Finally GT5p arrives (on the PSN store) I was contemplating picking up the Blu-Ray version and I may still tomorrow. Either way this shows a huge shift in how games are delivered to the masses. No longer is it a Brick and Mortar world to Gamestop’s sorrow (i.e. Ebgames). The ability to download your favorite games is becoming more common. With Steam, and now the PSN Network (as well as Xbox Live) it’s a piece of cake as long as you have a decent highspeed line and the hard drive space to hold it.
What’s special about GT5p is that it’s actually a “demo” of the final product. Now most people would scoff at a $39.99 Demo. But please keep in mind that there’s a lot more in the package then what you would normally see in a free Demo, A LOT more. Here’s the list.
- 70 Cars
- 6 Tracks
- Online play
- GT TV, The selling point is episodes of Top Gear
- Online Ranking for the various single player modes (Drift, Time trial etc)
So is all of that worth $39.99? Totally. The validation comes when you think of it this way. GT5 has been in production for a very long time, and I’m sure that production costs have skyrocketed with the PS3. Polyphonic Digital being the perfectionists that they are, aren’t going to just release a finished product. So in order to take the string out of those production costs they release a small taste of the final product. Make sure it’s free of bugs and such and release it for $39.99. I also would like to think that they are using this as a Beta test for the online play in the final game. See what works and what doesn’t. PD hasn’t have any experience with online so I’m guessing they’d need to catch up.
I’m really looking forward to playing this, and I’ll give my impressions later (Though take it with a grain of salt, I’m no Car geek
). If you’re looking to race online, hit me up @ Xebius.