Hardly. The EXP system was far too long winded,
And the only difference between how the two work is that GT6 has more events and the levels don't rise exponentially. They traded a level system with experience for a level system with banana stickers.
stopped you from buying cars,
B-Spec. Seasonal events. Special events.
stopped you from doing licences (which were pointless in GT5 for progression anyway)
I hope that's not a serious argument, since you can't even do licences in GT6 if you
wanted to; and they are even more pointless in GT6 then they were in GT5 when you didn't have to do them at all. Furthermore, non-mandatory licences was one of the very few things GT5 did better than the previous titles (as opposed to now, where they are even worse than they were in the GT1-GT4 days because of how inane they are implemented and how much content they keep away from the player), so the use of GT6's system here as a positive is confusing.
And getting 20 stars to move onto the next level, therefore opens up more choice of race to do, is hardly linear.
That's another curious use of the word "hardly." Let's compare GT6 to GT2 (as per the OP), and even GT5 for funsies.
In GT2, you start the game and you can do whatever you want. You can transfer licence data from GT1 (if applicable) and skip the early licence tests and unlock a large portion of the races. Or you could do the early licence tests to gold to unlock new cars and forgo having to buy a used car. Or you could just buy a used car and cut your teeth in the early races. Or you could do some variety of the above; and so long as you completed all of the licences all but around 10 races were accessible so long as you had an eligible car; and the game absolutely buried you in cars to use. This system (more or less) was what GT3 and GT4 used as well. The first four GT titles were, after the licence tests, almost completely non-linear games.
In GT5, you start the game and you are required to buy a car. Can't use one of the Chromelines or Stealths. Can't enter licence tests or Special Events to win one to use. Must get one from a dealership to use. This could ultimately be gotten around by having someone gift you one (and probably by buying DLC and having it left in the truck, though I have no direct experience with that), but still a regrettable chipping away of one of the series' core bases. After that, you can theoretically use that car do the first races, or maybe get in one of your Chromelines or Stealths and sell the car, or borrow a car from a friend to use, or whatever your choosing. Then you can do one of several things. You can:
- Take that car (or your Stealth or Chromelines or a car borrowed from a friend) and jump straight online.
- Enter the early Special Events and absolutely plow through the earlier levels (and amass massive credits to boot).
- Enter any Seasonal Event your car is eligible for and go even faster through levels and credits.
- Enter the early races and try to cut your teeth on them
- Enter the early (optional) licence tests and unlock more cars to use.
- Give the car to Bob and let him do a few races to rack up credits.
All of which would suitably advance your credits and experience level; some of which quite drastically and repeatedly. GT5 started off much worse than any previous GT title could even imagine, but once you threw Bob at a enough races or did enough Seasonals the game became at least somewhat open ended.
In GT6, you start the game and the game suggests for you to buy a car. Meaning the game requires you to buy a
specific car and refuses to even let you
look at anything else unless you do so. After you buy that one specific car, you're basically locked into it because you're unable to afford anything else for several races (unless you preordered or bought those lovely Microtransactions); but here's what you're allowed to do with it:
- Enter the first race series, which is the only thing opened to you; and continue doing them until you've gotten far enough to unlock the first licence tests (because apparently, winning several races in a career structure now needs to screech to a halt so you can do a slalom).
- Seasonals possibly (I'm not restarting the game to check), which so far are just as bad in structure and payout as the regular races.
- There is no number three, let alone four five or six. There is no B-Spec at all. You are prohibited from going online period until you get the second licence, a good hour and a half after the start of the game (and I hope whatever idiot thought of that is blackballed from the entire industry). There are no special events available in the early game. The licence tests are locked away until you do the races (which, again, nullifies what little point that had in 2013). And the credits payouts are truly pitiful and the prize cars are very few in number, preventing you from even getting some more cars to redo races. You can't even go into Photo Travel.
So tell me. Where does the nonlinear nature that this game supposedly has come into play? You're forced,
far more rigidly than GT5 ever was, along a specific path of completion; with things being unlocked as the game dictates. You aren't even allowed access to the online portion this time until you jump through the completely arbitrary set of hoops put in place. But this is "hardly linear"?
People keep alluding to this being a refreshingly unrestricted game compared to GT5 post-login update and massive seasonal credits, so maybe you can be the one to actually justify the viewpoint with real examples.
No, there was nothing. No difficulty what so ever. Sure, rubber banding sucks... but it's better than having nothing at all.
Not particularly, no. There is no difficulty in an AI that drops off seconds per lap until you catch up, then miraculously starts keeping wind with you. GT5 at least had tracks where the AI could compete. I've seen nothing of the sort in GT6 so far, since the sand bagging is so blatant that it allows you to catch up almost immediately.
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