I dearly hope they don't try to compete with pCARS.
I'm with Griff yet again on this one. PD will still try and produce the most excellent graphics on PS4 because they're visual artists, especially the Boss. But what I hope they do is build the game around a certain foundation. What I want to see is:
- 1920x1080@60fps, minimal antialiasing, or user adjustable, with good frame processing, also user adjustable.
- 24 liveried cars on track at once in rain and online, and able to handle standing starts.
- Weather and time of day transitions on all tracks - forgot that one.
- More humanlike A.I., and competition that isn't built around rubberbanding.
- Reasonably good sounds.
- Damage.
Start with this basis and tune the game around it. If they can add more, go for it. More cars is always a good thing, especially with multiclass racing.
And while this is a side topic, I think it's equally important. Some aspects of GT7 have to remain the same for the sake of the casuals, so Arcade and the GT Mode sandbox thing has to return. But as JohnnyP and others have said, and I harp on from time to time, there really needs to be a GT Pro Mode for those of us who want to really race in Gran Turismo, and get a taste of that competition which Kaz gets to experience first hand in real life motorsports.
I want a progression with this too, something resembling what everyone has to go through to get to the big leagues. They have a great model to follow in GT Academy, and they could go a few different ways with it. Begin with karting, or give us the option to skip it. Use License Tests or don't, but I think this is the one place in which both of those things could and I think should play a role.
I've mentioned the progression a few times, so let me say briefly that the Pro game should be structured in tiers of ever increasing power and cars with more performance, which you advance through in mini-seasons of ever increasing length to a championship series, which is the launchpad to the next tier. While there can be an economy, racing now is mostly for points and garnering sponsors. Credits are for paying your crew and keeping your car maintained.
This ultimately gets you to "graduate" to pro racing leagues, which you choose and race through a season to the championship. Just as with the pro leagues, you race for points and sponsora, and money goes into payroll and keeping your car performing nifty.
This shouldn't be hard for PD to implement, seeing as serious racing sims have only been out for a couple of decades or more. But one thing they could do is work on something basic that gives the game some structure and us something to do offline. And then give us a seriously powerful Event Maker good for creating entire racing seasons of any length off- or online, with special events and championships. Along with Course Maker II, Race Mod and a Livery Editor, this would give us stuff to do until we die of old age. Still, I'd prefer both, and for PD to give us events based around all these wonderful cars and tracks in racing series as they envision them.
That's excatly what I meant. As you said, graphics alone won't cut it. GT7 needs a HUGE overhaul if it want's to compete against pCARS.
