Date played: October 9th
Platform: PS4
Gran Turismo might be one of the most important video game franchises ever. When the first game came out on PS1 back in the late 90's, it was a milestone moment. No other console game had even attempted anything like Gran Turismo. Even on PC, the options were few and far between. Gran Turismo brought simulation racing to millions of new gamers, myself included. The coolest thing about it was that it didn't focus exclusively on the Corvettes, Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the world. It made it possible to race with your real life car!
I played a LOT of Gran Turismo in my life. GT2 was huge and even added rally racing. GT3 brought huge visual upgrades on PS2. GT4 was a refinement of this. It's around GT5 that I started being fed up with the series, and that's because there was a new kid on the block named Forza.
Forza changed the console racing world forever, introducing things like fully customizable assists, online racing, a driving line and tons of other cool stuff like livery editors. Meanwhile, Gran Turismo still had great driving physics and good graphics, but it was bad at everything else. I played GT5, but didn't enjoy myself as much, and skipped GT6 completely, which came out at the end of the PS3's life.
I had very low expectations when I heard about Gran Turismo Sport. Previous games had bad AI, shitty collisions and some of the worst fucking menus in the industry. Plus, online play was always really iffy with this series...
I was pleasantly surprised by much of what I've played of the Sport beta. The first thing that I have to say is just how fucking incredible this game looks visually. I have a PS4 Pro, and it just looks amazing and runs smooth as butter. I'm also happy to report that the physics are still rock solid.
The biggest thing here is that Gran Turismo Sport is not a traditional racing game. It's focused on online racing and doesn't really have a single player mode. It's got some (very challenging) driving lessons and some weird little missions, but there's no real racing here. The action is all online. This is a beta, so I have to forgive it's technical limitations, but wow, this game crashes often.
The structure is very different than previous games too. Surprisingly, it reminds me a lot of Splatoon. It uses a weird scheduling system, which I'm starting to think is kind of a Japanese thing... The main online events are scheduled every 20 minutes. You can enter a race, then spend some time doing qualifying laps.
There's also a lobby menu, where players can just create lobbies and make custom races. The problem here is that the events all include practice, where people just drive around, waiting for the race to start. However, in many cases, the host never launched the race itself. This meant a lot of frustration as I was just trying to get into a real race.
It worked a few times, and it was a lot of fun.... when it worked. The game has a bunch of really weird bugs. A few times, the race would start, but I would stay stuck on the starting line. This affected other drivers too, so it sounds like a weird bug. What's worse, the game crashes when this happens, forcing me to restart the game.
It's unfortunate, and I'm hoping it's just a Beta thing, because the racing itself is so good. There's still weird collisions and stuff, but the core racing is just awesome. The game is smart about turning players into ghosts too. If someone is clearly going to fast for a corner, or if they go off track, their car will often turn into a ghost that others can drive through. This doesn't happen during normal racing, so it's a good way to prevent assholes from ruining every race, while still allowing for a bit of contact during normal racing.
My favorite moment was when I finally managed to join a Sport online race. Featuring up to 24 players on track at once, the action is fierce and mistakes are very costly. I was driving a yellow Audi TTS. I had a good qualifying time and started the race in third place, out of about 18 racers I think. I drove one hell of a race. I only made a few tiny mistakes and had a really good racing line.
I fought with a group of 4 or 5 racers for a while, ending up at the front of the pack in 2nd place. The guy in first place was using the same car as me, but somehow, he was much faster than me. There's a variety of things that could have impacted that, like car tuning and transmission type, but also, maybe he was just that good.
I ended the race in 2nd place, but somehow managed to get myself a 3 second penalty. I think it must have been from a contact or something, but I'm not sure. This meant that even though I crossed the line 2nd, I was actually 4th, because the two guys behind me were less than 3 seconds away.
Later, my 7 year old daughter asked me to play a little bit. I started by putting her in the first couple of driving lessons. It took her a while to get a hang of the steering, and even then, this is a simulation game, so no matter what, it's hard to keep the car straight. She impressed me quite a bit. It took her a few tries, but she managed to go through a pair of gates and clear the second lesson. The third lesson was too much for her, with it's 4 gates.
After this, I put her in a Mazda Miata and dropped her onto the oval track. She struggled with it, but with a bit of time, she started being a bit more agile and managed a full lap without touching the walls. She was really proud of herself, and I was even prouder. We spent the next 10 minutes watching her replay, laughing at the crashes. It was wonderful, and if she shows interest again, I'll be happy to teach her some more.
I'm impressed with Gran Turismo Sport. Sure, it's got a ton of problems, but the racing is so fucking solid, it's gonna be hard to pass on this one.
Platform: PS4
Gran Turismo might be one of the most important video game franchises ever. When the first game came out on PS1 back in the late 90's, it was a milestone moment. No other console game had even attempted anything like Gran Turismo. Even on PC, the options were few and far between. Gran Turismo brought simulation racing to millions of new gamers, myself included. The coolest thing about it was that it didn't focus exclusively on the Corvettes, Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the world. It made it possible to race with your real life car!
I played a LOT of Gran Turismo in my life. GT2 was huge and even added rally racing. GT3 brought huge visual upgrades on PS2. GT4 was a refinement of this. It's around GT5 that I started being fed up with the series, and that's because there was a new kid on the block named Forza.
Forza changed the console racing world forever, introducing things like fully customizable assists, online racing, a driving line and tons of other cool stuff like livery editors. Meanwhile, Gran Turismo still had great driving physics and good graphics, but it was bad at everything else. I played GT5, but didn't enjoy myself as much, and skipped GT6 completely, which came out at the end of the PS3's life.
I had very low expectations when I heard about Gran Turismo Sport. Previous games had bad AI, shitty collisions and some of the worst fucking menus in the industry. Plus, online play was always really iffy with this series...
I was pleasantly surprised by much of what I've played of the Sport beta. The first thing that I have to say is just how fucking incredible this game looks visually. I have a PS4 Pro, and it just looks amazing and runs smooth as butter. I'm also happy to report that the physics are still rock solid.
 |
| Gran Turismo Sport looks real sometimes |
The biggest thing here is that Gran Turismo Sport is not a traditional racing game. It's focused on online racing and doesn't really have a single player mode. It's got some (very challenging) driving lessons and some weird little missions, but there's no real racing here. The action is all online. This is a beta, so I have to forgive it's technical limitations, but wow, this game crashes often.
The structure is very different than previous games too. Surprisingly, it reminds me a lot of Splatoon. It uses a weird scheduling system, which I'm starting to think is kind of a Japanese thing... The main online events are scheduled every 20 minutes. You can enter a race, then spend some time doing qualifying laps.
There's also a lobby menu, where players can just create lobbies and make custom races. The problem here is that the events all include practice, where people just drive around, waiting for the race to start. However, in many cases, the host never launched the race itself. This meant a lot of frustration as I was just trying to get into a real race.
It worked a few times, and it was a lot of fun.... when it worked. The game has a bunch of really weird bugs. A few times, the race would start, but I would stay stuck on the starting line. This affected other drivers too, so it sounds like a weird bug. What's worse, the game crashes when this happens, forcing me to restart the game.
It's unfortunate, and I'm hoping it's just a Beta thing, because the racing itself is so good. There's still weird collisions and stuff, but the core racing is just awesome. The game is smart about turning players into ghosts too. If someone is clearly going to fast for a corner, or if they go off track, their car will often turn into a ghost that others can drive through. This doesn't happen during normal racing, so it's a good way to prevent assholes from ruining every race, while still allowing for a bit of contact during normal racing.
My favorite moment was when I finally managed to join a Sport online race. Featuring up to 24 players on track at once, the action is fierce and mistakes are very costly. I was driving a yellow Audi TTS. I had a good qualifying time and started the race in third place, out of about 18 racers I think. I drove one hell of a race. I only made a few tiny mistakes and had a really good racing line.
I fought with a group of 4 or 5 racers for a while, ending up at the front of the pack in 2nd place. The guy in first place was using the same car as me, but somehow, he was much faster than me. There's a variety of things that could have impacted that, like car tuning and transmission type, but also, maybe he was just that good.
I ended the race in 2nd place, but somehow managed to get myself a 3 second penalty. I think it must have been from a contact or something, but I'm not sure. This meant that even though I crossed the line 2nd, I was actually 4th, because the two guys behind me were less than 3 seconds away.
Later, my 7 year old daughter asked me to play a little bit. I started by putting her in the first couple of driving lessons. It took her a while to get a hang of the steering, and even then, this is a simulation game, so no matter what, it's hard to keep the car straight. She impressed me quite a bit. It took her a few tries, but she managed to go through a pair of gates and clear the second lesson. The third lesson was too much for her, with it's 4 gates.
After this, I put her in a Mazda Miata and dropped her onto the oval track. She struggled with it, but with a bit of time, she started being a bit more agile and managed a full lap without touching the walls. She was really proud of herself, and I was even prouder. We spent the next 10 minutes watching her replay, laughing at the crashes. It was wonderful, and if she shows interest again, I'll be happy to teach her some more.
I'm impressed with Gran Turismo Sport. Sure, it's got a ton of problems, but the racing is so fucking solid, it's gonna be hard to pass on this one.
