Now I want to go on a driving tour, THROUGH FRANCE

[jeriendhal]

So for Father's Day moonshadowed bought me Gran Turismo 5 for my PS3. Like GT1 that I had for my original PS console, it's a reasonably realistic driving game with a really large list of cars. A large list. To the point that it gets rather goofy, especially with the idiosyncratic purchasing system.

For Ex: The list of available races include a European Classic Cup, which means you have to race in a car built prior to 1968. But get a car that old for a reasonable price, instead of going through the list of car dealers, you have check through the used car listings, which change on a daily basis. The first Classic car car I found and bought was a '49 Volkswagen Beetle, which can be best described as "0 to 60 MPH.... Eventually". Fortunately I did find a '61 Jaguar XR this morning, which I snatched up and then washed, changed the oil and overhauled the engine.

Let me repeat that. I did critical maintenance on a car that doesn't actually exist except as numbers in a hard drive.

So I ran it in both races in the Classic Cup and won them handily, whereupon I was rewarded with some credits to buy more virtual cars and improvements, plus a freebie car. Usually this is jsut a generic compact of some sort, or occasionally a concept car that never went into production in the real world. This time around I was given a 1944 Volkswagen Kubelwagen, the German equivalent to a WWII Jeep. A car which is probably slower than the Beetle and absolutely useless in all of the races in the game.

But...

Ich habe ein Kubelwagen! Es ist sehr gut!

Comments

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

If you like racing, part of the Nürburgring is frequently open for anybody.
Also, in the grand scheme of things not far away from France.
Also, near to where I live. :P

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

Oh, ein Kübelwagen. Das ist schön. Ich hoffe Du hast viel Spaß und eine gute Zeit mit ihm. :)

mjkj

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

They've got the 12 mile loop of the Nürburgring available for racing in the game. They've even got the Top Gear test track. It makes me wish that one of the available vehicles was a Ford Transit van, so I could try and beat Sabine Schmidt's time around the track. :)

[kodi]

To me, the best thing about GT5 is that it reminds me (once again) how bad an idea it would be for me to take up real life performance driving of any sort. Especially when I manage to wipe out spectacularly on the Daytona oval.