Not really a surprise that some would react in this way when a month ago we were all told the games online content was only 15% of the experience is it?
For me, I saw this coming from a long time ago. The beta confirmed it. PD wanted to test the servers in the beta and made it a priority by closing arcade mode, and stress testing the "Sport" mode. The biggest takeaways I received from the limited information provided to the public is the graphics with wide color HDR, which is beautifully programmed, online of course with the definition of "sport" being the FiA online competitions and in addition to this an online mode with sport mode, lobbies, and all of the other features in the game incorporating some online feature. This is probably why customization is more noticeable in this game. It fits within the online philosophy of making online more enjoyable to the player and others, as certain designs in the livery editor can be shown off and shared in the community. It also seems that a player can start wherever he/she wants it the campaign. Last is sound. It has definitely improved, not the best, but it is significantly better than previous titles.
From the information we received in this pre-release period, it seems like other features which used to be emphasized in past GT games are not as much brought to the forefront, such as physics, cars, tracks, campaign. Physics are not going to be as noticeable as past GT games since most of the tracks on launch are fictional, most of the physics that will be truly felt will probably be from real tracks. The car list has been downsized greatly, as the cars are created more for their real behaviors instead of being made in great numbers with smaller amounts of data to create cars from, as quality is over quantity. In addition, many of the cars are PDI made race cars, tuned from street models to meet a specific regulation or VGT's. There is a smaller number of tracks, with a variety of circuits will specific characteristics being chosen over laser-scanning real tracks when making tracks. The campaign mode is like an extended license test, which was not emphasized much in previous games. Now it is now a main feature here instead of sets of a few tests to promote to the next racing series in a campaign mode.
All in all, as we are around a month from release, it's
no question this game is mostly online, which was based on the way they presented it. This game deals with learning and experiencing instead of experiencing then learning. It is not a bad thing at all, just a different step for GT, bringing to the forefront limited or lacking features from earlier titles while still incorporating the mission of the product based on the FiA partnership and elements of its functions, which deals with real motorsport and bring more interest to the auto industry (specifically racing), which will hopefully make the sport more accessible to fans and of racing by connecting and interacting with each other via the virtual world, which is essentially a simulation and bringing it as close (to a more affordable level) to the experience in a real racing car to expand the population (young and old) interested in the auto industry and its many outlets.
It will be interesting to see how this game progresses through its life cycle.