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Kaz states that the GT series is first and foremost a driving simulator, basically the racing aspect (fun bit) comes 2nd or possibly 3rd after photo mode. This is shown by the poor choice of offline races in GT5 and the dull and unadventurous AI. This needs to change in GT6, I have a feeling it won't.
A lot of aspects of racing are missing, challenging AI, offline custom races, qualifying, fastest lap, offline grid starts etc.
But if it is a driving sim then why are the gear changes modelled so poorly, just watching vids of GT6 you can see the gear changes are exactly the same as GT5 no effect to the car other than less revs on the counter, a gear change in a car is part of the thrill, it's where you get the kicks of power, there is no drama shown in GT. GT5's changes are all sequential shifts no matter what you're driving but without any noticeable effect on performance. Plus what makes it worse is that you can quickly shift from 6th to 1st at 300km/h without a hiccup.
They've had 15 years and 6 game releases to work on the sounds and other than on a handful of cars, they sound like crap. Other franchises have come along and done much better work on car sounds. At some point we have to realize it's just not a high priority for PD and may never be which is sad. The GT series has the potential to blow everything else into the weeds in every aspect of driving/racing simulation, I believe the resources are there to do so and have been for some time. Look at what iRacing has done with just a sliver of the funding that GT has. Look at what PCars has done with a hairs worth of the funding available to GT.
Agreed with both posts completely. Now for my spiel about Gran Turismo, in general;
All things considered, Gran Turismo 2 and Gran Turismo 4 were two of the games I spent the most time on on the PS1 and PS2 respectively. Nowadays if I would play either of the two games, I would pick GT2 any day of the week, simply because the majority of the tracks are enjoyable, the cameras gave a good view of the car, the car customisation was like GT1, and then some (unlike any other racing series I played), and the driving physics were highly enjoyable.
As far as GT4 goes, there were many good real-life tracks included, like Nurburgring, Suzuka and Sonoma, but frankly some gameplay aspects were very problematic. The sounds did not give me an adrenaline rush, the AI was still poor, and there was chronic understeer when driving many cars. However the sheer amount of content in GT4 - the events, the cars, the tracks - ensured that I played the game for a long time. However, gradually when I'd explored all the new content, I gradually lost interest in playing the game, which is fine. I went through a long period of not playing any GT game. I noticed over the years that the GT series had a big problem with sounds and AI, which made me enjoy the games (particularly GT4) less and less as I kept playing it.
On the eve of the GT5 release I saw the car list and was incredibly disappointed with the amount of recycled content. Eventually I did buy GT5 in 2012, and I didn't have any good reason why, besides the fact that it was GT and I had bought GT1-4. I spent the least amount of time as I could on the offline content, less than any time I spent on previous GT games. It had no replay value - I simply felt compelled to complete events, and then never touched most of them again. If it wasn't for online mode I would have stopped playing GT5 within three months of me buying it.
I really feel that with the resources that PD has, they have severely under-delivered in the last ~10 years. Aspects of gameplay that needed dramatic improvement in GT4 still need dramatic improvement now, nearly 10 years later. I won't gamble on buying GT6 like I did with GT5 - GT6 will have to convince me on its merits, like independent reviews, online feedback etc. The Gran Turismo series has given me many great gaming experiences over the years, but the games are no longer a guaranteed buy for me. I hope enough people feel the same way so that PD feel the impact of poor game design on their sales figures.
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