So yeah, that game that I planned to have finished by this weekend? Things haven't proceeded quite so, not that anyone cares. But perhaps I'll start it this weekend. Probably not though, since I've recently undertook the task of tagging my hentai and porn.

For now, I would like to share with you the names of two upcoming videogames that I am eagerly awaiting: Gran Turismo 5 and Civilization V.

Both are the fifth in their series, and both are looking to be the pinnacle of their genres.

The Gran Turismo series is not just a normal series of racing games, it is the first and arguably the only of its kind: An interactive car museum. The insane attention to detail with everything is just so ridiculously over the top. The London track doesn't just look pretty much like London, it looks exactly like London. I drove around for over an hour just looking at the buildings around the London track in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue then looking them up on the internet. A hole-in-the-wall bookstore is represented with 100% accuracy, as is a Chinese restaurant. The harder I looked for flaws, the more time I wasted. There simply aren't any.

The only other game that is arguably somewhat in the same vein as Gran Turismo is the Forza series. Good racing series, no doubt, but it takes more than a large car count to copy what makes Gran Turismo what it is. The Forza developers at Turn 10 are clearly gamers first, car lovers second. The opposite would be true for Polyphony, the GT developers. And that's why I think a lot of gamers feel Gran Turismo is inferior to some more recent racing games. The last full-fledged entry in the Gran Turismo series is nearly 6 years old and lacks a lot of features that most people would agree are a must for a modern racing simulator, such as damage.

Gran Turismo 5 is slated to be released in the United States on November 2nd, and not only will it be the most refined interactive car porn in existence, it'll also put some pressure on its leading competition as a game. This time around, Gran Turismo will have an implementation of damage. And from what I've seen, it's more or less on par with what the latest Forza title has to offer. In some ways it's better, in others it's a little lacking. But overall, it looks good enough to appease the whiners. It is unclear whether GT5 will feature a livery editor akin to Forza's, but it does have one major thing that Forza doesn't: day/night transitions. For people who prefer to drive and race their beautiful virtual cars rather than put stickers on them, day/night transition is a better feature than a livery editor. Gran Turismo 4 had some pretty awesome races to appeal to the extremely hardcore, i.e. 24 hour endurance races, but they were slightly disappointing with dreadfully dull AI and 24 hours of daytime. These types of races should be much more interesting in Gran Turismo 5.

And supposedly some of the developer's favorite new features appearing in GT5 have yet to be unveiled, so perhaps we'll be getting a livery editor after all. Or even better, dynamic weather which has been hinted at.

Anyway, I'm super excited for GT5. I have a feeling it will set the bar very high for Forza. Even if the critics don't feel it's the best racing game ever made, it will be to me. I am certain.

Ahem, anyway, on to Civilization V. I'll have less to say about it than GT5 since I've been following it and the Civilization series as a whole a lot less than Gran Turismo. Not that you're still reading, but bravo if you are.

Basically, Civilization IV is arguably the best turn-based strategy game there is. And Civilization V appears to be a prettier Civ 4, with a lot of the nastiness streamlined. Cleaner, better organized menus. Less spamtastic combat, with the new combat being somewhat like Advance Wars, another great turn-based strategy game. The game is just a lot more refined overall, and I'm very excited for Civ V as the poor combat in the previous Civ games dropped them from amazing to just decent. But with combat more like Advance Wars, an awesome strategy game that is all combat, Civ V has the potential to be the amazing Civilization game I've always wanted.

To sum up in the event that you just skipped to the end of my blog: OMG GRAN TURISMO 5, OMG CIVILIZATION V, GIMME NAO PLZ.