I first jumped in seconds after the demo went live, so it was really buggy for a while, but it's cleaned up a bit since (and the closed beta was much smoother, so I trust PD to sort it out).
I'm not really a vehicle dynamics expert, but I was pleasantly surprised how much the physics changed since the closed beta. Back then it felt like natural evolution from GT6, with everything having a bit more depth, and the DS4 allowing for more detailed input and feedback. It still seemed to have the same kind of steady breakaway algorithm for wheelspin/tire grip, and that's completely different now. I actually can't get gold in the basic acceleration tests in driving school without traction control on, it feels like I'm controlling a physical object rather than figuring out the best ways to get results out of an algorithm. There's a lot of un-learning and re-learning I'll have to do in terms of car control, but it was a really cool to feel all these changes.
AI. HOT DAMN, AI. The lack of competitiveness was my biggest gripe I had with the franchise, and there's been huge improvement here, at least in the custom race mode. I'll need to better familiarize myself with the physics before I'll know how significant the improvement is, but the fact that I was overtaken and struggled to keep up at times is a huge plus.
The livery editor is great, and the import tool is going to make it huge. The only thing I don't like about it is that there isn't specific grid/coordinate input for decal placement, and the color selector isn't as detailed as I'd like.
I haven't yet done any missions, but I'm pleased to hear that there's a fair amount of actual racing in this part of the career mode, so the campaign won't be as dry as I'd thought it was going to be.
The presentation of everything on the game is excellent so far, but one thing I find somewhat "clunky" is trying to find certain cars - I don't think there's a car search function yet. Before I realized the purchase function was deactivated for the demo I was trying to find an N300 car that wasn't available in the closed beta, and I had to go back and forth through a bunch of brand menus only to find cars in N200 and 400. There are times when I want to look at what's available from a certain brand, but there's also times where I'm just looking for a specific drivetrain or performance level and I can't easily do that.
I'm now beginning to feel a bit confined by the small track list, but we'll see how much that worsens or improves at launch. Even with the limitations in the closed beta I was focusing much more on the competition in sport mode than I was on trying new tracks and cars. I was really trying to lock down my skills with specific car/track combos.
Adding to above, the car list really isn't too bad. Some performance groups feel a bit thin and I'm missing a few cars, (918, Aventador, Ford GT, P1...) but it really isn't too bad of a list. I don't mind the PD-designed race cars, in fact I think they're really cool and adds to the diversity of the racing classes, and I've always appreciated the VGT project even with it's wild cards. Even though it is a lot smaller than past games it does a better job with diversity. And I don't know what it is, maybe it's the livery editor, maybe it's sport mode, but I don't feel the need to buy every car I see like I did in past games. I do want to build a garage, but I feel like getting little more personal with the stuff I put in it, making sure know how to drive competitively with it.
In the closed beta Sport mode had a few minor matching issues, but overall it was pretty great. I knew it would be rough (and my first race absolutely was) when everyone's placement got reset for the demo/launch, but like it did in beta it'll slowly iron out and people will be placed/matched properly, I'm sure. There may be more balancing to do with algorithm down the line, but I'm incredibly hopeful here.
I was expecting a lot of disappointments to come with this game, I still went forward with a preorder because I knew sport mode worked and was a good time in the beta, and with the livery editor and photomode there would probably be enough game there for me to enjoy for a while, but I really wasn't sure. I was worried buying at launch would end up not being worth my money. But after what I've seen in the demo I'm absolutely ready for the 17th. There's still some letdowns, but a huge amount of things I was expecting to be disappointed by ended up not being too bad, or in fact weren't even disappointments at all. There were even a few hidden gems like the mileage point economy system. This game really isn't looking too bad in my eyes and I'm actually really excited to see what sort of post-launch support it gets.