We've all been having a laugh and a giggle at Kazunori Yamauchi (and Sony's) expense for the past few years now.
Usually we'd point out all of the significant events that have happened since the GT5 reveal at E3 2005 (three Forza games have been conceived, developed and released, for example) but we're pretty sure you get the point by now - it's been a long time.
In many ways Sony's Gran Turismo has always been the poster child for gaming. Sure, it's not as relevant as Call of Duty or Gears of War these days but, to a huge contingent of gamers, GT represents simulation racing at its finest, cutting edge graphics and an unrivalled attention to detail. It's a real watershed gaming moment.
Now that it's on store shelves once again, the question has quickly become "Was it worth the wait?"
The release of Gran Turismo 5 came just four days after the return of another racing game franchise heavy-hitter, EA's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, which was developed by Criterion Games - the creators of Burnout.
While Polyphony Digital toiled away creating another Gran Turismo game, Criterion has spent an equal amount of time innovating and pushing the genre in bold new directions.
Though some racing purists will undoubtedly argue the two represent very different forms of racing game. The more cynical (perhaps forward thinking) among us might instead posit that GT5 and Hot Pursuit represent two contrasting eras of video games.
On one side we have Gran Turismo, a game painstakingly crafted to offer the perfect sim experience, and on the other we have Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, a racing game designed to thrive off the technology and 'connected' nature of today's world.
There's no denying that GT5 is a very capable, high quality title, but it also comes across as an antiquated experience, with design decisions and a feature set that represents a time where creators worked on simple hardware and lacked the integration with the wider world that consoles now have.
Is Gran Turismo 5 really a showpiece of what the PlayStation 3 and games can do? Or is it just another really pretty racing game.
Though many of the features in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit are refinements of established concepts, it's still arguably leaps and bounds ahead of GT5, most evident when compared to GT5's barebones online gameplay options.
Hot Pursuit is a game that thrives off constantly reminding you that you're just one racer and a huge world full of them. It constantly feeds you information about how your friends are performing, creates rivalries and provides a variety of ways to settle scores.
With that said we're throwing the question over to you. Is Gran Turismo 5 an out of date gem trying to get by in a world where its competitors have evolved? And which of the two racing games will you be spending your hard earned cash on? Get those fingers typing.
