- 12
- Austria
- leicam6_666
Hey guys, I just wrote up what I think about Gran Turismo’s evolution over the past 17 or so years. I’d really love to hear what other GT-enthusiasts think about it:
https://medium.com/@simonmeisinger/an-open-letter-to-polyphony-digital-849f1480f3b3
Oh and please feel free to correct my grammar as well, I’m not a native english speaker ;-)
To not appear like somebody who just wants clicks on his link, the entire text (not the latest version, though):
-----
An open letter
to Polyphony Digital
I love Gran Turismo.
There wasn’t much time in my life since the very first release when I haven’t recently played one of its titles. The series really got better and better with every release, until Gran Turismo 5, which was a huge letdown, despite all the effort Kazunori Yamauchi and his people at Polyphony Digital obviously made.
I won’t state the obvious like too many Skylines and Miatas, dull engine sounds, no damage model or stupid AI. Those are the things you read in almost every comment section of GT-related articles and I don’t really care about them.
I’d like to go deeper into gameplay mechanics, because that’s where I think the series struggles the most.
What made GT1 so good?
Gran Turismo 1 was somewhat of a revelation back then. In 1998 you had two choices in racing games: flashy colorful arcade style or just plain serious motorsport (i.e. Ridge Racer vs. Formula 1). There was no racing game considered realistic (1998 realistic, that is) but real fun at the same time. At least for consoles.
That’s exactly what Gran Turismo was: realistic and fun enough at the same time.
You could buy some crappy car, tune it up, race against cars just like it, get money, tune it some more or buy a completely new one. The AI was not only hard to beat—it even felt like it was on par with a skilled human player. The races were exciting.
That was the whole game. Race, get money, spend money, race again, work yourself up to the top. Just simple fun.
And Getting money was hard. Buying a muffler for your Honda CR-X may have meant you had to drive (and win) an extra race in order to have enough credits for it. And the license tests were quite challenging as well. Bronze took a couple of tries, Silver was quite hard and Gold was for the really dedicated players only.
That formula didn’t really change much until Gran Turismo 5. Money was somehow easier to earn in Gran Turismo 2, there were more cars and more tracks witch each installment and the physics got more realistic with Gran Turismo 4.
Gran Turismo 4 additionally introduced two small but very important features (at least for me): B-Spec and it’s connected point-system from A-Spec.
You got certain amounts of points for a win in Gran Turismo 4. The weaker your car, the more points you got. That was a nice indicator whether your car is overpowered, underpowered or just right for this type of race. That means you exactly knew if you’ve been better than the AI or just had the better car. This made you drive with as weak cars as possible to get the most challenge and reward out of it. A simple yet very effective mechanic, I think.
And the B-Spec mode, where the AI drives your car. I didn’t really care about it until I got to the endurance races, in which you could drive to the pits and let your B-Spec driver take over while you could skip some time by watching the race in fast forward. When you were in the mood again, you let your driver go in the pits and take over again.
The more points you achieved yourself, the better your B-Spec driver got. Great addition to the series. Loved it.
But both of those features would be ditched with Gran Turismo 5.
What made Gran Turismo 5 so bad?
With Gran Turismo 5 the series made a huge leap backwards. Well, not really backwards since that would have meant it was at least as fun as Gran Turismo 1. But it was a lot worse.
More Tracks, yeah. More cars, yeah. More game modes, yeah. Online Multiplayer, yeah. But the good old Gran Turismo mode wasn’t exactly what it’s supposed to be anymore.
Not only became it even easier to earn money, it wasn’t about racing anymore either. In every single race you started in one of the last places and in most races there was a rolling start, which makes starting in the back of the field even more of a penalty.
So you started around 25 seconds behind the first car, and races usually being two to five laps long means you had to gain five to 15 seconds each lap. That’s not racing, that’s just time trial with rolling chicanes. Racing should be about equally skilled drivers in equally capable cars, but it’s impossible to win or just enjoy an equal race as long as you start way behind the first one car.
In Gran Turismo 2, 3 and 4 you started in last place as well, but those were standing starts, which means your disadvantage wasn’t that bad and you could gain some precious seconds right at the beginning with skillful acceleration.
Because of this Gran Turismo 5 began to feel tedious at some point. You start in the back and rush to the front within some laps. Every single time. In one race you could only drive japanese cars and in the other only cars with four-wheel-drive—what an exciting variety of time trials with rolling chicanes. Not.
Is Gran Turismo 6 any better?
Yes, Gran Turismo 6 is indeed a lot better than Gran Turismo 5.
The new physics are a pleasure, you finally have the impression of driving a real car. Hitting the exact braking point, gently yet firmly squeezing the brake while shifting down the entire gearbox within seconds, feeling your suspension being at work while you’re in the turn and getting out of it just within the limit of what your rear tires are capable off—it’s just awesome.
Online Multiplayer got better (it’s now faster to get into a race). And I really like the Senna Challenges and it’s cars. Vision Gran Turismo is nice and shows how interested the car industry is in the series. Thumbs up.
Gran Turismo mode? Same as Gran Turismo 5, just a bit worse.
In Gran Turismo 5 you could grind races for experience points to unlock further races. This really motivated me to do endurance races over and over again (even though that B-Spec mode was gone). But now you just get three stars maximum per race. Boring.
Getting money is even easier now. I bought a Ferrari 512 BB after like three hours. After three hours in Gran Turismo 1 you could either buy an used RX7 or a turbo charger for your current car to make it more powerful— both things are way more rewarding than just making it rain at a virtual Ferrari dealer. Buying a Ferrari should be something you’re excited about and look forward to, not just something you do because you can. Even in a game.
I get that some people see Gran Turismo as some kind of Pokémon with cars—gotta catch ’em all—but you could at least provide some kind of hard mode for people who like a good challenge.
And endurance races? They’re gone. 24 minutes of Nordschleife is the longest race in the game. I mean come on, at least give us races which are about an hour or two! People didn’t do those 24 hour races anyway? Well, bring back the possibility to let your B-Spec driver take over during the race.
I just used the term race. Of course there are no real races in Gran Turismo 6, again. Same thing as in Gran Turismo 5—you start in the back of the field and need to be way faster than the AI to win.
But it’s the real driving simulator, not the real racing simulator!
Fair enough. I don’t like it, but yes, that’s a valid argument for Gran Turismo 5 and 6’s races to be no real races. But at least be honest about it, Polyphony, and make Gran Turismo “just” a driving simulator then.
Give us free roads with traffic, interesting and challenging driving missions, beautiful sceneries to take photos of our cars, special events like that moon thing and special events like the Senna challenges. Virtual track days would be awesome as well. But don’t embarrass yourself and act like this is still a racing game!
I would play a game which is just about driving and not racing, as long as the cars feel as good as they do in Gran Turismo 6. I just don’t want to do the same thing over and over again (start in the back, rush to the front).
Celebrate and glorify cars all you want to, I’m fine with that. If racing has no place in this glorification, so be it, just be honest about it.
Thank you for reading.
https://medium.com/@simonmeisinger/an-open-letter-to-polyphony-digital-849f1480f3b3
Oh and please feel free to correct my grammar as well, I’m not a native english speaker ;-)
To not appear like somebody who just wants clicks on his link, the entire text (not the latest version, though):
-----
An open letter
to Polyphony Digital
I love Gran Turismo.
There wasn’t much time in my life since the very first release when I haven’t recently played one of its titles. The series really got better and better with every release, until Gran Turismo 5, which was a huge letdown, despite all the effort Kazunori Yamauchi and his people at Polyphony Digital obviously made.
I won’t state the obvious like too many Skylines and Miatas, dull engine sounds, no damage model or stupid AI. Those are the things you read in almost every comment section of GT-related articles and I don’t really care about them.
I’d like to go deeper into gameplay mechanics, because that’s where I think the series struggles the most.
What made GT1 so good?
Gran Turismo 1 was somewhat of a revelation back then. In 1998 you had two choices in racing games: flashy colorful arcade style or just plain serious motorsport (i.e. Ridge Racer vs. Formula 1). There was no racing game considered realistic (1998 realistic, that is) but real fun at the same time. At least for consoles.
That’s exactly what Gran Turismo was: realistic and fun enough at the same time.
You could buy some crappy car, tune it up, race against cars just like it, get money, tune it some more or buy a completely new one. The AI was not only hard to beat—it even felt like it was on par with a skilled human player. The races were exciting.
That was the whole game. Race, get money, spend money, race again, work yourself up to the top. Just simple fun.
And Getting money was hard. Buying a muffler for your Honda CR-X may have meant you had to drive (and win) an extra race in order to have enough credits for it. And the license tests were quite challenging as well. Bronze took a couple of tries, Silver was quite hard and Gold was for the really dedicated players only.
That formula didn’t really change much until Gran Turismo 5. Money was somehow easier to earn in Gran Turismo 2, there were more cars and more tracks witch each installment and the physics got more realistic with Gran Turismo 4.
Gran Turismo 4 additionally introduced two small but very important features (at least for me): B-Spec and it’s connected point-system from A-Spec.
You got certain amounts of points for a win in Gran Turismo 4. The weaker your car, the more points you got. That was a nice indicator whether your car is overpowered, underpowered or just right for this type of race. That means you exactly knew if you’ve been better than the AI or just had the better car. This made you drive with as weak cars as possible to get the most challenge and reward out of it. A simple yet very effective mechanic, I think.
And the B-Spec mode, where the AI drives your car. I didn’t really care about it until I got to the endurance races, in which you could drive to the pits and let your B-Spec driver take over while you could skip some time by watching the race in fast forward. When you were in the mood again, you let your driver go in the pits and take over again.
The more points you achieved yourself, the better your B-Spec driver got. Great addition to the series. Loved it.
But both of those features would be ditched with Gran Turismo 5.
What made Gran Turismo 5 so bad?
With Gran Turismo 5 the series made a huge leap backwards. Well, not really backwards since that would have meant it was at least as fun as Gran Turismo 1. But it was a lot worse.
More Tracks, yeah. More cars, yeah. More game modes, yeah. Online Multiplayer, yeah. But the good old Gran Turismo mode wasn’t exactly what it’s supposed to be anymore.
Not only became it even easier to earn money, it wasn’t about racing anymore either. In every single race you started in one of the last places and in most races there was a rolling start, which makes starting in the back of the field even more of a penalty.
So you started around 25 seconds behind the first car, and races usually being two to five laps long means you had to gain five to 15 seconds each lap. That’s not racing, that’s just time trial with rolling chicanes. Racing should be about equally skilled drivers in equally capable cars, but it’s impossible to win or just enjoy an equal race as long as you start way behind the first one car.
In Gran Turismo 2, 3 and 4 you started in last place as well, but those were standing starts, which means your disadvantage wasn’t that bad and you could gain some precious seconds right at the beginning with skillful acceleration.
Because of this Gran Turismo 5 began to feel tedious at some point. You start in the back and rush to the front within some laps. Every single time. In one race you could only drive japanese cars and in the other only cars with four-wheel-drive—what an exciting variety of time trials with rolling chicanes. Not.
Is Gran Turismo 6 any better?
Yes, Gran Turismo 6 is indeed a lot better than Gran Turismo 5.
The new physics are a pleasure, you finally have the impression of driving a real car. Hitting the exact braking point, gently yet firmly squeezing the brake while shifting down the entire gearbox within seconds, feeling your suspension being at work while you’re in the turn and getting out of it just within the limit of what your rear tires are capable off—it’s just awesome.
Online Multiplayer got better (it’s now faster to get into a race). And I really like the Senna Challenges and it’s cars. Vision Gran Turismo is nice and shows how interested the car industry is in the series. Thumbs up.
Gran Turismo mode? Same as Gran Turismo 5, just a bit worse.
In Gran Turismo 5 you could grind races for experience points to unlock further races. This really motivated me to do endurance races over and over again (even though that B-Spec mode was gone). But now you just get three stars maximum per race. Boring.
Getting money is even easier now. I bought a Ferrari 512 BB after like three hours. After three hours in Gran Turismo 1 you could either buy an used RX7 or a turbo charger for your current car to make it more powerful— both things are way more rewarding than just making it rain at a virtual Ferrari dealer. Buying a Ferrari should be something you’re excited about and look forward to, not just something you do because you can. Even in a game.
I get that some people see Gran Turismo as some kind of Pokémon with cars—gotta catch ’em all—but you could at least provide some kind of hard mode for people who like a good challenge.
And endurance races? They’re gone. 24 minutes of Nordschleife is the longest race in the game. I mean come on, at least give us races which are about an hour or two! People didn’t do those 24 hour races anyway? Well, bring back the possibility to let your B-Spec driver take over during the race.
I just used the term race. Of course there are no real races in Gran Turismo 6, again. Same thing as in Gran Turismo 5—you start in the back of the field and need to be way faster than the AI to win.
But it’s the real driving simulator, not the real racing simulator!
Fair enough. I don’t like it, but yes, that’s a valid argument for Gran Turismo 5 and 6’s races to be no real races. But at least be honest about it, Polyphony, and make Gran Turismo “just” a driving simulator then.
Give us free roads with traffic, interesting and challenging driving missions, beautiful sceneries to take photos of our cars, special events like that moon thing and special events like the Senna challenges. Virtual track days would be awesome as well. But don’t embarrass yourself and act like this is still a racing game!
I would play a game which is just about driving and not racing, as long as the cars feel as good as they do in Gran Turismo 6. I just don’t want to do the same thing over and over again (start in the back, rush to the front).
Celebrate and glorify cars all you want to, I’m fine with that. If racing has no place in this glorification, so be it, just be honest about it.
Thank you for reading.
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