Update 1.40 doesn't necessarily fix the flaws of GT7 in my opinion, but I don't believe that the biggest flaws of GT7 can be reasonably addressed via updates. Some of the most glaring issues, like the atrocious mockery of a career mode and even worse AI opponents come to mind.
But, as an update to a flawed game, 1.40 was really, really good in my opinion. The 7 cars that were added shows that PD isn't as oblivious to community wishes as they can often appear, and it's a genuinely good variety that should please almost everyone. I think the only way the selection could've been better is if a racecar was included as well, but I have no complaints.
After 8 months of not having any new tracks, seeing Lake Louise, a
snow track of all things, be added was a
huge surprise and a relief. The scenery is a little barren, much like the vast majority of tracks in the PS4 era of GT games, but there are moments when it looks really pleasant. I would've loved to see snow falling though, and till now I can't quite work out how the dirt and snow physics of GT7 work, or what they want from me. For now, I'm just happy to finally have a new track, and a gorgeous one at that.
The feature that I enjoyed the most is the unlocking of shutter speeds in race replays. I've always wondered about that seemingly arbitrary limitation, but now that I can see how unwieldy it is with so many moving parts on a track, along with some ludicrously long rendering times, I can start to see why it was locked away from players for so long. I've never seen shutter speeds affect the lighting and colour in a photo in GT7 until I dip below 1/60 shutter speed, and to be frank, it's annoying to have to wait minutes on a PS5 for a photo to render, only to find that it's screwed with the colours in the shot. But, some of the community has already showcased some spectacular photos that are possible with these settings, and I always welcome having more options in a sandbox.
The feature I didn't expect to enjoy, but wound up having a tremendous amount of fun with, was the Master Licence tests. At first, I thought, "why would they add more licence tests when the game doesn't even require all of the regular licences?" Plus, at this point, 18 months after the launch of the game, there isn't any prize that can be given to long term players that they don't already have. Still, having a legendary car with a fresh odometer is something I weirdly appreciate, and I think it would've been neat if these 0 mileage legendary cars can be sold for a higher price than their asking price in the Legendary Car Dealer, which would serve as a great reward for players who already have the car prior. That said, it was really weird that 2 of the 5 prize cars are cars that can be readily purchased from Brand Central. It was a real missed opportunity for PD to give away the Nismo 400R for achieving all gold in the National B licence too, mimicking GT1.
When I entered Super National B, I was really surprised to be told by Sasaki–san that these Super Licence tests would be a challenge to clear even for the fastest players in the game. In test SB2, the start stop test in the wet with the Viper, he even says something to the effect of, "players who usually turn off TCS for faster lap times might want to consider turning it back on here." It was such a breath of fresh air to hear something actually useful or relevant coming from these talking heads in GT7 instead of something completely generic and utterly useless. For the first time, I felt like a character in GT7 was talking
to me directly. It's just SUCH a shame that these poignant speeches aren't continued by anyone else in the game, even in the rest of Super Licences. If removed from the game, many of these lines can be applied to any number of licence tests, like "make sure you use the full width of the track" and "don't overspeed into the corner." Yeah, I've beaten the regular licences, I think I know all that.
I also feel that the Super Licences is a missed opportunity for these GTWS competitors to drive the demo runs for these tests and offer narration for them; it would've been mind blowing stuff to see Mik Hizal's 1:37.925 lap around Lake Louise for example, almost
4 seconds under the gold time requirement. Seeing Super GT's narrated
video guides on these Super Licence tests really highlights how lacking the ones offered in–game are. If I'm not mistaken, previous GT games haven't shied away from including narration in the game, be it
narrating the car descriptions, having Jay Leno guide players through Challenge Modes in GT PSP, or having Tom Brooks tell us what Sportsmanship is in GT Sport. It just seems so strange to me that GT7 insists on featuring these GTWS competitors so prominently in the game, and yet have almost none of their personality or involvement show within the game!
But the reason why I love the Super Licence tests so much is because they give players a chance and reason to drive so much of the game's underutilised road cars. I'm a regular player who plays on a T300RS wheel, who peaked at a high A rating in Sport Mode back in 2018, and for someone like me, the difficulty of these licence tests are
SPOT. ON. I usually have to try about 3 or 4 times to achieve a gold timing, to really learn a car's tendencies and how to treat it to get the most of it. In other words, I have to try really hard to achieve gold, but it never got to a point where these tests become frustrating. I would really love to ask the staff at PD how they decide on the target times for these licence tests, and who they gear them towards.
These Super Licence tests have shown me my preferred way to play GT7; I like having several bite sized challenges I can attempt at my own pace, and I like receiving a reward for completing a bunch of them. I wish the rest of the game had more of these mini tasks and rewards! I'm putting off golding my last 2 Master S licences because I'm enjoying them so much, and I don't want it to end so quickly!
The Weekly Challenges may seem to fit that bill in theory, but in practice, I find them incredibly frustrating because it forces me to engage with the god–awful AI. It's a horrendous tonal whiplash going from Master Licences, where I'm tasked to drive my best, going to sharing a track with brain dead AI hogging the racing line 20km/h below the speeds I'm doing. It reminds me of why I despise the core racing experience of GT7, and why I refuse to engage with newly added Menu Books and events. As I said previously, there is nothing PD can offer me that I don't already have, and so if the challenge isn't fun, I'm just not going to bother.
With this in mind, I was hoping that Sophy AI would give me a better racing experience. I took my bone stock Spirit R RX-7 to Suzuka to race, and was disappointed to find out that the race was only 3 laps with a widespread rolling start, meaning that, instead of treating each Sophy car as an opponent to battle throughout the race, I would have to dispose of them in rapid succession as quickly as possible. I have no idea why they decided on this awful race format to showcase their darling new AI. The Sophy cars do seem to have some sort of invisible slowdown applied to them, as I effortlessly sailed by cars that I know ought to be close in performance to my FD,
having raced real players driving those cars before.
What really aggravated me however, was that, from what I can see, Sophy AI really doesn't appear any more aware than the regular AI, sometimes even doing weird things, like staying in–line behind each other on a straight, braking if necessary. I was pit maneuvered by an M2 coming out of Suzuka's hairpin, and then squeezed out wide into the gravel by a Clio into the braking zone of Casio Triangle. In spite of all this, and the fact that I was on downgraded Comfort Soft tyres, I still finished 2nd behind the lead Evo X that started on pole. Granted, the AI seems more willing to race me, even after I've passed them, and they do try to take advantage of my mistakes, but overall, I came away thoroughly unimpressed. If this is the AI that PD has been working on for years since the GT Sport days, I'd say they've completely wasted their time, because to an average end user like me, there is functionally little to no difference to me when I race the regular AI vs. when I race Sophy AI: both are slow and dangerous to be around, and I can't have a proper duel with any of them.
Lastly, there are very welcome "Chilli Pepper Races", which are a community favourite for good reason. Despite using regular AI, these races are super interesting just because of how different they are. I'm so glad to have one on Mount Panorama, my favourite track in the game. The one at Route X with a stock Veyron was a nail biter I won by 0.004 seconds! The one at Red Bull Ring starts the player on pole, and tasks them to defend for the entirety of the race. It was such a breath of fresh air! To borrow a quote from Roflwaffle, "
It almost feels like there's one developer within Polyphony rallying against the decisions being made, and these Chilli Pepper races are their one outlet to express that." These races are so good that it's a wonder why the rest of the game can't be in this format. I would even go as far as to argue that any event that isn't Chilli Pepper is completely irrelevant and a waste of time. Now if only we can get competitive Sophy AI at these Chilli Pepper races, where Sophy can strut their stuff!
Overall, despite the fact that many of its individual additions not amounting to being much of a game changer, Spec II is just a "feel good" update to have, especially with context of how disastrous the FM Reboot launch was. The fact that PD are letting us enjoy the Custom Race exploit for so long doesn't hurt, either
