What did ‘return to form’ mean to you, what did it make you expect GT7 to be?

[Nagaremono]

Many people, myself included, are disappointed with how GT7 has worked out so far. And that’s probably putting it mildly.

When I ask myself why I feel so let down by the game it all comes back to what I was expecting. Having played 3 and 4 to death, skipped 5 and 6, then come back to GTS (when it was already a couple of years old, so in its complete form), I don’t find 7 dreadful; it’s just a real letdown and not at all what I was led to believe it’d be.

It’s those phrases they used to market it: a ‘return to form’ and ‘most complete single-player’, etc.

Wondering what those statements mean to others. Yes, they just PR talk on one level, but they certainly convinced me enough to put in my preorder (digital anniv PS4/5 edition, so does it count as two sales at Sony’s end?)

Their use of ‘return’ I took to mean as 7 having something missing from GTS that was in previous numbered games. To me, that meant the trad ‘start with a cheap car, win races, sell car, buy better car, win more races, rinse and repeat..’ Start small, work your way up rather than GTS’s daily car gift. By ‘most complete’ I took them to mean most tracks, cars, biggest/best campaign/league. (And Super GT stuff, I just expected loads of Super GT cars, tho that’s probably more wishful thinking on my part, so best ignore...)

Were these erroneous or unreasonable assumptions? I concede they were assumptions, but when PD said what they said, what do you reckon they thought we’d think? What did you think?

I genuinely wasn’t even sure it’d have online at all. Thought they’d leave online racing on GTS and maybe bring out an updated GTS2 for PS5 at some point. To me, their statements led me to expect a GREAT single player experience, which sadly, it’s just not. It’s good. It’s Ok for killing a bit of time just driving for a bit, but it isn’t anything like the engrossing, fun game that 3 and 4 were, and I even prefer GTS ‘s singleplayer content tbh; no weather, but there’s just more variety and more to do.

 

[TonyLomas]

For me the main thing that was missing from GT Sport compared to previous titles was the tuning.
The ability to start with a cheap car, win a race a couple of times with it and then throw a turbo on it and win the next race.
Then buy more cars.

I still fondly remember my tuned up Honda Civics and maxed out Mitsubishi GTO.

From that point of view it's delivered. It's still fun to tune up a road car and race GT3 cars. And now it has proper livery design with it too.

 

[Meythia]

I was hoping for some visual leap because PS5, but I dont see much improvement over GTS, admittedly it is good in its own way already, just lacking real polish on things that I just cant unsee.
Also I wished the game had more different brands and I couldnt care for any reason why they are not included.
But those 2 things wont prevent me from having fun on the game, I am enjoying it.

 

[Pizzicato1985]

-A GT3/GT4/GT5-like career mode progression (not a ridiculous "car cafe" lol)

-Improved functionality over Sport when it comes to online features (better lobbies, more accurate penalty system in Sport mode, at least twice the number of weekly races some of which being tuner races)

-Cars from the last 6-8 years that would be in any other car game released in 2022 (C8, all the new BMW gens, 992's, etc, etc)

-At least a dozen new tracks to the series.

-Real race cars, not these made up "Gr. 3" cars, etc

-An economy that is challenging but FUN. I don't mind grinding here and there, but 95% of ones playtime should not be spent grinding and running afk macros to afford the cars. The only real "fun" I've had in GT7 had been tuning a bunch of Porsche's and running them against each other in time trials. If you don't make your own fun in GT7, it just feels like a second job.

-The IB/IA/S class races that have been conspicuously missing since day 1. REAL endurance racing. Standing starts instead of a parade/procession.

-Seasonal events. I thought this was a "live service?!" Where the hell are the events?! Or are the BoP Gazoo cup, et al the seasonal events now? If so, no thanks. I don't do BoP. This was supposed to be a numbered entry, not Sport II...

I could go on but what's the point? None of this will ever happen and it's a horse that's been beaten to the point of dissolution on this forum over the last 3mo. Nothing changes, because PD either cannot or is not willing to make a proper GT experience anymore.

 

[R55NA]

More nostalgia! Remastering a lot more original tracks for us 2 decade long fanboys.

More variations of cars, everyone loves to hate the 30+ Skyline variants, but I would like a few more of each car right now.

Both what I think of when I think of the good old days of GT. Classic tracks, crap ton of cars.

 

[S14a200sx]

Return to form for me would have meant the following.

A daft amount of cars especially jdm but also a return of most of the cars previously featured + more modern models.

A large amount of tracks bassically every track ever featured.

Loads more events with more career progression

 

[Batschisane52]

well that is the Problem...there are too many people out there with too many different expectations...

.)Pizzicato for example would like to see more cars from the last 6-8 years, I want the complete oppsite: When it comes to me, i don't need any car in the game that has been built after 2000...and much much more from 1950-1990
An "Old Tourismo" game with only cars from before 1990(but tons of it) and some old race tracks from the 1960ies to 1980ies would be my perfect game...

.)many people complain, that there are too few races compared to older GT titels, but I couldn't care less about that if PD only improved the custom race creator because no company in the world could create better races for my taste than I myself-but for that the tire problem needs a fixing)now the garage cars only run on their default tires, while all the other settings apply), the payout needs to increase drastically, there should be the possibility for custom championsships

Just to name two topics...

And when it comes to the "return to form"...for me that was just the usual PR-Talk, I didn#t take that serious at any second...

 

[Nagaremono]

And when it comes to the "return to form"...for me that was just the usual PR-Talk, I didn#t take that serious at any second...

Hmm, wise. I think they won’t fool many of us with that kind of vague talk again. Fool me once,...

 

[tiberiusteng]

It's not "return to (GT4) form" when every high tier (or should I say middle tier since races/championships requiring IB/IA/S do not exist at all) races are all PP limited and you race everything detuned to feel the same except for exterior looks and engine sound ... (yeah I may exaggerated a bit)

I'm explicitly NOT looking for a fair competition. I'm NOT playing online. This is NOT GT Sport 1.7.

 

[Cheshyrkat]

The tuning, campaign, and a return to what was in the prev numbered titles. Tuning is back and I like it, however the campaign is not. At first I thought the Cafe stuff was ok but soon realized that it just throws cars at you and while the tuning is there, there is no reason to use it. There is no building a starter up to progress through events as any car you have was only needed for a cafe event(maybe 2) before it's set aside for the next set of events. I am currently replaying 4 and feel like I have used my first 2 cars for dozens of events each with more available. Just building them up for more and more a part and tweak at a time. That isnt here in GT7. The pieces are back but the campaign to utilize it is absent.

I play these games for the campaign, tuning and cars. If I just want spec racing, there are other games available to me that do it better.

edit - completing thought

 

[TonyLomas]

..... if PD only improved the custom race creator because no company in the world could create better races for my taste than I myself-but for that the tire problem needs a fixing)now the garage cars only run on their default tires, while all the other settings apply), the payout needs to increase drastically, there should be the possibility for custom championsships

I fully agree. I love making custom races exactly how I want them. I've wanted this from the first Gran Turismo game. Using the AI to work out which is the best of a group of cars. It's easier to guess with the PP rating nowadays but still great fun.

Making a 60's nostalgia race and then tweaking it to remove the most and least powerful cars. Amazing visual races!

 

[Samus]

Before we got any details I expected another copy paste of GT1-6 with Sport mode from GTS tacked on and other than the slight change of format for single player to cafe mode, making it worse, that is pretty much what we got.

 

[kjb]

I was expecting a return to the campaign mode of the previous titles with the linear CARPG progression. I was expecting some old tracks and cars to return as well.

 

[Voodoovaj]

I am one of the few that didn't think GTSport was a departure from form

I expected some evolution to Sport Mode and Online (meeting places is not it). Something more official that allowed for the use of many of the cars that go unused. GT5/6 really meant that 450-550 pp was all you needed. Outside of that PP range, a car was somewhat pointless. In GTS, the race cars were everything because the N-class hampered balanced online play. So, I figured that they spent the last 5 years thinking about how to get all the cars to be truly useable.

As for the single player, I expected more engagement. A return to multi hour races for unique cars. The GT5 hack was to blame for many of the changes we saw in GT6 and GTS, pushing the game to online only, and seeing that they now have online only control, I expected that they would use that to give exclusivity through difficult events.

I expected a new approach to the single player set up as well, not the same old stale approach.

Let's face it, they had a long time to do very little. They didn't have to make a new rendering engine. They didn't have to create new network code. They didn't even need to create many new cars. They can still pull from PS3 cars because they are up to the same standard. So, given they had so much already done, I really expected that, with the luxury of time, they would knock it out of the park.

I also expected some of the throwback cars like the R33LM (my all time favourite) and even the FTO LM, or just more "LM" cars. I expected some of the old features, like the race mod. I really did expect that one....I mean, with GR3 and GR4 so popular over the last 5 years, I thought they'd give us the ability to mod more race cars. And really, with Widebody, I think that was an idea somewhere in the mix. It's sad they didn't take it all the way.

 

[HyperSpeeder]

A game for normies. GTS wasn't for normies, it was for competitive players at first.

Well, technically it did return to form. You can tune cars and do cool **** with them, like in the old games. Normies don't care about the finer details of the games they play.

I think that, individually, GT7 is a very good game with slow and divisive post-release support. The campaign is shorter, but times have changed. Look at all the top racers today and none have gigantic campaigns with tons of redundant events like the GTs of old.

Contrary to most people I think the endgame is what they need to work on. Campaign is done and dusted. You saw the credits. That was it. What the game needs is Elite Four, Round 2. Battle Frontier. That sort of thing you find in games like Pokémon which also apply to many other games.

 

[Samus]

Look at all the top racers today and none have gigantic campaigns with tons of redundant events like the GTs of old.

Which "top racers" are you referring to exactly? Which have campaigns less than 10 hours?

 

[Voodoovaj]

On a tangent, people say the couldn't tune cars in GTSport....What I missing? I can tune cars. Do you mean in the way it's presented? As in buying parts?

Sorry, Off topic, but I see this a lot.

 

[Nagaremono]

Before we got any details I expected another copy paste of GT1-6 with Sport mode from GTS tacked on and other than the slight change of format for single player to cafe mode, making it worse, that is pretty much what we got.

And I think that’s the very bit that made the old GT games fun for me, it’s what I’d consider their DNA. I think that’s why the cafe (with its gift cars every five minutes making it quite similar to GTS in terms of getting showered with too much too fast) feels like a kick in the shins to people who enjoyed having to make decisions about what to buy next, what to tune, what races to target, etc. They took away our choices. Replacing something that was actually quite realistic, using our own agency, with some totally unrealistic fantasy sugar daddy (at best, a creepy groomer/control freak-type at worst) at the cafe.

 

[Pizzicato1985]

Pizzicato for example would like to see more cars from the last 6-8 years, I want the complete oppsite

Oh, there a vast number of cars from pre 2010 I'd want as well, I just thought that was a given, lol. LFA, Porsche 959, original M1 Pro from BMW, pretty much every TVR ever made, ditto for Lotus, more gens of the Camaro/Mustang, more classic Alfa's, some of the classic muscle cars like the Chevelle, Nova, some of the old AMC's, missing MOPAR's. Even more JDM (I don't mind 30 Skylines or Z cars, lol) More iterations of the 911 (especially some GT2 RS's) some of the small American tuner shops like Calloway and Saleen, Holden. Would love to have all the old GT300/GT500 cars, old Le Mans cars like the Toyota 7, and on and on and on from previous titles.

I'd also really like to see how the C8 Z08 stacks up to newer MR super cars from Ferrari, how the 992 handles in-game, having some road-going Cayman's, see how the "G" gens of the M3/M4 stack up to the previous, having any of the M5's "E's" or "F's", the lower-tier "M" cars that games like PCARS had 5-6 years ago. The dozens of hyper cars from all makers we DON'T have. I love old cars, but I love new cars as well, especially those that are still clinging onto internal-combustion engines.

 

[vasio]

-A GT3/GT4/GT5-like career mode progression (not a ridiculous "car cafe" lol)

-Improved functionality over Sport when it comes to online features (better lobbies, more accurate penalty system in Sport mode, at least twice the number of weekly races some of which being tuner races)

-Cars from the last 6-8 years that would be in any other car game released in 2022 (C8, all the new BMW gens, 992's, etc, etc)

-At least a dozen new tracks to the series.

-Real race cars, not these made up "Gr. 3" cars, etc

-An economy that is challenging but FUN. I don't mind grinding here and there, but 95% of ones playtime should not be spent grinding and running afk macros to afford the cars. The only real "fun" I've had in GT7 had been tuning a bunch of Porsche's and running them against each other in time trials. If you don't make your own fun in GT7, it just feels like a second job.

-The IB/IA/S class races that have been conspicuously missing since day 1. REAL endurance racing. Standing starts instead of a parade/procession.

-Seasonal events. I thought this was a "live service?!" Where the hell are the events?! Or are the BoP Gazoo cup, et al the seasonal events now? If so, no thanks. I don't do BoP. This was supposed to be a numbered entry, not Sport II...

I could go on but what's the point? None of this will ever happen and it's a horse that's been beaten to the point of dissolution on this forum over the last 3mo. Nothing changes, because PD either cannot or is not willing to make a proper GT experience anymore.

This is spot on!

 

[Samus]

On a tangent, people say the couldn't tune cars in GTSport....What I missing? I can tune cars. Do you mean in the way it's presented? As in buying parts?

Sorry, Off topic, but I see this a lot.

Yes, they mean they can't just go and buy individual parts.

 

[Raceface1959]

I'd hoped for a return to the career system that was in GT3 and a complete, start to finish, "beatable" game. A modern looking hybrid of GT3 and 4. A "greatest hits" of every one of the most popular former tracks. Modern wheel support and an online component. I was very happy to see the wheel of misfortune, but was disappointed once I realized that most of the time, the prize was predetermined. When I first fired it up and saw the GT4-like main area and GT Auto and the tuning shop with actual parts to install, I swear I cried tears of joy like a schoolgirl. They'd ACTUALLY gone and done it. Polyphony were gods. This was the new king of car games. Then I started nosing around the map and saw the usual license center and discovered the cafe (hey that's cool), but then after playing a bit, I noticed that you couldn't use a lot of the cars in many of the given events. I then realised that what we were given would be dependant on a steady stream of updates. And here's where we sit. Waiting for the steady stream of updates. I like GT7 but I'm glad that GT7 isn't the only car game that I own.

 

[JMR450]

-A GT3/GT4/GT5-like career mode progression (not a ridiculous "car cafe" lol)

-Improved functionality over Sport when it comes to online features (better lobbies, more accurate penalty system in Sport mode, at least twice the number of weekly races some of which being tuner races)

-Cars from the last 6-8 years that would be in any other car game released in 2022 (C8, all the new BMW gens, 992's, etc, etc)

-At least a dozen new tracks to the series.

-Real race cars, not these made up "Gr. 3" cars, etc

-An economy that is challenging but FUN. I don't mind grinding here and there, but 95% of ones playtime should not be spent grinding and running afk macros to afford the cars. The only real "fun" I've had in GT7 had been tuning a bunch of Porsche's and running them against each other in time trials. If you don't make your own fun in GT7, it just feels like a second job.

-The IB/IA/S class races that have been conspicuously missing since day 1. REAL endurance racing. Standing starts instead of a parade/procession.

-Seasonal events. I thought this was a "live service?!" Where the hell are the events?! Or are the BoP Gazoo cup, et al the seasonal events now? If so, no thanks. I don't do BoP. This was supposed to be a numbered entry, not Sport II...

I could go on but what's the point? None of this will ever happen and it's a horse that's been beaten to the point of dissolution on this forum over the last 3mo. Nothing changes, because PD either cannot or is not willing to make a proper GT experience anymore.

I feel the same way and you have explained my thoughts on this post topic perfectly. Well said.

 

[mynameis66]

Different classes of races,for example,Rotary races,skyline races etc.i know its an old example and im really not banging the same old drum but GT2 had manufacturer races as well as special events such as FF,FR mid engines class races,super touring,tuned NA and Turbo.These are the ones i remember but im pretty sure there were more,times move on,i get that but this was touted as the most complete gt game,etc.