While I don't think Gran Turismo 7 is anywhere near perfect, there are two things I do that I don't see others demonstrating:
- I very much appreciate what I have in Gran Turismo 7. VR, scapes, free updates, the ability to customize a race if one I want to do doesn't exist, free updates, car collecting, etc.
- The game is not meant for just one taste. There is and always will be something players will and won't care for.
Just because I don't complain about this aspect or that issue with the game doesn't mean I ignore any shortcomings. Related, what I find a shortcoming and what you find a shortcoming may well be different things.
Is that at least one point on which we can agree?
I can agree that we're all satisfied with different things. But I can't appreciate what GT7 has to offer, because for each thing I want to enjoy with the game, it keeps coming with a catch. Free updates, which amount to just 3 events and a couple of menu books on average. Yes, there's new cars added, but after doing the new races; I'm back to square one. Doing hotlaps, taking some pictures before finally clicking off the game again and going to play something else.
and well, I'm not going to repeat myself with points already said regarding issues with this game.
Some decisions I may agree were bad, but others likely not so much. I have yet to meet the perfect game.
I haven't either, but I have met games that got way closer to perfection than this one in what they're trying to do.
Some of this is going to be limited in terms of what they can do.
E.G. an A.I. slider for custom races. We have one (beginner/intermediate/professional) but some players want more control.
E.G. 2 is Sophy - the best A.I. in sim racing. It's limited to PS5 and only a handful of short events.
To flesh things out "fully" is dependent on two things:
First: an agreement what "fully fleshed out" means in this case. Opinions will vary greatly on that.
Second: the resources available to implement said fully fleshed out system.
and the first sentence goes back to my point. The choices we've seen right now in GT7 in regards to A.I. in custom races or in GT Cafe aren't down to limitations they have. Even before sophy, they had shown they can make more fun and challenging A.I. to race against, but they simply choose not to do it. There's specific races in GT Cafe mode that prove that.
Fully fleshed out in this context is talking about the single-race structure for GT Cafe mode, the stand-in for what would be Gran Turismo mode in a past GT title. In which, Polyphony Digital being the huge studio it is has the resources to do this. This isn't challenging like you think it is. They didn't need to make sophy, they just needed to make better use of what they had.
There are some technical issues that I would agree are problems, but there are choices in game directions that aren't problems . . . they are simply preferences a number of players do and don't like.
Going to continue disagreeing with this.
those are problems - but as you are not an online player . . . they don't impact you. Your stated preference would be to concentrate on single player.
No, my stated preference would be to concentrate on both and they should be able to have done that. Yes, online won't impact me as I prefer single-player racing, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize those problems. I just didn't bring them up here as it wasn't relevant to this discussion and since I don't play online; I'm not educated enough to know the issues with it. If there are things the fans are complaining about there, then I still recognize them as problems.
The fact GT7 single player is not built like GT Sport (remember that issue?) or GT4 is not a problem it is a decision a number of players - you included - don't like.
Okay, I think you're confused on what players like me are complaining about.
GT4 and GT Sport's singleplayer career modes are brought up continuously due to GT4 being considered the peak of GT by most fans of the series and GT Sport is just the most recent game released before this one. They're being used as benchmarks for what a GT career mode should be.
However, that doesn't mean I or other players want a copy/paste of those exactly. Most of us like you said have a preference in what we want the career mode to be, but we all share one common thing. We want the career mode to be lengthy and fun. Which is NOT the case here. GT Cafe was too short and custom race mode doesn't have enough options nor satisfying enough A.I. to make up the difference...
PD targeted the E-sports/online racing crowd (building off GT Sport) with the sport mode, the art crowd with the livery section, single players (a very vocal crowd at the start of GT Sport) with cafe, missions, licenses and custom races, and shutterbugs with the photo mode. Then they sprinkled other bits around for car collecting buffs (who knew Haggerty would be here?) and other aspects of car culture to create the game we have and - some of us - enjoy.
and once again, they didn't do it well enough. If the continuous complaint about the GT Cafe mode and custom races are still present, then that means they didn't adhere to single-player racing enough. and they clearly don't show any interest in doing so since there's things previously promised that aren't here yet.
I somewhat agree with your position here . . . but I don't think it would be significantly less. There are tons of folks who are only in this game for the online aspect. There will always be people upset with an economy-based game, no matter how easy credits are to come by. However, you'll still get complaints if you remove the credit requirements and either replace them with something else (Forza - you gotta drive the car a certain amount before you upgrade anything) or replace it with nothing. With every car unlocked from the start, many would have nothing to work for. Game is fun for a month or two and that's it.
and you don't have to agree.
I will agree that there will always be people not satisfied with the economy of a game no matter what PD or Turn 10 did with their career mode choices like you said. However once again, I still fully believe that the complaints can be significantly minimized if they structured their economy system better.
I can also say the same with FM23's career, if Turn 10 structured the part unlock system to be tied to not each car, but maybe the brand or racing category; I bet that would've been recieved way better. The complaints are just down to a balancing issue really, which I believe both studios are easily capable of fixing. Turn 10 technically has fixed their issue and I think their economy system was pretty good outside the parts thing.
Hopefully we found some middle ground.
Depends if Polyphony Digital ever finds middle ground themselves.