GT5 demo downloaded a million times

By Robert Purchese Published 12 January, 2010

Time Trial popular in Europe.

Sony has revealed that over one million gamers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand have downloaded the GT Academy Time Trial since launch on 17th December.

Effectively a demo for Gran Turismo 5, this offers one course and one car, and challenges PS3 owners to record their best time either as an average lap time or one-off lap.

The best 20 drivers from each territory will go through to a live national event. The 19 winners will then compete in real cars on a real Silverstone course for a real race-driving contract.

The competition closes on 24th January, so there's still time to take part.

Head to the Digital Foundry blog on Eurogamer for an extensive technical analysis of the GT5 demo.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • stevencole7 #1 2 years ago

    ...and more will buy it!

  • ant72 #2 2 years ago

    1 million downloads eh? Well by some simple maths that means....erm...er.... it was played 2 million times!

  • Altrezia #3 2 years ago

    Downloaded it, didnt like it. Loads of features were missing, and it was a dull car + track. Also, no skidmarks eh?!?

  • El-Dev #4 2 years ago

    I loved it, insta-purchase. Can't wait.

  • metalmike25 #5 2 years ago

    I found the game really difficult whereas i found Forza 3 far too easy. Can anyone recommend a racing game that's in between

  • Mkwone #6 2 years ago

    My biggest disapointment was the lack of sense of speed. It's been an issue in the past but felt more noticable.

    When driving around a corner and going off i presumed it was naff handling only to notice i was trying to corner at 70mph, which felt more like 10. Totally ruined the experiance for me.

    Hopefully the proper game will have fixed this.

  • menage #7 2 years ago

    It wasn't even a demo. Real gearheads might get their fix but the less hardcore ones?

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #8 2 years ago

    Doesn't beat joy-riding, in my experience.

  • Murton #9 2 years ago

    I think the major mistake here was in calling it a demo in the first place. They should have called it the GT Academy Qualifier or words to that effect and included a disclaimer saying it was indicative of the final product.

    That said, even if people were disappointed with the demo GT5 is still likely to be the biggest seller of this year, ever since the first GT no game on any platform comes close to it for build quality or sheer amount of content and I very much doubt that GT5 will be any different.

  • Darkedge #10 2 years ago

    @metalmike25 did you change the assists on Forza 3? If you found it too easy with assists off and on hard you arn't human.

  • Widge #11 2 years ago

    I think vanilla Forza seemed alright to just have fun with.
    That GT5 demo was with everything turned off wasn't it? Harsh.

  • metalmike25 #12 2 years ago

    @Darkedge

    Yeah i turned all the assists off and i'm still breezing through it. I'm rubbish as racing games as well!!

  • jambo74 #13 2 years ago

    Downloaded, played for 3 minutes...deleted...it was crap.

  • NotSoSlim #14 2 years ago

    Pretty sure a sizeable demo will be released prior to Japanese launch!!

    Anybody with any gaming sense can see that 200mb is the bare bones of the game.

    Pass judgement on final product I say

  • ratkat #15 2 years ago

    Still think that Grid

  • ratkat #16 2 years ago

    Still think that Grid and NFS shift are more fun to play than both Forza 3

  • ratkat #17 2 years ago

    Bloody iPhone app only publishes part of your comments

  • Zomoniac #18 2 years ago

    I thought it was rubbish, and this coming from a massive GT fan. Is it just me or did the graphics look noticeably downgraded from Prologue?

  • Weezer #19 2 years ago

    Thought it was dump. Helpful comment ends.

  • Darren #20 2 years ago

    I thought that time trial GT5 demo was disappointing myself. The handling was fine but the graphics, superb car model aside, were dull (not that the bland choice of track helped) and sense of speed wasn't very convincing either. The framerate and tearing were also worrying to see too considering we're nearing the game's release date and there was only one car on a fairly simplistic looking track. Suddenly GT5's final release seems a whole lot less exciting for me than it was two year ago and I already have Forza 3, which while not perfect, at least delivered in the simulation stakes.

    I'm sure the final game will be good and entertain millions of gamers who've been waiting years to play it. I'm not so sure I'll be one of them though... I've gotten bored of waiting for it to be honest...

  • bmxbandit #21 2 years ago

    The file is just over 200mb and people expected it to be multi-track ... jesus ... common sense died with the last batch of consoles it seems.

  • cyber_nicco #22 2 years ago

    I didn't realize this was out. Time to fire up the PS3...

  • Verminox #23 2 years ago

    Sense of speed is due to perspective. Going round an open race circuit with nothing but grass on either side and doing 70mph will feel like 30. Same speed on a street circuit with buildings going past on either side will feel a lot faster. It's the same in real life doing 70 on a motorway feels like nothing but going down a street or country road will feel much faster.

    And they don't need to add motion blur like NFS, things don't start going blurry once you hit 100mph irl.

    "We created the Time Trial purely as the mechanic to run the first phase of GT Academy 2010." - KY
    Edited by 3 at 12/01/10 @ 18:10

  • DrDamn #24 2 years ago

    @Verminox
    Are you talking about the focal effect in NfS:Shift? It's not motion blur it's to do with focus. Focus on something in the distance - now notice how everything around you close by is out of focus and blurry? All in real life and everything :)

  • NoQuarter #25 2 years ago

    Honestly, the demo absolutely put me off buying the game. I was set to buy it (prologue was quite good aside from the difficulty spikes) but after Forza 3 I couldn't find any enjoyment in it.

  • DAN.E.B #26 2 years ago

    it helps that we have had to wait a million times longer than promised!

  • Quixz #27 2 years ago

    metalmike25 : "Yeah i turned all the assists off and i'm still breezing through it. I'm rubbish as racing games as well!!"

    Bull!

  • marty_k #28 2 years ago

    Haven't found GT5:NA fun. Was expecting barebones driving, without fancy gfx, but was disappointed how the game 'feels'. Had more fun and sense of speed with my old Megane 1.4 ;/

  • monkeywithnoeyes #29 2 years ago

    shhhhh eurogamer...don't call it a demo!! They tend to get mad...

  • monkfishjoe #30 2 years ago

    @metalmike25
    Race Driver: Pro for 360 is a decent game (in terms of difficulty). It's a bit of an ugly duck, but there are decent options for assists etc.

    I personally think Forza 3 is well balanced in terms of difficulty. I'm on Season 5 and the races are nice and close.

  • freakzilla #31 2 years ago

    WOW the moaning pricks came out in droves this time. I played GTp and it really did lack a sense of speed and it felt too static; but the TT demo was brilliant, maybe the graphics wasn't all that impressive but this demo felt good.

    @MKwone
    Lack of sense of speed? Plain lie.

  • chub #32 2 years ago

    I only managed about 8000th on the leaderboard, so no live national event for me.

  • aphexstwin #33 2 years ago

    its very tricky with the dfgt, but i think its unfair that controller racers get traction control (turned to 7) and wheelies dont, but thats the way the cake is baked i s'pose. but its both rewarding and infuriating in equal measures, you string a good lap together only for the next one to be a bag of bollocks, or torture your ghost only to bin it on the last few turns. one thing i dont get, if the handling is 'realistic' why do they need a 'professional' setting also?

    but while im on about it, this and forza are games, and they'll never truly replicate the forces endured by a racer, the seat of the pants feel of driving, the bumps, the g-forces etc. so to say one has better or more realistic handling is just a tad off really

  • Bloobat #34 2 years ago

    downloaded it, first corner i went of the track and trying to hit a wall and guess what, no damage! ffs its so anoying, physics also sucked!