Gran Turismo 5 is a very nice game Worth Playing
A number of awful design decisions make this game memorable for all of the wrong reasons. I didn't mind the huge install, although it doesn't seem to improve the load times or anything else about the experience. What bothers me most about Gran Turismo is they clearly have a huge group of talented people with a budget to match, but they can't design a good interface or menu system. You'll be battling the confusing menus as much as opponent drivers on track. For example, I don't enjoy listening to music while I'm racing. Instead of a 'Race Music Off/On' function in the options menu, I had to access a screen that lists EVERY song on the soundtrack, and disable each song individually. That's about 150 button presses. To receive a gift car, you click on a transport truck on your home screen, click a "ticket" that you spend on the car, and then watch a completely unnecessary sequence of the car driving into view. Why do they waste our time like this? You won't have to worry about wasting time on customizing your car, because those options are seriously limited. You can't change the wheel rims on 'standard' cars, which is really lame considering Gran Turismo 2 let you do this a decade ago. Forza's creative team can sleep easy. I don't have dreams of owning a Hello Kitty Miata with 22" Asantis, but... I can't change the wheel style? To make matters worse, the tracks and many cars look recycled from GT4, with flat textures and a somewhat dark, muted look. Again, Microsoft has nothing to worry about in the graphics department.
Despite all that, I think this will be the Gran Turismo I put the most time in with. The racing is sound and I can't wait to collect all those obscure and classic cars, all the while trying to pretend that this is better than Forza 3, which it simply isn't.
As for the collector's edition, I'm a sucker for these things, so if you are too, have a go. For the price, a faux carbon fiber or aluminum case would have been welcome. The extra cars are great and the driving guide is pretty handy.