Second, but come on, GT4 in 1080i mode had more going for it. Then there are the staples of racing sims like terrible load times and unnecessary grinding. Most racing sims are guilty of having poor driving time:menu/load time ratios (Forza 3 is especially bad) and GT5 is no exception- it uses the same sluggish menu system from GT5:P.

Unless the full game is a massive departure from the demo, there is only one thing I can say to Polyphony - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkcoobYUu8g

I believe he's a reviewer or some other such game related profession.

Or if you know enough Japanese and an address in Japan you can just make a Japanese PSN account.

10,000 points for Half-Baked good sir.

I'm always hesitant to offer too much opinion on racing games, I really have no idea what I'm talking about. This demo didn't do much to win me (ie: mundane racer guy) over. Totally unforgiving and boring, but it IS just a time trial. Thanks Japan.