The story of a ten-year platinum

[FinalFrank15]

I started the text yesterday but only finished it today. So here it goes:

 

Almost ten years ago, on March 31st, 2011, I rented (for one day only) and played Gran Turismo 5 for the first time. I immediately fell in love with the game and vowed to myself to save some money to buy the game as soon as possible. That happened on August 5th, 2011 and I started to play the game for real. I didn't aim for the platinum back then because I knew of the insane grinding and the insane Vettel challenge, so I decided to play until I got bored of it. 

 

I played regularly until October, then I stopped. Returned in January 2012 then stopped, then returned in April for a little while then stopped playing for the final time (as I thought).

 

In 2015, I was in need of money so I sold the game to my cousin and I was fine with the fact that I would never play the game again.

 

In September 2020, I put some of my PS3 games on sale on the facebook marketplace, not that I was in desperate need of money, I just wanted some extra money in these pandemic times. So 2021 came, and on the first days of the year a guy contacted me on facebook looking for a trade: F1 2014 for Gran Turismo 5 XL. I immediately accepted and the next day the trade was made and Gran Turismo 5 was on my hands again.

 

At first I only accepted the trade to have the game in my hands, just to add to my collection, I even bought the regular Gran Turismo 5 some weeks after. But then I decided to run the game again just to see if my save was intact and if there was some change made in the game. I waited for the 20+ updates, the 8GB installation, and then the game opened, with my save intact and the online disabled. When I stopped playing in 2012 I had:

 

• Level 32 A-Spec
• Level 24 B-Spec
• Between 250 and 300 cars bought
• A little over 100 b-spec events raced with my pilot
• Only the S-License golded
• Only a few special events golded
• Some extreme events and all endurance events yet to complete (in b-spec)

 

When I started playing with my dusty DS3 with it's oily analogs, I thought: What if I tried to platinum the game this time? I haven't forgot the insane grinding or the insane vettel challenge difficulty, but at the time I wasn't a trophy hunter, now I am, so I decided to give it a shot. I planned this return to have three phases:

 

1. Gold all the licenses and the special events (minus Vettel) and do the remaining extreme events in b-spec;
2. Grind the 1000 cars trophy and the The Air of Experience trophy (500 races), while racing endurance events in A-Spec and B-Spec to reach Level 40;
3. Do the Vettel Challenge (could do this along with phase 2)

 

Started with the licenses, B, A, IC, IB and IA. Some were hard but nothing too hard to overcome with some video guides and persistence. Then I did the special events. The karting, rally, top gear, and the loeb challenge were quite easy, some I golded on the first try this time. The Nascar event required some tries but they were quite short so it wasn't frustrating. The AMG Academy was easier than I expected, of course I had trouble in some events but nothing too demanding. The Grand Tour, on the contrary, was way harder than I expected. Some events I golded back in 2011 but the tuscany race, tuscany rally and the eiger time trial were hell, especially the last one. But I managed to gold them all. The final stage of this phase 1 was to get the GT-R Official Record trophy, which I got in two tries (I could have tried this in 2012, oh well).

 

When I golded all the licenses and all the special events (minus Vettel), it was January 23rd, so I planned the phase 2. I had 169 races with my pilot and 374 cars bought, so I did the following: Each day I raced 12 b-spec races with my pilot, it could be either the Sunday Cup ones, or a endurance to grind XP or other race at all. And each day I bought 21 cars, new, old, it didn't matter. I did this to have the two trophies 30 days later. There was some days I couldn't do this, but I wasn't in a hurry. 

 

For the XP grind, I did the following: Each two days I raced the 4-Hour Nurburgring event with the X2010 and whenever I had the time, I did the endurance B-Spec events, some to just complete, others to grind. To reach Level 32 to do the 4-Hour Nurburgring event, I did the grind in the Indy 500, and when I could do the Tsukuba 9-hour, I let the race went on while I sleep. When I reached level 39, I did the Le Mans 24h and when I reached level 40, I did the Nurburgring 24h event. I got the A-Spec trophy on February 12th and the B-Spec trophy on February 17th.

 

At this time, there were a few races/cars to complete/buy so I went on Phase 3: The Vettel Events. And what everyone said about these events wasn't an understatement. Back in 2011 I had serious trouble getting bronze, so I knew gold would be hard if not impossible (and I didn't have a wheel). I did Monza first, because the secret was to master the shortcut in the 2nd chicane to have a chance to gold the event. But that didn't mean it was easy to gold, because I couldn't do the third chicane right, either because I went off track, or braked too much and the ghost overtake me. There were even times when I did everything right but went off track on the last turn. But I eventually got it. Only two remaining.

 

On February 23rd I got the Air of Experience trophy and the 1000 cars trophy, making the last two Vettel events the only roadblock for the platinum. Next stop: Nurburgring. There isn't any tracker in the game to tell you how much times you tried some event, but in the Nurburgring case (or even Suzuka's, I switched events sometimes) I would guess over 700, including complete and incomplete tries. There was some turns I tackled perfectly on one try but tackled terribly on another try but on the times I actually completed the event, I could see some progress being made. There was some serious problems I had to fix, like the first two turns I rarely got it right, the hairpin where I rarely tackled on the right speed and exited it well, among others.

I was making progress on the Nurburging as the days passed, but I hit a roadblock, to the point I couldn't get happy or animated with trying, because I wasn't making any progress after this. With Suzuka, it was even worse, I couldn't even complete the event below 2:15, and it looked like everything I was doing was in vain, on both events. As the days passed and the more tries I was making and zero progress being made, more and more I wanted to say: "Fuck it, I'll do the glitch". Speaking of the glitch...

 

When i bought the regular version of the game, back in January, I was aware of the possibility to simply do the 1.10 glitch and get these Vettel events out the way. But I promised myself that I would only do if I was completely sure I couldn't do it on the legit way (I didn't have the money to buy a wheel so...), and this was the case with Nurburgring and Suzuka. I did all the procedures to revert the game back to 1.10, and I even tried to do the glitch to see if it was possible, and it was. But I did this last week, and I knew the 10-year anniversary was a few days away, so I decided to wait and do the glitch on March 31st, 2021, which is today. I did the glitch (even with the glitch was hard) and golded both events.

 

So, in conclusion, I must say that I am very proud I got this platinum, and also very sorry because I couldn't do it all legit. Either way, with the massive grind and all the other hard events, the glitch is undeniably a stain on this platinum, but not a high one. 

 

The end.

Here's the platinum image:

 

[Baka_Marimo]

Congrats on the Plat! Back in the day I too failed to overcome Vettel the proper way. Only managed to beat him on Monza and glitched my way to Gold on the other two tracks. The Vettel Challenge was something otherworldly even to the most experienced Gran Turismo players because it introduced us to speeds two or three stages beyond what we were used to. Makes me kinda grateful they didn't add more trophies to GT Sport when the Lewis Hamilton DLC came out. Otherwise my 100% on that game would be a thing of the past now. 

[x7251]

Welcome to the club ☺️. It took me almost 10 years to get the platinum in November 2020 (9 years and 7 months). 

[exsentry]

Amazing testimony and a well deserved congrats!

 

I haven't played GT since GT2 on the PS1 (or any other car game for that matter), but I'm aware of this beast...when early PS3 games like this Warhawk and Resistance took your soul. I also hear a wheel is was practically mandatory, so that's another feather in your cap. I guess the question, what's next?  

[Shrooba]

Just saw this thread, and I'm impressed mate! The Gran Turismo plats are all tough and demanding, and you just got the hardest one of the three, well done! I enjoyed reading through your experience of it all; I like how you planned it all out once you got your hands back on the game, and stayed committed to it all the way to the platinum. A job well done indeed. ?

[Kessarath]

I like reading such stories. For us the players, this whole venture in winning Platinum is often very emotional. Congratulations on the platinum trophy!

In October, last year, I returned to gaming after 7 years of being completely absent from the video game world. GTAV for PS3 was my last game back in 2013. I had a massive arrears, but I decided to start with platinums in all games of my favorite Metal Gear Solid series. Besides PlayStation 4 Pro I bought PS3 and PSVita (to play at work). I managed to do it, even though I had never had a Platinum award before. Now I think this is the only way for me to finish the game. 100% or not at all.

Nowadays, I play with great pleasure as if I had consoles for the first time in my life. I don't know where this enthusiasm and euphoria come from. I am 40 years old and I have played a lot in my life ... This (forced by life) break did not change anything. It is impossible to kill the immortal soul of the player.

Congratulations once again and best regards.

[Destructor-8]

Even though this is from awhile ago, I wanted to join in & say congrats on finishing it. Nice going on that first Vettel too. I did one of the GT5 Vettel challenges so far on a different account. I will hopefully get around to GT5 eventually & just go for whatever trophies I can. Congrats again!

 

Update: Done another after a few weeks on & off.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Destructor-8

[Honor_Hand]

Reading these stories of people coming back to overcome an insurmountable challenge from the past is always very inspiring. And not only that, but it also gives me a good tingling feeling in my chest. Like, damn, what an amazing story of overcoming obstacles and challenges to get what you want.

 

Mine in GT5 was somewhat similar. It was among the first games I got on my PS3 and my first time playing a Gran Turismo game. I instantly fell in love with the game but I could never complete it. I only needed to gold 2 out of the 3 Vettel challenges to get the plat but couldn't quite do it at the time. Then I lost my progress due to an HDD corruption and had to start from scratch again years later. But my love for the game was so great that I didn't have much of an issue with that. Did everything again but with a steering wheel this time. Got a great deal on pre-owned Logitech G27 and had the chance to play one of my favorite games with a more enjoyable setup. Unfortunately, even with the wheel, the Vettel Challenges proved just too impossible for me...again. I could only gold Monza. The best I got on Suzuka was silver with a tenth of a second difference from Gold. And the Nürburgring remained on bronze as I could never master that one in a competent manner. In the end, I had no other option than to resort to the famous glitch to get the missing golds. No shame on that as the challenge those events present is among the hardest things I've ever seen in a racing game in my entire life. Hats off and major respect to anyone who can pull these off in a legit manner.

 

My final gold trophy didn't pop right there, though. Since this was a new save file, I still had one final race to complete. I did all of the endurance races a second time on A-Spec and the feeling of popping the Platinum after completing the 24-hour Nürburgring race was among the best things I've ever felt from a video game. I must've easily put well over 1,200 hours on that game, and it all paid off in the end for me, haha.

 

I still have the pictures I took with my old phone of that moment too.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

To anyone still missing this amazing challenge, don't give up.

You can do it too!

 

[screenwriter91]

I think it was 7-8 years for me. My own story began at the very beginning by pre-ordering the game. Had I know what a torturous task getting the platinum would be, I might not have. Back then I wasn't really a trophy hunter. I played the game as I have every one before, just for fun. Gran Turismo 4 was the first in the series I bought myself, and the first I took to 100% completion, but I recall being able to stick all the endurance races on B-Spec, fast forward x3 and get each one done in a day. 

 

Gran Turismo 5 is a different beast. 

 

Words cannot express the difficulty of those Vettel Challenges. It becomes more ridiculous the more you think about what's actually happening. They take the world's best driver at the time, stick him in a virtual car designed by the world's best engineers, achieving a performance that's unprecedented, for which there is no real way to prepare - and ask you, the player, to match his pace, with nothing but a controller in your hand. I heard it said many times that a wheel made the task easier. I didn't drive at the time, and had no budget for a wheel. All i had was a worn, shabby looking DS3 and lots, and lots of time.

 

I recall trying Monza before the patches that dialed back the times required for Bronze. I think I got Bronze there, but failed to get anywhere close on the other circuits. When I returned to the game for another pass on tougher special events: Eiger etc - I managed to get through them all until Vettel Challenges were all that remained. The Gold in Monza came pretty quickly, as soon as you figure out the chicane trick it becomes much easier. But it took literally 3 weeks, maybe 7-8 hours a day to get Silver at Nurburgring. The best tip I learned was to actually deactivate the timer, because the moment you cross the line after Lap one and see yourself around 1.04 - you panic, and mess up the last lap. When I finally got the gold, it was arguably my greatest gaming achievement. Strangely I thought Suzuka would be easier, but I spent even longer trying that one. 

 

I'll conclude by saying I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who does this legit with a wheel, but especially a controller. It actually began to effect me mentally because I was pouring so much time and effort into this seemingly impossible challenge.  Hearing others overcome and triumph is always great. 

Edited November 15, 2021 by screenwriter91

[NetoStyle]

Huge admiration for all of those who have any GRAN TURISMO platinum!

 

the last GT that I played was the 1st one on the PS1. Now I can't wait for GT7 to come out and I'll be definitely going for the platinum even though the plats of GT are insane!

[Destructor-8]

15 minutes ago, screenwriter91 said:

 

I'll conclude by saying I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who does this legit with a wheel, but especially a controller. It actually began to effect me mentally because I was pouring so much time and effort into this seemingly impossible challenge.  Hearing others overcome and triumph is always great. 

 

A huge Congrats on doing it as I know what it's like getting those times & how far this game can push you in comparison to other games. These are definitely some of the hardest things out there in racing games.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Destructor-8

[screenwriter91]

1 hour ago, NetoStyle said:

Huge admiration for all of those who have any GRAN TURISMO platinum!

 

the last GT that I played was the 1st one on the PS1. Now I can't wait for GT7 to come out and I'll be definitely going for the platinum even though the plats of GT are insane!

I don't recall GT6 being too bad, but maybe that was because I was comparing it to GT5. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the trophy lists for GT7 before any purchase, I don't think I have it in me to do something like the Vettel Challenges again. 

 

1 hour ago, Destructor-8 said:

 

A huge Congrats on doing it as I know what it's like getting those times & how far this game can push you in comparison to other games. These are definitely some of the hardest things out there in racing games.

Many thanks. I've tackled some tough plats before, Wipeout HD among them - but nothing comes close to GT5.

Edited November 15, 2021 by screenwriter91

[Destructor-8]

1 hour ago, screenwriter91 said:

Many thanks. I've tackled some tough plats before, Wipeout HD among them - but nothing comes close to GT5.

 

Yeah it's an amazing one to finish especially as it's one of the hardest racing games.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Destructor-8

[tbpotn]

10 years and 4 months for me. Managed the vettel challenges legitimately, but do own a steering wheel. Either way, congratulations on the platinum!

[jrod2510]

The story of a 10 year platinum?  You trying to tell/hear about my GTA IV platinum?  lol

[seblegamer]

And now ? On the road to 100% on all of them ?  

I saw you need just one more trophy for GT6 (maybe you wait 3 more years for this last trophy to also get a 10 years old 100% ?  ), and again a long grind for GT Sports ^^' (this one will be hard to be a 10 year platinum, full online, dont know if servers will survive until then ><)

 

Go go go ! GT 7 is coming  

[Dimka284]

are the servers back online?

[Skargarim]

Now that Gt7 is right around the corner i'm also coming back to the previous GT games.

 

had a look at GT Sport the other day and decided it's not worth the grind. getting the final Sport mode Poles and Wins, is a matter of time, but reaching level 50 is an insane grind I don't feel like doing atm.

 

Yesterday I pulled out my PS3, and it had GT6 installed, so I checked on what's missing there and it were only a couple of S-License tests. Super easy with a wheel compared to how much i struggled back in the day with the PS3 controller. only like 6k miles of driving missing, which can be done with a little trickery

 

I have no idea how much is missing in GT5. it's the gold tests, but what exactly? i'll see. obvioulsy the vettel challenge. and i have exactly one and a half weeks to make it a 10 year journey. although I probably never touched it for 8 of these years. hope it's not too bad on a wheel now (and with a ton of practice in sim racing).

Edited February 16, 2022 by Skargarim

[p9ul]

I've managed to 100% GT's 1-5 (yes, I am that old! ?)

 

I have the plat on GT6 also but still need to do the DLC on that one.

 

GT Sport - I'm miles away, I only started the game about a year ago, the first time I didn't pick the game up on launch day. Still only lvl 33 - and I'm hoping GT7 makes the lobbies a little easier!

 

GT7 - got  my pre-order in, and I'm looking forward to the grind. I keep reading that it's very similar to GT4 in scope - and I really hope thats true as GT4 is still what I consider the best single player racing game ever made...

Edited February 16, 2022 by p9ul

[iman_generous]

Dear FinalFrank15

Nice story. I enjoyed when I read it.

I had same story with GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption 1 (I got platinum of GTA IV after 13 years and 8 months and platinum of RDR 1 after 12 years and 3 months)

The servers for both are working well.

And you are true, when after some years we come back to old games, they are not as hard as before, specially when the gamer change from normal gamer to trophy hunter.

Also nice profile you have (92.9% completion , 381 platinum , 18531 trophies , complete hard & beautiful games like Nioh 2 - Elden Ring - Sekiro - Nier Automata - SpiderMan - Gran Turismo 5 - Dark Souls II & III - Metal Gear Solid 3 & V - Bioshock 1 & 2 & Infinite - Days Gone - Uncharted 4 - Nioh - Horizon Zero Dawn - BloodBorne - Little Big Planet 1 & 3 - Gran Turismo 6 - Demon`s Souls -  - Resident Evil - InFamous - God of War - ...COMPLETION