zerolight

GT5P arrived in the post yesterday. This is the demo, if you like, for Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3 which is due out this time next year. A demo that you have to pay for. But at £20 it’s good value for money, giving you 5 or 6 tracks and 40 cars. Initial gripes aside (you have to install it, which takes 15 minutes, and then it asks you to download an update which takes hours) it’s very impressive.

I got a text from Roy last night, he was just about to head out the door to Ian when he thought to check his mail and discovered that the night had been cancelled. We promptly arranged an alternate venue, Roy’s place. I packed up the PS3 and GT5P, jumped into the GTI, and had a thrilling Badlands adventure through the Gorbals and Rutherglen en route to Roy. What a car.

Thankfully, on arriving at Roy’s we never bothered hooking the PS3 up to the internet, so were blissfully unaware that on detecting a network connection the PS3 would insist on spending hours downloading an update to GT5. Instead we waited the 15 to 20 minutes for the game to install (the PS3 is a PC it seems) before getting stuck in. Unsurprisingly, the first car I bought was a Golf GTI. Once we got to grips with the handling we were soon working our way through the career events, eventually completely class C several hours later. On the way we picked up an Integra and out of necessity, a Suzuki Capaccino. Surprisly, the Suzuki was quite pleasant to drive, insisting on sticking it’s tail out whenever possible. The Integra felt substantially faster than the Golf, yet hot lap times proved the Golf to be faster – 2 seconds quicker around the Suzuka East circuit. Phew.

The handling model is surprisingly good, very satisfying, without the understeer that plagued the GT series on the PS2. Roy certainly struggled to keep his car on the track for the first 10 minutes before he got a feel for it. GT5P looks and sounds very nice too. It’s a shame that the online mode is superficial, but hopefully that will improve. The tracks are of a high standard – Suzuka (in all three variants) and Fuji being my favourites, but the Daytona oval is suprisingly entertaining. Less appealing was the London track which PS3 fanboys have been holding up as eye candy – it’s a lame attempt to give PS3 owners the PGR experience. Eiger-what’s-it-called is as entertaining as ever – moreso now that you actually race other cars on it. So top stuff from GT5P then, and well worth the money, assuming you already have a PS3. Worth buying the console for? Maybe.

I’ve decided to give Tumblr a whirl. It’s one of those new fangled web apps that folk like to call Web 2.0 applications. Don’t you just hate that term, Web 2.0? Is there such a thing as Web 1.0? I mean really, like OMG, you’re still on the old internet?

Anyway, Tumblr is essentially a microblog or, as those Web 2.0 types would have you call it, a lifestream. B*gger off. Lifestream – lol. You’re meant to use it on a daily basis to make little short posts that you’d otherwise not clog up your blog with. Random thoughts, interesting links, that sort of thing. Kind of like the funwall on facebook. I’ll probably never use it. There’s a link at the top of the page to my full Tumblr feed, and there’s a module on the right displaying my recent tumbles.

I’ve been pretty luke warm over the PS3 since getting one last March. A year on, and I’ve really only bought 3 games for it (excluding the odd PSN title). Of those games, the only two I kept are Colin McRae: Dirt and Motorstorm, both of which get occasional play, with Dirt being far better than the 360 effort. Two games. Occasional play. I’ve often worried that the PS3 was a waste of money, saved only by the Blu-Ray movie player that gets even less occasional use.

It looks like finally the PS3 outlook is improving. Sure, the pad is still a t*rd with deadzones bigger than my love handles, and the online service remains a joke. However there are a few games around the corner that I actually want to play. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue – an extended, paid for demo, but at £17.99 I think there’s enough in there to justify it. Everybody’s Golf – a fun golf game, who’d have thought it. Tried the demo, loved it, it’s a nice evolution of one of my favourite PSP games, so Tiger’s getting traded. Little Big Planet – still six months off, but it’s got huge potential. Metal Gear Solid – looks pretty good, but will the dual deadzone spoil the fun? Even The Agency has piqued my interest.

My iPod Touch arrived today. It’s a great little gadget. Very slick and shiny. I’m typing this post on it… in the bath. The only niggle I’ve encountered thus far is that the capacity is not as quoted. Mine has 29.96GB. This seems the norm, with the smaller touches reporting 7.3GB and 14.8GB.

Handling: It goes around corners supremely well. The steering has a nice weight to it, perhaps not as much feedback as some would like, but I’ve never felt myself pushing a car hard enough to notice the benefits of any additional feedback. Seems like it has good brakes too. I thought the A4 S Line handled well, but this is in a different league. The gearbox is exceptional – best I’ve used. I opted for the regular manual rather than DSG.

Comfort: It’s roomy. Massively so. I expected it to feel slightly more compact than the A4, but no. With the drivers seat positioned for me, the A4 kinda crushed my legs if I sat in the back. With the Golf it’s back to the acres of room that the Accord Type R provided. Most impressive as a family car. Loads of headroom too. Fantastic front seats. The steering feels very very smooth, the wheel is lovely in the hands too.

Performance: I have no idea how quick it is, but just pottering about under 4000 rpm and it already feels much quicker than the A4.

Audio: Better than the Audi. Sounds nice enough to my ears. I’m sure some may complain that it’s not made by B&O or Levinson, or something. But for me, it’s great. The iPod link works a treat – essentially VW’s version of the Dension IceLink with a very neat mount in the arm rest to connect the iPod to the Head Unit via the Line Level USB Dock connector.

Nice Touches: Air Con uses some sort of diffuser so that no matter how hard it’s blowing you don’t feel it blowing on your hands and face. Very nice. The dash board looks classy, and the purple instrument lighting provides a nice affect. There’s little red LEDs in the roof console that light up the gearbox.

Practicality: Cheap insurance. Great fuel consumption. Acres of space. Good boot. Fast Family Car. Costs only slightly more than the diesel Golfs. Excellent Residuals.