So I decided to bite and grab a copy of Gran Turismo Sport. It was only like 6$ so I said “why not”.
I want to preface the comment with that I strongly disagree with the direction Polyphony took this game in, specifically turning it into a Live Service - meaning you get free updates with new tracks and cars, it’s alwas-online, and heavily focuses on multiplayer
I’ll try to be shorter than usual, so here goes:
- Graphically, the game is alright. Environments are still meh, but the cars look best they ever did. Night racing looks amazing
- Menus are much better here than in previous titles. There’s very few clutter, menu items are big, and you can use your leff stick to navigate the cursor like a mouse. Not exactly the most precise method but it works
- If you fancy single player, there’s now Arcade Mode (single race, time trial, drift trial, local split screen), Driving School (with 48 lessons total), Mission Challenge (8 stages with 8 missions each), Circuit Experience (learning every track in the game corner by corner), and GT League (which is basically classic races vs CPU in various themes, spread across 4 tiers, each unlocks every 10 driver levels)
- Music is phenomenal as usual, I very much love the menu tunes and the race tunes here are pretty nice too. You can even toggle menu music from past gt games so that’s just awesome
- New currency/system is called Mileage Points. You earn these just by playing the game, and you can use them to buy unique cars or customization parts, and upgrade cars themselves (though IMO it’s unnecessary and is a waste unlike previous titles). Unfortunatley customization is basically limited to Wheels, so you can’t install spoilers and such like GT4 for example
- Most customization here comes from a Livery Editor. Yes, there is now actually a Livery Editor in the game, and from what I’ve seen - it’s quite extensive, folks are out there recreating real life liveries from actual racing vehicles like F1 or LMPs. Cars is not the only thing you can make liveries for - Racing Suit and Helmet also can be customized that way, so that’s very cool that you can give yourself some more personality
- As new updates are delivered for free, there is obviously monetization to go alongside. Thankfully there are no lootboxes and shit, so the only form of microtransactions is buying cars directly if you don’t wish to grind Credits (and you might want to considering there are cars that cost 20 million). Cars vary from 1$ to 5$ a piece. Could be worse honestly
- On topic of cars, the game is HELLA generous with them. I currently own 39, and only like 5 of those were purchased manually, the rest are all gifts, and I still have things to complete which will reward me with even more cars. There is also a Daily Workout system which basically just tasks you to drive a certain distance, doesn’t matter where or how. Once you meet the Workout’s target - you can earn a free car. Sometimes you’ll get dupes, but theoretically you can obtain the whole carpack in less than a year of daily playing, which is fucking awesome if you ask me
- In addition to traditional user-made lobbies, there is now a Sport mode, which is where the main game’s focus is. The Sport mode includes specifically curated online races and time trials, which are being held on specific tracks and allow only specific cars to be used, based on the Category. Categories include Group X (high end prototypes and retro vehicles), Group 1 (which are LMP cars used in Le Mans races), Group 2 (japanese touring cars), Group 3 (general racing cars and touring cars), Group 4 (basically same as Group 3 but a bit weaker), Group B (rally cars), and Group NX (where X is the horsepower range, so there are subgroups ranging from N100 to N1000).
- In addition to Daily Races (which aren’t really daily but more like weekly races) and Time Trials, there are Championships. Championships are official legit races being held online, are divided into Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series. Since GTS partnered with FIA, these races are not only heavily regulated, but they are also used to pick best drivers for the World Tour, Gran Turismo’s own eSports league. iirc PD held one full season, with second one being in progress as we speak. Last league’s winner went onto real life racing in junior series for example, which is a cool story. Nations Cup can be entered by anybody, but for Manufacturer Series you have to “sign a contract” with any of the manufacturers represented in the game, and those lend you two cars for one season - a Group 3 car and a Group 4 car, so you don’t have to go out of your way and acquire specific cars. Once you sign - you can’t change out, so make sure you make a good decision
Also, after the most recent update - game size went to 100GB. Half of that were patches released since game’s launch. I guess this explains why PD is doing a Spec II rerelease of Sport (which should be available now), as that is selling you a pre-patched digital/retail version with every update up to May 2019 out of the box
…so it could not be killed and it constantly projected the invincible shield on the other enemy. Fortunately I was Fahz and I had my ultimate (“XRAY” lets you see and shoot thru solid objects) ready…and sure enough it worked; I was able to shoot the robot thru the ground, then we killed the other one…ha, without Fahz that would’ve been an impossible situation since all enemies need to die before you can go further.
What’s that guy’s deal anyway? Is he really a cheater or is he good enough that people think he’s cheating?