I don't have a problem with any of these things. The progression is fine, the AI is fine and the penalty system has worked perfectly for me. Also, people ignore the reasoning for the car leveling system which was to gradually "build" up your car in the "Builder's Cup". But oh no, they want to upgrade their car instantly.
As someone who was much more into Forza for a good while up until the last 4 years or so, even though I was still liking GT, these are all things that are bothering me right now.
The Progression is not fine if we talk about Car XP, absolutely no need for that as I already got a sense of ownership on my own when building and tuning cars meticulously for hours on end. Being forced to drive a car that may or may not be crappy in the end is not something that helps me attain a sense of ownership, because if it ends up sucking after unlocking the parts I needed/wanted, then it was all for naught and actually detracts from that sense of ownership. I also had no problem gradually building my car to different classes and specs as I wanted it to move up and progress before this system.
The AI is seemingly worse off than previous iterations and much more aggressive, especially when simply driving besides them. They also dive bomb like a bat out of hell way more often than not, both things that didn't used to happen to something even close to this degree. They're also now seemingly slowing down dramatically after you pass them, you can notice it most on the leaders of the track. It's unfortunately becoming another chase the rabbit situation which is what I hated, and still do, about Gran Turismo.
What you noted are probably the biggest, and probably only, things that I have an issue with this game as it drives exceptionally well, which makes it all but unfortunate for me.
I know that the "new" tracks are from Forza 7 but I didn't play that so I'm not too bothered. Fact is, a game that gets a regular stream of content is better than one which does not and that's why I've ditched GT7.
Doesn't GT get monthly updates with content? I'm confused about this
So for you it would be better if Kaz release GT7 with 20 tracks and then add rest of the 17 tracks every month?
You mean like GT already does with cars? There is no right or wrong here.
How could you talk about a „regular stream of content“ when it just released in October?
And an important point is also that content isn’t all for free, cars that are free this month are the ones that were already in FM7, the other really new ones you have to pay for in the car pass. And it could be that these free cars also aren’t even totally new „build from the ground up“ car models, as some cars already have been spotted to be old inaccurate ones from previous titles.
Paid content isn't that big an issue, but free content is definitely a nice gesture. The way I see it is GT had a significantly smaller list at launch and the free updates would generate great PR for them, I don't see this as a continuing trend when the next iteration comes out if they have a sizeable amount of content from the start. They aren't against paid content as we've so graciously seen when their games release with a good chunk of it already.
As for the pre-release talks from games devs, no one should be full on trusting any side of this for any game, ever. PD isn't innocent in this regard.
