Are the original tracks still relevant?

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GTP_Cr1mson
With the addition of world famous tracks like Monza, Nurburgring GP and Suzuka to the Gran Turismo franchise, are the original tracks still relevant? Is there any point in them still being in the game?

All but two of the original tracks in GT5 were in GT1. It makes sense that those tracks would have been designed with the PlayStation's capabilities in mind - meaning that they are not necessarily ultra-realistic courses. Are they still worthwhile compared to the real world circuits?
 
Tokyo is by far my favorite course, has been since gt3. Lots of high speed high precision corners that I love taking all my favorite cars around. Real world courses are always nice, but that does not make them in any way superior in my eyes, that said my second and third favorite courses are Monaco and Laguna Seca.

I want some more of the older ones back again, Seattle, Apricot Hill, Midfield are on the top of my wish list.
 
R246 is my favourite course in the X1 to be honest. It should have a place in GT5. High Speed Ring also cos of its history throughout the series. I miss Red Rock Valley big time.
 
If they had ALL been replaced with great real world tracks, then I could probably say no, it doesn't matter. But with only a few new tracks, the old ones need to be in bigtime...

In fact, for a racing franchise this storied, any newer version of the game really needs to have ALL the old tracks and cars included. It's not fair to make us keep old consoles lingering around the TV just to play some of our favorites. With Blu-Ray data sizes being so big, those old tracks can't add THAT much data (especially if not upscaled major), can they? Or have a second disk with them available...
 
Perhaps the better question is, does anyone want fewer places they can drive?

I'm not advocating that Polyphony sacrifice real-world tracks in order to spend more time on fictional tracks -- but they obviously don't need to do any travelling, research, or laser-scanning to put together something out of their imaginations. Not to mention one track modelling team could be in Europe, taking photos and notes, while another sits back in Tokyo coming up with the next Midfield.

I, for one, would like to see more fictional street/road tracks based on real locations; GT4 had a fair amount of these, and GT5 is a bit lacking by comparison. I'll always prefer wavy roadcourses with elevation changes and turns too intermingled to distinguish or count (similar to the Nürburgring). Modern tracks built for safety, with significant straightaways and choppy, cleanly-delineated corners just aren't interesting to me. All that time spent accelerating down straightaways is a waste, and the corners are over too quickly, not to mention only offering a small set of "acceptable" lines.
 
I agree. Especially now that the game is on the hard drive. Make all the old tracks DLC.

Destinkeys
If they had ALL been replaced with great real world tracks, then I could probably say no, it doesn't matter. But with only a few new tracks, the old ones need to be in bigtime...

In fact, for a racing franchise this storied, any newer version of the game really needs to have ALL the old tracks and cars included. It's not fair to make us keep old consoles lingering around the TV just to play some of our favorites. With Blu-Ray data sizes being so big, those old tracks can't add THAT much data (especially if not upscaled major), can they? Or have a second disk with them available...
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Who says a realistic track is the most fun? There's plenty of race tracks in reality that aren't anywhere near as good as something like trial mountain. Not every real life track can be a nurburgring or a suzuka.
 
No problem with the original tracks. I do have a problem, however, with the relative lack of real tracks. Fuji, Suzuka, Monza, 'Ring, Le Mans, Daytona, Laguna Seca, Tsukuba and Indy with variants of some of them. 21 real tracks all together. When I play Forza I'm astounded by the track variety - a dozen+ different real track locations and a ton of variations (e.g., Tuskuba short and long, 3 Suzuka courses). Aside from the cars, there's little variety in GT5.
 
Still relevant?

YES!

Places like High Speed Ring, Trial Mountain, etc. and others that did not make the jump are some of my favourite places to race! It's history, classical tradition, GT canon, etc. GT would be worse off without them!
 
Good tracks are good tracks regardless of whatever came after.
 
I generally prefer the PD original courses to the real tracks.

I do like Nurburgring North Loop, Suzuka, Laguna Seca and...well, that's about it.
I DESPISE the Nurburging GP circuit, the road courses at Indy and Daytona, and Fuji.
The others I could take or leave.

Trial Mountain, Deep Forest, Grand Valley, Cape Ring, and Autumn Ring are all vastly more fun than most of the "real" tracks in the game...and let's not forget the originals that were left out of this one: Grindlewald, Tahiti Road, Red Rock, Apricot Hill, SSR11 to name a few. All have much more character, feel more lively, and aren't as boring and methodical to drive.
 
I somewhat prefer the original tracks to many of the real world ones. There would not be a track out there that can be raced on that's anything like the Eiger, SSR5 or Trial Mountain. Regulations wouldn't allow them, because governing bodies only care for safety. This is a game, we don't need safety!
 
GTR3mh
I somewhat prefer the original tracks to many of the real world ones. There would not be a track out there that can be raced on that's anything like the Eiger, SSR5 or Trial Mountain. Regulations wouldn't allow them, because governing bodies only care for safety. This is a game, we don't need safety!
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u think high speed ring would work in the real world?
 
The original courses are some of the best I feel. Sure its great to race around Nurburgring and La Sarthe, but modern safety standards take away from some of these tracks, turning what was once beautiful scenery into tarmac run offs and supremely fast and exciting corners into speed taming chicanes.

A good mixture of both I find is the best. I would love more real world tracks just as much as I would love to see more original tracks, and some old favorites return, Red Rock Valley, Grindelwald etc. What I think a game like GT5 can bring to the table is a return to the old variations of circuits. Hockenheim for example, both the new and the old circuits would be awesome to race around. Current Spa-Francorchamps and the vintage track before it became what it is today.
 
My opinion on this is simple. Say you drop Monaco, Fuji, Suzuka and Monza and can have a handful, if not all of the original tracks that have been left out, it'd be a resounding yes. The original tracks make GT different to any other racer. I don't even want to count the amount of different games I can run a few laps round Monza on, I can only run High Speed Ring on one franchise. It's a shame they dropped tracks as the newer games came out as some of them were wrong decisions are dearly missed. Even imports of the tracks, with minor graphical tweaks would've been enough to please me.
 
They are definitely still relevant, as I think someone pointed out further up the page, a real track doesn't always make a good track. Take Monza for example, in my opinion it's an extremely boring track to race on with too many high speed straights and not enough corners (it's even worse without the first chicane). The GT series needs to be original in some aspects, how many racing games can you race at Suzuka, Nurburgring, Laguna Seca etc? Trial Mountain, Grand Valley and the other 'made up' tracks can only be raced on in GT and most are decent tracks and I'll buy the ones that were excluded without thinking if they become available as DLC.
 
To many memories on these old tracks to let go of them... every time I run them I'm reminded of an old license test or something... But it would be cool if they updated them to have bumpier surfaces...

RW tracks are licensed and not all "good" considering what it costs to built a real track these days... The fantasy tracks really dial up the challenges that might not be legal on tracks these days... like double switchbacks and banked corners with 12 foot tall rocks on either side...

I wonder what would have happened had history been different and they changed courses for safety instead of slowing down the machines? We would have 20 foot think water barriers and a mote around them haha...
 
Destinkeys
If they had ALL been replaced with great real world tracks, then I could probably say no, it doesn't matter. But with only a few new tracks, the old ones need to be in bigtime...

In fact, for a racing franchise this storied, any newer version of the game really needs to have ALL the old tracks and cars included. It's not fair to make us keep old consoles lingering around the TV just to play some of our favorites. With Blu-Ray data sizes being so big, those old tracks can't add THAT much data (especially if not upscaled major), can they? Or have a second disk with them available...
Click to expand...

I second that. I'd be more forgiving with the excluded originals if real tracks replaced them. Then you can make money from DLC on them. But like mentioned, with the size of a blu ray disk, there is not reason why we can't have both original and new tracks. It is inexcusable to not have originals shipped with GT5. It is unfair to included them as DLC that we'd have to pay for. I'd pay for them of coarse but it ain't right. You can't decrease the amount of tracks from an older game, go to a new version and take awake something that is a major necessity. I got into GT for the track/event abundance.

Ya Pops
Good tracks are good tracks regardless of whatever came after.
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I can't express this enough.
 
Frick midfield was the best!! It was my test track for everything! Fast laps. I used to run 5 or 6 with every new car i got to find out what was fast. It was my test track for sure.

I would love to have it back!
 
I never grow tired of Grand Valley Speedway.
 
JuniorMessi
My opinion on this is simple. Say you drop Monaco, Fuji, Suzuka and Monza and can have a handful, if not all of the original tracks that have been left out, it'd be a resounding yes. The original tracks make GT different to any other racer. I don't even want to count the amount of different games I can run a few laps round Monza on, I can only run High Speed Ring on one franchise. It's a shame they dropped tracks as the newer games came out as some of them were wrong decisions are dearly missed. Even imports of the tracks, with minor graphical tweaks would've been enough to please me.
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Actually, because of modders, you can drive High Speed Ring in rFactor. It's also fairly accurate. Not exactly like GT5's, but it's a good recreation.
 
Fantasy tracks are something Gran Turismo has done very well. Fantasy tracks don't have to pander to safety regulations, practical considerations (how to get recovery cranes and ambulances in) or even common sense.

Gran Turismo's fantasy tracks have always seemed to be to be designed purely for fun. Very few "real world" race tracks approach the level of "flow" that the fantasy tracks have. The Nurburgring is one of them, Suzuka and Infineon are two others... yet those tracks are the exception rather than the norm.

I very rarely find myself opening up Suzuka, Tsukuba or Le Sarthe for a spin. They're fun in powerful and grippy racecars... but only in powerful and grippy racecars. They're too long and wide to give you a decent challenge in at least half of GT5's 1000 cars. But circuits like Deep Forest and Trial Mountain just work, whatever car you're using.

I think Wolfe nailed it: Who doesn't want more tracks to drive on? The issue is, whether those tracks are interesting enough for people to want to drive on them. By and large, GT's batting average in fantasy track design is very, very good.
 
I like them all except Cape Ring. Real tracks don't have massive jumps. Grand Valley would make a great real life track.
 
Acheron79
R246 is my favourite course in the X1 to be honest. It should have a place in GT5. High Speed Ring also cos of its history throughout the series. I miss Red Rock Valley big time.
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Me too. I miss Red Rock too. It's amazing it only appeared in GT2, and never got to see higher definition consoles.

I think the original tracks are still relevant. I still like 'em, and they're part of what Gran Turismo is all about.

If you want games with all real-world tracks, there's always ToCA or a dozen other games to get involved with.
 
I love the fantasy tracks. Red Rock, Midfield and the GT1 SSR11 were my favorites. I used love the cross over (or whatever you want to call it) in SSR11. I like the real world ones too but like someone else said the fantasy ones are what makes GT.
 
The original tracks allow us to drive on tracks that may not be possible in real life for various reasons. These tracks might be too dangerous for real life (like seattle and it's urban hills), or might be located in areas that are not practical for racing, giving unique environments. Yes, they are still relevant.
 
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