Gran Turismo is 25 years old. Whatever it was it hasn’t been for a long time. It has grown, changed and matured. The fact that you don’t like what it has become, is on you, not Gran Turismo. If you don’t like it, let it be and walk away. Things change. That includes all the things you love.
Long read warning. Pick holes in it all you want people, as i won't be making another reply either in this topic or about this topic, as i've said all i want to say below.
I'll start with the quote above and then back and forth blabber about other things i've read in this topic.
Actually, the game 'was what it was'
way back (if going by your 'long time' theory) in 2013, with GT6. Or more simply, it 'was what it was' right before GT Sport. So going by the latter, it's been 'the way it was' until just before the last game (GT Sport). Two or three games is hardly a 'long time' in terms of game succession.
Basically i disagree with the claim "it hasn't been that way for a long time" (plus a lot of other 'nothing is wrong' replies in this topic), purely because you are factually wrong - according to a lot (not all, obviously) of GT fans who've played since the first one, like myself, who know the 'GT magic' (the thing about the games that has kept us buying them all these years).
Not everyone experiences this 'magic' in GT games (and it's probably impossible to describe it), because some people are playing the game for slightly different reasons (usually more so for the racing than the 'story'/campaign/preset races). But it
does exist.
It's been the driving factor (no pun intended) for my 'discovery' of cars in real life in the late 1990's, and everything associated with them. I've driven and been in cars that have been in GT games, own or nearly owned them (currently own two cars that are in GT games and nearly bought a third last year), been involved with many car clubs (including eventually taking over ownership of a popular NZ Nissan Skyline club), attended and entered car shows, watched and participated in motorsport events and so on.
Because of GT introducing me to cars, and all the associated events mentioned above, i met the love of my life at a car club meet one year, and have been married to her for ten years next month. If it wasn't for GT, i know for a fact i never would have met her.
So GT7 has lost a lot of that magic for a lot of GT veterans like me - who were hoping this game would bring us back to the GT2 or GT4-6 era - and campaign mode/the lack of pre made races (when compared to GT1-GT6 career mode options) is one of the bigger reasons for this lack of 'proper GT' game feeling. To me, and many others it doesn't
feel like GT7 at the moment.
It's not too late - hopefully they vastly add to and improve the game via updates including a
massive amount more campaign mode races, the ability to sell cars, bigger race payouts and so on.
Don't get me wrong, i like the Cafe/Menu Book idea. But it shouldn't be 'all there is' to the game, story wise.
I'll just sneak this in here too: You should NEVER have to constantly grind the biggest paying race in car videogames (and the same missions over and over etc in other games) in order to get money; when microtransactions for credits are involved it is clearly a deliberate act by SONY (or other such head companies, like in GTA and other games) to try get a bit of cash flowing from one of their most popular first party titles.
Kazunori has said in the past he's not keen on microtransactions, which is why a lot of the DLC in GT6 was free (or GT5, i can't remember which) so it'll clearly be Sony's decision, again. Microtransactions force players to grind or to pay real cash to get to their goal quicker. Deny it all you want, but that is the main intention, with a lesser intention of existing to help those who want something quicker and don't have the time to grind but do have spare cash. It's just how the world works these days. It's not rocket science.
Anyway, GT6's (which, again, is only two games older than GT7 - not a 'long time' by any means) campaign mode had a great selection of pre-made races, as did all other main GT titles.
https://gran-turismo.fandom.com/wiki/GT6_Event_List
THAT is what a lot of us are wanting back. You can harp on about the custom races until the cows come home and milk themselves while being towed by flying pigs, but it's not going to change the fact that
a lot of our favourite races from past GT games have gone missing/not made it to GT7 yet.
The game just doesn't feel complete.
I'm not dissing custom races, in fact i really love having the option to create them (almost) how i want. BUT,
they have no soul. They have no aura around them. They're
just races. Which for some of you, is great.
It's probably trivial to a number of you, but a number of us want these old pre-made races handed to us.
It's akin to all movies and games having no title and no advertising/packaging other than a description of what it is; "A film about a robot that comes back in time to kill the person that killed its fellow robots in the future" (aka, custom races) on its otherwise blank dvd case, instead of the title 'The Terminator' and its menacing and enticing looking packaging (aka, pre-made race events by Polyphony). Or "A game where you place blocks to build things" on its otherwise blank dvd case, instead of the name 'Minecraft', and it's colourful inviting packaging.
Custom races
don't have the packaging, the branding, the existing format. That's what a lot of us want back. It's what we essentially grew up on.
It's the
names of the events, the
associated imagery, the
preselected opponents, the
set tracks, the
allocated prize winnings, the
race lengths, the
event description/title. Custom races
do use a few of those things, but they are
not the whole package.
To use yet more examples, it's like buying bananas with the skin already peeled off, or tinned sauces poured straight into your pot, or breakfast cereal in plain plastic bags.
Yes, you do get the same result in the end, but it's a no frills straight to the point result.
Not everyone wants that in a game, especially not in a game series that
hasn't traditionally done things this way in ANY of its main titles (GT Sport isn't a main title when compared to GT1-6, since it was essentially designed around online racing).
We want to feel as though the event we're entering is
something special, not just another race. Even GT2 had the ability to create custom races (Event Generator), which i personally used a lot as it created some great racing. But again, it was in a no frills form. It was 100% perfect for what it was, but it was only there for an extra challenge to get a break from the 'campaign mode' or as something to do if you'd completed campaign mode.
It was just racing, no frilly bits with no 'story' behind it. It's fine for some people to live off that sort of thing, but if that's what you want then need to also respect the fact that the same shoes won't fit each person. Respect your fellow gamers and their desires, the game CAN exist (and has done before, as far back as GT2 like i said) to suit all sorts of players: Those who'll live off of custom races, those who'll never use custom races and would prefer everything already made up, and those (like me) who want both.
Stop. Arguing. The. Point. Acknowledge that those of us asking for all these races back have a right to make such requests/wishes, and if you're not going to help us lobby for these things,
at least respect our wishes enough to stop promoting custom races as the best thing since the knives designed to slice bread.
To put it more simply to those of you happy with just creating custom races; it'd be a pretty sorry looking game to lots of players if, when you loaded it up, 'campaign' mode was just a 'Custom Race' button. Nothing more. That is NOT GT, and if you haven't noticed that fact over the GT1-GT6 game period then i suspect you were perhaps playing another game.
Pre-made races, and plenty of them, have been a thing in EVERY main title up to GT6. They were omitted in GT Sport, there was an uproar and they got added in. In a bigger capacity than GT7 no less...
I know it's only early days, but you all know how quickly custom races can be made. If
we can make them in a couple of minutes, so can the Polyphony team, and within half an hour to an hour they can get all the associated graphics made up for an event and then however long it takes to hardwire it into the game. GT7 has been in development for years i'd say. They could have had just one person working on these races, and massively increased the amount of them in a matter of only a few months (or less).
I've got a whole load of other reasons why i stopped playing the game after four days (a lot of which are not videogame related too) which i'm not going to get into here, but i replied to this topic because i've been getting too annoyed at the heavy overpromotion of custom races as the way to 'complete' this game. You guys are missing the point (which has already been mentioned and overlooked/dismissed by the 'Custom Race Fan Club™').
To conclude i'll lay it out in the quickest and most accurate way possible;
- Campaign mode/preset races/'events with their own splash screens' are, and have always been, essentially GT's 'Story Mode'.
- Custom races are in no way a story.
Some of us want the 'story mode' back, of the type GT has offered us since the very first game. It's as simple as that.
Respect our wishes.
.
