The GT formula is the sum of all the intangibles - the way PD presents GT. The way the menus make you feel like your in a lounge, the smooth jazz music, the way they present the cars in the dealerships/garage, the the photo mode, the perfect replay angles, the breathtaking graphics, even the license tests.
These things are not intangible (at least in as much as everything in a computer is intangible). It's a video game, anything that is there has to have been put there by someone. We can talk about menu design, music selection, graphical presentation and so on.
They are always praised for their attention to detail, and they take all aspects of the game equally serious.
No, they're not, and no, they don't. Look at GT5 and GT6 and tell me about their attention to detail and treating all aspects of the game equally. For every instance of minute detailing on headlights there's a pixelated standard car with a blacked out interior.
They've done a remarkable job of getting people to believe what I just quoted, however. But that speaks more to their marketing and the strength of their early work than anything else.
It'd liken it to the uniqueness of Quentin Tarantino films - very distinct flavor that is all but impossible to copy.
Perhaps, but there's more to a movie or a game than style. While Tarantino films are almost always worth a watch, there's a difference between the ones with a well designed backbone beneath the exterior and the ones that are merely a sequence of incredibly well written and well directed short scenes. Inglorious Bastards, I'm looking at you. Just about any given scene in that movie is incredible, and yet the sum of the whole is somewhat less than the sum of it's parts. There's little added by having all those scenes together.
Compare to something like Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, and while the individual scenes are amazing, there's also a very interesting story that's being revealed by having those scenes together and in the particular order that they are. Even within a certain creator's personal style, I think there is room for their works to be lesser or greater dependent on how good the product is that they're applying that style to.
Modern Gran Turismos suffer from a similar problem, IMO. All the great parts are there, but the way that they're put together is somehow less engaging than it seems like it could be. They've got great graphics, solid physics, and a distinct personality, and yet somehow these things never really come together in that "OMG that was incredible I didn't know games could be that cool" moment.
While it's admittedly harder to do it in a racing game than just about any other genre, I think in a racing game it's almost the most satisfying experience. When you have a really hard fought race where you got your result through your own skill and hard work, that's a really good feeling. Even completing hard missions and licenses, although GT has a nasty habit of making it less about skill and more about finding the trick they want you to use. And in single player, it's obviously difficult for GT because it's AI is pretty awful.
Moving to primarily online is one solution to the AI problem, but it introduces a bunch more that I'm not sure are easier to solve, especially with a casual audience. How do you promote clean and fair racing amongst an audience that tends to be a) not very good and b)rage quitters and c)trolls? How do you make it engaging for all players when only 1 in 24 can win, and that's traditionally been the measure of success in your games? How do you create a system that is easy to pick up but hard to master, which is largely necessary to provide the depth of gameplay for a serious e-sport? How do you deal with the ever present problems of online competition, latency, matchmaking and player base?
GTS has chosen an interesting way to approach the idea of giving a player an engaging motor sport experience. Unfortunately, what they've shown so far seems to have the same problem as GT5 and 6; all style, no substance. While how they present their games is great, there needs to be a good game under there as well. It's not enough to have nice menus and a great soundtrack.
