Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo 5 arrived after years of eagerly awaited development and brought over a thousand cars and more than twenty tracks, making it one of the most comprehensive racing simulators of its time. Polyphony Digital, led by Kazunori Yamauchi, combined maximal technical realism of driving physics with a breadth of content spanning rally, NASCAR, karting, and a catalog of historic and modern cars ranging from the smallest hatchbacks to supercars. The game introduced an extensive career mode, weather and day-night cycles on some tracks, and support for wheels and headsets for three-dimensional display, making full use of the PS3's technical potential in the later phase of its life cycle.

The core of the experience remained the patient collecting of licenses and gradually earning money for better machines, with car behavior sensitively changing based on tires, chassis setup, and track condition. It was precisely that slow road from a used compact to a race-ready special that set the series apart from more arcade-like competitors and rewarded players willing to hone the ideal line lap after lap. The Photo Travel mode, allowing photorealistic shots of cars in exotic locations, became a favorite virtual photography tool among fans of the series and demonstrated how precisely Polyphony Digital modeled every detail of the bodywork and interior of the included cars. The sound design, meanwhile, focused more on technical fidelity than dramatic flair.

Critics praised the depth of the simulation and the breadth of content, though the game drew criticism for inconsistent graphical quality between standard and so-called premium cars, as well as long loading times. Still, it sold in the tens of millions of copies and cemented Gran Turismo as Sony's best-selling exclusive series and a synonym for an authentic racing experience on consoles. Gran Turismo 5 also demonstrated how long a single PS3 title could keep growing through regular content updates, and in hindsight it looks like a giant, at times uneven, but admirably honest encyclopedia of the automobile.