Does a bunch of races justify being called a career?

[steiner]

is the "career mode" actualy officially labeled as such?

 

[gnorman]

To be fair PD themselves don't call it a career mode either. It's A-Spec.

Yes they do. in GT5 the equivalent was A-Spec in the GT Life section as it encompassed all the aspects of your GT Life such as B-Spec, Licences, Special Events. GT6 calls it Career and seems to have the whole game as your GT life.

I think the career mode is different thing to the AI problems which is part of the actual racing. Of course if the AI was better every race would be better, but having a better structure around the races and having more of a season make sit more interesting. Fr example if you drive cleanly and are reasonably fast, you get offered a drive higher up. If you are really quick and reckless, maybe not. But those who think it just restricts it are missing the point. If you just want to drive, then the arcade style quick races should be done to allow that fix and not prevent you from what you see as most fun.

Anyone with an iPad or iPhone (and Android too I think), I recommend taking a look at New Star Soccer for what I mean about a career mode. It's free for 10 matches so it won't cost at all.

I think the online aspect is important too, Sony is going social with PS4 and effecting merging Arcade and online, and Career and online will be the way forward. I certainly think that will help with event creators and course creators too, making up a championship, posting it online and letting global players fight through it and getting rewarded through the advancement of their careers.

There is so much detail in GT6, just not where it matters most in my opinion

 

[gnorman]

Well personally I like the career mode ok in GT and it is similar to what i have come to expect from GT.

Forza did the whole calendar thing and I thought it was very lame, did not like it at all. Thought the career mode was much better in Forza 2 which ironically was much like what GT has been doing for quite some time. Forza added leaderboards but did not have the special events that GT normally throws in there

A career mode where you have to move up through the ranks could be interesting, starting in karts or on dirt tracks or whatever and having to obtain sponsors and win races to move into the next tier could be fun, but just adding a calendar system would not do much for me and quite likely make it less appealing

Exactly, and that's my point, its more of the same, it is just OK, not WOW or fantastic.

I've not played any other racing games in the last 10 years beyond Motorstorm and Real Racing 3, but there was a in GT3 or 4 and I think it was the start of a nice idea, could tie in with the social aspect by being a blog, but also form the race structure as a calendar. There are Tennis games in the 80s & 90s that had did the pro tour, golf games that do it even better. The point is these sim games are to get as close to the real experience as possible. GT does the driving pretty well IMO but the career mode doesn't knit the driving together as well as it could.

I see the career mode like watching a film. It may be great, but if you've read the book the film is based on you realise there is so much missing and not developed upon because your imagination has built up so much that is not played out on screen.

 

[stb155]

Career....Meh.

I dont find it very exciting the way its been set up, but in all honesty, its nothing buts a credit creator so i can get he cars i need to run in our racing leagues. For me thats where the game is at, real racers, real point scores, real battles. Once i get through the game just for the sake of "finishing it" i only do online and the seasonals in case there is a particular car i decide i want.

If the race series was 6 or 8 races to a "season", with decent AI and some sort of team feel about it (like grid for example) then it would be much more immersive and i would be more likely to spend a little more time there.

I did the GT500 races last night, i think for the whole "season' it was 25 laps and about 40 mins. Meh !

I hope that is not what PD wants it to be.
Because online is not good enough for that.
If you are not in a league (and not everyone wants that because of scedules, training...) online is pretty bad at the moment*.
So making career online would screw it even more.

I hate that online always gets used as excuse for the awful career, its a completley different thing.

If i look around in the lobby and join random races i often get the impression people only play around because they are bored with the too short career, only very rarely you see proper races online.
And if private rooms/clubs will come it will only get worse, open lobby will be even more arcade crash kids playin cops in road cars on race hard tires.


*No skill or interest based matching, only able to see a few rooms, not possible to sort rooms by anything useful, prize money is a joke.

If you just want to drive, then the arcade style quick races should be done to allow that fix and not prevent you from what you see as most fun.

Arcade has not enough options for that. Only very few cars, not possible to select opponent number/cars, not possible to deaktivate AI slowdown. (when you set difficulty PRO ans agression 10 they still slow down to let you catch up, WTF?)
Not possible to select slipstream/fuel/tire wear.

Arcade is just as half finsihed as the rest of career.

GT does the driving pretty well IMO but the career mode doesn't knit the driving together as well as it could.

The core problem with GT6.
They got the driving very real, if you go online and put everything on normal/real/heavy disable ALL aids and use a stock race car on RH it is more difficult do finish a 30lap race without crashing than do the whole career gold.
Compared tho the difficulty/realism of the actual driving the whole career is kindergarten, 100% arcade and silly easy.

This is why you see lots of threads where grown up GT veterans tell people complaining about broken that and bug there to stfu and learn to drive.
And on the other side you have lots of people that seem to be happy with career bacause they drive every race with low pp compard to AI cars (but tuned and on race softs) that think they are Seb Vettel because the win every race but are finding many cars to difficult to drive.

 

[mister dog]

Seeing that i'm a offline player mostly, i would like racing games in general to have a more thought out career mode with specific little leagues depending on car types, instead of a bunch of separate races thrown together.

And in the latter stages things like a GT3 series, Le mans series, V8 supercar series with longer races (10-20 laps) on real life circuits + a proper endurance mode.

That would be great 👍

 

[The Russian]

maybe they could add events into the leagues via updates, putting them into all licences but u can only do them in licence order, but different to seasonal events

 

[Squanto]

I really do miss the challenging license tests from previous editions, they stripped it down to 5 tests per license ...
Ok 5 'new' missions per license/grade are added. In a way they are refreshing ... there is a new 'çhallenge' in them ... but for us hard core fans ... its just way to easy ....

It needs a "crushing", "veteran" or "die-hard" gamer/racer mode ... maybe even an differentiation between ds3 and wheel users...

Also each license test should have 10 tests plus an exam .... in the GT-psp version was a silly interface for it ... but it has the potential to mature into a good license model. (as seen from GT2/3/4... but has since seen very little of the well needed evolution to a more mature level of licensing)

Then next to the license model it should include a real career model ... in which one can make some mileage ... and really improve driving skills ... and get that measured by keen race tests ...with 6 plus opponents ... maybe even online? (I remember ToCa1 and ToCa2 races which had that feel of a real grid challenge)

Also the addition of some offline accompanying app like the one available for AC4BF ... to earn you some cash ... by letting you use b-spec as it was in GT-home on your mobile .. to raise your credits ...

Next to that maybe a trading/auction place to sell cars/paint etc.

to top that the different challenges including the endurance's ... should return with realistic pit strategy for AI and yourself ... and good entry criteria for those endurance's .. no more RB in LM series please ... or LM series cars in GT3 challenges ... keep it real!

I think all have the same goal ... as PD should have ... enhance gameplay ... and replayability ...

Come on PD & Kaz ... wake up ... and make it happen I know you can!👍



is the best platform to reach them .... I'm convinced they follow this site too ....

 

[GregOr1971]

Could career be better ?
There's always room for improvement , but as it stands it looks good to me. User starts as a rookie , then move to low pp cars (nB,nA), medium pp cars (iB,iA) and finish things with S (endurance). I miss real endurance races and hope they will be added in future but it is clear those 24h races were removed in favour of 24minutes races which suits most of players more than 24h races>anyone remember how many people hated 24h races?

Someone mention FM4 career > I've played FM4 for 3 years (and fm2 and 3 before that) and while there is a big number of events in career I find It boring after a year or so ,when things starts heavily repeating with laping 2 laps in same track just with different car over and over again. No difference from repeating some events in GT with different car.So numbers don't always mean content

 

[MatskiMonk]

Makes you wonder what that "human drama" nonsense was about.

Downloading the updates and having your PS3 rebuild its file system after each attempt!!

 

[gnorman]

Could career be better ?

Of course it could. If you kept the same races, but added a career atmosphere it would be better. It really feels like a bunch of races with a licence at the end.

Difficulty and AI is not the real issue with career mode (though that is a problem with the racing), it is the story that makes a career, the peripheral detail, the role playing aspect to it that makes it a career. I've never used photo mode as it doesn't interest me, but if the career had a sideline that involved taking photos it would be more interesting. For example, having a magazine/newspaper clipping that depicts your photo of a race. Submitting photos to a competition (online even) than other users vote on to find a winner and you get rewards based on that.

Tie in B-spec to endurance racing, form a racing team with your buddies or Bobs and race a season. Form your own team like in GT5 B-spec, but make the Bob's race instructions aspect better as GT5 mucked that up.

There is so much good stuff in GT that can be incorporated to make the career better because at the moment it is a bunch of races, a bunch of sideline features that doesn't knit together to make a cohesive game.

 

[Devil240Z]

people arguing about context. Yet i don't think anyones saying the game couldn't use at least a few more races. The career includes the basic stuff. and doesn't go an extra inch beyond that.

 

[gnorman]

Arcade is just as half finsihed as the rest of career.

Agreed.

Maybe there is room for a 3rd level of immersion to better suit those of us that had hoped for more from career:

1 - Arcade/quick races where everything is available
2 - Career-lite which is similar to what we have now that offers development of their racing world with money and a garage that expands and new races opening up when you complete the current ones
3 - Full on GT Life career mode with the sort of environment discussed, side challenges, character lifestyle development, better financial model.

Maybe 1 is fixed with an update and 3 arrives with B-spec plus course & event creators etc in 2.0.

 

[Squanto]

Personally I see it like this:

1- licenses 60(+) tests ... 6 exams (b-a-ic-ib-ia-s)
2- unlock events by achieving at least 3rd place (like it is now) and get free to play events
3a- career mode ... (the real addition)
-> this should be a set of races like the championships ... but then not max 6 events/races ... but let's say a season of 12 to 18 races.... in which you have to achieve a certain place ... top 6 perhaps? and while you progress ... and become top 3 other events will unlock
3b- missions (were in gt4 too right? ... those are good to incorporate in the career as well ... but need to be more challenging then )

then the nice "on the sides"

4- one make races
5- coffee breaks

 

[dQuim]

It's more of a structured driving experience than a career.

I'd like to see an AI difficulty select option, and rolling starts scrapped in favour of grid starts. This should make the first few tiers a bit more engaging for people of all skill levels.

Also, none of the events in-game are currently labelled as "endurance". I don't think the endurance events from previous games have been dropped, I just think they'll get re-added alongside B-Spec.

 

[GTP_Jonjig]

I hate "career mode", always have done through the Gran turismo series, every game its the same, "do this race on this track with 3 laps, then next difficulty up is same race with 5 laps, then 10 laps, etc..". I can beat them in the first place, so why would I want to repeat it over and over?

Online ( lobby's and seasonals ) is where its at.. Why would you want to race again dumb AI? when you can race against real people? there is not one game I can think of that's better against AI than human, chess, street fighter, fifa, command and conquer, cod....

Your entire Gran Turismo experience should be viewed as your "career mode"

Online is the way all games are going, look at the Call of Duty series, every time a new one comes out, you know the main game will be half arsed and the multiplayer will have had the most attention.

 

[gnorman]

But there is no reason why the career mode can't exist with online opponents. If not enough real people are doing the same race then you get AI opponents. I think this is quite likely given the push towards social on PS4.

Also, don't forget that not everyone has always on connectivity with their PS3 as I've seen said on here over the last few days.

 

[GTP_Jonjig]

Also, don't forget that not everyone has always on connectivity with their PS3 as I've seen said on here over the last few days.

I knew this point would come up

I understand this but, the internet is a lot easier to get access too nowadays and will continue to do so.. wifi will be everywhere soon, your Sky or BT package will follow you everywhere.
I don't make the games, but the people that do are all heading in that direction so it inevitable that offline facilities are going to suffer.

 

[C_Raccoon23]

I hate "career mode", always have done through the Gran turismo series, every game its the same, "do this race on this track with 3 laps, then next difficulty up is same race with 5 laps, then 10 laps, etc..". I can beat them in the first place, so why would I want to repeat it over and over?

Online ( lobby's and seasonals ) is where its at.. Why would you want to race again dumb AI? when you can race against real people? there is not one game I can think of that's better against AI than human, chess, street fighter, fifa, command and conquer, cod....

Your entire Gran Turismo experience should be viewed as your "career mode"

Online is the way all games are going, look at the Call of Duty series, every time a new one comes out, you know the main game will be half arsed and the multiplayer will have had the most attention.

Some of us prefer the offline experience, just like you prefer the online experience. It's that simple. I enjoy online to an extent depending on the game, but I personally don't think it is the end all be all, especially when you need to rely on a bunch of other people to have a good time. And on occasion, I just want to relax and not have to deal with other people period. Just me and the game.

 

[Brutaka]

It's more of a structured driving experience than a career.

I'd like to see an AI difficulty select option, and rolling starts scrapped in favour of grid starts. This should make the first few tiers a bit more engaging for people of all skill levels.

Also, none of the events in-game are currently labelled as "endurance". I don't think the endurance events from previous games have been dropped, I just think they'll get re-added alongside B-Spec.

That's how i feel. I would personally like a GT Career mode WITH the A-spec thing we have now. A-spec is like a driving experience like you said, and if A-spec is incorporated into a Racing Career mode i feel that you may be forced to go through a linear career instead of doing what you want to, for example, if i hated all race cars for some reason, i wouldn't enjoy that type of career mode because it would seemingly forces you to drive race cars if you want to make it to the top tier in the game.(LMP, FGT) GT6 has a nice, healthy balance of this now, you can race road cars all the way to Super Class or use race cars all throughout your career, it lets you do what you want. (Albeit an event creator would do this nicely too but that's another discussion for another time)

 

[GTP_Jonjig]

Some of us prefer the offline experience, just like you prefer the online experience. It's that simple. I enjoy online to an extent depending on the game, but I personally don't think it is the end all be all, especially when you need to rely on a bunch of other people to have a good time. And on occasion, I just want to relax and not have to deal with other people period. Just me and the game.

I too like "me time" on Gt, I just find I get no gratification from the "career/a-spec" mode, I personally find myself racing against my ghost car on free run in these situations rather than getting through completing the game, just feels like a chore. I do like the coffee breaks and other challenges, good ideas by PD to keep it fresh, but then aids are forced on and it ruins the experience for me.
Seems like a "offline events editor" would be a good idea and keep everyone happy..

 

[ZorroIsHere]

we just need a career mode like GT4 ...

 

[jackbrandy]

and some longer races as we had in GT3 (except the boring 10 laps with the Toyota Yarsis on the test course)

 

[diegorborges]

I`m really enjoying the A-spec (career) mode on GT6, it's way, MILES better than GT5 but to make it better we need:

- A proper "Endurance" category with real long races and huge payouts
- More races with fuel/tire consumption
- Damage in the more advanced races
- A LOT more one make races... just make it like GT2 or GT4
- Formula GT Championship
- The fantastic Race Generator on GT PSP

 

[tezster]

What PD should do is to make a separate GT game focused exclusively on delivering a robust, challenging, fun off-line racing experience, with a fully developed career mode built from scratch, which includes full-season racing modes and an improved AI (with no rubber-banding).

 

[Zuku]

Simply put I've said this in another thread PD needs to make the actual Video Game first before they dubble into anything else.

I'm saying that to say I'd rather deal with 150 cars or how many in was in GT3, but have satisfying career when it's all said and done.

As of right now as the OP has said GT5 and GT6 put too much emphasis on Star-Porn

And way over emphasize the Premium cars yes I like them, but at the cost of the whole game I would have waited for GT7 on PS4 if I'd have known both these things would have happened.

In fact I'd bet/wager anyone that GT5 and GT6 would have been loads better without those over-focused on parts.

We haven't had decent Rally since GT4 and Nascar why bother I'm not big fan of it, but if you're going to have the cars at least do something with them.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

Exactly, and that's my point, its more of the same, it is just OK, not WOW or fantastic.

I've not played any other racing games in the last 10 years beyond Motorstorm and Real Racing 3, but there was a in GT3 or 4 and I think it was the start of a nice idea, could tie in with the social aspect by being a blog, but also form the race structure as a calendar. There are Tennis games in the 80s & 90s that had did the pro tour, golf games that do it even better. The point is these sim games are to get as close to the real experience as possible. GT does the driving pretty well IMO but the career mode doesn't knit the driving together as well as it could.

I would hate that type of structure, it would make the game much less playable and not nearly as enjoyable for me.
One of the good things about the way the A-Spec mode is laid out is that once you run a few races there are many to choose from and you can run them in any order you want. I like this I don't want to be forced to do them in any specific order and I surely do not want to have to skip through a years worth of races just to get back to the one I want to repeat.

I would rather it stay as it is than be changed to something like that

 

[MatskiMonk]

Online ( lobby's and seasonals ) is where its at..

<snip>

Online is the way all games are going, look at the Call of Duty series, every time a new one comes out, you know the main game will be half arsed and the multiplayer will have had the most attention.

Unfortunately I think you may be right on your last point. GT is not so bad, since I play mostly to time trial and hot lap I don't care about the AI so much, but I don't have the time nor inclination to put the effort into the tedium of public racing, or being able to structure my life around making friends to race against at specific times - even on the one occasion I did try racing online with GTPers, it was still laggy at times, and the racing might have been clean, but you still had to put up with some pretty poor behaviour sometimes. I'm not suggesting online doesn't offer a lot, but it's not for me.

What I do have a problem with, is how half-arsed offline games are getting. GTA:V is an astonishing game, except for the fact it's simple a glorified tutorial for the online version, which I've ZERO interest in playing. Consequently, though it felt like a finished product (unlike GT6), i still feel let down because the amount of gameplay was so small, despite what could have been acheived... and all so R* could make more money from the online community.

 

[Zuku]

Unfortunately I think you may be right on your last point. GT is not so bad, since I play mostly to time trial and hot lap I don't care about the AI so much, but I don't have the time nor inclination to put the effort into the tedium of public racing, or being able to structure my life around making friends to race against at specific times - even on the one occasion I did try racing online with GTPers, it was still laggy at times, and the racing might have been clean, but you still had to put up with some pretty poor behaviour sometimes. I'm not suggesting online doesn't offer a lot, but it's not for me.

What I do have a problem with, is how half-arsed offline games are getting. GTA:V is an astonishing game, except for the fact it's simple a glorified tutorial for the online version, which I've ZERO interest in playing. Consequently, though it felt like a finished product (unlike GT6), i still feel let down because the amount of gameplay was so small, despite what could have been acheived... and all so R* could make more money from the online community.

Don't even mention GTA V Online lol seriously don't it's a cluster**** over there, but with this online crap I'm tired of that and agree with you don't have time to randomly make friends like that especially those I don't know.

 

[PIP_36]

I agree with the OP completely, and to be honest if it wasn't for the recent credit glitch (that I abused without shame) I would have lost patience with the single player mode all together, which in turn would have affected my online play too (I wouldn't have half the cars I use to race online).

I haven't even tried completing my licence test this time around, I just cant be bothered to unlock them by going through all the 'races' to get to them.

However, in my opinion the online experience is fantastic, I love the improvements and this is where I spend all my time. I am enjoying it so much that I can even overlook the few issues that can arise when playing online (freezing, frame rates, tearing) or that I am apparently incompatible with a room owner!

Anyway, long story short: Offline is a joke (that isn't funny) and online is brilliant!

 

[JackC8]

I've played games with an actual career where you had to do the races 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. and do several rounds of qualification to determine your starting position. I much prefer the freedom to do any race with any car any time, and qualification wouldn't work in Gran Turismo because you'd always finish first and it would be a waste of time. Those other game also had you as a member of a team and stuff, which pretty much restricts you to racing in one series and once again takes away your freedom. Grid let you choose sponsors, and if you did it right you'd earn a ton of money. By the midpoint of the "career" I had enough money to buy every car in the game ten times over. Not too great IMO. Besides Gran Turismo doesn't have any sort of livery editor so I don't know how you'd get sponsor's advertisements on the cars. Not that I'd want them cluttering up my gorgeous beauties anyway.

I'm perfectly happy with "a bunch of races" comprising the career mode. As long as you have to work your way up from Novice to Super Class, that's enough progression for me.