Gran Turismo 6 – Review
Kazunori Yamauchi will try again and brings his prestigious series driver to a new level, refining certain elements of the game and focusing heavily on technological knowledge that has been enlarged over the years. From the commercial point of view, of course, Sony is focusing on the now huge installed base of PS3.
Gran Turismo 6 – New skids for the old console
When Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital Gran Turismo 6 officially announced exclusively for PS3, last May, I thought it would be an opportunity to hone essential game mechanics that in the fifth chapter were approximate. GT5 had been criticized for remaining obsolete in some parts of the simulation, in which it was exceeded significantly from the historic rival Force.
In short, the graphics technology could not make leaps and bounds, because the game was revived the old-gen, but on the physical plane, at least according to this announcement, Polyphony had the opportunity to innovate. In short, placing many resources, on the one hand, since the other components were ready, and certainly would not have been improved further.
At the time of the announcement, Yamauchi talked about revisiting the management model of the suspension and tires, since the simulator now takes into account the structure of the car and the transient characteristics. The new management model of the suspension, according to the promises, it would be based on new analyzes carried out on real vehicles, while the aerodynamics would take account of the shapes of vehicles and changes to these during the race as well as the orientation of the car. But after several days of play I have to say that the driving pattern of Gran Turismo 6 seems to me entirely unchanged compared to what we saw in the previous game.
It is a model still effective in some ways, so do not care too much to consider the lack of change, and I move on other factors. In GT5 cars gave the feeling of being too heavy, while in case of loss of grip, there was always too much time to counter-steer and so deal with the error made.
It is as if time proves slowed to a fraction of a second, just giving the player the chance to counter-steer and restore the grip condition’s ideals. GT6 still does not surprise me even from this point of view, everything seems to have stayed the same in the past and some cars, normally so nervous and snappy, like the Ferrari 458, are still incredibly heavy.
Step, therefore, to consider the differences in behavior between the various cars. But after two hours of play I feel I always drive the same car, but behavior changes considerably when I apply the first upgrades. In short, as in the past, Gran Turismo is a game that is appreciated for the differences in behavior due to the completion of the vehicle, while there are no differences at the base so the net between a vehicle and another.
As we said in the review of Forza 5, the behavior of sports cars on the track affected many elements, such as the combination of mechanical solutions adopted, how they are assembled all the elements, the configuration of the engine, trim, electronics and much more. In the world of Gran Turismo is not so, and you always have the feeling that the loss of adhesion depends more by sudden shifts in weight and condition of the tires on the type of traction or technical characteristics of the car you’re driving.
Well, Polyphony did not want to fix these problems. Then you will have created a campaign faster and more fun than in the past? No, not even that: after a few hours have already terribly bored by the progression, and I have the feeling of being re-experience the game already had in the past. He placed artificial intelligence? We have a better sense of speed? He removed the car’s standard typical of the series? No, none of these areas presents substantial changes compared to GT5.
But it is possible that on the physical, plane has made improvements, because the limits of GT5 from this point of view were visible to all. The asphalt of the slopes was similar to billiards, while the player did not feel any kind of disconnection on the road.
Collisions between cars were incredibly unrealistic, and this allowed to practice the now famous ” closet ” , which was used to fix the car the best on the brakes even when he was wrong braking. None of these problems has been solved, and it is confirmed GT6 equal to its predecessor in every one of these aspects, with the sound you hear when two cars collide, which is still that of an ax that cuts the wood.
Maybe I was too drastic in this first page, so I invite you to continue reading to find out the more positive elements of GT6. There are and continue to survive with so many critical issues. But it is a relief that I felt to do, because, in the present state of things. GT6 is likely to be more of a business move than anything else, more an excuse to release the new GT5 than anything else.
A new user interface
The most obvious improvement of the new Gran Turismo compared to the previous chapter the user interface. The menus of GT5 were elephantine and forcing the player to understaffing at the exchange rate of the track, but also in the transition from one to another part of the user interface.
Polyphony has completely revised this part, and has adapted to the new style of the menu system PS4, structuring the UI to ” tile “. Everything is much more understandable and above all fast.
The player with quick steps can strengthen the car, sit in another car, go in search of new vehicles suitable for competitions that are going to face, go to the multiplayer part and special events, and so on. All without losing that feeling of relaxation typical of the series, with the opportunity to make a trip back into the history of the automobile.
GT6 includes more than 1200 vehicles, so you can have been driving experiences varied among them. In short, the charm of the series remains unchanged and that feeling of discovery and progresses back alive as it was in the past.
Of course, the lack of tangible improvements to the driving model, as we said, make this experience all too similar to what had with GT5 and its predecessors. Such a high number of vehicles, together with the 33 tracks present, does not allow polyphony to maintain the same level of quality among the various contents, with decline’s NET in certain cases.
Some vehicle (the standard) is completely unchanged compared to the counterparties used in previous versions of GT, with the risk of being left with cars, which may have cost too many credits and real money due to the presence of micro-transactions, which have graphics and model driving from PS2!
One approach, then, is diametrically opposed to that of Turn 10, Forza 5 that gave up the numbers in order to maintain the same high level of quality for each car. In the title for Xbox One, as well as in Assetto Corsa just to give an example of another driving simulator in vogue at this time, each car offers a driving experience that is completely independent from the others.
The behavior of the cars in those cases depends on many factors, not least because the two simulators concerned shall seek to discover that ” something ” extra that makes each car unique.
In GT6, as well as in the previous game, a lot of cars for the differences depend simply on the type of drive, the position of the engine in the vehicle body, the upgrades applied and the type of tires fitted, without going too much to the discovery of the philosophy that is behind the way of functioning of that car.
The user interface is so new and more functional, but it always feels a certain slowness in the progression. Sudden changes in the quality and having to drive again’ve seen cars on circuits’ve seen make it all quite weak, dull in parts, and after a few hours of play, unfortunately, boring.
Only after several hours of play finally meet with a car driving model different, but you have to have a challenge of access to sports cars or heavily processed, while some vehicles, such as the aforementioned Ferrari 458 or the new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, in basic versions do not offer the level of the challenge to be mastered that we would have expected.
It is a discourse which seems to extend to all new cars compared to GT5, and it also covers the Toyota GT86. This is a sports car within the reach of anyone, since it is sold at about 30 thousand euro.
It offers plenty of power, 200 horsepower, rear-wheel drive. It’s very fun car to drive, a ” tuff ” we might call it, and in Forza 5 is snappy and difficult to control. In Gt6 quite the opposite: static and always predictable, even boring at the end.
After a couple of races with that car back on the menu to see if possibly I had left some assistance enabled, and that in itself is a bad sign for a product that wants to stand as a driving simulation. Nothing, everything was left just as I remembered it, with traction control off, no ABS and Traction control is not enabled. In short, simply Gran Turismo is still not the best solution in order to experience the differences that underlie the behavior of the car.
This does not mean that it is not a game with the appropriate level of the challenge, indeed. Simply, it is calibrated differently than other simulators of this band, as the challenge comes out especially when the vehicle components are worn. GT6 let’s face long endurance races, where the skill of the pilot is also to keep the vehicle stable, avoiding stress the tires to make them heat up and bring them to decay prematurely.
Some races, think of a nervous Ferrari of the 90s, especially on some complicated circuits such as the Nürburgring Nordschleife timeless, require continued commitment and sustained over time, with a kind of experience driving in these cases, even more fulfilling compared to what occurs with other simulators, just for the attention paid to the need to reduce the degradation.
Lunar Exploration
One of the most eye-catching on the promotional plan concerns the new driving modes within the so-called lunar exploration. In these cases, Gran Turismo 6 brings us precisely to the moon, where we have no way of guiding the form of exploration of the 70 missions that require us to move from point A to point B or to break down the cones.
Under normal conditions, GT6 does not offer that sense of speed that occurs in other simulators, imagine what happens in low gravity. Everything moves in slow motion, and physics is, as always, approximate.
This mode offers a different and innovative approach than usual, and in some ways it is addictive, but in the long run is repetitive and not very appealing. Carry out the lunar missions remains absolutely recommended, because supplement provides a significant amount of credits, you can spend in the purchase of other cars and their empowerment.
Then there are the missions of the race, in which there are specific requirements in performance pre-established circuits. For example, it could come down a time required to overcome a certain number of cars or proceed to be zig-zag along the path formed by cones.
During his career, in addition, you can receive invitations to special events, such as race of vintage cars on gut intricate Goodwood Festival of Speed. Among the special events, we also find the aforementioned lunar exploration.
Coffee Break events are mini-games be faced when you do not have time for a full race. One of these could be given the challenge to knock down as many cones at one stage or the ecological to drive to travel the greatest distance possible with just one liter of petrol.
Do not miss the classic Gran Turismo licenses. Once you have a sufficient number of stars to access the next category (stars are awarded based on the performance achieved), you have to face challenges in order to obtain the license needed to play the races in the next category. It is a few second’s competitions that require you to deal with certain sections of track within a set period of time, to overcome the adversaries, to drive in a clean way: in short, the usual things of Gran Turismo.
But even this component of the game, in my view, is antiquated and responds to the needs of outdated gameplay. Aside from the fact that you have to wait for the software loads, the ski with boots even longer than the driving phases themselves, build licenses are once again on a slow and tedious structure.
GT6 has unfortunately far too many clutch’s progression: for example, you cannot start a single race that is part of a championship. In these cases, it is necessary to complete the series before you have a new chance to get the win, as there is a system of instant replay like in Forza.
Of course, this has an impact on artificial intelligence, which must be ” soft ” not to make it too frustrating. Basically, you have the feeling that the other drivers are waiting for us after we have made a mistake. It’s as if the car would guide much less powerful than ours, because they do not make any mistakes and do things unpredictable. In short, it seems that they are doing the happy walks in the woods, while the pilot is always busy to control her ” wild beast ” more or less unmanageable.
It has a very important role the enhancement of the cars, because without the processing often do not have enough power to overcome the challenges. It can improve various aspects of the suspension, gearbox, transmission, engine and bodywork. The enhancements affect the visual and the driving model, too in the latter case as we have seen in other parts of the article.
Gran Turismo then wants to be an enjoyable even to a casual audience, as you can enter the path for assistance, blind spot, active steering, traction control and stability, ABS and traction.
Gran Turismo 6 – Conclusions
As we have seen, the logic of Gran Turismo remains to carry on scaffolding created years ago without removing everything that can be obsolete, to create just the amount to which we have referred several times in the article.
Beyond a model of the old-fashioned guide, this makes the career progression too bland and not very articulate, while everything in Forza 5 always has a meaning, with an upbeat and fast-paced constantly, where to board a new car results in a completely different, almost as if it was a different game from the previous year.
And the development methodology GT6, as happened with GT5, proves to be cumbersome, with plans inaccurate. The game offers an interesting basis in the simulation of some things, like the weight transfer and the alternation of night and day at the races, but alternating elements of high-quality elements of low or very low quality. And the worst is that it is also the main flaw of its predecessor, which is not very encouraging for a user who has to decide whether or not to buy the game.
Among the most noticeable improvements, we have the new user interface. I leave the judgment to you on that in a driving simulation is positive or unless one of the most noticeable improvements concerns the UI. The fact is that now the navigation is smoother and faster, while the menus of the previous game were incredibly elephantine.
We have seen in the course of the article, go ahead into GT6 is not always rewarding and varied experience, indeed very often you have the feeling for a game already lived in the past, with cars and circuits borrowed from the games without finishing earlier.
And play with the standard car, which in some cases can be purchased through micro-transactions, it is not exactly the best, since I do not have a cockpit faithfully reproduced and have angular shapes with polygonal models that date back to the PS2. Sure, Polyphony thinks about the amount, but it is an approach that degrades the quality factor too, took a single reference point from Western productions, which does not allow you to have to overhang so important content between content and well-made improvised or not finished.
About micro-transactions, it must be said that they are less present than in rival Force 5. The career of GT6 is long and difficult and, in view of the fact that it produces a lot of frustration in the long run could push the player to decide to spend again more than the initial cost of the game. Many competitions require very specific cars, without giving advice to the player on what to choose, forcing him to see pages and pages of the comprehensive program made available.
Sure, there are many defects, but Gran Turismo 6 is the experience relaxing and full of passion for driving. There are very long races and master certain car, especially with a view not to degrade the tires, remains a major challenge, which requires many hours of dedication. There is a strategic component stronger than other similar games, and of course, a career that offers many practically endless hours of play.
Despite all this, then, due to the fact that the leadership of some cars is still enjoyable for the amount of content already present at the launch, for a good multiplayer and to be the best driving simulator on the platform where it belongs, GT6 is not to be punished in a manner so clear-cut. That said, we cannot bring to bear on the overall evaluation of the fact that Polyphony Digital has neglected to fix a few areas that are critical historical repeatedly reported by the fans.
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