Gran Turismo 5 #2: The definitive driving simulator

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The 200 premium cars that take the final count past the 1000 mark are something else, however. The premiums have been lavished with a slightly worrying amount of detail - every single screw is visible in the hubs, the interiors have been recreated down to the stitching (standard cars won't have interiors, which is a bit sad, but there are, like, 800 of them), and their undersides have been comprehensively modelled to take into account a new physics system which, along with allowing for dents and scratches, can sends your ride flipping through the air during collisions.

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On the track, Gran Turismo 5 is a dream to drive: the cars have distinct personalities, the skyboxes are huge and dramatic, and the handling can take in anything from arcade racing to simulation stuff so exacting I struggle to travel in a straight line.

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Included in the premium garage will be nine NASCAR models, including those used by superstars - in Middle America, at any rate - like Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers. Brian Vickers! I know. GT5 allows you to race by the NASCAR rules, as well. Seeing it in motion seems a bit too brutal to fit comfortably into the rest of the game, but it's an excellent opportunity to enjoy that new physics deformation system and some truly epic crashes - although, typically, even fender benders look rather pretty and artful in Yamauchi's universe.

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GT5's actually become a rather social game over the course of its development, and the current build supports BBS, personal logs, mail, and something called My Lounge. That turns out to be a friends network of sorts, where you can gather with other players and chat, or check up on their progress in the game, alongside the nifty stuff like setting up races and spectating on events that are already underway.

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Dozens of other details spill forth after that: the day-to-night transitions that can take place during a race, the 3D visuals and face-tracking in cockpit view (combine those last two and the results are astonishing as the horizon line disappears into the distance), classy visual effects like smoke illumination, collision sparks, and kicked-up debris. Whatever Polyphony's been doing for the last few years, its staff probably hasn't been clocking in at the office and then juggling Pop-Tarts all day.

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Halfway through today's presentation, I think I may have realised that Yamauchi is probably quietly bonkers, but it's unquestionably the good kind of bonkers. He's a heroic completist, the kind of person who builds the unlikeliest monuments, who discovers new entries on the periodic table, or who constructs fantastical rockets and lands on the moon.