Gran Turismo 5 to include roadkill dodging, airbags and other innovative features

After numerous delays, racing simulator Gran Turismo 5 is finally set to be released for the Playstation 3 in March 2009. This date is, of course, not set in stone: in fact, the likelihood is that there will be further problems that put the launch date back a further three months and we can eventually expect the game to be released in 2031.

Still, Polyphony's Kazunori Yamauchi is confident this date will be the one gamers can not just pencil but write into their diaries in block capitals with permanent marker, pressing down really hard so that the ink seeps through five pages.

We've been ironing out a few bugs and nicking a few ideas from rival video games for the past year or so and are expecting the extra effort to really pay off when things do get up and running. – Kazunori Yamauchi

But Polyphony will have to get their skates on, because not only will the PS3 be long out of production by the time the game is finally released to the market, but main competitor Forza Motorsport will be in its fifteenth incarnation and an old age pensioner before GT is even past the title screen.

You can blame the work experience guy for that - at least that's what I always do. – Kazunori Yamauchi

This latest delay is thought to be down to a problem with 'realism of the extra features', as Yamauchi puts it. We can only speculate as to whether this will involve flattening squirrels and knocking pedestrians flying at level crossings, but Yak Newswire holds out hope that this will be the case.

GT5: What we want to see

• Realtime 'Be-A-Mechanic mode' in the same vein as PES's Be-A-Legend with choice of spanners
• Tramps washing your windscreen at traffic lights
• Cigarette lighter blowing up halfway round a lap
• Airbags going off at random intervals requiring a swift button press to remedy
• Incorporation of the car scrappage scheme for second hand cars

Image courtesy brashgames.co.uk