It’s been over five years in development, but Gran Turismo 5 is finally here. Sporting over a thousand cars, more than seventy tracks, and enough game modes to make your head spin, this is the definitive racing experience you’ve been waiting for all these years. Sure, the wait was long and painful, but it was worth the effort. Whether you’re a gear head or casual racing fan, this is a must own game on the PS3.

I’ll get this out of the way: Gran Turismo 5 is flat out beautiful. While graphics don’t make the game, it’s nice to see so much polish put into every aspect, from the cars to the tracks and crowd watching your every turn. It’s clear the team at Polyphony Digital put an extra coat of polish everywhere. The core of any racing game, the driving, is even further improved from previous editions of the series. Each car feels unique and realistic and various tuning options can be clearly detected whenever you purchase a new part. The physics engine has received an upgrade making GT5 even more realistic than GT4, which was a damn good game in its own right. I particularly enjoyed how the damage modeling increases with your experience level, so running into walls early in the game won’t have nearly the impact as doing so later.

The game’s GT Mode is the career mode where you’ll be spending the majority of your time. You can compete in A-Spec races where various car and tuning requirements exist as you progress from Beginner to Expert and beyond. Having to purchase various cars keeps the game feeling fresh as you progress. You’ll earn both in-game money (Credits) and experience depending on how you finish each race. The Credits can be used to buy and upgrade cars, while the experience is necessary to unlock further races as well as allowing you to purchase better cars. You can’t just grab a Lancer Evo from the start and plow through the game, so get ready to perfect all aspects of your driving along the way. If you don’t want to actually drive the cars, B-Spec races allow you to create a driver and give him instructions throughout the race, improving his stats along the way. Your garage is shared between each mode, but your experience levels are separate affairs, so you’ll have to go through each event again if you’re looking to build up a stable of drivers in B-Spec mode.

As you progress, you’ll unlock Special races, such as learning Nascar drafting, kart racing, or spinning around the Top Gear Test Track in a VW hippie van (smell of patchouli oil not included). These were some of my favorite races in the game as they gave a change of pace with new cars, tracks, and race types. License Tests are available, but not particularly required, for fans of those modes from the original games. Getting Gold trophies is just as hard as you remember, so you better get crackin’ on perfecting those driving lines. Standard Arcade Mode returns as well as the well-received Gran Turismo TV mode featured in GT5 Prologue. Some videos will be free, others will be paid, just like in the last game. And if you want to test your mettle against other real racers, you can hop online for the first time in the series. Even with some server trouble, I didn’t have any difficulty finding and hopping into races online and hardly experienced any lag.

Even though Gran Turismo 5 has spent half a decade in development, it isn’t without its flaws. The game’s servers have been overloaded since launch, making both online and offline racing experience delays. Since GT Mode ties in to the online server so much with its solid community features, server overload causes menu delays which haven’t been completely rectified as of press time for this review. Sony and Polyphony Digital are working hard to fix the issues, so you can expect it to improve. My other gripes with the game are all based on the menu system. They’re small, but worth noting. When you finish an event, you aren’t notified of your rewards and unlocks until you back out the home screen of GT Mode. I’ve gone through a few entire events before finding out what new cars I received for winning. It would have been nice to see your winnings right away. My other issue is with finding cars to buy for races. Even in the Beginner ranks, some cars require classic Japanese and European cars, which are tough to find and only really exist in the Used Car Dealership at seemingly random times. It would be nice to be able to search for cars based on race requirement and buy them without having to spend so much time browsing around. Lastly, I did encounter a bug where the game wouldn’t allow me to use anything but the Right Stick for acceleration and braking, but a reboot fixed the issue.

The menu quirks are small and certainly don’t change the fact that Gran Turismo 5 is the best racing game you’ll lay your hands upon. Whether you’re using the DualShock 3 controller or a racing wheel, GT5 is a must purchase for all PS3 owners. The game is just that damn good. And with so many cars and tracks available, the value for your dollar is tremendous. Get out to your local game retailer and pick up a copy of Gran Turismo 5 right away.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]