While Gran Turismo 5 finally hit stores after several delays and over five years in development, the game's studio isn't finished with the title by any means.
Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi has answered questions and concerns from players via Twitter.
In an update this month, a "mechanical damage" option will be added to the game. Upcoming "My Lounge" features will be added, but the game's studio, Polyphony Digital, is doing them sequentially. Another thing the developers are adding in the near future is some kind of no heads-up display option as well as working on support for other racing wheels like the Logitech G25 and the G27.
"We are preparing Credits and XP for online," Yamauchi tweeted. "Please wait a little more."
Besides answering questions about what's in store for the game, Yamauchi addressed issues like why the in-game shadows look all fuzzy. While he wants to work to improve them, Yamauchi pointed out that the fuzzy shadows are the result of "various reasons" like the necessity for players to race in a "dynamic and wide area".
The game designer also said that the developers created a YouTube upload option for GT5, but ended up dropping it, due to memory issue. Polyphony is considering it for the future, however. Face tracking also did not make its way into the game's GT Mode (it's in the Arcade Mode) also due to memory issues.
Kazunori Yamauchi is a busy guy. His game is out, people are buying it. Yet, here he is, answering questions from the masses and talking about things his studio will be adding to the game. Whether or not it does, that remains to be seen.
But, as I wrote in my review, Gran Turismo 5 feels more like a MMO than simply a racing simulator. It's just getting started.
山内 一典 (Kaz_Yamauchi) on Twitter [Twitter]