GTP Video Game Cool Wall: Gran Turismo 6

[Cowboy]

Gran Turismo 6, nominated by @MrWaflz55

Release Date: WW December 6th, 2013
Platform: PlayStation 3
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Genre: Sim Racing

Spoiler: Additional information

The latest iteration of the award-winning Gran Turismo franchise, the series that made racing simulator video games popular, Gran Turismo 6 features the most vehicles and tracks ever in the entire series, even excluding duplicates. The game features a humongous roster of tracks and locations to do some driving on. Multiple disciplines of motor sports are represented from Rally, to FIA GT3, to NASCAR and even (fake) Formula One.

Unique features include driving on the moon, the Goodwood festival of speed, Ayrton Senna challenges and the inclusion of the longest track ever in the series (Sierra). Course maker returns in this game through a companion app that has more in-depth creation than the engine in GT5.

Main criticism of this game comes from the poor audio quality and inclusion of standard models from Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2. Main praise of this game comes from the absolutely ridiculous amount of content included on-disc, far surpassing industry rivals at the time.

Widely regarded as the comparative low-point of the series, critical reception of this title has been warm nonetheless. Agregate review scores leave this game around an A- or low 80%.

Gran Turismo 6 offers long-lasting appeal to those invested in the online community of the game. Through the newly introduced community features, players are able to create clubs to host time trials or racing leagues, post photos taken from the robust in-game photo mode, view other friend's in-game profiles or send messages and control club forums.

Gone is the beloved shuffle-racing from Gran Turismo 5, in it's place is a BoP quick-match feature with various scenarios rotating every two weeks. Seasonal events including single races and time trials are updated at the same frequency as quick matches.

Spoiler: Additional images

 

[Northstar]

While it certainly improved on GT5 in several areas it also was a step back in others. Plus coming out literally at the end of the console cycle one would have expected more ground breaking features.

- Stunning graphics when using Premium cars.

- Excellent photo mode

- Single player is one of the bigger areas that are a step back from GT5, which is saying something since GT5's single player wasn't all that great either.

- Vision GT is a great concept but terribly executed. Irregular car releases, cars being all over the map performance wise and fantasy technology really brought the program down in my view. Had they given the manufacturers 2-3 categories to chose from I think the program would have been awesome.

- Goodwood and the Senna tribute are both great additions even if they didn't use them to their full potential.

- Track creator didn't come out until long after the game's release and requires a tablet.

So yeah, the ground work for a great GT game is there, the only thing lacking is the execution of the great features they implemented.

C.

 

[Turbo]

Not a horrible game, but my least favorite GT game of all.

 

[SomePlayaDude]

At least there's no ugly Jeff Gordon.

 

[Silver Arrows]

Probably one of the worst GT games based on content around the game.

 

[Suzumiya]

Underwhelming, low on content, not much passion put in, furthest from a simulator the series has ever been at the time. D

 

[Michelin Man]

By no means the best GT game, in-fact I'd say it's the "worst", certainly was somewhat underwhelming after coming from GT5, which I thoroughly enjoyed (and still do) and thought it was an all-round better, more enjoyable game than 6. The career mode particularly was more satisfying and better put together.

Plus, the promised bit's of content, came as DLC that was late, i.e. Course Maker, and sounds were iffy; particularly after the 1.21 update, which made some cars worse. In general, GT6 felt a bit of let down, aside from the little details that were good from time-to-time, but it certainly never lived up to the heights of it's predecessors

However, with that said, I still plunged a hell of a lot of time into it; only have to see my GT6 stats for that (though they need updating). And partly responsible for that, is online. I've had some great racing with mates, and I've met some great people, whom I race with, that regularly set up great, clean racing lobbies, which has ultimately kept me interested for longer than I perhaps should've thanks to all the great racing. The recent Mid-Field Sports Car Trophy 2hr race, is a great example, as I really enjoyed that, so thanks to @rallymorten for that.

But it's also the little things, like making the most of "bad situation" I guess, that's kept me interested, with @CORRUPTEDDISC aka Hammer Studios Gaming's rather excellent GT6 reviews, special projects and what not, being another such example. Plus, I always seem to keep coming back to it, regardless of what other PS3 games of the same ilk, I play, guess it's that "GT Charm", I don't know.

Either way, was going to vote B, simply for the reasons I stated above, that kept me interested, but I voted C before I thought about doing so. Either way, I'd say a high C, low B is representative.

 

[CinnamonOD]

Mediocre at best. But I had a great time playing it.

 

[AudiMan2011]

The worst game in the series with many backwards steps over GT5 and lots of gimmmicks and baffling design decisions.

Though I did win my first online GTP championship on this game, so thats a plus.

C.

 

[Digitdan7]

I gave GT6 a B since while it did take steps back (no actual endurance races) and took ages to deliver on its promises, I did thoroughly enjoy it and felt some of the new additions were great, such as Vision GT and the Course Maker.

 

[ULTRAVIOLENZZ]

Cool- Deltawing
Uncool- No Endurance Race

C.

 

[NoGoodNames]

Even if I've never played this game myself, I can still say this game was pretty far from being the best in the series. And I'm pretty sure many of you will agree with me.

The last game of the disastrous PS3 era, spoken by even Polyphony themselves!

This game did still do a few things right. For instance, the addition of things like Goodwood and the lunar missions were pretty cool. And the Vision GT cars were another awesome addition. There were also some good tracks introduced in GT6, such as Brands Hatch, Willow Springs, and Silverstone (although Silverstone was added a bit late IMO). Plus the return of fan favorite tracks, like Mid-Field Raceway (despite being added in an update).

Here's what it did wrong.

Car duplicates. Having the same exact car just one model year newer, or the exact same cars just from different parts of the world made it EXTREMELY confusing. In some cases, it was both of these combined (looking at you, NA generation Mazda MX-5).

Standard cars. Having these outdated GT3 / GT4 models, dumber on details and interiorless, mixed in with the newer Premium models, having about as much detail as you'd expect from a 2010s racing game, just seemed very weird. Thank GOD GT Sport will only have the "Super Premium" cars, because having the PS2 models mixed would be EXTREMELY wrong.

Post-release content. While some of the content added after GT6's release was great, it was the fact that Polyphony waited as long as they did to add it. Like the Track Creator and B-Spec mode, those were promised to be in from day one, but weren't added until over a year after release.

The good parts of this game combined with the well-known nuisances of PS3 era Gran Turismo games give this game a C rating from me overall.

 

[bremics]

I have to give it an F.

After not playing a GT since 3, I bought GT5 XL Edition for $20 in a bargain bin.

I loved it a lot and was playing it every day.... then I saw GT6 was coming out and figured why not?

What a god damn joke.

Half of the goddamn features were missing especially course maker and B-Spec where I spent most of my time.

The fact that I had to uninstall GT5 to make room and then had to uninstall GT6 to download GT5 again... eurg.

If GT5 brought me back to the series, GT6 ran me back out.

 

[Tornado]

I'd never sold a Gran Turismo game before I bought GT6.

 

[MOPARbarrett5]

Probably the worst game in the series, but even the worst of a good series is pretty good. It still has a Ram, some Vipers, Challengers, Chargers and (inconsistent) online for me to use them in, plus seasonal events to use other fast cars in. While not having shuffle racing is a big drawback to me, making the best of enjoyable qualities that the game does have still makes for a fun experience... despite some unavoidable bad qualities such as poor servers and a messed up Quick Match penalty system.
I all in all expected the game to be better in many ways, but there is still so much that the game is better than others at, I think it still deserves a B rating.

 

[MisterWaffles]

I'm a photomode guy, so this game gets a solid A+ for that.

Besides that, if you actually bothered to stick around after GT6's rocky start, it was a pretty solid driving game with a few issues, so it gets a B there. Sure, the patches took a while to come out, but what we have now is certainly acceptable by my standards.

I recommend having some friends to play this game with, running this game single-player only would get like a C for me.

However this game was missing some Gran Turismo charm like the GT Auto animations, the endurance racing and so on. Probably the result of this game being rushed out at the end of the PS3's lifecycle just to get another Gran Turismo game on the system to follow the "rule of two".

So overall, as someone who hosts online clubs and takes hundreds of pictures all the time, it's great. Solid B, certainly not a "disaster" by any means (at least today, less so at launch).

 

[bremics]

I'm a photomode guy, so this game gets a solid A+ for that.

Besides that, if you actually bothered to stick around after GT6's rocky start, it was a pretty solid driving game with a few issues, so it gets a B there. Sure, the patches took a while to come out, but what we have now is certainly acceptable by my standards.

I recommend having some friends to play this game with, running this game single-player only would get like a C for me.

However this game was missing some Gran Turismo charm like the GT Auto animations, the endurance racing and so on. Probably the result of this game being rushed out at the end of the PS3's lifecycle just to get another Gran Turismo game on the system to follow the "rule of two".

So overall, as someone who hosts online clubs and takes hundreds of pictures all the time, it's great. Solid B, certainly not a "disaster" by any means (at least today, less so at launch).

Eh? Didn't they remove a bunch of photomode locations and some features?

 

[VBR]

@cowboy I don't uderstand the poll options; what do A, B, C etc mean?

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

@cowboy I don't uderstand the poll options; what do A, B, C etc mean?

It's based on a grading system like in school, A, B, C, D and F with the highest being A and the lowest being F or failure.

 

[Terronium-12]

Perhaps my worst experience with the franchise to date. I have never grown bored of or outright quit playing a GT game in less than a month before this one. Both GT5 (for all of its comical faults) and Prologue were better games. Though, to be fair, GT5P was a better game than GT5 as well so perhaps it should be exempt from the point I'm trying to make.

An easy D if only because I think an F is just a touch (a touch) too harsh.

 

[BKGlover]

GT6 was not the best in the series, but reading the post I'm given the impression a lot of people think GT5 is the best, and considering I remember a :censored:ton of people bashed that left and right for not being the Prologue or GT4. I'm actually surprised that one person mentioned the actual gameplay as opposed to grumbling about features when PD had removed features and made questionable decisions since GT2.

I was deeply disappointing by GT5. Racing in GT1-4 was fun with 2 and 3 leading that effort, 4 started to feel like a grind after a while, but GT5 was a grind from the start, the new tracks weren't great, B-spec was frustrating if I ever played it, and the physics were exactly the same, if not worse, than GT4 was. I had to force myself to play the damn thing to justify the cost...come to think of it I still haven't finished that Tsukuba enduro...5 years after starting it I believe, and no urge to finish.

Being so disillusioned after GT5, and questioning the world after hating GT5P once I finally bought it, I didn't buy GT6 with high hopes. While it is justified in some regard, it was the physics refresh that has kept me interested because being the brain-dead idiot I am, I actually have to work and think about how to race in game semi-properly again against the AI. So yeah, the mandated Fit is dumb, VGT is a three ring circus, and the atmosphere is dull, but it all works better for me than GT5 did, especially the menus.

It gets a mid-B from me.

 

[MisterWaffles]

Eh? Didn't they remove a bunch of photomode locations and some features?

I'm talking more in-race photos on tracks but they did do that, yes.

 

[gnomefromnome]

The updates were the worst. I still have GT 5 and 5 Prologue, but no longer own 6. I even pre-ordered 6, but if the game refuses to download an update, it's not a game for me.

 

[CORRUPTEDDISC]

Having played GT6 before GT5, I give it more of a pass than others, since it was my first Gran Turismo experience on PS3 after moving back over from Forza after Motorsport 4 and Horizon 1.

Since retroactively playing GT5 later (after the server was shut down no less, making the DLC on the 'XL' version which I bought utterly useless), I have to say that number 5 is undoubtedly a better game. GT6 has some great redeeming features for me though, such as :

- The biggest car selection of any GT game to date (and for the foreseeable future given GT SPORT's severely neutered lineup)

- The full introduction of Vision Gran Turismo cars (after the GTbyCitroen arguably kicked off the trend), including the insane Tomahawk, the forward thinking Chaparral 2X, the stunning Aston Martin DP-100 and my personal favourite from a design perspective - the downright sexual Infiniti VisionGT

- The interesting (though short) moon missions, which finally allowed us to 'drive' the most expensive car ever built (build cost that is, not price) in GT's first zero G events (without a cheat disc that is)

Overall, GT6 has a special place for me because it has almost single handedly brough my channel from 74 subscribers to over 8,000 and counting.

I would place it as follows :

>GT4-GT2-GT5-GT6-GT1-GT3

 

[TheCracker]

I'd never sold a Gran Turismo game before I bought GT6.

I'd never not bought a Gran Turismo game before GT6.

 

[Tired Tyres]

F. And I'm being generous. From the solo player perspective I have - even calling it a race game is a joke. A race game with no racing in it.....

I have never been as disappointed with a game as I was with this.

Curiously, it survived as a time attack game and was continued to be played even when Project Cars replaced it as my race game of choice but it did not survive the arrival of Assetto Corso. Neither of those titles is perfect by any stretch but they can, and do, provide the racing GT6 couldn't.

Having said that, I fully understand that if this delivers what you want then you'll give a better score.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

Deliver for me, this game definitely did. To me, this honestly felt like an improvement from GT5. You could buy any car you wanted without having to wait for a Used Car dealership to roll whatever car you needed, or any of that silly RPG "experience" points nonsense. Is this my favorite? No, that goes to the originals, but to be honest, even the "worst" Gran Turismo game ranks above a majority of other racing games I've played. It has literally the largest selection of cars in the series, some awesome concepts, such as the moon missions, and the entirety of Vision GT. It also had an awesome Ayrton Senna tribute only five/six months into its release. This was the first game I've ever pre-ordered, and I beat it 100% within a month, making it the first game I've ever achieved a gold standard on license tests for. (It dropped to about 98% after I took plenty of whacks at the Ayrton Senna challenges.) Even then, this game has consistently had me coming back with the weekly (well biweekly) time trials/challenge races/drift trials, with further replayability involved in our very own Duel of the Week club. I've put in enough time to have a fully tuned example of every single car in either my garage or stockyard.

My few gripes with this installment:
- Please don't force me to buy a Honda Fit, when I clearly have enough money to buy a Mazda RX-7 that will perform better
- No Special Stage Route 11, though through the addition of the course editor I "kinda" have it. I miss the city setting though.
- If you're gonna have the stockyard, maybe improve the loading time on that a little bit.

According to my stats as of this posting, I have clocked 531.3 hours of driving time in this game, and I don't believe a single minute of that was wasted. This is a game that has held my attention for pretty close to four years now. For each time I've gotten a new Gran Turismo game, I never forgotten the wonder on my face and my jaw dropping the first time I've booted each installment up for the very first time. The glee in my eyes when my cousins introduced me to GT1 and GT2, the excitement when I got my own copies, the absolute wonder on my face when seven year old me first got his PS2 and GT3 was the first game he loaded up. The absolute hype when I rented GT4, and got my copy soon after when I was ten. The awe of the next generation when thirteen year old me saw GT5 Prologue on a cousin's PS3, hype in 2010, giving me the push to get my own PS3 and a copy of GT5, staying up late to explore, and the absolute excitement when I finally got my copy of GT6 in the mail. The music from the intro combined with the awesome visuals immediately brought a smile to my face, and after I went through the "hand-holding" and was told to "have at it", I perused the extensive car collection, again with a smile on my face.

Gran Turismo games have the ability to hold my attention for a long period of time, all while I'm having fun the entire way through. The day it doesn't will be the day I give one of them less than an A. This is certainly not one of them.

A, I say.

 

[Lain]

A solid B. Some might complain that it's just "what GT5 should've been", but in case you didn't notice... what GT5 was trying to be was highly ambitious, hence all the hype that game received.

My two gripes: Small number of single-player races, and it's a royal pain in the ass to install all the updates from scratch on a new PS3. If you try downloading and installing too many of the updates in one go, the game data gets corrupted and you've got to delete it and start all over. So instead you have to download one or two, disconnect from the internet, launch the game to install them, close game and reconnect to internet, rinse and repeat until you've got them all downloaded and installed... I still haven't managed to do this, and have resigned myself to just playing GT5 instead.

 

[MisterWaffles]

I'd like to also mention that GT6 probably only has a few weeks of online service left. That's gonna really suck when it's gone. The end of the classic era of Gran Turismo. RIP GT6, your online portion will be deeply missed.

 

[VXR]

Just about the only game I still play on PS3 with any regularity, but it wasn’t as pretty as GT5 was, the seasonal season were nowhere near as good either, because the previous version was ace for grinding races you enjoyed. The removal of photo travel locations was bizarre and the forced starter car removed much of GT’s charm. It’s still a solid game however and with Matterhorn being so fun, I think a C is fair.