Since GT6's release I have been predominantly playing (and enjoying) Time Trials on Mount Panorama as a good way to test out different cars and their very different physics and handling. I must admit to being pretty disappointed at how untidy this game mode is though, both in terms of its design and its actual functionality.
I'll start with the actual design issues which I suppose remain consistent with how this has worked on previous GT games.
1) Multiple sessions with the same car produce multiple time entries.
Always an annoyance this one. The quickest vehicles I have taken round Mount Panorama have been Pikes Peak and Group B rally cars and as I have been in and out of the mode, each time I drive one then each time they take one of the top ten slots and push out another car's time.
Surely it would make sense for each car to have a single slot that gets updated as and when its record for a track is beaten; not just another entry added around it?
2) Ten Slots.
The whole problem of the issue above is accentuated by there only being 10 slots to fill in the first place. It seems crazy in a game that boasts 1200 cars that only 10 times can be displayed. If you wanted to see what was the quickest car between a series of 2 litre hot-hatches, you are going to have to write down their times on a piece of paper as there is no way these times will show up in game after you have driven a few of the fastest cars around.
3) Stock / Modified Tables.
A design suggestion I would have here that would help out this mode in addition to the points above would be to have separate tables for each chart for a car in Stock and in modded form.
Buy a car and take it to a track to drive round and your best time will by default go in the Stock chart. Make the slightest change to your set-up or pimp the whole thing as much as you can, then that time goes in the Modded table.
Aside from the common sense approach of differentiating these two states, it will allow users to see what cars mod better than others.
4) Ghost lap racing.
Rather buggy this. I am also finding that quite a few of the Save Best Ghost Lap replays subsequently become impossible to load, then on the occasions I can get access to the 8 or 9 I have saved on this particular track, the filenames do not actually show what car that lap was set with. Messy.
I'll start with the actual design issues which I suppose remain consistent with how this has worked on previous GT games.
1) Multiple sessions with the same car produce multiple time entries.
Always an annoyance this one. The quickest vehicles I have taken round Mount Panorama have been Pikes Peak and Group B rally cars and as I have been in and out of the mode, each time I drive one then each time they take one of the top ten slots and push out another car's time.
Surely it would make sense for each car to have a single slot that gets updated as and when its record for a track is beaten; not just another entry added around it?
2) Ten Slots.
The whole problem of the issue above is accentuated by there only being 10 slots to fill in the first place. It seems crazy in a game that boasts 1200 cars that only 10 times can be displayed. If you wanted to see what was the quickest car between a series of 2 litre hot-hatches, you are going to have to write down their times on a piece of paper as there is no way these times will show up in game after you have driven a few of the fastest cars around.
3) Stock / Modified Tables.
A design suggestion I would have here that would help out this mode in addition to the points above would be to have separate tables for each chart for a car in Stock and in modded form.
Buy a car and take it to a track to drive round and your best time will by default go in the Stock chart. Make the slightest change to your set-up or pimp the whole thing as much as you can, then that time goes in the Modded table.
Aside from the common sense approach of differentiating these two states, it will allow users to see what cars mod better than others.
4) Ghost lap racing.
Rather buggy this. I am also finding that quite a few of the Save Best Ghost Lap replays subsequently become impossible to load, then on the occasions I can get access to the 8 or 9 I have saved on this particular track, the filenames do not actually show what car that lap was set with. Messy.
