Gran Turismo Sport May Be in for a Tough Ride

I'll keep my eye on it, but with it being focused on multiplayer it'll most likely be a pass for me. Having kids and dogs, there's always that chance that I'll have to pause unexpectedly, which makes racing games that can't be paused hard to play.

Its cheaper to make games where you play with yourself less. Lazy.

I used to race in a league with about 30 other drivers back on GT5 and loved it, but I loved the single player side of the game more. Finding a rare car super cheap in the used car garages and turning it into a monster never got old. I'm disappointed by this news.

Online competition is the heart of SIM racing. It's difficult to envisage any serious sim focussing on single player in the coming years, it's simply not satisfying to race against AI. Like we see in FPS shooters today, hardly anyone touches the SP, a title lives or dies by engaging MP.

GT Sport gives you over 200 events to improve your driving standards, from hitting Apex's to full races. You will then go online for your 'career', moving up the ranks. In addition there's an arcade mode, allowing you to set-up any race/track/laps/rules. As ever with Gran Turismo, there'll be weekly events and updates for the community to compete in.

As for sales performance, GT6 sold over 6m on PS3, after the PS4 launched. There's little doubt for me we'll see this deliver 8m-10m. Gran Turismo really is a series that has less and less connection with the gaming community, and more with the car community.

@get2sammyb Has it been announced whether or not GT Sport will have a season pass? They've only got the regular and deluxe edition up on the PS Store.

@KratosMD I doubt it GT has always done great numbers and likely will do again. They had to do something different from recent entries and I'm excited a sim racing is trying to do online MP properly without everything dissolving into bumper car racing.
@get2sammyb It's worth remembering that people criticized GT 5 and 6 for been more of the same. Plus premium and standard cars didn't go down well either. The result is they went back to the drawing board to make a completely fresh GT with specific cars that are suited for online and that takes a lot of time if you want it done properly. People should not be pressuring devs to rush games, that's how we get broken launches etc. If a game needs to take 5 years then so be it.

@get2sammyb Hope that's the case. Might as well preorder. Like you said, there's nothing quite like Gran Turismo.

Of the big racers launching this holiday season, GT Sport is the game that I really don't see myself buying. Its not just the lack of content compared to the others, or the visuals - as good as they are, they are not on a par with Project Cars or Forza - especially on the 'enhanced' consoles. Arguably you are not necessarily focused on the backgrounds so much when you are concentrating on the road, but still its technically not superior.

Then of course, you have the weather, the way it affects the courses, even sand/dirt on the track can affect the handling let alone temperature etc too. It seems that Project Cars 2 really takes this to 'n'th degree and Forza adds this too and 4k HDR looks absolutely stunning as well...

I appreciate that many here won't have access to Forza so the choice may well be between Project Cars 2 or GTSport. I guess if you have PSVR, that may push you more to GT but for the most realistic - especially with Live Track 3.0 as they call it, most variety of courses and an impressive rosta of cars too...

Not sure of this obsession with not providing single player content. A good single player campaign is a gateway drug to mp in my opinion. Without it then there is little in the way to get newbies into the game.

@BAMozzy I think graphics and physics are what most of the time was spent on.

But at the same time ive asked many people and they all agree that something visually looks off with GT Sport.

No one seems to have a consensus if the cars reflect light in ways while the other objects dont, the grass looking a bit meh, or the sky being clearly distinct from everything else with a very pronounced skyline.

For as great as it looks...and for as realistic as it wants to look...it clearly isnt. The closer we get to that realism the less its going to feel real because the differences become obvious.

Same with Forza and Project Cars. It aims for real but it doesnt get it and it hits the uncanny valley.

However the bighest issue seems to be the game part and while I kind of agree with @get2sammyb that a service based title would work for GT...saying it worked for Overwatch so it will here is an issue.

Overwatch, Rocket League, Splatoon, so on, have always been known and made apparent that they are multiplayer long life games. GT...hasnt. That is the biggest hurdle. They seem to have cut a lot of what GT was, and pursued a service not realising they could do both. And even then...the only reason the others do it is because they arent coming from a storied franchise with good solo and multiplayer. They dont have the expectation.

This is the same situation as SFV. Drop the solo to focus as a platform on multiplayer.

The main reason I bought my ps4 was to be able to play gran turismo sport. With all of this news I may just sell my ps4 and buy an Xbox one X instead.

I love the concept of gran turismo games ie earning your licences and working your way through the cups but the online side doesn't really interest me

Gran Turismo is almost more of a tool than a game. The campaign stuff teaches you how to race a car. Plain and simple. If you're not interesting in racing real cars, it might not be the game for you. This will probably mean it gets sub par reviews and sub par sales, but for those who understand and appreciate it for what it is, it will be amazing. (judging from the beta and what experience I have with the game)

Wow. Consider me surprised and completely unimpressed. My favorite part of racing sims is always just relaxing and coasting through the single-player content. Online additions are great, but usually just icing on the cake for me. I'm a lot more cautious about this entry now.

@BAMozzy I assume you mention backgrounds in GT Sport as you're judging it off the Digital Foundry beta analysis. Specifically the Dragons Trail track and the "PS2 mountain". That was always a place holder. If you look at the latest build it's not only replaced by 4K textures, there is all new foiliage and trackside decoration. PD have shown each build to the public with work-in-progress assets. Each build shows extra polish, ie the Nurburgring Nordschliefe, which now has a photorealistic look.

GT Sport's lighting is also on another level, being by far the most realistic looking. It's the only game this coming year to utilise the full HDR spectrum. That's not to say other Sims don't look good, but Pcars has always suffered in this dpt., while For a is very stylised.

Weather, different times of day, differing track conditions (temp and gravel dragged on track) and mechanical damage are also in GT Sport. We've only seen a little of the weather (fog on Nordschliefe), but there are also rain tyres in the game. Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show will reveal all. Normally you'd expect E3 to be the focus, but GT's biggest market is Europe and Asia.

Pass.

I'm going to wait and see what the story is. I've had so much fun playing GT5 and 6. I've only recently gone back to 6. I played GT5 for 3 years playing practically nothing else in that time. Incidentally one thing I really enjoyed in GT5 was getting all 60 gold licences. That was fun, so maybe little training sections could work. They certainly help you find the fastest way through tricky corners and chicanes.

Either way I'll be buying it. I have Forza 6 and while it's brilliant. I prefer Gran Turismo any day.

@NathanUC
Well said. You're probably right. It'll probably get bad reviews. But for people who love it for what it is, it will not disappoint.

@BAMozzy Problem is PC didn't run particularly run well first time out. It should have followed Driveclub's example of a locked 30fps, then at least it would have stable. I'm hearing PC2 is supporting 12k! What pointless feature to have in when even 4K hasn't even become the standard default yet.

Going to wait for the reviews then. I was mildly interested in this game because my holiday season is quite empty apart from Mario (assuming I can even get a Switch by that time). But if there's little to no single player content, I'm going to look for another game I think.

I may get Cars if that is better. I thought Titanfall and Battlefront gave a lesson to devs about the importance of single player.

If server quality are up to it this will be the pinnacle of online racing games. I played the beta I know it will.

As far as I am aware you can still unlock cars, buy cars and tune cars. Plus there is an arcade mode to setup your own offline races.

I just boot up GT5 in my good old ps3. What a fantastic game it was ! The introduction was legendary (this classic solo piano piece, then transition to My Chemical Romance... Awesome way to give you the URGE to play !)
I volontary deleted my save file today. Think I'm gonna play this all again, instead of GT Sport. Campaign, dude ! This is important ! Career mode ! (GT5 had two of them ! The A-spec and the B-spec !)
Do you think career mode can be added, via a future update, to GT SPORT ?

@Bobobiwan If there's enough demand then must probably, PD are obviously prioritizing the online aspect first.

@Jake66 "Like we see in FPS shooters today, hardly anyone touches the SP, a title lives or dies by engaging MP."
Well, I never play online but I played a lot of single player FPS and thank god nobody complained about the lack of multiplayer in Half Life 2, Dishonored, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Wolfenstein, Deus Ex, Metro...

lol what a mess, Driveclub now this. Never mind. Sony, go buy a studio that can make an arcade and or sim racer game. Team Crash Racing reboot anyone?

I'm completely uninterested in multiplayer and the idea of simply doing licence-esque trials ad-naseum offline holds zero appeal. While some may say the game is content-light at start and new content will be added; we all know the speed (or lack thereof) that Polyphony Digital works. For me, GT has finally jumped the shark and become a slow parody of what could've (should've) been on the PS4. In its current state, a definite no-buy.

@Rudy_Manchego this is what happens when an online shooter wins game of the year.

This is the scary part give it another 10-15 years time their will be no single-player games, with every game being a service. Microsoft has already said thay worry for single-player games, and was taking about games being a service. Sony will probably keep doing single-player games while doing a game as a service, as long as people buy them that is.

This does show their focus was on one thing only, the multiplayer. Id rather see them do one thing really well rathrr than sticcking on half baked features for the sake of more content.
I agree its a bold choice but at least theyre trying something different. GT4-5-6 were all the same if you ask me

@andreoni79 Everyone is differrent but most of the people want MP like it or not. I love singleplayer games Tombraider Definitive was a great example multiplayer sometimes is just a waste. But in the end a game with MP will probably sell more.

@banacheck Thats why i buy nothing from MS.

@Flaming_Kaiser um sony is already doing games as a service. remember ps now?

so still no great racing game on ps4 while xbox one has forza 5, 6, 7 and horizon 1, 2, 3

I had been looking forward to this for a long time, so for me, it's a massive disappointment about single player content, but I'm still buying it for the (what now sounds like) bare bones VR mode.

Multiplayer focus? No buy to me...I buy racing games for the single player experience...
Sometimes I hate this new era of online gaming

With all the games I have on my back-catalogue, any new $60 ($80 canadian) release better be way worth it before I buy it. Some are for sure! - but this.. online focused?? Bah.. the competition will be stiff with overpowered cars, lots of mic trash talking and people just being dicks and driving backwards on a course just to make themselves laugh. No thanks.. online should be a component of a game, not the focus. This could be GT's first flop (not mentioning the PSP's car-collecting game here).

I do not enjoy online mutiplayer with racing games of any kind. Local or bust. But when it comes to GT, I never wanted multiplayer anyway. It was like pokemon for cars, and I just enjoyed acquiring vehicles, messing around with them, and taking them for a ride. GT Sport sounds mega disappointing from my perspective.

Not all gamers are competitive gamers, and GT used to cater to many different kinds of gamer, but this new focus is definitely going to leave many fans of the franchise looking for alternatives.

As others have said, changing the focus from unlocking/collecting things to playing against other people goes against what I love most about racing games. Sadly, don't think GT Sport is for me, but we'll see. Such a shame that we'll never see a Driveclub 2.

No GT career no purchase for me. Simply as that.

There are plenty of racing games I can play online already.

Waiting for Project Cars 2. The guys did a great job with the first.

@Jake66 Whilst I was drawing a bit of that impression from Digital Foundry, it wasn't the basis of my opinion. I was already aware of the 'general impression' before DF did a breakdown of the Beta. I know a lot were quite 'critical' before that video - and DF also referenced the 'general impression' by comparing and contrasting with the PS3's GT game - as many were saying it wasn't that much better. Obviously I am not saying its not an improvement because I can clearly see where improvements had been made.

One aspect though, that DF didn't mention (as far as I can recall) was the pop-in of textures and even things like lamp -posts as you drive around the circuit. i noticed a few trees that the 'texture' would pop-in as you got close and also noticed a number of Lamp posts pop in too. As I stated in my original comment, that things like this probably wouldn't be noticed if you yourself was driving rather than watching someone elses video feed. I wasn't also going to mention the way some cars could suddenly pop-in or move erratically as that may well be down to the online lag.

I am also not denying that the 'replays' look stunning on the Pro and 'maybe' just maybe, they can get these locked to 60fps by the time the game ships - like 'maybe' they can get the game to run at a locked 60fps for those on a base PS4. Those on a Base PS4 also have the replays at 30fps too.

However in 'every' video I have seen, certain aspects look off in GT Sport. Maybe its the lack of 'movement' in the car in 3rd person, things like vibration in the spoilers or windscreen wipers in first person, body roll going round a corners and the weight distribution with accelerating/decelerating, cornering fast or even impacts. Maybe its the way the lighting, shadows and ambient occlusion seem slightly off between the vehicles and track...

I know GTSport will be using HDR visuals but so will Forza 7 too. I know GT also has tone mapping for the 'future' (if we ever do get 10,000nit displays and the full REC2020 colour gamuts) but the game won't be running in 4k (1800p CB at best on a Pro) and by the time Technology ever gives us TV's that can reach these targets, I very much doubt the PS4 will be the 'main' console. You will still be limited to the range of current technology and at best, around 1500-1800nits and 75% of the REC2020 colour gamut. It seems that they are utilising more of an HLG format than a HDR10 or DV metadata driven HDR with an in-game slider to adjust the gamma to tone map and prevent clipping (Clipping is something a lot of TV's do with content mastered to 4000nits as they can't accurately display the highlight details and so 'clip' it which results in loss of detail). Some TV's though have better Tone Mapping algorithms to prevent clipping or at the very least minimise it.

Anyway, regardless of the HDR approach, its still the game that seems most 'dated' of the three. I know that may hurt you as a Sony/GT Fanboy but that's the way its appearing right now. Its not 'just' about the 'backgrounds' or where the higher quality textures and lamp posts pop-in,, its the little details, the way a car looks as its racing, like the body roll as weight is distributed, the way things shake or vibrate at high speeds. I admit I am yet to see how much of an impact weather makes - although I do think Project Cars 2 is taking this beyond 'gaming' levels of accuracy and much more towards a realistic sim approach that professional race drivers could use to practice on.

In some ways, that approach by Project Cars 2 may well discourage some, those looking for 'fun' with friends rather than a pro racing drivers level of difficulty. Maybe the lack of a meaningful career could hurt GTSport too. Its not as if Sony gamers can opt to buy Forza - well not unless they also have an Xbox or Win10 PC...

Gran Turismo's stale boring rote by the numbers follow the racing line " gameplay" AND mainly online focus ?
Talk about about a deathknell.

Avoid at all costs.

@get2sammyb for me the lack of a real campaign would be an issue as I'm not the biggest online gamer, which generally leads to me losing against people who apparently don't have to work for a living. I do really enjoy the handling of GT games so I would still consider it but I also feel like you the Evoultion studios should have been kept around as Driveclub seemed to balance the blend of sp and online very well.

I hear what some have said that driving and shooting games are all about their online but is this really true? A few years ago yes but it seems now there has been some backlash to that with Star Wars being the obvious example. This is getting what looks like a meaty campaign where last time there wasn't one COD was criticised for its campaign, Doom was a success based upon its excellent campaign even though it was the mp which was pushed. Destiny is another example which straddles the gap between the campaign and online shooting, yet most of the compliments or complaints always focus on the story, then there's Splatoon 2 which has had its single player beefed up for the sequel. Of course on the flip side you have the likes of Street Fighter V which have struggled because of their online focus as has For Honour, so yes whilst 2 or 3 years ago everyone was moving to just online mp I think that now that people are looking for much more from their games.

Problem of GT Sport is also the lack of cars. Doublures all over again with 4 times the same car from different brands.
Lack of tracks doesn't help also and I am wondering how many people go on with online racing after a few months. And without online racing, this game doesn't work.

I was always a GT fan, and bought every game up until 5. I didn't bother with 6, and I doubt I'll bother with this, having played the beta.

The whole feel I get with the game is that - graphics aside - it just hasn't moved on, and online was always ruined by the numbskulls who just like to spoil it for everyone else.

I appreciate what they were trying to do with the ratings in GT Sport, but it just didn't seem to be working. If someone hit you and knocked you off the track, you got penalised... which meant that it was tough to lift yourself up the ratings and get put in with 'good' drivers. So you kept getting put with the idiots, which held your rating down.

They may have improved it later stages, but I was past caring. I gave up on the beta, and won't be buying the game.

I like the sound of the way the qualifying lap is used to put you in a race with players in your skill bracket however, I can see it being abused by people intentionally doing slow qualifying laps to get an easier race....what do you think?

It's important to me because I tend to play well against AI but when it comes to human opponents I usually get spanked 😣

@Flopsy Hard to say. I'm not a big fan of real time multiplayer, but I love me some time attacks. It looks like multiplayer is obviously the focus, but there will still be a huge amount of single player experience judging from the campaign videos.

For a single player game, it won't have as much content as the other Gran Turismos, but it will have more meaningful content if you're looking to improve as a driver (the track missions are going to be insane awesome/useful!)

I have had every GT game since first getting my hands on the Jap original.
This time though Kaz has failed the one player userbase. After so long in development i can't see why.
Four people in my office had preorders. With the lack of 1 player content now apparent, three have stopped their preorders and two of us, including myself are getting Project Cars 2. The last guy in the office is on leave and may still cancel. It may be that GT has had its day. One player thrills are sadly now elsewhere. Proper day/night/weather is in PC2. Water pooling in the rain on inside corners and disappearing when the sun comes out. Everything GT has promised for years and is still not delivering but rivals are.
I feel a bit sad, i wanted GT to be a huge flagship game. I wonder if it is heading for lower numbers than GT6. Without enough 1P it deserves it.