Gran Turismo 5 out this year (CVG)

Despite it not making an appearance at Sony's Gamescom press conference, Polyphony Digital has updated its Japanese site with some new details on Gran Turismo 5. The translation has been difficult to get down pat, though some forumgoers, like BlackChamber at GTPlanet.net have been working to get everything straightened out.

From the sound of it, there will be 1,000 vehicles in the game, 60 courses, full physics-based realtime deformation damage on all cars with 170 of them also incorporating interior damage, a completely new physics system (with possible rollovers), an online replay album, YouTube support for uploading replays, custom soundtracks, and the return of Gran Turismo TV. One other curious note is that the PlayStation Eye can be used as a full 3D head tracking system, which would mean that not only does it track movement left and right, but forward and back as well, resulting in the ability to move your in-car view left, right, forward and back.

Now, the translation is a little rough, so it's possible that the 170 car bit with the interior damage is actually referring to only 170 cars having either an interior view or damage at all, though given Polyphony's adherence to perfection, this sounds a little odd. It makes more sense that some manufacturers might not want to show their dashboards being ripped to shreds, so we're hoping that it's referring to that feature and not a lack of interior views or damage on more than 80% of the vehicles.

More info is promised at TGS, though our folks at Gamescom are trying to track down official word on all of this and get it cleared up.

For those of you out there who still aren’t convinced of Gran Turismo 5’s pending 2009 release date, take a look at the game’s official brochure handed out at last week’s GamesCom convention. Snapped by RiseOfGames, the brochure was quickly translated by forum users – but you don’t have to be fluent in German to figure out what “4. Quartel 2009″ means.