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GT Sport is and most likely will remain a unique chapter in the history of the series. A bold new shift in every way that was mismanaged sadly ended as the lowest rated and most hated entry in the series. But why did this happen? Was is it really that bad?.
Before you read further, please keep in mind that this is a look through the most important events during the development and life cycle of the game with a mix of facts and my personal opinions.
I felt I had to do this as this was the first and possibly last time I was able to follow a game from pretty much Day 1 all the way to the end, because Polyphony provided more information than ever before, and that makes me believe Kaz actually felt really proud about GT Sport. The vast majority of this was written way before GT7 released, but real life issues delayed the posting until now so most complaints may seem irrelevant since they were addressed. However, some still apply.
Before you read further, please keep in mind that this is a look through the most important events during the development and life cycle of the game with a mix of facts and my personal opinions.
I felt I had to do this as this was the first and possibly last time I was able to follow a game from pretty much Day 1 all the way to the end, because Polyphony provided more information than ever before, and that makes me believe Kaz actually felt really proud about GT Sport. The vast majority of this was written way before GT7 released, but real life issues delayed the posting until now so most complaints may seem irrelevant since they were addressed. However, some still apply.
Kaz’s biggest mistake wasn’t necessarily deciding to design the game to be the iRacing of consoles, but thinking everyone else wanted the same and something that can be summed up with this:
I feel it’s unfair to call GT Sport a Prologue, Concept, spin off etc. but it’s also factually incorrect by most if not all metrics. Furthermore, Kaz has said as such in many occasions. During E3 2016 in an interview with IGN he stated:
"We never originally intended for it to be a small scale title, so it’s something that was in terms of scale, something that could be called Gran Turismo 7, but our focus this time was really to create and focus on the sports mode, the new mode that’s going to the game so that’s why we named it Sport."
And during an interview with A9VG about a month after the IGN interview stating:
“GT Sport is a regular title of the GT Series. The gaming content is so ample that you can consider it as Gran Turismo 7. It is titled GT Sport because the Sport Mode of the game is important. If I have to change a statement, maybe Gran Turismo 7 Sport is a more correct name.”
https://www.gtplanet.net/gran-turismo-sport-could-have-been-called-gt7-sport/
If you consider that simple corporate talk due to Polyphony's unreliable record I don’t blame you, because the content surely wasn’t ‘so ample’ (I’ll get to that later), however there are more evidence to support this claim. For one, the amount of content even at the start was bigger than GT1 and before long, it passed GT3. Furthermore, GT Sport has received the most/best post release support in the series so far. Based on these two facts alone I will encourage people to revisit the prologue games to truly see the difference. Finally yet importantly, since the beginning PD refers to the game as GT7SP in the game files.
All this shows PD considers the game to be GT7 in some capacity. I understand that it may give the feeling of a prologue and people may have not gotten their money’s worth out of what was provided, but that’s one every single one of us to do the required research and decide with our wallet. Sadly, Polyphony further reinforced the spin off belief naming the next game GT7 instead of 8 because GT Sport is so hated among fans of the traditional format, making me and people who share the same opinion look stupid. Bless you PD, never change...
I feel it’s unfair to call GT Sport a Prologue, Concept, spin off etc. but it’s also factually incorrect by most if not all metrics. Furthermore, Kaz has said as such in many occasions. During E3 2016 in an interview with IGN he stated:
"We never originally intended for it to be a small scale title, so it’s something that was in terms of scale, something that could be called Gran Turismo 7, but our focus this time was really to create and focus on the sports mode, the new mode that’s going to the game so that’s why we named it Sport."
And during an interview with A9VG about a month after the IGN interview stating:
“GT Sport is a regular title of the GT Series. The gaming content is so ample that you can consider it as Gran Turismo 7. It is titled GT Sport because the Sport Mode of the game is important. If I have to change a statement, maybe Gran Turismo 7 Sport is a more correct name.”
https://www.gtplanet.net/gran-turismo-sport-could-have-been-called-gt7-sport/
If you consider that simple corporate talk due to Polyphony's unreliable record I don’t blame you, because the content surely wasn’t ‘so ample’ (I’ll get to that later), however there are more evidence to support this claim. For one, the amount of content even at the start was bigger than GT1 and before long, it passed GT3. Furthermore, GT Sport has received the most/best post release support in the series so far. Based on these two facts alone I will encourage people to revisit the prologue games to truly see the difference. Finally yet importantly, since the beginning PD refers to the game as GT7SP in the game files.
All this shows PD considers the game to be GT7 in some capacity. I understand that it may give the feeling of a prologue and people may have not gotten their money’s worth out of what was provided, but that’s one every single one of us to do the required research and decide with our wallet. Sadly, Polyphony further reinforced the spin off belief naming the next game GT7 instead of 8 because GT Sport is so hated among fans of the traditional format, making me and people who share the same opinion look stupid. Bless you PD, never change...
Where else to start but from the Paris Games Week 2015 Playstation press conference where the game was announced. Questionable musical choice aside, the first trailer was really nice showcasing the concept of the game and the graphical improvements, as well as many new cars. It included some stange lines such as:
I’m confused: did motorsport vanish from the planet in 2014
Sounds intriguing…
W-what? How
After this trailer which left more questions than answers, Kaz went on stage for a little presentation and the first question asked by President & CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan rightfuly was "Why Gran Turismo Sport?". Part of Kaz's response was..."But our ambition for the first Gran Turismo on PS4 is much greater than that, we wanted to initiate a much bigger change to the way people play driving games and that’s the vision to evoke the rebirth of motorsports".
That brings me back to the question I made a bit earlier: is Kaz living in an alternative reality where motorsport died in 2014? Moreover, how would GT Sport offer this driving game defining change? Will it offer a more realistic simulation than the top competitors like iRacing , Rfactor 2 etc? What’s this? The winners of the competion will receive theirir trophy at the FIA ceremony alongside real champions? Oh goddy... Gran Turismo wasn’t even the first console game to feature e-sport competitions (GT Academy was more of a time trial). All in all it was an announcement which gave mixed messeges, a misguided but interesting concept and made clear GT of old is dead. However, players had lots to look forward to.
I’m confused: did motorsport vanish from the planet in 2014
Sounds intriguing…
W-what? How
After this trailer which left more questions than answers, Kaz went on stage for a little presentation and the first question asked by President & CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan rightfuly was "Why Gran Turismo Sport?". Part of Kaz's response was..."But our ambition for the first Gran Turismo on PS4 is much greater than that, we wanted to initiate a much bigger change to the way people play driving games and that’s the vision to evoke the rebirth of motorsports".
That brings me back to the question I made a bit earlier: is Kaz living in an alternative reality where motorsport died in 2014? Moreover, how would GT Sport offer this driving game defining change? Will it offer a more realistic simulation than the top competitors like iRacing , Rfactor 2 etc? What’s this? The winners of the competion will receive theirir trophy at the FIA ceremony alongside real champions? Oh goddy... Gran Turismo wasn’t even the first console game to feature e-sport competitions (GT Academy was more of a time trial). All in all it was an announcement which gave mixed messeges, a misguided but interesting concept and made clear GT of old is dead. However, players had lots to look forward to.
In March, speculation of a delay grew despite Polyphony being confident at a 2016 release. Just a month late, on May 19, GT Sport was unveiled in downtown London, at the Copper Box Arena in a pretty decent event with the 
creator and owner on commentary. I actually remember watching this event while reading for my math exam (wow it’s really being so long). Anyway, we got a new trailer with new and old cars, new tracks and a general showcase of the other feature directly from the PS4, as well as a first look of actual competition. Furthermore, our ears were treated to GT's audio revolution for the first time. Yes, after 18 years the dark "vacuum cleaner sound" era was officially over!. Some cars even sounded better than the final game (more on that later). As graphics go at the time, the game looked fantastic to me but after revisiting this event I can understand why people were skeptical... YouTube compression aside it looked rough - the HUD looked like a sad face emoji. The next day Kaz gave the presentation which was given to the media the day before to selected members of the public, showing what the game is about and its features.
But first I want to focus on this quote from the man himself:
"I think since the release of Gran Turismo 1, the race genre hasn’t involved very much over the years, my idea was that we want to completely revamp the genre again."
Wow... it’s common knowledge PD doesn’t care about the advancements competitors around them make but seriously Mr.Yamauchi? So that confirms the concept behind the game is completely misguided before it got out of the gate: fan- 🤬 tastic... We also saw the racing groups for the first time with Group B and X missing (Yikes...).
Here is a quote from the article. "GT Sport will also introduce four new competitive racing categories based on real-world motorsports that have been made to ensure an equal footing during racing competitions. The categories, N-Series, Group 4, Group 3 and Group 1 take into consideration everything from a vehicles wing and front spoilers, to the steering wheel and instrument panel."
I can't resist laughing every time I read this knowing how things turned out, but the most interesting part was the announcement of GT Sport's competition - winners will get a digital FIA racing license. Now we are talking! But then again was it really worth dropping the entire beloved formula for it? Other things to note from the event, some of which I really liked that didn't make it to the final game: the live speed counter for other cars in front of the player.
And the live gap counter between cars.
Confirmation of no standard cars, the amount of content, release date etc. To close the Cooper Box chapter, please take a look at these
Which brand is this? I don't think it’s Alpine.
Cadillac?
Does this mean Maserati was supposed to have an actual role in the championships?
Was this a glimpse at RUF? Was thair return planned from 2016 ?
During the next couple of months we got a bunch of news. In June, a new build was showcased with direct captured gameplay and a new trailer during E3, plus new content was spotted during play sessions in Asia.
In August Kaz talked about GT Sport possibly including up to 500 cars at the end of the game's life cycle, which didn't end up coming true. Play session continued and a new build was shown yet again at Gamescom alongside the newest Nürburgring 24 hours documentary, but the GT Sport momentum train came on a sudden halt as a delay was was officially announced a few days later on August 30th, despite canceling the announced public beta in order to avoid it. In my opinion it was for the better because if there was such critsism over the content and gameplay during the actual release. Imagine the 💩 storm if the game launched in 2016. I mean look at the Corvette from the beta, the yellow looks like expired mustard.
The extra content and refinements may not seem like much but they did the job. Anyhow, the GT Sport train gained its momentum quickly with new builds showcased all over the world for the rest of the year.
creator and owner on commentary. I actually remember watching this event while reading for my math exam (wow it’s really being so long). Anyway, we got a new trailer with new and old cars, new tracks and a general showcase of the other feature directly from the PS4, as well as a first look of actual competition. Furthermore, our ears were treated to GT's audio revolution for the first time. Yes, after 18 years the dark "vacuum cleaner sound" era was officially over!. Some cars even sounded better than the final game (more on that later). As graphics go at the time, the game looked fantastic to me but after revisiting this event I can understand why people were skeptical... YouTube compression aside it looked rough - the HUD looked like a sad face emoji. The next day Kaz gave the presentation which was given to the media the day before to selected members of the public, showing what the game is about and its features.But first I want to focus on this quote from the man himself:
"I think since the release of Gran Turismo 1, the race genre hasn’t involved very much over the years, my idea was that we want to completely revamp the genre again."
Wow... it’s common knowledge PD doesn’t care about the advancements competitors around them make but seriously Mr.Yamauchi? So that confirms the concept behind the game is completely misguided before it got out of the gate: fan- 🤬 tastic... We also saw the racing groups for the first time with Group B and X missing (Yikes...).
Here is a quote from the
article. "GT Sport will also introduce four new competitive racing categories based on real-world motorsports that have been made to ensure an equal footing during racing competitions. The categories, N-Series, Group 4, Group 3 and Group 1 take into consideration everything from a vehicles wing and front spoilers, to the steering wheel and instrument panel."I can't resist laughing every time I read this knowing how things turned out, but the most interesting part was the announcement of GT Sport's competition - winners will get a digital FIA racing license. Now we are talking! But then again was it really worth dropping the entire beloved formula for it? Other things to note from the event, some of which I really liked that didn't make it to the final game: the live speed counter for other cars in front of the player.
And the live gap counter between cars.
Confirmation of no standard cars, the amount of content, release date etc. To close the Cooper Box chapter, please take a look at these
Which brand is this? I don't think it’s Alpine.
Cadillac?
Does this mean Maserati was supposed to have an actual role in the championships?
Was this a glimpse at RUF? Was thair return planned from 2016 ?
During the next couple of months we got a bunch of news. In June, a new build was showcased with direct captured gameplay and a new trailer during E3, plus new content was spotted during play sessions in Asia.
In August Kaz talked about GT Sport possibly including up to 500 cars at the end of the game's life cycle, which didn't end up coming true. Play session continued and a new build was shown yet again at Gamescom alongside the newest Nürburgring 24 hours documentary, but the GT Sport momentum train came on a sudden halt as a delay was was officially announced a few days later on August 30th, despite canceling the announced public beta in order to avoid it. In my opinion it was for the better because if there was such critsism over the content and gameplay during the actual release. Imagine the 💩 storm if the game launched in 2016. I mean look at the Corvette from the beta, the yellow looks like expired mustard.
The extra content and refinements may not seem like much but they did the job. Anyhow, the GT Sport train gained its momentum quickly with new builds showcased all over the world for the rest of the year.
The year started like the previous ended, with showcases at the Tokyo Auto Salon and Taipei Game Show in January. The next wave of important news came in March at the Geneva Motor Show where the Fittipaldi Vision Gran Turismo was announced alongside a new partnership with Tag Heuer which lasted almost three years, providing branded timing for the first time since Gran Turismo 4 as well as a closed beta on March 17th for the US. Initial impressions were positive but there was some backlash when version 1.04 closed arcade mode for server stress testing purposes. Europe got access on April 15th but a few days before, on April 11th, something unexpected happened… Porsche was officially confirmed!
The beta arrived in Asia on May 22nd, while it was getting updated constantly before and after that point. Sadly I can't comment on it because i wasn’t part of the beta. Next stop is E3, where the release window was announced at Sony's briefing alongside two new trailers and a new build. I'd like to focus on some quotes from the Join the human race trailer.
"The haters dismissed us as arm chair racers and said our game wasn’t a sport"
Well, they still do and GT Sport arrived pretty late to the party when other sims tried to change that for years.
"Then we filled the podium at Le Mans but something changed, the game became less about competition and more about collecting cars."
Congratulations on your achievement but I have to call 💩on that because Gran Turismo was about collecting cars long before that point and they could start a new era with GT5 all those years ago. But instead they ported all the previous content over. Also, what do they mean with “less about competition”? When the trailer for the 15th anniversary went out seven months before GT6 was released, you recorded 70 BiIlion online races.
"We say we want change."
We did as well but we meant take the trash away, not throw a nuke on everything …
Anyhow, the next stop is the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few days later where Group X and mechanical damage were spotted for the first time, with the beta closed a few days after that. The last noteworthy stuff before release is the four day free demo and the confirmition of the finalized car and track lists.
The beta arrived in Asia on May 22nd, while it was getting updated constantly before and after that point. Sadly I can't comment on it because i wasn’t part of the beta. Next stop is E3, where the release window was announced at Sony's briefing alongside two new trailers and a new build. I'd like to focus on some quotes from the Join the human race trailer.
"The haters dismissed us as arm chair racers and said our game wasn’t a sport"
Well, they still do and GT Sport arrived pretty late to the party when other sims tried to change that for years.
"Then we filled the podium at Le Mans but something changed, the game became less about competition and more about collecting cars."
Congratulations on your achievement but I have to call 💩on that because Gran Turismo was about collecting cars long before that point and they could start a new era with GT5 all those years ago. But instead they ported all the previous content over. Also, what do they mean with “less about competition”? When the trailer for the 15th anniversary went out seven months before GT6 was released, you recorded 70 BiIlion online races.
"We say we want change."
We did as well but we meant take the trash away, not throw a nuke on everything …
Anyhow, the next stop is the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few days later where Group X and mechanical damage were spotted for the first time, with the beta closed a few days after that. The last noteworthy stuff before release is the four day free demo and the confirmition of the finalized car and track lists.
GT Sport was finally released into the wild on October 17, 2017. Media reviews were mostly very positive specifically gave it a 3/5 rating, however players had a wide range of opinions. Many loved it, many had legitimate criticisms over the game's issues but generally people were stunned and furious due to the lack of content and traditional features, despite having one year and 355 days since the initial announcement to do research on what this game was about. The number of single player events went up from the initial 117 to 222. However, most of them were time challenges lasting a few seconds, rain was limited to certain single player events and some features like the decal uploader weren’t available at launch.
https://www.gtplanet.net/gt-sports-decal-uploader-not-available-at-launch/
Not a very good start but despite this, GT Sport topped the UK sales charts early on.
The first major piece of news was the unveiling of the Zagato Vision Gran Turismo (which bears an interesting mystery behind it) at the Tokyo Motor Show a few days later. Almost two weeks after that, the first FIA testing season kicked off. November ended with the decal uploader being fully available, as well as the first of many downloadable car packs including the previously mentioned Zagato VGT, the 2016 Audi R18 and the legendary Shelby Cobra. In December we got unofficial confirmation of the Formula Drift BRZ being included at some point in the future and one of the biggest updates overall with 12 cars, two track layouts and the expansion of single player with GT League.
However, at the same time GT Sport's online only nature became a problem for the first time as servers, were facing connection issues during the holidays due to unexpected influx of players, to the point PSN mistook it for a DDoS attack.
specifically gave it a 3/5 rating, however players had a wide range of opinions. Many loved it, many had legitimate criticisms over the game's issues but generally people were stunned and furious due to the lack of content and traditional features, despite having one year and 355 days since the initial announcement to do research on what this game was about. The number of single player events went up from the initial 117 to 222. However, most of them were time challenges lasting a few seconds, rain was limited to certain single player events and some features like the decal uploader weren’t available at launch.https://www.gtplanet.net/gt-sports-decal-uploader-not-available-at-launch/
Not a very good start but despite this, GT Sport topped the UK sales charts early on.
The first major piece of news was the unveiling of the Zagato Vision Gran Turismo (which bears an interesting mystery behind it) at the Tokyo Motor Show a few days later. Almost two weeks after that, the first FIA testing season kicked off. November ended with the decal uploader being fully available, as well as the first of many downloadable car packs including the previously mentioned Zagato VGT, the 2016 Audi R18 and the legendary Shelby Cobra. In December we got unofficial confirmation of the Formula Drift BRZ being included at some point in the future and one of the biggest updates overall with 12 cars, two track layouts and the expansion of single player with GT League.
However, at the same time GT Sport's online only nature became a problem for the first time as servers, were facing connection issues during the holidays due to unexpected influx of players, to the point PSN mistook it for a DDoS attack.
The year began with a fairly large update featuring a returning Monza and a premium MK4 Toyota Supra after years of requests as the highlights. However, this update also brought forward a new big issue with Group X which was nicknamed "The graveyard" by the community (more on that later) and that was the lack of incentive for purchasing the more expensive cars as their usability was very limited and race payouts were insufficient, with exception of some specific events resulting in repetitive grinding.
February started with the discovery of the Blue Moon Bay infield layouts and a rumor about the 1991 Acura NSX returning, which proved false. The monthly pack arrived just at the end of the month:
Previously mentioned layouts: ✔️
The return of the Alpine A110 (both old and new): ✔️
Dai Yoshihara's BRZ, Isle of Man WRX, debut of De Tomaso V10 Audi R.... oh wait, it was the V8 model ...That’s fine! Because Lotus 9... oh wait, it’s a watered down version instead... still a solid update I guess.
March was weird. First, a GT Sport ad was pulled from UK air due to misleading nature, then five days later someone at French TV network Canal+ felt they owned the copyright to Dragon Trail, even though it’s a fictional course located in virtual Croatia because .
But three days after that, in my opinion, the best update went live.
Fantastic trailer: ✔️
Tsukuba: ✔️
M3 E30: ✔️
Return of the Red Bull cars: ✔️
Classic GT legends: ✔️
New Super GT cars: ✔️
VR mode expansion: ✔️
April's content was spoiled the previous month, but the Audi VGT cars and especially the GR Supra Racing concept were more than good enough. Furthermore, Porsche Motorsport Japan launched their own E-sport competition. In May, the first World Tour event happened during the Nurburgring 24 hours, the companion app finally became available, but most importantly Le mans and Group C made their return.
The summer was equally as hot despite the chain of monthly update been broken in June. The sporting history feature became available and even though the chain of monthly updates was broken, the FIA championships officially began! Yes, after nine months on the market, the reason this game exists the way it does finally came into the forefront…
July was a return to form with a huge update, which made improvements to scapes and livery editor, the return of beloved classics, the first modern F1 car in almost a decade and... Sainte-Croix...
However, this update caused a bit of controversy as the characteristic "brap brap brap brap" idle sound of the Mazda 787B was missing, the physics of the Mercedes W08 also left a lot to be desired but most importantly, Kaz retracted one of his promises and microtransactions made their way into the game. To top things off, daily races became weekly from now on.
After this mixed bag, August came with important news which will effect the series for years to come. Polyphony Digital decided to outsource an element of a GT game for the first time. Specifically, car modeling with the Honda S660 being modeled in part by Modeling Cafe. The monthly content pack included Red Bull Ring, returning classics as well as the first 60s Mini Cooper to close off a pretty packed summer. Turns out the inclusion of Red Bull Ring wasn’t random, as Semptember's World Tour event took place at Red Bull Hangar 7. This World Tour also started something of a tradition, with future content being revealed ahead of time. The content pack featured an updated Fuji, classic returns and two new Porsche 911s, with the 996 GT3 finally becoming officialy available after 17 years.
October started with Pro driver Pasin Lathouras posting his Pagani Zonda getting recorded, which sparked speculation of Pagani's return. Also a pretty signigicant change happened in Sport mode, with the Penalty zones being used for the first time at the regional finals. The montly content pack included more returns with the Subaru Impreza 22B and finally the debut of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as the highlights.
February started with the discovery of the Blue Moon Bay infield layouts and a rumor about the 1991 Acura NSX returning, which proved false. The monthly pack arrived just at the end of the month:
Previously mentioned layouts: ✔️
The return of the Alpine A110 (both old and new): ✔️
Dai Yoshihara's BRZ, Isle of Man WRX, debut of De Tomaso
V10 Audi R.... oh wait, it was the V8 model ...That’s fine! Because Lotus 9... oh wait, it’s a watered down version instead... still a solid update I guess.March was weird. First, a GT Sport ad was pulled from UK air due to misleading nature, then five days later someone at French TV network Canal+ felt they owned the copyright to Dragon Trail, even though it’s a fictional course located in virtual Croatia because
.But three days after that, in my opinion, the best update went live.
Fantastic trailer: ✔️
Tsukuba: ✔️
M3 E30: ✔️
Return of the Red Bull cars: ✔️
Classic GT legends: ✔️
New Super GT cars: ✔️
VR mode expansion: ✔️
April's content was spoiled the previous month, but the Audi VGT cars and especially the GR Supra Racing concept were more than good enough. Furthermore, Porsche Motorsport Japan launched their own E-sport competition. In May, the first World Tour event happened during the Nurburgring 24 hours, the companion app finally became available, but most importantly Le mans and Group C made their return.
The summer was equally as hot despite the chain of monthly update been broken in June. The sporting history feature became available and even though the chain of monthly updates was broken, the FIA championships officially began! Yes, after nine months on the market, the reason this game exists the way it does finally came into the forefront…
July was a return to form with a huge update, which made improvements to scapes and livery editor, the return of beloved classics, the first modern F1 car in almost a decade and... Sainte-Croix...
However, this update caused a bit of controversy as the characteristic "brap brap brap brap" idle sound of the Mazda 787B was missing, the physics of the Mercedes W08 also left a lot to be desired but most importantly, Kaz retracted one of his promises and microtransactions made their way into the game. To top things off, daily races became weekly from now on.
After this mixed bag, August came with important news which will effect the series for years to come. Polyphony Digital decided to outsource an element of a GT game for the first time. Specifically, car modeling with the Honda S660 being modeled in part by Modeling Cafe. The monthly content pack included Red Bull Ring, returning classics as well as the first 60s Mini Cooper to close off a pretty packed summer. Turns out the inclusion of Red Bull Ring wasn’t random, as Semptember's World Tour event took place at Red Bull Hangar 7. This World Tour also started something of a tradition, with future content being revealed ahead of time. The content pack featured an updated Fuji, classic returns and two new Porsche 911s, with the 996 GT3 finally becoming officialy available after 17 years.
October started with Pro driver Pasin Lathouras posting his Pagani Zonda getting recorded, which sparked speculation of Pagani's return. Also a pretty signigicant change happened in Sport mode, with the Penalty zones being used for the first time at the regional finals. The montly content pack included more returns with the Subaru Impreza 22B and finally the debut of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as the highlights.
The year started with a mixed received content pack including series legends, new races and the controversial return of Special Dtage Route X. But just a few days after that, players from US and Canada faced issues regarding cars they purchased via the PlayStation Store.
Skipping straight to a packed March with a double content update, with the first wave including Autopolis (only seen once before at a custom GT6 build) and five cars, with the new at the time Toyota GR Supra making its debut. Following said debut, Toyota was announced as an official partner, complete with a third Sport mode competition: the GR Supra GT Cup, which sparked speculation of exclusivity. The second wave included more returns and the inclusion of the Dallara SF19 Super Formula car, making GT Sport the only game to feature Super Formula since the official PS1 game in 1999! To top things off, changes were made to DRS and KERS implementation.
April was pretty uneventful until the last few days. On the 19th, 2017 SEMA award overall winner Phil Robles posted on Instagram confirming Polyphony scanned his 1992 EG Honda Civic for inclusion in a future release. On the 23rd, the monthly content pack dropped, with the Porsche 962C being the highlight but strangely the returning premium Toyota Corolla AE86 caused some controversy, because of its digital dash of all ressons (yes, really). On the 27th, the GR Supra Cup kicked off and finally May was quiet until the very end, but on the 30th, Goodwood returned with the full circuit making its debut instead of the previously featured Hillclimb.
The summer began with rumors of Silverstone coming to the game, which proved to be false. Then we got the first glimpse into rainy tracks in the game due to a leak from the upcoming World Tour event. The monthly car pack included a new asphalt track in the fictional Sardegna location and five new cars.
July was uneventful as well minus the content pack (although small was worth it). The Honda Civic Type R (EK) returned alongside the Mazda MX-5 Touring Car and the now premium Honda S800, while the new additions were the 930 Porsche 911 Turbo and the out of nowhere revealed Jaguar D-Type. Furthemore the game gained a new Time Trial mode for Sport mode (basically Seasonal Events without the rewards). The summer closed with a huge boom! Rain finally became a thing with Red Bull Ring, alongside a JDM themed car pack including a premium AP1 Honda S2000, a returning original Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo, a Subaru Impreza WRX STI VI and another Toyota Corolla AE86 but with a different bumper this time! Oh goody... Anyhow, a new partnership with Michelin was announced consisting of branding in GT Sport, but supposedly should effect future releases. More importantly however we got a first look at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which had become a meme the previous few years as the community demanded its inclusion time and time again.
The final part of the year began with an announcement in the Frankfurt Motor Show regarding the partnership between Polyphony and Porsche, with a planned three car expansion in 2019/20 - only one made it into the game sadly. That one survivor was Porsche's first electric vehicle: the Taycan Turbo S. Furthemore, Polyphony shaked things up by making FIA Sport mode races longer for the upcoming sesson. The monthly car pack included another wet track option, this time for four Tokyo Expressway layouts. The car pack included was surprisingly american with the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray racer concept, alongside two new debutants: the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and Dodge Super Bee, with the equally popular in America Ferrari 365 GTB/4 feeling out of place.
A few days later, on October 4th, a new Spec II version was released aimed to new comers but all players got a new (in my opinion far better) opening movie at least. A few days after that, Polyphony made a ruther stange survey about the GR Supra, giving a unique Supra Group 4 to anyone willing to spare a few minutes of their time. A few weeks after that, Jaguar revealed their Vision Gran Turismo car at the World Tour in Tokyo for inclusion in November, but the October content pack was special... Finally, Spa arrived in GT Sport after a two year absence, with rain conditions out of the gate to boot! As far as cars go, all of them were new to the series: the previously mentioned Porsche Taycan Turbo S, Lamborghini Aventadoor SV, 1971 Spa 24 hour race winner and AMG legend Mercedes 300 SEL 6.8 and oddly the Mazda Demio XD Touring .
November had an interesting first half, as a short lived glitch enabling rain on every track and the first daily race at Spa caused a small controversy regarding track limits. But everything kicked off at the second half. During the first FIA world finals, a new partnership with Mazda, a Lewis Hamilton DLC expansion and the Lamborghini Vision Gran Turismo were announced and we got a first look at Laguna Seca. The monthly pack gave us the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo, another variant of the Toyota 86 (Lame emoji) alongside an updated E46 BMW M3, the returning RE Amemiya touge RX-7 and the return of RUF which shocked the community, as it was speculated the brand was droped in favor of Porsche. However, this wasn’t a simple brand return but also the first time RUF was updated since Gran Turismo 4.
December consisted of bugs and the usual holiday time servers outage, but the monthly update delivered the goods: Laguna Seca arrived alongside a premium VW Golf GTi MK1, a (993) generation Porsche 911, the domestically popular Toyota Crown, the highly requested 2017 Ford GT, two actual police cars and one filler safety car.
Skipping straight to a packed March with a double content update, with the first wave including Autopolis (only seen once before at a custom GT6 build) and five cars, with the new at the time Toyota GR Supra making its debut. Following said debut, Toyota was announced as an official partner, complete with a third Sport mode competition: the GR Supra GT Cup, which sparked speculation of exclusivity. The second wave included more returns and the inclusion of the Dallara SF19 Super Formula car, making GT Sport the only game to feature Super Formula since the official PS1 game in 1999! To top things off, changes were made to DRS and KERS implementation.
April was pretty uneventful until the last few days. On the 19th, 2017 SEMA award overall winner Phil Robles posted on Instagram confirming Polyphony scanned his 1992 EG Honda Civic for inclusion in a future release. On the 23rd, the monthly content pack dropped, with the Porsche 962C being the highlight but strangely the returning premium Toyota Corolla AE86 caused some controversy, because of its digital dash of all ressons (yes, really). On the 27th, the GR Supra Cup kicked off and finally May was quiet until the very end, but on the 30th, Goodwood returned with the full circuit making its debut instead of the previously featured Hillclimb.
The summer began with rumors of Silverstone coming to the game, which proved to be false. Then we got the first glimpse into rainy tracks in the game due to a leak from the upcoming World Tour event. The monthly car pack included a new asphalt track in the fictional Sardegna location and five new cars.
July was uneventful as well minus the content pack (although small was worth it). The Honda Civic Type R (EK) returned alongside the Mazda MX-5 Touring Car and the now premium Honda S800, while the new additions were the 930 Porsche 911 Turbo and the out of nowhere revealed Jaguar D-Type. Furthemore the game gained a new Time Trial mode for Sport mode (basically Seasonal Events without the rewards). The summer closed with a huge boom! Rain finally became a thing with Red Bull Ring, alongside a JDM themed car pack including a premium AP1 Honda S2000, a returning original Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo, a Subaru Impreza WRX STI VI and another Toyota Corolla AE86 but with a different bumper this time! Oh goody... Anyhow, a new partnership with Michelin was announced consisting of branding in GT Sport, but supposedly should effect future releases. More importantly however we got a first look at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which had become a meme the previous few years as the community demanded its inclusion time and time again.
The final part of the year began with an announcement in the Frankfurt Motor Show regarding the partnership between Polyphony and Porsche, with a planned three car expansion in 2019/20 - only one made it into the game sadly. That one survivor was Porsche's first electric vehicle: the Taycan Turbo S. Furthemore, Polyphony shaked things up by making FIA Sport mode races longer for the upcoming sesson. The monthly car pack included another wet track option, this time for four Tokyo Expressway layouts. The car pack included was surprisingly american with the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray racer concept, alongside two new debutants: the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and Dodge Super Bee, with the equally popular in America Ferrari 365 GTB/4 feeling out of place.
A few days later, on October 4th, a new Spec II version was released aimed to new comers but all players got a new (in my opinion far better) opening movie at least. A few days after that, Polyphony made a ruther stange survey about the GR Supra, giving a unique Supra Group 4 to anyone willing to spare a few minutes of their time. A few weeks after that, Jaguar revealed their Vision Gran Turismo car at the World Tour in Tokyo for inclusion in November, but the October content pack was special... Finally, Spa arrived in GT Sport after a two year absence, with rain conditions out of the gate to boot! As far as cars go, all of them were new to the series: the previously mentioned Porsche Taycan Turbo S, Lamborghini Aventadoor SV, 1971 Spa 24 hour race winner and AMG legend Mercedes 300 SEL 6.8 and oddly the Mazda Demio XD Touring .
November had an interesting first half, as a short lived glitch enabling rain on every track and the first daily race at Spa caused a small controversy regarding track limits. But everything kicked off at the second half. During the first FIA world finals, a new partnership with Mazda, a Lewis Hamilton DLC expansion and the Lamborghini Vision Gran Turismo were announced and we got a first look at Laguna Seca. The monthly pack gave us the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo, another variant of the Toyota 86 (Lame emoji) alongside an updated E46 BMW M3, the returning RE Amemiya touge RX-7 and the return of RUF which shocked the community, as it was speculated the brand was droped in favor of Porsche. However, this wasn’t a simple brand return but also the first time RUF was updated since Gran Turismo 4.
December consisted of bugs and the usual holiday time servers outage, but the monthly update delivered the goods: Laguna Seca arrived alongside a premium VW Golf GTi MK1, a (993) generation Porsche 911, the domestically popular Toyota Crown, the highly requested 2017 Ford GT, two actual police cars and one filler safety car.
2020
The year started with rumors of the Isdera Commendatore possibly coming to the series in the future but going straight at the end of February for the first major news as Kaz himself announced that "This year's updates are modest in frequency and volume." The first pack of the year (which turned out to be the only one) added a premium version of the fan favorite Nissan 180SX, the legendary Aston Martin DBR9 and the 2008 Fiat 500 which caused controversy because it occupied one of the limited slots in place of better alternatives. But then, Covid appeared and it lead to some interesting events. E-sports boomed in general and GT Sport naturally enjoyed part of that.
In March, the FIA season got delayed until April. April was packed Audi announced a livery competition as part of their RaceHome initiative as well as a time trial competition for Japanese players. The 2020 Toyota Supra RZ became the latest addition to the car roster. Polyphony announced that no live events will take place and Red Bull followed Audi’s lead with their Beat the Pro competition. In May, Super Formula announced a virtual series within the game, Red Bull announced their Homestretch series and a few days later the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 arrived alongside a time trial and livery competition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Japanese manufacturer.
Skipping straight to late September as Porsche’s Japanese E-sports event returned, followed by the second Red Bull Beat the Pro time trial almost a month later. The last important event the year was in November with the gaming debut of the Toyota GR Yaris.
2021
The year has only a few important things to talk about, starting with the revised Toyota GR Cup announced in early April, confirming the addition of the new GR86. A few weeks later, GT Sport was confirmed as one of the selected games for the inaugural Olympic virtual series, with the qualification stage beginning on May 13th. The month closed with BBS Japan becoming the latest GT Sport partner.
June brought the conclusion of the Olympic virtual series, with Valerio Gallo becoming the first winner. On June 11th, the "real" Gran Turismo 7 was revealed confirming GT Sport was put on the back burner and that will also be reflected in the number/kind of events. I will highlight here.
But before that, it’s worth mentioning that the announced time frames for the addition of the Porsche 917 Living Legend and Lamborghini VGT had long passed. GT Sport received its final content update a few weeks later on July 8th, with the gaming debut of the Toyota GR86. In September, the Porsche Asia-Pacific Cup was announced which took place through the latter part of the year. Red Bull Beat the Pro returned once again in October, and finally in November a newspaper posted to the arXiv research repository brought to light a new study conducted by Sony AI, which was unbeknownst to us a step in the development of the GT Sophy AI project. But at the same time it exposed how bad the current AI is.
The year started with rumors of the Isdera Commendatore possibly coming to the series in the future but going straight at the end of February for the first major news as Kaz himself announced that "This year's updates are modest in frequency and volume." The first pack of the year (which turned out to be the only one) added a premium version of the fan favorite Nissan 180SX, the legendary Aston Martin DBR9 and the 2008 Fiat 500 which caused controversy because it occupied one of the limited slots in place of better alternatives. But then, Covid appeared and it lead to some interesting events. E-sports boomed in general and GT Sport naturally enjoyed part of that.
In March, the FIA season got delayed until April. April was packed Audi announced a livery competition as part of their RaceHome initiative as well as a time trial competition for Japanese players. The 2020 Toyota Supra RZ became the latest addition to the car roster. Polyphony announced that no live events will take place and Red Bull followed Audi’s lead with their Beat the Pro competition. In May, Super Formula announced a virtual series within the game, Red Bull announced their Homestretch series and a few days later the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 arrived alongside a time trial and livery competition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Japanese manufacturer.
Skipping straight to late September as Porsche’s Japanese E-sports event returned, followed by the second Red Bull Beat the Pro time trial almost a month later. The last important event the year was in November with the gaming debut of the Toyota GR Yaris.
2021
The year has only a few important things to talk about, starting with the revised Toyota GR Cup announced in early April, confirming the addition of the new GR86. A few weeks later, GT Sport was confirmed as one of the selected games for the inaugural Olympic virtual series, with the qualification stage beginning on May 13th. The month closed with BBS Japan becoming the latest GT Sport partner.
June brought the conclusion of the Olympic virtual series, with Valerio Gallo becoming the first winner. On June 11th, the "real" Gran Turismo 7 was revealed confirming GT Sport was put on the back burner and that will also be reflected in the number/kind of events. I will highlight here.
But before that, it’s worth mentioning that the announced time frames for the addition of the Porsche 917 Living Legend and Lamborghini VGT had long passed. GT Sport received its final content update a few weeks later on July 8th, with the gaming debut of the Toyota GR86. In September, the Porsche Asia-Pacific Cup was announced which took place through the latter part of the year. Red Bull Beat the Pro returned once again in October, and finally in November a newspaper posted to the arXiv research repository brought to light a new study conducted by Sony AI, which was unbeknownst to us a step in the development of the GT Sophy AI project. But at the same time it exposed how bad the current AI is.
I personally knew what I "signed up for" since the beginning but I almost didn't buy the game, because when I tried version 1.00 I was less than impressed. After sorting out my settings, I took the Lexus RC F for a drive around Dragon Trail but as I approached turn 1, the car went completely straight as if the steering was broken. I brushed it off, made a slow lap to warm up the tires but yet again as I was approaching turn 1, the car went straight like a brick. So I decided to wait for some patches and after trying it again a couple months later, I bought it bundled with a slim PS4 and ended up with a decent experience.
Classification (Relevant to GT7)
Let’s start with the thing which effects every single aspect of gameplay. To put it simply, whoever thought of it didn’t waste more than 10 minutes. But before I say the obvious things most people know already, let me give some perspective.
GT Sport has seven classes: at a basic level Group N is divided into 10 sub-classes and Groups 4, 3, 2, 1, B, X. Comparing this structure to other games from the same period paints a clear picture: Dirt 4 has 21 classes and keep in mind that it’s focused on off-road racing only. Forza 7 has nine general classes which, to my understanding, are a combination of the arcade mode classes in first three GT games and the performance points system, but also 64 divisions! They are far from perfect but they sure are far better than what PD came up with. Project Cars 2 has a very similar system with 58 classes and, finally, let’s throw an arcade racer in.
Hmmm, what to choose... let’s go with the Crew 2 (Drum roll).. It has eight car classes! … I’m sorry but when even the 🤬 Crew has more classes, the situation is horrible. And if it ended there I wouldn’t be so harsh but they don’t follow their own rules
. The biggest example is of course the N classes, which were scrapped for GT7 so complaining about them seems nonsensical but please hang on a minute. The obvious flaw of sorting cars only based on power only aside, I want to direct your attention to the explanation given in this video.
"... the first on the list is the Group N class which consists of stock production cars."
Stock production cars, got it, but still I find a number of cars in violation of that rule.
but going a little bit further it states:
"...up to the 1000 horsepower hyper cars and monster tuned cars..."
Tuned cars? But I thought it was about stock prod... Ok, whatever. Some cars are off the hook then.
But if we go by the explanation on the online manual:
which one is it
And this creates another issue. If concepts are legal, then why only a few of them made the transition and not others like the Toyota FT-1? And even still some of the cars included don't make sense at all. Here are some examples:
If the name dosen't convince you maybe the looks will. At the very least it’s a cup racer belonging in GR.X, heck Forza 7 has a dedicated division just for the real version of this car. However, a real MX-5 GT4 car exists and if you put them side by side I would argue the touring car has more aggressive aero.
And people are seriously saying that in a world with a car making 2.600 HP able to reach 700 Km/h exists, they can't put some weight on to reach a minimum of 1000 kg and 150 Hp extra in that engine to put it in GR.4?
The image says it all but I’ll like to add that Toyota refers to this car as "A track ready race car" in it’s press release.
Next is Group 4 The video states its equivalent to FIA GT4 and the explanation of the online manual corroborates that
My English might be lacking, but I don’t think 35.71% of the available cars being illegal based on the basic principal the category they are supposedly following (rear-wheel drive only) counts as “corresponding”. The class is actually structured similarly to the SP classes of the German endurance series (known as VLN until 2019). I like the idea behind it but don’t say it’s something that it’s not.
Group 3 is mostly ok besides the GT1/GT2 cars dumbed in just because. As far as the fictional incarnations I’m fine with them, I actually believe the creative freedom of the developers has gone underused. However, I take issue with these two cars specifically.
Nothing wrong with it so f...where are the windows .
I have never seen a race car real or fictional without windows before.
Now that’s just ridiculous: a fully open top GT3 car. The Peugeot may not have windows but at least its closed… Even if I accept the Peugeot for the sake of argument as the RCZ was made way later, Volkswagen already had the closed top model available. Regardless both would be in severe violation of real life regulations, and if you think I’m taking a game too seriously you are kind of right, these are fundamental mistakes in something which supposedly should be taken seriously on the world stage.
The Rally Group is ok as it’s a fictional class but why Group B? It has nothing in common, if anything it seems like a more open version of the 2017-2021 regulations.
Group 2 is fine for the most part, so next on the chopping block is Group 1… oh Group 1… What a fine mess you are. The issue here is the category being made for "Prototypes" because the word has such a loose definition. For example, the Ferrari 330 is a prototype but putting it against the modern hybrid prototypes wouldn’t make sense. PD took nothing into account, which is quite astounding, and ends up being a total disaster.
Finally Group (Drum roll) X. Dubbed the "Graveyard" by the community I think that’s somewhat unfair. I believe Group X as a concept has a reason to exist. Some players against Group X had suggested separate groups for the cars in it but this would’ve applied to very few cases and most of the time it would’ve ended up like this https://youtu.be/MzcI8SzP-_A, which is fine if you want to mess around but it doesn’t make sense.
In such cases something like Group X can be useful but again Implementation is key. That is where PD messed up by restricting cars for dumb reasons even in single player.
Classification (Relevant to GT7)
Let’s start with the thing which effects every single aspect of gameplay. To put it simply, whoever thought of it didn’t waste more than 10 minutes. But before I say the obvious things most people know already, let me give some perspective.
GT Sport has seven classes: at a basic level Group N is divided into 10 sub-classes and Groups 4, 3, 2, 1, B, X. Comparing this structure to other games from the same period paints a clear picture: Dirt 4 has 21 classes and keep in mind that it’s focused on off-road racing only. Forza 7 has nine general classes which, to my understanding, are a combination of the arcade mode classes in first three GT games and the performance points system, but also 64 divisions! They are far from perfect but they sure are far better than what PD came up with. Project Cars 2 has a very similar system with 58 classes and, finally, let’s throw an arcade racer in.
Hmmm, what to choose... let’s go with the Crew 2 (Drum roll).. It has eight car classes! … I’m sorry but when even the 🤬 Crew has more classes, the situation is horrible. And if it ended there I wouldn’t be so harsh but they don’t follow their own rules
. The biggest example is of course the N classes, which were scrapped for GT7 so complaining about them seems nonsensical but please hang on a minute. The obvious flaw of sorting cars only based on power only aside, I want to direct your attention to the explanation given in this video. "... the first on the list is the Group N class which consists of stock production cars."
Stock production cars, got it, but still I find a number of cars in violation of that rule.
Abarth 1500 Biposto Bertone B.A.T I
Alfa Romeo 4C GR.3 Road Car
Amuse S2000 GT1 Turbo
Aston Martin Vulcan
Chevrolet Corvette C7 GR.3 Road Car
Chris Holestorm Concepts Chevy Nova
Citroen GT by Citroen road car
Ford Mustang GR.3 Road Car
Eckerts Rod & Custom Mach Forty
Greddy Fugu Z
Mazda Atenza GR.3 Road Car
Mazda Roadster Touring Car
Mazda RX500
Mitsubishi Lancer Evoloution X Final Edition GR.B Road Car
Peugeot RCZ GR.3 Road Car
Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster
Re-Amemiya RX-7
Subaru WRX GR.B Road Car
Toyota SF-R
Toyota SF-R Racing Concept
Alfa Romeo 4C GR.3 Road Car
Amuse S2000 GT1 Turbo
Aston Martin Vulcan
Chevrolet Corvette C7 GR.3 Road Car
Chris Holestorm Concepts Chevy Nova
Citroen GT by Citroen road car
Ford Mustang GR.3 Road Car
Eckerts Rod & Custom Mach Forty
Greddy Fugu Z
Mazda Atenza GR.3 Road Car
Mazda Roadster Touring Car
Mazda RX500
Mitsubishi Lancer Evoloution X Final Edition GR.B Road Car
Peugeot RCZ GR.3 Road Car
Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster
Re-Amemiya RX-7
Subaru WRX GR.B Road Car
Toyota SF-R
Toyota SF-R Racing Concept
but going a little bit further it states:
"...up to the 1000 horsepower hyper cars and monster tuned cars..."
Tuned cars? But I thought it was about stock prod... Ok, whatever. Some cars are off the hook then.
Abarth 1500 Biposto Bertone B.A.T I
Aston Martin Vulcan
Citroen GT by Citroen road car
Mazda Roadster Touring Car
Mazda RX500
Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster
Toyota SF-R
Toyota SF-R Racing Concept
Aston Martin Vulcan
Citroen GT by Citroen road car
Mazda Roadster Touring Car
Mazda RX500
Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster
Toyota SF-R
Toyota SF-R Racing Concept
But if we go by the explanation on the online manual:
which one is it
And this creates another issue. If concepts are legal, then why only a few of them made the transition and not others like the Toyota FT-1? And even still some of the cars included don't make sense at all. Here are some examples:
If the name dosen't convince you maybe the looks will. At the very least it’s a cup racer belonging in GR.X, heck Forza 7 has a dedicated division just for the real version of this car. However, a real MX-5 GT4 car exists and if you put them side by side I would argue the touring car has more aggressive aero.
And people are seriously saying that in a world with a car making 2.600 HP able to reach 700 Km/h exists, they can't put some weight on to reach a minimum of 1000 kg and 150 Hp extra in that engine to put it in GR.4?
The image says it all but I’ll like to add that Toyota refers to this car as "A track ready race car" in it’s press release.
Next is Group 4 The video states its equivalent to FIA GT4 and the explanation of the online manual corroborates that
My English might be lacking, but I don’t think 35.71% of the available cars being illegal based on the basic principal the category they are supposedly following (rear-wheel drive only) counts as “corresponding”. The class is actually structured similarly to the SP classes of the German endurance series (known as VLN until 2019). I like the idea behind it but don’t say it’s something that it’s not.
Group 3 is mostly ok besides the GT1/GT2 cars dumbed in just because. As far as the fictional incarnations I’m fine with them, I actually believe the creative freedom of the developers has gone underused. However, I take issue with these two cars specifically.
Nothing wrong with it so f...where are the windows
.I have never seen a race car real or fictional without windows before.
Now that’s just ridiculous: a fully open top GT3 car. The Peugeot may not have windows but at least its closed… Even if I accept the Peugeot for the sake of argument as the RCZ was made way later, Volkswagen already had the closed top model available. Regardless both would be in severe violation of real life regulations, and if you think I’m taking a game too seriously you are kind of right, these are fundamental mistakes in something which supposedly should be taken seriously on the world stage.
The Rally Group is ok as it’s a fictional class but why Group B? It has nothing in common, if anything it seems like a more open version of the 2017-2021 regulations.
Group 2 is fine for the most part, so next on the chopping block is Group 1… oh Group 1… What a fine mess you are. The issue here is the category being made for "Prototypes" because the word has such a loose definition. For example, the Ferrari 330 is a prototype but putting it against the modern hybrid prototypes wouldn’t make sense. PD took nothing into account, which is quite astounding, and ends up being a total disaster.
Finally Group (Drum roll) X. Dubbed the "Graveyard" by the community I think that’s somewhat unfair. I believe Group X as a concept has a reason to exist. Some players against Group X had suggested separate groups for the cars in it but this would’ve applied to very few cases and most of the time it would’ve ended up like this https://youtu.be/MzcI8SzP-_A, which is fine if you want to mess around but it doesn’t make sense.
In such cases something like Group X can be useful but again Implementation is key. That is where PD messed up by restricting cars for dumb reasons even in single player.
GT Sport had everything someone would normally expect from a Gran Turismo game, but different in some way or another alongside the new stuff. Even the small things like the garage feel totally different with the backgrounds and multiple angles, but I’d like to start from the Brand Central.
At first I was confused as to why they renamed it instead of calling it dealership but it became clear as soon as I clicked on it. I like the mix of styles from different games, country and continent sorting from GT6, the pictures of each brand like in GT4 but further than that the simple place for buying cars was transformed into a digital car space. I mean which game before let you visit the official site of a brand from the console browser? It’s very unlikely someone will see something like a Mustang in the game and be like “I like that car let me order one from my PS4” but you never know. The showroom is a bit nostalgic with the black background and the multiple camera angles showing the car inside and out as a nice addition but it’s still not as good as GT5 to me, the car sorting issues don’t help either - not a big deal but ever so slightly annoying.
The museum returned thankfully as a brief run down of a manufacturer's history instead of having to collect pictures like it’s a Panini sticker album. However it was underutilized and outdated, starting a pattern seen throughout the game. One thing I don't really like about it is the general knowledge stuff.
It’s a car racing game, stuff like these have no place in it. The channel function is a nice addition. The basic idea is nice but it’s kind of pointless. The most frustrating thing however is that some channel videos are about new cars (at the time) that never made it into the game. Thank you very much Polyphony for advertising the McLaren Senna that would've been a nice car to try out .
The updated photo mode is the best I have ever seen but I don’t have many games with photo mode included so I could very easily be wrong.
Finally but possibly most importantly, a Livery editor was finally implemented in a GT game. I’m not an artist so it seems great to me but the general concence in this forum and other groups I am in is that it was a decent first attemp, but it has lots of room for improvement. Most players dismissed these two features because they have no effect on the racing aspect but there's a large community out there for them and I give props to PD for improving them.
Last and possibly least the Mileage Exchange. Replacing the beloved GT Auto as a mobile game-ish shop wasn’t’t a good move in my book because all it did was dragging things out with its rotation cycle. Thankfully it was scrapped for GT7.
The discover section was a nice evolution of the community function, giving players the chance to show their skills but it can be problematic to navigate.
At first I was confused as to why they renamed it instead of calling it dealership but it became clear as soon as I clicked on it. I like the mix of styles from different games, country and continent sorting from GT6, the pictures of each brand like in GT4 but further than that the simple place for buying cars was transformed into a digital car space. I mean which game before let you visit the official site of a brand from the console browser? It’s very unlikely someone will see something like a Mustang in the game and be like “I like that car let me order one from my PS4” but you never know. The showroom is a bit nostalgic with the black background and the multiple camera angles showing the car inside and out as a nice addition but it’s still not as good as GT5 to me, the car sorting issues don’t help either - not a big deal but ever so slightly annoying.
The museum returned thankfully as a brief run down of a manufacturer's history instead of having to collect pictures like it’s a Panini sticker album. However it was underutilized and outdated, starting a pattern seen throughout the game. One thing I don't really like about it is the general knowledge stuff.
It’s a car racing game, stuff like these have no place in it. The channel function is a nice addition. The basic idea is nice but it’s kind of pointless. The most frustrating thing however is that some channel videos are about new cars (at the time) that never made it into the game. Thank you very much Polyphony for advertising the McLaren Senna that would've been a nice car to try out
.The updated photo mode is the best I have ever seen but I don’t have many games with photo mode included so I could very easily be wrong.
Finally but possibly most importantly, a Livery editor was finally implemented in a GT game. I’m not an artist so it seems great to me but the general concence in this forum and other groups I am in is that it was a decent first attemp, but it has lots of room for improvement. Most players dismissed these two features because they have no effect on the racing aspect but there's a large community out there for them and I give props to PD for improving them.
Last and possibly least the Mileage Exchange. Replacing the beloved GT Auto as a mobile game-ish shop wasn’t’t a good move in my book because all it did was dragging things out with its rotation cycle. Thankfully it was scrapped for GT7.
The discover section was a nice evolution of the community function, giving players the chance to show their skills but it can be problematic to navigate.
GT Sport brought the biggest change to the economy system with the addition of the mileage points and the daily workout alongside the traditional credits. The daily workout was a nice addition, allowing players with less free time to collect cars just by playing the game. However the way the cars are awarded works similary to a loot box system and it became repetitive really quickly. The mileage points were a bad choice as they exist only for use at the mileage exchange and car upgrading. Car prices were rebalanced as well.
Many say the economy is awful but I think it’s pretty decent and thanks to the class system most race cars have a fixed price. Sure, some cars cost a bit more compare to GT6 but many are a lot cheaper. The XJR-9 LM for example is considerably cheaper, at 1 million credits, compared to 3.5 million in GT4 and 4.75 million in GT5 etc. The car handicap bonus is also a very nice change from the fixed prizes in all previous games and the +50% clean race bonus, although a bit inconsistent makes things even better. However what PD should’ve done is awarding big payouts in multiplayer instead of keeping them in single player only, since the entire game steers you towards online play which creates the question on why stuff like the online login bonus and sessional events didn't return, if the aim was to give players as much as possible as soon as possible in order to play online. They could have used some of the things they showed before release in a very creative way, but of course they didn't.
I guess now would be a great time to address the microtransactions. While it’s true they included them despite saying they won't, I think PD was pressured by Sony but I may just be a naive idiot. The main point is that this is the best form of microtransactions I had ever seen at the time and I’ll argue it still is one of the best - they can be literally turned off with a couple of clicks.
Many say the economy is awful but I think it’s pretty decent and thanks to the class system most race cars have a fixed price. Sure, some cars cost a bit more compare to GT6 but many are a lot cheaper. The XJR-9 LM for example is considerably cheaper, at 1 million credits, compared to 3.5 million in GT4 and 4.75 million in GT5 etc. The car handicap bonus is also a very nice change from the fixed prizes in all previous games and the +50% clean race bonus, although a bit inconsistent makes things even better. However what PD should’ve done is awarding big payouts in multiplayer instead of keeping them in single player only, since the entire game steers you towards online play which creates the question on why stuff like the online login bonus and sessional events didn't return, if the aim was to give players as much as possible as soon as possible in order to play online. They could have used some of the things they showed before release in a very creative way, but of course they didn't.
I guess now would be a great time to address the microtransactions. While it’s true they included them despite saying they won't, I think PD was pressured by Sony but I may just be a naive idiot. The main point is that this is the best form of microtransactions I had ever seen at the time and I’ll argue it still is one of the best - they can be literally turned off with a couple of clicks.
Content was possibly the biggest deal breaker for most people and it makes sense because, on release, the car count was reduced by 86.5% over GT6, which is a houmangous reduction from every angle. However, what most people didn't realise is that 63.9% of the 1245 cars in Gran Turismo 6 are ported PS2/PSP models, so it was necessary at this point Polyphony finally took the quality over quantity route.
A similar approach was taken regarding tracks as well, but the reduction wasn’t as bad. People made it seem worse than it was for all kinds of reasons. Some don't like the Vision GT cars, some don't like fictional cars etc etc, but where PD went wrong here in my opinion is wasting many of the 169 car slots available on release date for various reasons - 36 cars are stuck in Group X making them next to useless, plus the 7 GR road cars which as much as I love them they were just filler and finally one of the two BMW M6 GT3s, as the livery editor makes the inclusion of the same car in different liveries needless.
But on the positive side, most cars where brand new to the series or updated trims of existing models. Also the developers took their creative liberties to the next level, with the fictional race cars bringing the true spirit of the racing modifications in the first two games back to its fullest. Sure, some of GT5's modifications were great but it was a mixed bag overall. GT Sport however went full throttle with their creativity finding their way around issues (licensing/real life equivalents not having realised at the time etc), with great results like the WRX GR.3 and Evo X GR.3 which are what I expected the Mitsubishi and Subaru VGT cars to be.
As far as tracks go like, I said the reduction wasn’t as bad and usually I don't have anything to say because every piece of road is good in its own way. For example, I’m not going to complain about Brands Hatch because I’m super slow in it but with said reduction and the lack of any classic original track, they had to knock it out of the park but they didn’t. From one side there are some future classics like Dragon Trail etc, but in the other side horrors like Broad Bean Raceway. Seriously what even is that place? Who thought a semi-oval bean shaped track was good in any way? Speaking of which I have no issue with oval racing, but out of all oval tracks in America they chose Bristol? Seriously? It took me 32 seconds to complete a lap in a stock Fiat 500 and 16.4 seconds in a Peugeot RCZ Group 4. I could complete 3.6 laps in a single minute, that’s literally running in circles and Kaz was so proud about it before release too. If I had included such a track I’d try to hide it for as long as possible especially without any stock cars included. At least Pocono takes a bit longer to complete a lap.
And next the rally tracks. I love Sardegna, Colorado Springs is ok but Fishermans Ranch is awful. First of all, where is the ranch? Where are the fishermen? Why going with that name to begin with? Second of all, the layout feels like they tried to create an actual rally stage in a closed space, however my biggest gripe with the rally tracks is the pits... what dirt tracks you know in the entire history of racing to have had a pit area? Who thought this was a good idea? And even as dumb as it is, it would've made sense if tire wear was enabled but it isn’t.
The content situation has a lot in common with Forza 5 - jumping into a new system --> upgrade in quality --> downgrade in content --> people got mad initially etc. But there are some key differences. Forza 5 was a launch title for Xbox One while GT Sport came almost four years after the Playstation 4 first released.
Forza 5 also released with a bit more content: 203 cars (at least from what I found from sources of the period) and 14 tracks with 42 layouts vs. GT Sport's 169 cars, 17 tracks and 40 layouts (technically 39 because the infield layout of Northen Isle Speedway is only available at selected campaign events). And both bounced back in a similar way. Forza 5 received 107 cars, 65 of them were returning cars and 3 tracks (11 layouts) whille on the other end GT Sport received 169 cars, 103 of them were returning cars and 12 tracks (44 layouts). To its credit Forza 5 made the tracks available for free along with 9 cars. However, if you wanted 100% of the content you would have to get the VIP membership, priced at 19€ and the Car Pass priced 20€ (roughly according to my research official prices are no longer available) for a total of 39€ on top of the retail price. GTS offers everything for free except for the Lewis Hamilton Time Trial Challenge which costs 7.99€ and all it provides in terms of cars is a Mercedes VGT that can be aquired normally in game.
TLDR Polyphony finally follows the Forza route and like Forza it will grow in due time, possibly at a faster rate. My biggest issue or rather the thing that leaves me puzzled: if this is an FIA certified game etc then why hasn’t PD taken the opportunity to bring more related content? I realise I don’t know how licensing works so I may just be naive, but even competitions with their own official games like F1, WRC etc still offer plenty: F3, FE, FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship, FIA Masters Historic Sports Car Championship, FIA International Hill Climb Cup etc. But there’s also a general issue in that regard ever since the PS3 era and I’m not necceseraly talking about getting the latest and greatest cars. For example, how did the 🤬 the Crew 2 got the license for the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo WRC 05 before GT got a previous WRC full license holder? Also the promised content which was held back like the Lambo VGT should be given to players as promised.
A similar approach was taken regarding tracks as well, but the reduction wasn’t as bad. People made it seem worse than it was for all kinds of reasons. Some don't like the Vision GT cars, some don't like fictional cars etc etc, but where PD went wrong here in my opinion is wasting many of the 169 car slots available on release date for various reasons - 36 cars are stuck in Group X making them next to useless, plus the 7 GR road cars which as much as I love them they were just filler and finally one of the two BMW M6 GT3s, as the livery editor makes the inclusion of the same car in different liveries needless.
But on the positive side, most cars where brand new to the series or updated trims of existing models. Also the developers took their creative liberties to the next level, with the fictional race cars bringing the true spirit of the racing modifications in the first two games back to its fullest. Sure, some of GT5's modifications were great but it was a mixed bag overall. GT Sport however went full throttle with their creativity finding their way around issues (licensing/real life equivalents not having realised at the time etc), with great results like the WRX GR.3 and Evo X GR.3 which are what I expected the Mitsubishi and Subaru VGT cars to be.
As far as tracks go like, I said the reduction wasn’t as bad and usually I don't have anything to say because every piece of road is good in its own way. For example, I’m not going to complain about Brands Hatch because I’m super slow in it but with said reduction and the lack of any classic original track, they had to knock it out of the park but they didn’t. From one side there are some future classics like Dragon Trail etc, but in the other side horrors like Broad Bean Raceway. Seriously what even is that place? Who thought a semi-oval bean shaped track was good in any way? Speaking of which I have no issue with oval racing, but out of all oval tracks in America they chose Bristol? Seriously? It took me 32 seconds to complete a lap in a stock Fiat 500 and 16.4 seconds in a Peugeot RCZ Group 4. I could complete 3.6 laps in a single minute, that’s literally running in circles and Kaz was so proud about it before release too. If I had included such a track I’d try to hide it for as long as possible especially without any stock cars included. At least Pocono takes a bit longer to complete a lap.
And next the rally tracks. I love Sardegna, Colorado Springs is ok but Fishermans Ranch is awful. First of all, where is the ranch? Where are the fishermen? Why going with that name to begin with? Second of all, the layout feels like they tried to create an actual rally stage in a closed space, however my biggest gripe with the rally tracks is the pits... what dirt tracks you know in the entire history of racing to have had a pit area? Who thought this was a good idea? And even as dumb as it is, it would've made sense if tire wear was enabled but it isn’t.
The content situation has a lot in common with Forza 5 - jumping into a new system --> upgrade in quality --> downgrade in content --> people got mad initially etc. But there are some key differences. Forza 5 was a launch title for Xbox One while GT Sport came almost four years after the Playstation 4 first released.
Forza 5 also released with a bit more content: 203 cars (at least from what I found from sources of the period) and 14 tracks with 42 layouts vs. GT Sport's 169 cars, 17 tracks and 40 layouts (technically 39 because the infield layout of Northen Isle Speedway is only available at selected campaign events). And both bounced back in a similar way. Forza 5 received 107 cars, 65 of them were returning cars and 3 tracks (11 layouts) whille on the other end GT Sport received 169 cars, 103 of them were returning cars and 12 tracks (44 layouts). To its credit Forza 5 made the tracks available for free along with 9 cars. However, if you wanted 100% of the content you would have to get the VIP membership, priced at 19€ and the Car Pass priced 20€ (roughly according to my research official prices are no longer available) for a total of 39€ on top of the retail price. GTS offers everything for free except for the Lewis Hamilton Time Trial Challenge which costs 7.99€ and all it provides in terms of cars is a Mercedes VGT that can be aquired normally in game.
TLDR Polyphony finally follows the Forza route and like Forza it will grow in due time, possibly at a faster rate. My biggest issue or rather the thing that leaves me puzzled: if this is an FIA certified game etc then why hasn’t PD taken the opportunity to bring more related content? I realise I don’t know how licensing works so I may just be naive, but even competitions with their own official games like F1, WRC etc still offer plenty: F3, FE, FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship, FIA Masters Historic Sports Car Championship, FIA International Hill Climb Cup etc. But there’s also a general issue in that regard ever since the PS3 era and I’m not necceseraly talking about getting the latest and greatest cars. For example, how did the 🤬 the Crew 2 got the license for the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo WRC 05 before GT got a previous WRC full license holder? Also the promised content which was held back like the Lambo VGT should be given to players as promised.
Audio
Over the years and especially recently I’ve argued about the state of the new car audio in Gran Turismo. Although there is no doubt it was a huge improvement killing the “vacuum cleaner” era after 20 years, it was so far behind until GT Sport that there’s still a lot of work left to be done. Quality is all over the place and there is no consistency. The good examples are good or even really good like the Viper V10, Bugatti W16, Chevrolet LS series, Porsche Flat-6 Lamborghini V12 etc. But the bad are really bad. I noticed that they struggle especially with V8 engines, as cars like the Mercedes-AMG GT3 sound nothing like the real-life counterpart.
Mercedes AMG GT3 real life Monza
Even cars the developers had a special "relationship" with like the Nissan GT-R GT3 - a car Kazunori Yamauchi himself has driven - sound nothing like real life https://youtu.be/Q1Gq-x_2ZYM
Engine types Polyphony got right in most cases don’t escape either. For example, the Porsche 911 RSR, one of the best and loudest sounding race cars in recent times, is the most inaccurate sounding 911 in the game somehow (I’m aware the in-game car is the launch exhaust model but that doesn’t change things one bit) . https://youtu.be/S5-fiPztH7s
Furthermore, as much as I hate to say it, in some cases they didn't even try one bit. For example, the BMW M3 GT sounds almost identical with the Z4 GT3. This may not seem like a huge mistake as they share the same engine, however they sound nothing alike
https://youtu.be/LeiA9vyi7YM
https://youtu.be/W5jXwCZeTrs
This extents to cars like the 2008 Super GT500s. The Lexus SC430 uses a copy paste RC F GT3 note which is inaccurate to begin with, the GT-R GT500 uses a modified GT6 file (you can notice as it reaches higher revs), and the NSX uses a louder version of the 1992 type R sound.
https://youtu.be/UjjBDotUjXA
https://youtu.be/qSN1giGrTWU
https://youtu.be/2TCzZAh8vS8?t=189
Even fictional cars have inaccuracies. If you wonder how is that possible, let’s look or rather listen to the Red Bull X2014 Standard which supposedly is powered by a turbo V6 .
https://youtu.be/0oHYqM3mLFE
Does this sound like a turbo V6 to you? It sounds more like this https://youtu.be/Q3gSZfrMDcM and actually makes my head hurt.
And if you think it ends here guess again. Some cars sound worse than in GT5-6.
https://youtu.be/12XJgfqIzvg?t=102
https://youtu.be/Cp-16C_F6p0?t=15
https://youtu.be/DQFiDogVcLg
https://youtu.be/W3w_Pn_E7-s
https://youtu.be/y5Wp_6ZcWus
https://youtu.be/1W-yfrP-E7Y
However, the strangest thing in all of
this is that some cars sounded more realistic at various stages before release or earlier version.
Various Group 3 cars (Cooper Box 2016)
Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (Cooper Box 2016)
Bugatti VGT (Cooper Box 2016)
Audi R18 2011 (Cooper Box 2016)
Audi R8 LMS (E3 2016)
Mercedes AMG GT S Paris Motor Show 14 Octomber 2017
https://youtu.be/DBW8D_KpXf8
https://youtu.be/TJMLWzokbV8
Lastly, i want to direct your attention to this pre-release promo and more specifically this quote from Kaz himself:
https://youtu.be/XpUS3nJz83w
"We recorded the sound of real engines and also run a sound simulator for each engine type then combined with the real sound."
I am no sound engineer so if someone is more knowledgeable please correct me, but if I understand this correctly PD records a car and then they mix it with a generic sound from a program resulting in the sounds we ended up getting? This means the actual recordings could be 100% spot on before getting into the game and they ruin them afterwards. Why would they do that?
Customization/Tuning
As a person, I try to find anything positive wherever I can, but there is no way around it. Customization barely exists with the livery editor carrying most of it. The tuning or rather upgrading is the worst I have ever seen, not because most parts could be simply equipped, not because of the performance slider, not because we had to use mileage points, simply because we couldn’t restore a car to its original or a lesser state after upgrading it. Who thought of this and was like "yep that works great"? Even free mobile games have a better system for crying out loud...
Physics
As an average controller user, I won't be able to provide the most technical explanations here and I might miss some things, so feel free to share your experiences. In some ways GT Sport was the most realistic GT game before 7 came out. The grip is much more realistic as GT6 was too grippy, and I say that as someone who likes more grip you could feel the weight transfer and the suspension reacting to player input much more than before, and as a result positioning your car correctly for each corner and keeping momentum is far more important. However, the bad tire model effected all these basic improvements.
Personally, I never felt comfortable with it. The real problem however lays in that the game was built around the 400-600 HP and 1100-1350 kg (with the exception of cars like LMPs etc) because the game was focused on GT cars. As a result, if a car is within those numbers it can feel good or great even, but as soon as you get beyond that even cars which should provide plenty of grip like the Enzo Ferrari lose almost all of it. And if you are bold enough to try something even more powerful like a LaFerrari on sports tires, then may the force be with you because the grip sure as... won't.
Speaking of force, downforce was a mixed bug as well. On one side, the cars react differently to adjustments so we can no longer pull the minimum downforce/no cornering loss trick, but downforce levels are inconsistent. As far as classic cars go, they don’t feel as old as someone would expect, but road cars show their age more than before. However, old race cars have too much grip in some cases. Braking is awful, it feels nerfed in general but can differ dramatically from one car to another and cars with great breaking systems in real life were awful in-game: the Aston Martin Vulcan being the most notorious example.
Another area GT Sport took a big step back is car dynamics. More specifically, electric cars don’t have consumption enabled like in GT5 making them next to useless, the hybrid system of road cars like the 2017 Honda NSX are fixed in one mode while in real life they utilize multiple modes for every situation. The hybrid system in LMP1 cars is also fixed and cannot be operated manually like in GT6, even though they have a manual boost system in real life. ERS simulation is non-existent and DRS doesn’t work correctly either, which is kind of fun, not going to lie.
Even more funny is Polyphony talked about DRS zones in the patch notes of version 1.36:
“Additionally, the DRS can only be activated while in an overtaking zone.” But there are none.
Cars equipped with multiple of these systems like the McLaren P1 GTR, which uses both KERS and DRS, can use only one of them.
Rain driving in GT Sport feels like driving in the stages of the Monte Carlo Rally where the tarmac has patches of ice, even though it may not be wet instead of rain.
Dirt feels like driving in foam but at least it’s fun to throw the cars around. And of course the incorrect car specifications are still here… Honestly at this point I’m willing to bet money: the poor Lister Storm GT will still weigh 1438 kg instead of 1150 if it was to return, if this is any indication.
Damage
Cosmetic damage was improved very slightly while mechanical damage works the same as before. The sound effects while “fixing” remind me of WRC mechanics hammering the bodywork to force it in its intended position during service. It’s sad but it all comes down to this quote from Kaz himself during an interview in 2000, found on the Gran Turismo 2 while talking about Gran Turismo 2000 and his plans for the future:
”Gamers always ask me if car damage will ever be visible. The manufacturers don’t want their cars to blow up or be battered. I feel the same way so that will not change.”
Over the years and especially recently I’ve argued about the state of the new car audio in Gran Turismo. Although there is no doubt it was a huge improvement killing the “vacuum cleaner” era after 20 years, it was so far behind until GT Sport that there’s still a lot of work left to be done. Quality is all over the place and there is no consistency. The good examples are good or even really good like the Viper V10, Bugatti W16, Chevrolet LS series, Porsche Flat-6 Lamborghini V12 etc. But the bad are really bad. I noticed that they struggle especially with V8 engines, as cars like the Mercedes-AMG GT3 sound nothing like the real-life counterpart.
Mercedes AMG GT3 real life Monza
Even cars the developers had a special "relationship" with like the Nissan GT-R GT3 - a car Kazunori Yamauchi himself has driven - sound nothing like real life https://youtu.be/Q1Gq-x_2ZYM
Engine types Polyphony got right in most cases don’t escape either. For example, the Porsche 911 RSR, one of the best and loudest sounding race cars in recent times, is the most inaccurate sounding 911 in the game somehow (I’m aware the in-game car is the launch exhaust model but that doesn’t change things one bit) . https://youtu.be/S5-fiPztH7s
Furthermore, as much as I hate to say it, in some cases they didn't even try one bit. For example, the BMW M3 GT sounds almost identical with the Z4 GT3. This may not seem like a huge mistake as they share the same engine, however they sound nothing alike
https://youtu.be/LeiA9vyi7YM
https://youtu.be/W5jXwCZeTrs
This extents to cars like the 2008 Super GT500s. The Lexus SC430 uses a copy paste RC F GT3 note which is inaccurate to begin with, the GT-R GT500 uses a modified GT6 file (you can notice as it reaches higher revs), and the NSX uses a louder version of the 1992 type R sound.
https://youtu.be/UjjBDotUjXA
https://youtu.be/qSN1giGrTWU
https://youtu.be/2TCzZAh8vS8?t=189
Even fictional cars have inaccuracies. If you wonder how is that possible, let’s look or rather listen to the Red Bull X2014 Standard which supposedly is powered by a turbo V6 .
https://youtu.be/0oHYqM3mLFE
Does this sound like a turbo V6 to you? It sounds more like this https://youtu.be/Q3gSZfrMDcM and actually makes my head hurt.
And if you think it ends here guess again. Some cars sound worse than in GT5-6.
https://youtu.be/12XJgfqIzvg?t=102
https://youtu.be/Cp-16C_F6p0?t=15
https://youtu.be/DQFiDogVcLg
https://youtu.be/W3w_Pn_E7-s
https://youtu.be/y5Wp_6ZcWus
https://youtu.be/1W-yfrP-E7Y
However, the strangest thing in all of
this is that some cars sounded more realistic at various stages before release or earlier version.
Various Group 3 cars (Cooper Box 2016)
Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (Cooper Box 2016)
Bugatti VGT (Cooper Box 2016)
Audi R18 2011 (Cooper Box 2016)
Audi R8 LMS (E3 2016)
Mercedes AMG GT S Paris Motor Show 14 Octomber 2017
https://youtu.be/DBW8D_KpXf8
https://youtu.be/TJMLWzokbV8
Lastly, i want to direct your attention to this pre-release promo and more specifically this quote from Kaz himself:
https://youtu.be/XpUS3nJz83w
"We recorded the sound of real engines and also run a sound simulator for each engine type then combined with the real sound."
I am no sound engineer so if someone is more knowledgeable please correct me, but if I understand this correctly PD records a car and then they mix it with a generic sound from a program resulting in the sounds we ended up getting? This means the actual recordings could be 100% spot on before getting into the game and they ruin them afterwards. Why would they do that?
Customization/Tuning
As a person, I try to find anything positive wherever I can, but there is no way around it. Customization barely exists with the livery editor carrying most of it. The tuning or rather upgrading is the worst I have ever seen, not because most parts could be simply equipped, not because of the performance slider, not because we had to use mileage points, simply because we couldn’t restore a car to its original or a lesser state after upgrading it. Who thought of this and was like "yep that works great"? Even free mobile games have a better system for crying out loud...
Physics
As an average controller user, I won't be able to provide the most technical explanations here and I might miss some things, so feel free to share your experiences. In some ways GT Sport was the most realistic GT game before 7 came out. The grip is much more realistic as GT6 was too grippy, and I say that as someone who likes more grip you could feel the weight transfer and the suspension reacting to player input much more than before, and as a result positioning your car correctly for each corner and keeping momentum is far more important. However, the bad tire model effected all these basic improvements.
Personally, I never felt comfortable with it. The real problem however lays in that the game was built around the 400-600 HP and 1100-1350 kg (with the exception of cars like LMPs etc) because the game was focused on GT cars. As a result, if a car is within those numbers it can feel good or great even, but as soon as you get beyond that even cars which should provide plenty of grip like the Enzo Ferrari lose almost all of it. And if you are bold enough to try something even more powerful like a LaFerrari on sports tires, then may the force be with you because the grip sure as... won't.
Speaking of force, downforce was a mixed bug as well. On one side, the cars react differently to adjustments so we can no longer pull the minimum downforce/no cornering loss trick, but downforce levels are inconsistent. As far as classic cars go, they don’t feel as old as someone would expect, but road cars show their age more than before. However, old race cars have too much grip in some cases. Braking is awful, it feels nerfed in general but can differ dramatically from one car to another and cars with great breaking systems in real life were awful in-game: the Aston Martin Vulcan being the most notorious example.
Another area GT Sport took a big step back is car dynamics. More specifically, electric cars don’t have consumption enabled like in GT5 making them next to useless, the hybrid system of road cars like the 2017 Honda NSX are fixed in one mode while in real life they utilize multiple modes for every situation. The hybrid system in LMP1 cars is also fixed and cannot be operated manually like in GT6, even though they have a manual boost system in real life. ERS simulation is non-existent and DRS doesn’t work correctly either, which is kind of fun, not going to lie.
Even more funny is Polyphony talked about DRS zones in the patch notes of version 1.36:
“Additionally, the DRS can only be activated while in an overtaking zone.” But there are none.
Cars equipped with multiple of these systems like the McLaren P1 GTR, which uses both KERS and DRS, can use only one of them.
Rain driving in GT Sport feels like driving in the stages of the Monte Carlo Rally where the tarmac has patches of ice, even though it may not be wet instead of rain.
Dirt feels like driving in foam but at least it’s fun to throw the cars around. And of course the incorrect car specifications are still here… Honestly at this point I’m willing to bet money: the poor Lister Storm GT will still weigh 1438 kg instead of 1150 if it was to return, if this is any indication.
Damage
Cosmetic damage was improved very slightly while mechanical damage works the same as before. The sound effects while “fixing” remind me of WRC mechanics hammering the bodywork to force it in its intended position during service. It’s sad but it all comes down to this quote from Kaz himself during an interview in 2000, found on the Gran Turismo 2 while talking about Gran Turismo 2000 and his plans for the future:
”Gamers always ask me if car damage will ever be visible. The manufacturers don’t want their cars to blow up or be battered. I feel the same way so that will not change.”
GT Sport’s single player offerings are terrible, with or without the optional Lewis Hamilton Time Trial challenge. Single race and time trial work as they always did, however drift trial provides the first fail for PD as they removed the full lap option available in previous games, leaving sector lap as the only option. That would've been tolerable if each run lasted more than a minute at best.
Custom race is possibly the most underutilized feature, it could've been the one thing which provided some life to this game for the people who are not interested in online racing. Of course PD did the bare minimum but thankfully they expanded it in GT7. One note worthy point in its favor is that it provided the best AI in the game on the professional setting.
Two player split screen is my favorite out of every racing game I’ve ever played simply because the screen is split left and right instead of the traditional up and down, my eyes could never get used to that (laughing emoji). Personal preference aside it does what its suppose to well enough.
And last but not least, the VR mode may be quite limited but its really cool for hot lappers + it offers kind of a 360 degree camera that was cut off from the beta.
Progression revolves around the campaign which is even more of an after thought but it went the extra mile backwards. Driving school is a poor imitation of the licenses in previous games and mission challenge is an extremely poor imitation of the driving missions from GT4. Furthermore because these were supposed to be the only kind of like the traditional offline modes, they tried to put everything in and it turned into a weird mix.
Circuit Experience is the best designed mode out of the three, but then again learning a track with a car and setup of our choice is better than a preset, also updating it with the new tracks a month after said track was included to the game was kind of pointless. All of these things would have been ok if they weren’t so easy. For context I never ever got gold in any other Gran Turismo including 7, but in GT Sport I got them all first try, sometimes with seconds to spare, and since update 1.06 even getting off track is not an issue. The Lewis Hamilton time trials is the only thing that feels like anything close to a challenge from older GTs, however that’s partially because this mode uses physics from a previous build of the game resulting in the AMG GT3 handling like a boat. But regardless I can't give props for that because it costs real money.
And finally GT League… when I played GT6's version I thought it was so bad I said to myself "it couldn’t get any worse”. But how wrong I was… The basic level structure is present and the presentation is quite nice. However the bad design choices take over from here. Firstly some events have way too many races, for example why does Sunday Cup have 9 races? It’s the first event meant to ease players into the game, there are levels to this. Many events suffer from it as PD chose to add races to already existing events instead of utilizing more of the game's car list. The second problem is that every event is restricted. Sure, every game has done this in different ways but many events were unrestricted. I understand that the developers wanted to teach new players not to cheat in case they transitioned into online racing, but if i want to punt a few Toyota 86's around in my Mazda 787B for example just let me do it, it’s against the AI anyway. That would've been ok if the AI couldn’t cheat either but in typical GT fashion they can, some times worse than other games. For example in race 5 of the Nostalgic Car Festival one AI enters with a Jaguar XJ13, a sports car developed to win at Le Mans whille we could only use road cars with a bit more than 400hp.
Sure the game has some pretty decent options around that limit. However you would still expect the race car to win... that is if the AI was actually good but in this mode they are mostly the usual you expect from a Gran Turismo game. Even these two issues would've been ok if it wasn’t for this... take a look at the La Festa Cavallino event.
Here we have two rules a category limit of N600 or lower for any Ferrari model but strictly Ferrari only. Wait any Ferrari model ? But four of them are race cars and the LaFerrari is too powerful even fully detuned..
I can still use them!? So one rule cancels the other? What’s the point of having any rules if the game itself can't follow them?.
There are no championship events at all for the first time ever nor a qualifying option to improve your starting position (again), so it simply comes down to start from the back pass everyone up to second, catch the rabbit, win, repeat (Again). At least the AI will sometimes attempt to overtake you/and one another as well as making mistakes, but since they are scripted they became predictable after a while.
Finally, the endurance races are longer than GT6 and the AI uses the different strategies, but I hate how the game starts me with half full fuel tank most of the time and the AI went from changing tyres all the time to changing them way too late. However please put all of this aside for a second as there's a big issue which makes this mode meaningless... It doesn’t count towards game progression, meaning you can 100% the game without even clicking on it Let me repeat that: the flagship single player mode doesn’t count towards game progression… I don't want to sound like an elitist but its not necessary to reach 100% completion in a game, I have 100 presented only a few of my games in my 18 years of playing. I haven't even reached that mark with GT4 which is my favorite game of all time.
Reaching 100% in GT Sport feels so empty, I've done it three times and didn’t feel as satisfied as reaching 20% in GT4 or 5 because they present you with multiple challenges, from the licences which are needed in order to progress and although they are not hard to simply complete you should be aiming to do the best you can in order to get better cars, manage your credits at any given moment and find clever ways to get more and more credits to afford the cars you need - it feels like an actual achievement. By contrast you can finish GT Sport by simply knowing your left and right. Oh, and the XP system returned but instead of being super restrictive like in GT5, it keeps tracks locked in arcade mode (because reasons) and locking higher GT league levels. But no matter your choices, it just becomes another thing to "complete".
Custom race is possibly the most underutilized feature, it could've been the one thing which provided some life to this game for the people who are not interested in online racing. Of course PD did the bare minimum but thankfully they expanded it in GT7. One note worthy point in its favor is that it provided the best AI in the game on the professional setting.
Two player split screen is my favorite out of every racing game I’ve ever played simply because the screen is split left and right instead of the traditional up and down, my eyes could never get used to that (laughing emoji). Personal preference aside it does what its suppose to well enough.
And last but not least, the VR mode may be quite limited but its really cool for hot lappers + it offers kind of a 360 degree camera that was cut off from the beta.
Progression revolves around the campaign which is even more of an after thought but it went the extra mile backwards. Driving school is a poor imitation of the licenses in previous games and mission challenge is an extremely poor imitation of the driving missions from GT4. Furthermore because these were supposed to be the only kind of like the traditional offline modes, they tried to put everything in and it turned into a weird mix.
Circuit Experience is the best designed mode out of the three, but then again learning a track with a car and setup of our choice is better than a preset, also updating it with the new tracks a month after said track was included to the game was kind of pointless. All of these things would have been ok if they weren’t so easy. For context I never ever got gold in any other Gran Turismo including 7, but in GT Sport I got them all first try, sometimes with seconds to spare, and since update 1.06 even getting off track is not an issue. The Lewis Hamilton time trials is the only thing that feels like anything close to a challenge from older GTs, however that’s partially because this mode uses physics from a previous build of the game resulting in the AMG GT3 handling like a boat. But regardless I can't give props for that because it costs real money.
And finally GT League… when I played GT6's version I thought it was so bad I said to myself "it couldn’t get any worse”. But how wrong I was… The basic level structure is present and the presentation is quite nice. However the bad design choices take over from here. Firstly some events have way too many races, for example why does Sunday Cup have 9 races? It’s the first event meant to ease players into the game, there are levels to this. Many events suffer from it as PD chose to add races to already existing events instead of utilizing more of the game's car list. The second problem is that every event is restricted. Sure, every game has done this in different ways but many events were unrestricted. I understand that the developers wanted to teach new players not to cheat in case they transitioned into online racing, but if i want to punt a few Toyota 86's around in my Mazda 787B for example just let me do it, it’s against the AI anyway. That would've been ok if the AI couldn’t cheat either but in typical GT fashion they can, some times worse than other games. For example in race 5 of the Nostalgic Car Festival one AI enters with a Jaguar XJ13, a sports car developed to win at Le Mans whille we could only use road cars with a bit more than 400hp.
Sure the game has some pretty decent options around that limit. However you would still expect the race car to win... that is if the AI was actually good but in this mode they are mostly the usual you expect from a Gran Turismo game. Even these two issues would've been ok if it wasn’t for this... take a look at the La Festa Cavallino event.
Here we have two rules a category limit of N600 or lower for any Ferrari model but strictly Ferrari only. Wait any Ferrari model ? But four of them are race cars and the LaFerrari is too powerful even fully detuned..
I can still use them!? So one rule cancels the other? What’s the point of having any rules if the game itself can't follow them?.
There are no championship events at all for the first time ever nor a qualifying option to improve your starting position (again), so it simply comes down to start from the back pass everyone up to second, catch the rabbit, win, repeat (Again). At least the AI will sometimes attempt to overtake you/and one another as well as making mistakes, but since they are scripted they became predictable after a while.
Finally, the endurance races are longer than GT6 and the AI uses the different strategies, but I hate how the game starts me with half full fuel tank most of the time and the AI went from changing tyres all the time to changing them way too late. However please put all of this aside for a second as there's a big issue which makes this mode meaningless... It doesn’t count towards game progression, meaning you can 100% the game without even clicking on it
Let me repeat that: the flagship single player mode doesn’t count towards game progression… I don't want to sound like an elitist but its not necessary to reach 100% completion in a game, I have 100 presented only a few of my games in my 18 years of playing. I haven't even reached that mark with GT4 which is my favorite game of all time.Reaching 100% in GT Sport feels so empty, I've done it three times and didn’t feel as satisfied as reaching 20% in GT4 or 5 because they present you with multiple challenges, from the licences which are needed in order to progress and although they are not hard to simply complete you should be aiming to do the best you can in order to get better cars, manage your credits at any given moment and find clever ways to get more and more credits to afford the cars you need - it feels like an actual achievement. By contrast you can finish GT Sport by simply knowing your left and right. Oh, and the XP system returned but instead of being super restrictive like in GT5, it keeps tracks locked in arcade mode (because reasons) and locking higher GT league levels. But no matter your choices, it just becomes another thing to "complete".
Multiplayer was the core for the previous four years, and from how PD talked about it, it seemed like they thought of a pretty good overall structure as we would’ve hoped,l but sadly nothing worked quite right.
The driver and sportsmanship ratings, while not perfect, worked well enough but the problems started from here. The biggest one was that despite all this planning, they didn’t prepare for humans being humans and abusing the system pretty much immediately. The penalty system never worked well enough which didn’t help matters, but to be fair algorithms are very tricky to get right, and it’s not like the human stewards did much better.
https://www.gtplanet.net/gt-sport-world-tour-stewarding/
All of these unperfected systems lead to this Sport mode cycle chaos during the races - drop in both ratings, work back up and repeat. Eventually people will get fed up.
Furthermore, hopeful players taking part to the FIA Championships had to keep a good rating as well as getting good results all the time due to the drop score format on top of everything. All of this hard work for a chance to qualify for the world series and, as if it wasn’t hard enough already, instead of creating a points system based on the one used in real FIA competitions and modifying it accordingly, they created a monstrosity that’s still not fully understood. The World Series has come a long way since 2018 and although I am not a regular viewer since the 2019 season, I’ve seen enough to form an opinion.
As far as the Nations Cup goes, the format wasn’t ideal at the start but they fixed it eventually, however the fact that until one point the group classes were used to determine who continues to the next stage is a disgrace.
The Manufacturer Series format is still problematic mainly for two reasons:
1. Using any other category than Group 3 is unfair to some manufacturers because the drivetrain difference in Group 4 makes a huge difference.
2. To my understanding, the participating drivers choose which manufacturer they want to represent, which creates different problems itself. For a start what’s the point of signing with a certain manufacturer if you can ditch them at the very end if something like a late BOP change happens?
Speaking of BOP, like in real life it never works for everyone but my issue is the fixed setups. I can understand those who can’t be bothered spending time and effort making a setup as neither can I, but when a certain group is used I never drove the Meta car of a combo as I had to find which car was suited best to my driving style each time. Sure, this meant I rarely used the same car more than once, but doing the same thing every time wasn’t fun, as I was able to use my full speed (don’t bother going to Kudos Prime to make fun of my rating, I am self-aware). All I wanted was to be able to change the gearing and downforce.
Another problem is manufacturers auto-qualifying because they are partners, and sure that may seem reasonable, but the Manufacturers’ Cup has limited spots and PD already has two partners. This means that if ten more brands became partners, all available spots will be taken. This scenario may seem extreme but my point is if you qualify good for you, if you don’t you don’t.
Formats aside, the driving can be all over the place, from really good to awful, as the 2019 New York world tour demonstrated.
https://www.gtplanet.net/igor-fraga-wins-nations-new-york/
https://www.gtplanet.net/fraga-hizal-nyc-2019-nations-cup/
https://www.gtplanet.net/cody-latkovski-addresses-critics-nyc/
I won’t blame them for the bad bits because drivers do way worse in real life (look at the 2021 DTM finale), but even in the sim-racing world professional drivers have done worse.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...ge-ends-in-collisions-and-controversy.393553/
https://www.gtplanet.net/nascar-driver-rage-quits-loses-sponsor/
If you understandably wanted to escape from all of this, the good ol’ reliable lobby came to the rescue.
The driver and sportsmanship ratings, while not perfect, worked well enough but the problems started from here. The biggest one was that despite all this planning, they didn’t prepare for humans being humans and abusing the system pretty much immediately. The penalty system never worked well enough which didn’t help matters, but to be fair algorithms are very tricky to get right, and it’s not like the human stewards did much better.
https://www.gtplanet.net/gt-sport-world-tour-stewarding/
All of these unperfected systems lead to this Sport mode cycle chaos during the races - drop in both ratings, work back up and repeat. Eventually people will get fed up.
Furthermore, hopeful players taking part to the FIA Championships had to keep a good rating as well as getting good results all the time due to the drop score format on top of everything. All of this hard work for a chance to qualify for the world series and, as if it wasn’t hard enough already, instead of creating a points system based on the one used in real FIA competitions and modifying it accordingly, they created a monstrosity that’s still not fully understood. The World Series has come a long way since 2018 and although I am not a regular viewer since the 2019 season, I’ve seen enough to form an opinion.
As far as the Nations Cup goes, the format wasn’t ideal at the start but they fixed it eventually, however the fact that until one point the group classes were used to determine who continues to the next stage is a disgrace.
The Manufacturer Series format is still problematic mainly for two reasons:
1. Using any other category than Group 3 is unfair to some manufacturers because the drivetrain difference in Group 4 makes a huge difference.
2. To my understanding, the participating drivers choose which manufacturer they want to represent, which creates different problems itself. For a start what’s the point of signing with a certain manufacturer if you can ditch them at the very end if something like a late BOP change happens?
Speaking of BOP, like in real life it never works for everyone but my issue is the fixed setups. I can understand those who can’t be bothered spending time and effort making a setup as neither can I, but when a certain group is used I never drove the Meta car of a combo as I had to find which car was suited best to my driving style each time. Sure, this meant I rarely used the same car more than once, but doing the same thing every time wasn’t fun, as I was able to use my full speed (don’t bother going to Kudos Prime to make fun of my rating, I am self-aware). All I wanted was to be able to change the gearing and downforce.
Another problem is manufacturers auto-qualifying because they are partners, and sure that may seem reasonable, but the Manufacturers’ Cup has limited spots and PD already has two partners. This means that if ten more brands became partners, all available spots will be taken. This scenario may seem extreme but my point is if you qualify good for you, if you don’t you don’t.
Formats aside, the driving can be all over the place, from really good to awful, as the 2019 New York world tour demonstrated.
https://www.gtplanet.net/igor-fraga-wins-nations-new-york/
https://www.gtplanet.net/fraga-hizal-nyc-2019-nations-cup/
https://www.gtplanet.net/cody-latkovski-addresses-critics-nyc/
I won’t blame them for the bad bits because drivers do way worse in real life (look at the 2021 DTM finale), but even in the sim-racing world professional drivers have done worse.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...ge-ends-in-collisions-and-controversy.393553/
https://www.gtplanet.net/nascar-driver-rage-quits-loses-sponsor/
If you understandably wanted to escape from all of this, the good ol’ reliable lobby came to the rescue.
I believe GT Sport was a game with so much potential that was wasted by wrong decisions and missed opportunities. People label it as “Not a real Gran Turismo” because of the lack of content compare to the previous games, but with 8 million sales as of 2019, one could argue it was successful. But I believe it was a failure, not because of the ressons most people bring up but because of this...
Sure, the numbers are inflated as Kudos Prime counts accounts as different players, plus I don’t know how accurate these stats are. However we would have to bring the accuracy percentage nearly to 50 in order to reach acceptable levels. And to the players who qualified for the World Series events, my sincere congratulations - I wish I had even a small bit of their ability. Though less than 200 (191) people have qualified in total in all competitions from 2018 to 2021. That’s 0.00121% of the total playerbase using the inflated Kudos Prime numbers and 0.0758% if we assume every player which played at least one Sport Mode race according to Kudos Prime has tried to qualify.
Now, if I adjust the numbers according to the estimated 8 million sales the numbers get ever so slightly better with 0.00239% of the total playerbase qualifying and 0.0140441% of the total players who played at least one Sport Mode race. Gran Turismo never was and should never again be about 0.00xxx of players, that’s why I’m happy the community pushed back resulting in what ended up as GT7. At the end of the day I find no better way to describe GT Sport as the headline from Autoblog’s review: “A fun, flawed experiment”.
Sure, the numbers are inflated as Kudos Prime counts accounts as different players, plus I don’t know how accurate these stats are. However we would have to bring the accuracy percentage nearly to 50 in order to reach acceptable levels. And to the players who qualified for the World Series events, my sincere congratulations - I wish I had even a small bit of their ability. Though less than 200 (191) people have qualified in total in all competitions from 2018 to 2021. That’s 0.00121% of the total playerbase using the inflated Kudos Prime numbers and 0.0758% if we assume every player which played at least one Sport Mode race according to Kudos Prime has tried to qualify.
Now, if I adjust the numbers according to the estimated 8 million sales the numbers get ever so slightly better with 0.00239% of the total playerbase qualifying and 0.0140441% of the total players who played at least one Sport Mode race. Gran Turismo never was and should never again be about 0.00xxx of players, that’s why I’m happy the community pushed back resulting in what ended up as GT7. At the end of the day I find no better way to describe GT Sport as the headline from Autoblog’s review: “A fun, flawed experiment”.
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