GT6 on PS3 in 2013

[HammR25]

Looks like Turn 10 is saying they'll have less tracks and cars because they don't just throw crap in there to say they have more content like some company that released a game with a bunch of cars that looked like crap and had no cockpit view.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-06-why-forza-motorsport-5-has-less-cars-and-tracks-than-forza-4

[Reaperman]

Looks like Turn 10 is saying they'll have less tracks and cars because they don't just throw crap in there to say they have more content like some company that released a game with a bunch of cars that looked like crap and had no cockpit view.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-06-why-forza-motorsport-5-has-less-cars-and-tracks-than-forza-4

 

Ah, turn 10--diplomatic as always. At least the fans hear from them sometimes. PD is fog and mysteries. I thought the Forza 4 models were fine. It'd be neat to see one of these racing games use lastgen models...and throw 40-100 of them on a track at once. It would have been neat to see 'GT4: HD+Online' as an early title on ps3. I think it would have really sold the system. I mean the volume of carnage out there would be annoying, but at least the NurbungenWayToLongenTrack wouldn't feel so lonely...especially at night...

Edited November 7, 2013 by Reaperman

[Atariboy]

100 last gen models of the quality seen in Forza 4 running at the Ring or Le Mans in multiple classes would make the inclusion of those tracks worth so much more. Too bad Turn 10 put 100% of their focus on graphics.

 

14 tracks just can't sustain a 50 hour + career mode. Even the larger rosters of earlier games gave you the feeling 15 hours in that you've raced this same track 15 times already. So I hope they've shortened career mode dramatically.

 

Even with a disparity in quality which hopefully Polophony has done work to close the gap at least where the tracks are concerned (I'm sure the car quality disparity is alive and well), 39 distinct locations and variable conditions on many of them will go a long way towards keeping career mode interesting.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Atariboy

[HammR25]

The real reason is they want to release a $50 season pass of 60 DLC cars. As for the graphics Turn 10 knows that eye candy sells. It's the same reason people whine about the graphics in rFactor 2.

[Reaperman]

I caved and preordered from gamestop for the bonuses (and because it looks like this game might actually come out on time).

I don't much like having lots of cars in the beginning, so I won't use the code for a bit. Still a couple years from now it will probably be neat to run around in preorder livery.

[Atariboy]

I watched some onboard videos of the Ascari track that they've modeled for this game. Looks like a neat track so I'm glad GT6 includes it. I've never even heard of it before until GT6 announced it was including it.

 

I know Polyphony is far from perfect and I'm sure this game will have a lot of issues, but I'm still excited.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Atariboy

[+wood_jl]

I *love* Forza games, as well as GT games. The reason I mentioned love for the Forza games first (in a GT6 thread) is because I'm about to criticize Forza 5, and I didn't want to come across as a fanboy.

 

According to this article....

 

Forza Motorsport 5 to feature just 200 cars, no Nürburgring

 

....it looks like Turn 10 Studios is taking a page from the Polyphony Digital playbook, and selling half-a-game.

 

According to that article, that's 300-fewer cars and nearly 1/2 as many (14 tracks in Forza 5) tracks as the previous X360 release, Forza 4. So releasing half-ass games at $60 is probably the new norm, as they're both doing it now. No problem! For $50 you can buy a "season pass" and continue to download content, turning your $60 game into a $110 game, which reverts back to a $60 incomplete game if/when your console or hard drive crashes.

 

I don't mean to excuse what Sony/Polyphony has been doing, but at least GT6 comes with (according to the above artice) "six times as many cars and 39 tracks." So GT6 can't be that bad, after all. One can hope that GT7 will not follow the Forza 5 model, but I'm guessing it will. If they can't rule out used games, they'll sell you a fractionally-complete game for $60 and require revolving payments for perpetuity.

 

Forza came out with the "Ultimate Collection" under Platinum Hits (old stuff) for the Forza 3 game, which meant you could finally buy a complete version of the game after it became old. Let's hope that continues. For the game sellers, they're just pulling the handle on the old-fashioned cash register one last time, but for me, I'm getting a *complete* game at a good price, and I'm willing to wait.

 

(that handle)

[Atariboy]

That extra $50 only gets you 60 more cars. Pretty hefty price tag for a small amount of content. Since it ends so shortly, I assume Forza 5 will have multiple "seasons" unless they're just going to cease DLC support this summer.

 

Forza 3 lasted long enough where even after the Ultimate Edition was released, one more car DLC pack came out and thus wasn't included. And that wasn't terribly long before Forza 4 hit on the traditional two year release schedule for this franchise. So I'm skeptical that DLC will cease with the cessation of that $50 season pass in May or June.

 

And that's not to mention the potential of selling us track add-ons (The Ring is rumored for January and it's hard to imagine it being free). So getting the full Forza 5 experience could amount to several hundred dollars at list prices when everything is said and done.

 

Pretty ridiculous.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Atariboy

[Reaperman]

The interface images have been out for a while, and I'm liking what I see. They don't seem to load photo-perfect 3d models into the background before the menu comes up which should help out the speed of the UI hugely. There is still some concern about the 3d model in the maintenance screen, though. Switching from arcade mode to career mode--right on one menu now.

 

By comparison, in GT5 to swap to a different car in practice mode required 6, 10sec+ loading screens. Also, the online lobbies forced gamers to load the whole freaking track and all the cars on it before they could even check out the room's regulations. I've done a bit of UI work, and there's just no excuse for gt5. If I had to guess how it happened, Kaz drew out his vision for pretty 3d background cars and real-time online track previews and his people didn't stand up to him. They just made his sketches work in the only way they could--by killing usability and punishing 10 million gamers every time they played the title.

 

honestly if the interface is as slick as it looks, that pretty much justifies the purchase price alone for me.

 

Edited November 21, 2013 by Reaperman

[Reaperman]

Here's a vid of the new Ascari track. For a 'real life' track, it's pretty interesting. Really high number of corners, obviously designed to be fun for many classes of cars and drivers of "all skill levels." (easy corners) It's got big runoff areas which I am often annoyed by, but in places it's only on the side that it's needed, which avoids some of the feeling of driving out in the middle of nowhere. If you look, you can also see the new blindspot indicators which should help online racing for those of us (like me) who aren't running a 3-monitor, triple-ps3 setup.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jNMKi_o9luA

Edited November 22, 2013 by Reaperman

[Atariboy]

It's mostly grass though. I just don't like it when the paved run off areas are everywhere and make you feel like you're in a parking lot.

 

Either the video I saw was old or Polyphony took some liberties. There are trees right next to the track in multiple spots in the real life onboard lap I saw that were protected only by a tire barrier surrounding the trunk. Gave it that club feeling since most professional road racing organizations would balk at that and Ascari is of course a club track rather than one that stages professional races.

 

Here, every tree is safely behind trackside Armco barriers. So they've either taken liberty by adding things like paved run off areas and barriers or they've made changes recently since this video.

 

Edited November 23, 2013 by Atariboy

[Reaperman]

Less than a day after GT6 was confirmed to have gone gold, the game is in the hands of at least 3 active (non-staff) posters on GTPlanet. The leaks are fairly huge, and still coming over on the forum. They seem to be taking a lot of requests too.

 

 

Intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEZ847XzAlg

 

All cars, nice quick menus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaiI2fUpXBs

Edited November 29, 2013 by Reaperman

[Reaperman]

So far I'm seeing all cars in the dealership (so, so many cars), no 'driver level' to buy cars, quick menus--looks a lot like GT5: Less Annoying Edition.

And you know what, I think I'm okay with that. GT5 was fairly decent once I actually got to the track. Okay, I'll bet the sound is still bad, and clearly a lot of tracks and cars are still ps2 models, but this game looks a lot easier to live with on a long-term basis.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Reaperman

[Reaperman]

So the first major hole in GT6 looks like the highly advertised lighting engine. It only seems to support 1 set of headlights. (painfully obvious in the replay after the race in the vid below) GT5 could handle 4 sets at once, which was generally enough for most situations. Personally I'm not a big fan of night racing, but it looks like I'm going to have to suffer through some of it with only my own headlights to guide me. I suppose if I had a sextant I could also navigate using those silly stars.

 

Willow Springs is a good choice for a night race, though. ...mostly because it's in the absolute middle of nowhere, so there's 'eff all' to see even in full daylight.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1569EZ1dKc

 

And now for something completely different:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPSQ3XdVYSo

Edited November 30, 2013 by Reaperman

[Atariboy]

They're making GT6: XL Edition for the PS4 under the name of Gran Turismo 7 and talking about a release next year, so I imagine that's one issue that should disappear then.

 

Perfection is impossible but I'm looking forward to the day where we hopefully get a Gran Turismo that isn't left feeling like a compromise or incomplete. But there's so much material here and they still get enough right where I'm excited for Gran Turismo 6 just the same.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Atariboy

[Reaperman]

Bravo on these menus PD. Very little down time between them, and I notice in the repair shop it loads the menu, then the car and guys in background. If they keep that nice sensible approach with the online menus, I'll be pretty happy with GT5.5.

 

PD's menus are usually not stellar--GT6's appear to easily be the best in the series. I'm not going to go out of my way to call them 'slick,' but they sure look functional and usable.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMRdJ3z2qg0

 

And here's the entire process of buying and tuning a hyundai.

Not sure why one would ever want to do that, but at least the process seems pretty easy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grqq0WsdEOM

Edited December 2, 2013 by Reaperman

[Reaperman]

Launch party has kicked off and appears to run through tomorrow (link).

They seem to have pretty well taken over Rhonda, which must surely be the prettiest city I have ever seen.

 

In other news, some of the cars that had disappeared from the car list have reappeared, bringing the count to 1207.

 

Acura NSX concept
Honda NSX Concept
Toyota GAZOO Racing TOYOTA 86 #166 '12
LFA Nurburgring
Vision GT Mercedes
Deltawing 2013
DeltaWing 2012
A few more 'standards' are now premium

WRC 2008 cars are back in the list too

More 'vision gt' cars (link)

 

Seems like some last minute licensing had to be ironed out. It's worth noting that the early copies that slipped out do not have those cars available (perhaps with hacking). I'd assume the day 1 patch will enable them, but beware of buying this game and expecting to use it in a post-psn-supported world. The 'XL' version will certainly be a must for me.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Reaperman

[cimerians]

 

http://youtu.be/7VHKUTeRjbU

Edited December 3, 2013 by cimerians

[Reaperman]

So, it seems that many of the 'standard' cars have gotten some welcome cleanup. They're surely not 'premium' but they're much better than in gt5. It's still unclear how many cars have been improved, as it seems that some have not been touched. Image blows up nicely with a couple clicks.

 

Edited December 4, 2013 by Reaperman

[Atariboy]

Reviews are starting to pop up. Reading IGN's right now which is pretty predictable so far. Excels in the areas those of us participating is this thread have been expecting and it falls short in the areas we were expecting. It's essentially 'Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition +' rather than a full fledged new entry in the franchise.

 

One complaint they had though that I never thought of and completely agree with is rolling starts. I wish those would go away at least outside of something like the oval at Indy since they take away all the excitement at the start (And make rolling starts not be automatic when they are used).

 

And I'd take that a step further and let you jump a start. Being automatically prevented from doing so like Forza does, takes away from the excitement and challenge of getting off the line as best as you can from a standing start. In my opinion, it has been one of Forza's problems since the beginning.

 

So it's a shame that isn't an option in single player. Especially when GT6 allows it to be toggled on for online multiplayer, jump starts and all.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Atariboy

[Atariboy]

1.2 gig day 1 patch for the game.

 

Looking forward to a Greatest Hits rerelease that's fully patched and has all the DLC if they heavily support it this time around. They're talking big, but they did last time too and GT5 wasn't exactly swamped with DLC.

 

Edited December 6, 2013 by Atariboy

[+wood_jl]

Or, at least they should sing "ROOOOOOOOLINGGGG STAAAAAAAAART" like some of the Sega games. heh heh

[Atariboy]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the Delta Wing disappearing briefly.

 

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20131203/ALMS/131209966

[Reaperman]

I'm having tons of fun with this game.

 

No lengthy install, the patch actually came down really quickly (under 5 min or so), menus are quick and functional. I was half expecting to still be patching this game, but psn seems to be zipping right along today.

 

I'm noticing that online leaderboards are sneaking into various bits--for example, on the license tests it inserted arrows for people on my friends list in addition to my own ghost car. It felt a little like 'trackmania' and that's not exactly a bad thing.

 

Though the UI is *way* better than gt5's, I did experience my first case of 'menu annoyance' with those previously mentioned license tests. They're all on different tracks with loading screens, and it makes me back out of each test (loading the menu) to get to the next one. A little overkill considering that most of them require only one try and last about 30 sec each. Basically there is more loading than racing. maybe they all should be on the same track, with a 'next event' button (like championship races).

 

Not everything is perfect--essentially it's a lot like gt5 but with less annoyance and an extra layer of polish between me and doing what I want.

I really missed the polish of GT4 when GT5 came out.

Time to grab some lunch and head back to the races.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Reaperman

[Reaperman]

Well I've had a few more days with Gran Turismo 6, and racked up about 500 miles of racing. Still feeling good about this one.

 

Generally, on track, the game feels a lot like a minorly tweaked gt5--and that's a good thing. The new sky is beautiful, but I'm noticing more anti-aliasing issues with trackside objects. People also pop-in on some tracks. I don't know what the frame rate is like, but I don't notice issues, and hugely important--I'm not seeing the tearing any more. (mind that my gaming setup runs at 720p, so YMMV). And yes, the new handling takes about one lap to get used to.

 

GT5 was a horrible game with an excellent driving experience buried in it, GT6 remedies a lot of that. It is fun rather than feeling like a chore.

• Driver levels are gone--players can now buy any car they have money for--great!
• Paint chips--they still there, but once they are owned they can be used forever. That's even better than picking from a color wheel. I paint most of my cars with Opel's 'Brokatgelb.'
• Perhaps the biggest win was that the menus have been designed to maximize speed and usability. The game attempts to let the menus get players around quickly. There has also been an attempt to minimize 'menu wading' by not constantly dropping players at the main menu (say, when buying a car, or exiting an online lobby).

 

Load times between menus are nearly non-existant, but yes, to load a track and a bunch of cars still takes some time. They've still been creative there. Rather than a blank screen with a progress bar, there's now a rather interesting animated loading screen with flags that reminds players of what event they're in, and which track its on. Once the track loads (while the cars are loading in the background) it drops users at the racing menu where they can see what the competition is driving, what the track conditions are like, and lets them tune--freaking genius. Also, during championships it keeps the cars loaded between races, so there is only the initial track load. This kind of introduces the next race because players have no doubt forgotten which track comes next in a 5 race championship.

 

In short, this is IMO the best Gran Turismo game ever--where GT5 was my least favorite. Not a bad jump considering the feature list reads like a minor 'tweak and peak.' Is it as good as Forza 4? I'd probably say not quite, but the game is clearly now in the same league, and even leads it in a few important areas. Even more importantly, this game has turned me back into a Sony fan. I want this game on PS4. If it was out for it right now, I would have bought a new system over the weekend. (it is a planned future release, from what I understand)

Edited December 9, 2013 by Reaperman