Gran Turismo Sport First Impressions/Review From A Neophyte
Gran Turismo Sport has been getting a lot of backlash. Some of it is warranted, and some of it is not. The ones doing the backlashing are probably hardcore Gran Turismo fans who are disappointed that it isn't like the other games in the series. Fortunately, I am not one of those people.
The only other Gran Turismo game I owned was the original back on the PlayStation. I played it for a little bit, but I stopped because I couldn't get the A-International license. I achieved my dream of getting a Mitsubishi Eclipse, drove it around a little, but the gameplay wasn't very fun, so I quit. The game had 140 cars, and back then, it seemed like an unfathomably large amount. Ever since then, Polyphony Digital has been upping the car-count from game to game, and other developers like Turn 10 Studios with their Forza-games have been copying them. Would Forza exist without Gran Turismo? No. My point is, "Don't knock the original innovators for not doing the same thing they've always been doing."
It's unfair to Polyphony Digital to want them to make the same game over and over again but with more cars and better graphics. That's a lot of work, and sucks the creativity out of them. Creative people do not want to make the same thing over and over again.
As a person that wasn't into the whole sim-racing genre, what did I want from Gran Turismo Sport? I wanted great graphics, believable physics, a good variety of cars and tracks, and things to do by myself. Did they deliver? Absolutely. I am playing on PS4 Pro, and the graphics are amazing. When I look at videos of other games, like Forza, GT Sport looks a tiny bit more believable. The cars seem to float on the track a bit more in Forza, while they seem to more realistically grip the track in GT Sport.
Many other reviews have said that GT Sport's physics are not as good as some other sims, but I can't tell. I don't need to line up all the games and compare their physics like it's a competition. If a game is fun, that is all that matters to me.
A lot of consumeristic, capitalistic people are angry that GT Sport only has 100-something cars before even thinking. The cars in GT Sport are mostly all really cool and I would like to drive most of them, whereas Gran Turismo 6 had over a thousand, including ugly, dinky cars that you would not want to drive in. The original Gran Turismo had a similar number of cars as GT Sport, and that's good enough for me. The number of tracks is also good enough for me. A lot of this may seem like "damage-control," but it's not. It's called being an appreciative person, versus complaining about everything all the time. Complaining incessantly is immature and a waste of energy.
I never played the single-player modes of the other Gran Turismos, except for the first Gran Turismo, and so I found the single-player offering on GT Sport to be adequate. The "Campaign," as they call it, consists of Driving School, Missions, and Challenges. The point of the campaign, this time, isn't to collect cars, or to tune-up one car to the max - it is to teach you how to be better at the game, and racing in general; it succeeds in its mission. It's a little too straightforward and dry, but if you like having things to do and accomplish, the Campaign has plenty, especially if you want to get Gold medals on everything.
The biggest flaw of GT Sport, is that "progress," is saved on the servers, and not locally on your PS4. Even if you never race other people online, all your progress is stored server-side, and this is really unfortunate and seems unnecessary. The only thing you can play offline is Arcade Mode, which encompasses more things than its name might portend. You can play in a Single Race, and earn check-marks for beating the AI on each track on three difficulties. You can participate in Drift Trials by yourself, racking up points by drifting on corners; this is kind of fun. You can participate in Time Trials, which is actually something I find addictive and can do for long periods at a time. The best thing in Arcade Mode, in my opinion, is Custom Race. As the name portends, you can create a custom race utilizing a bunch of options; this will probably be my go-to mode after I am completely done with Campaign Mode. Finally, there is VR, which is only possible 1v1 against the computer. I might get PSVR next year.
I did my research before I got GT Sport. I knew that its focus was online racing, but I knew that it also had an adequate single-player component. For those reasons, I'm not disappointed with the overall package. I did not know, however, that all progress was saved online. Sometimes, the servers can't be reached, and so I don't really do anything. I could jump into Arcade Mode, but if nothing I do in Arcade Mode is saved, what's the point?
I purchased GT Sport with the Thrustmaster T-GT wheel in mind. I knew that the match would be made in heaven, and it is. From a pure gameplay-and-immersion standpoint, GT Sport is top-notch. I really feel like I'm driving a car in real life.
There have been small updates to the game, but nothing major. Nothing is confirmed, but Kazunori Yamauchi did say that all DLC would be free. We could be getting free cars and tracks, months and even years down the line. If that's true, then the future for GT Sport is bright indeed.
The only other Gran Turismo game I owned was the original back on the PlayStation. I played it for a little bit, but I stopped because I couldn't get the A-International license. I achieved my dream of getting a Mitsubishi Eclipse, drove it around a little, but the gameplay wasn't very fun, so I quit. The game had 140 cars, and back then, it seemed like an unfathomably large amount. Ever since then, Polyphony Digital has been upping the car-count from game to game, and other developers like Turn 10 Studios with their Forza-games have been copying them. Would Forza exist without Gran Turismo? No. My point is, "Don't knock the original innovators for not doing the same thing they've always been doing."
It's unfair to Polyphony Digital to want them to make the same game over and over again but with more cars and better graphics. That's a lot of work, and sucks the creativity out of them. Creative people do not want to make the same thing over and over again.
As a person that wasn't into the whole sim-racing genre, what did I want from Gran Turismo Sport? I wanted great graphics, believable physics, a good variety of cars and tracks, and things to do by myself. Did they deliver? Absolutely. I am playing on PS4 Pro, and the graphics are amazing. When I look at videos of other games, like Forza, GT Sport looks a tiny bit more believable. The cars seem to float on the track a bit more in Forza, while they seem to more realistically grip the track in GT Sport.
Many other reviews have said that GT Sport's physics are not as good as some other sims, but I can't tell. I don't need to line up all the games and compare their physics like it's a competition. If a game is fun, that is all that matters to me.
A lot of consumeristic, capitalistic people are angry that GT Sport only has 100-something cars before even thinking. The cars in GT Sport are mostly all really cool and I would like to drive most of them, whereas Gran Turismo 6 had over a thousand, including ugly, dinky cars that you would not want to drive in. The original Gran Turismo had a similar number of cars as GT Sport, and that's good enough for me. The number of tracks is also good enough for me. A lot of this may seem like "damage-control," but it's not. It's called being an appreciative person, versus complaining about everything all the time. Complaining incessantly is immature and a waste of energy.
I never played the single-player modes of the other Gran Turismos, except for the first Gran Turismo, and so I found the single-player offering on GT Sport to be adequate. The "Campaign," as they call it, consists of Driving School, Missions, and Challenges. The point of the campaign, this time, isn't to collect cars, or to tune-up one car to the max - it is to teach you how to be better at the game, and racing in general; it succeeds in its mission. It's a little too straightforward and dry, but if you like having things to do and accomplish, the Campaign has plenty, especially if you want to get Gold medals on everything.
The biggest flaw of GT Sport, is that "progress," is saved on the servers, and not locally on your PS4. Even if you never race other people online, all your progress is stored server-side, and this is really unfortunate and seems unnecessary. The only thing you can play offline is Arcade Mode, which encompasses more things than its name might portend. You can play in a Single Race, and earn check-marks for beating the AI on each track on three difficulties. You can participate in Drift Trials by yourself, racking up points by drifting on corners; this is kind of fun. You can participate in Time Trials, which is actually something I find addictive and can do for long periods at a time. The best thing in Arcade Mode, in my opinion, is Custom Race. As the name portends, you can create a custom race utilizing a bunch of options; this will probably be my go-to mode after I am completely done with Campaign Mode. Finally, there is VR, which is only possible 1v1 against the computer. I might get PSVR next year.
I did my research before I got GT Sport. I knew that its focus was online racing, but I knew that it also had an adequate single-player component. For those reasons, I'm not disappointed with the overall package. I did not know, however, that all progress was saved online. Sometimes, the servers can't be reached, and so I don't really do anything. I could jump into Arcade Mode, but if nothing I do in Arcade Mode is saved, what's the point?
I purchased GT Sport with the Thrustmaster T-GT wheel in mind. I knew that the match would be made in heaven, and it is. From a pure gameplay-and-immersion standpoint, GT Sport is top-notch. I really feel like I'm driving a car in real life.
There have been small updates to the game, but nothing major. Nothing is confirmed, but Kazunori Yamauchi did say that all DLC would be free. We could be getting free cars and tracks, months and even years down the line. If that's true, then the future for GT Sport is bright indeed.
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