GT5 will connect global community

Polyphony Digital boss Kanzunori Yamauchi has promised to connect the global community in Gran Turismo 5.

He was speaking in an interview with GT Channel (dug up by videogaming247), highlighting the advancements the PS3 had allowed his team to make.

"This Gran Turismo was going to be the first game produced for the PlayStation 3 hardware, so we definitely had to take the specs of the game to a whole new level," said Yamauchi.

"For example, we've increased the number of cars that can run in a single race. We've also worked hard to make the driving simulation more real; for instance, we've tried to give the player more control when drifting the car. Another element is the AI, the cars that you race against. It's become much more intelligent.

"Also, this game will have online capabilities. Even up till now, I think Gran Turismo has created a unique global community, but the users weren't really connected to each other. Now the community will really become global. This will be a big change," he added.

Which all sounds lovely, if it turns out to be anything more than 16-player online featured in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - out here in late March.

Yamauchi went on to describe the Gran Turismo series as a game with elements "that will resemble an encyclopedia of cars".

Its always been about simulating cars and having real life models available to play which, apparently, was a concept that took a while to catch on.

"At first the whole concept of Gran Turismo couldn't be understood by the games publisher," continued Yamauchi. "Back then, there wasn't anything called driving simulators."

He went on to boast about the contents of his personal garage. He has a beefed-up Nissan 350Z, a Honda S2000, a Mercedes SL55, a Porsche GT3, and two Ford GTs. Snap!