It's been known for some time now that Gran Turismo Sport would be getting sunset at the start of 2024, as per the official announcement from the devs, but it now seems that the process will be more thorough than most might've anticipated??.

Indeed, while the announcement did specify that Sony and Polyphony Digital would "end the distribution" of purchasable DLCs and online services for Gran Turismo Sport, the expectation was that the game would remain accessible in an always-offline form. This, however, hasn't been the case, as anyone who hadn't purchased Sport before January 31, 2024, at 06:00 UTC won't be able to purchase, download, or play the game at all in the future. The community isn't thrilled about this development.

Gran Turismo Sport is no longer available, but it gets worse

Certainly, one could argue that there's virtually no need for Gran Turismo Sport now that Gran Turismo 7 has superseded the older title, which goes doubly so after the release of the recent SPEC II update. Sport, however, did stand on its own two feet with a more bog-standard solo mode focusing on regular progression and events, as seen in the older franchise entries. Regardless, it is a shame that suc?h a relatively recent release would be no longer accessible to new players.

For those who do have access to Gran Turismo Sport, there's more bad news on the horizon. The game will continue existing in its current, full-fledged state for less than a month. Sport has been an always-online title ??from the get-go, and as its online services will come to an end on January 31, 2024, that means large batches of its content will no longer be accessible. This includes:

• Any form of multiplayer
• All player-made vehicle customizations (e.g. liveries)
• Community hub
• Open Lobby features
• Sport Mode features
• Mileage Store
• Trophies

Thankfully, the game's offline modes will remain ac??cessible, with a limited form of progression available as wel??l.

It's a sad day for GT Sport fans, then, though the good news is that the vast majority of Sport's cars are, indeed, available for driving in the newer Gran Turismo 7 title.

The obvious question, though, is whether GT7 itself is due to face a similar fate in a few years. The old Forza Motorsport games are not available at all,?? either, which means that the recent ge?nerations of racing games are in a serious predicament, potentially getting lost for good.

Even for those who are sticking with the latest AAA racing game releases, there are some troubling developments. Forza Motorsport, for one, is hardly adding permanent new events to its middling roster. This makes for an air of transience in the genre, and it doesn't seem like ??this ?will be changing anytime soon.

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Since it launched in 2022, Gran Turismo 7 has consistently received new ?content to keep racers coming back to burn rubber. Today, a new update arrives, and it brings something for everyone.

The update will be available from 11:00 ?PM?? PST, and Polyphony is touting it as the biggest since the launch of the game. Although both PS4 and PS5 players will get the update, some features will only arrive for the current-gen console. There is a trailer for you to watch as you wait for the patch to download.

Everything included in the Gran Turismo SPEC II update (patch 1.40)

With the Gran Turismo 7 update, yo?u'll get the SPEC II opening movie. You??'ll also get 7 new cars. They are:

• Dodge Charger R/T 426 Hemi â€?8
• Dodge Charger SRT Demon â€?8
• Lexus LFA â€?0
• Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II â€?1
• NISMO 400R â€?5
• Porsche 911 GT3 RS (992) â€?2
• Tesla Model 3 Performance â€?3

The update also comes with a new circuit - Lake Louise - and it comes with 3 layouts, namely the Lake Louise Long Track, Lake Louise Short Track, and the Lake Louise ??Tri-Oval. You can also expect 3 new Extra menus, a new Event Directory button, and the inclusion of Gran Turismo Sophy 2.0 the AI assistant on PS5.

There have been 50 new challenges added to the licenses, and a paddock area in multiplayer where you?? can connect with other players. The update also brings changes to the World Circuits. This comes in the form of 5 new regular events:

• World Touring Cars 900: Trial Mountain / Nurburgring / Suzuka Circuit / Autopolis
• X2019 Nations Cup: Interlagos Circuit / Sardegna Road Track / Dragon Trail / Trial Mountain Circuit / Lake Maggiore Circuit
• World Rally Challenge Gr. B: Lake Louise
• Japanese 4WD Challenge 600
• Pick-Up Truck Race: Lake Louise

You'll also get two expert race events:

• Clubman Cup+: Watkins Glen International / Special Stage Route X / Fuji Speedway / Monza Circuit
• GT Cup Gr. 3: Mount Panorama / Daytona International Speedway / Deep Forest Raceway / Red Bull Ring

Gran Turismo has had a great year. In addition to a VR mode being released for the PS VR2, a movie was also released that tells the story of Jann Mardenborough.

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Gran Turismo is a Neill Blomkamp-directed film based on the popular PlayStation franchise. It tells the tracks the tale of how Jann Mardenborough turned his love of Gran Turismo games into a fully-fledged motorsport career. Though the wide release for the USA is set for August 25, the film has aired in international markets, reception has been good thus far, and it has been reported that the film has a?lready grossed $22.7 million.

[caption id="attachment_395283" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Polyphony Digital.[/caption]

Gran Turismo racing to theatres

The Gran Turismo movie is a star-studded affair featuring Archie Madekwe as Mardenborough, Djimon Hounsou as Mardenborough’s father, and Orlando Bloom as Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore. As Blomkamp has explained, to capture the most cinematic shots, filmographers used FPV drones to carry IMAX sensor-approved camer??as. Several cockpit shots were use??d? which will be familiar to franchise fans.

//twitter.com/BORReport/stat??us/1693278878792642768

Critical reception to the Gran Turismo movie has been positive overall, which reviewers complimenting the film’s authenticity and sincerity. It has not managed to avoid all criticism, and there has been some controversy regarding the film's depiction of Mardenborough’s Nürburgring crash which led to the death of a spectator. Some have described it as insensitive, with Polygon calling it “a tas??teless reframing of a fatal event.�/a>

The Gran Turismo movie is but one of several video game adaptations Sony has in store. A Ghost of Tsushima movie is in the works, and fans can also look forward to television adaptations of the Horizon and God of War franchises.

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August is going to be a good month for Gran Turismo fans. The Gran Turismo movie hits theaters on August 25, and you can enjoy some new content in Gran Turismo 7 to celebrate the movie's launch. Update 1.36 goes live on August 7 at 12 AM PDT, and it adds a new livery that’ll allow you to recreate the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 �8 seen in the Gran Turismo movie.

Polyphony Digital is also runni??ng a gift campaign. From August 7 until September 28, you’ll be able to claim the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 �8? showcased in the upcoming movie.

[caption id="attachment_395283" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Polyphony Digital.[/caption]

Get your engines ready

To claim your nifty Nissan from the Gran Turismo movie, all you need to do is hop into GT 7 and select the special pane??l on the upper right side of ??the World Map screen. In addition to new movie-related content, new cars have been made available:

• Chevrolet Corvette (C1) â€?8
• Maserati MC20 â€?0
• Toyota GR Corolla MORIZO Edition â€?2
• Toyota Ambulance Himedic â€?1 (Purchasable at Brand Central from late September)

Fukuoka Eastern Fire Station has been added to the Scapes, and the following Extras M???enus have been chucked into the GT Cafe:

• Extra Menu No. 26: ‘Maseratiâ€?(Collector Level 40 and above)
• Extra Menu No. 27: ‘Aston Martinâ€?(Collector Level 44 and above)
• Extra Menu No. 28: ‘Kei carsâ€?(Collector Level 27 and above)

Gran Turismo 7 will also be celebrating the World Series Showdown 2023 Am??sterdam taking place between August 11 and 12. With the "Predict the Winners" campaign, you can score in-game credits by pr?edicting which teams will win the Manufacturers Cup and Nations Cup at the World Series Showdown.

The Gran Turismo movie, directed by Neill Blomkamp, has been touted as a true story based on the life of Jann Mardenborough and his unusual rise in motorsport. Gran Turismo is one of many PlayStation franchises receiving film adaptations, including Ghost of Tsushima and possibly Days Gone.

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25 years of Real Driving excellence

Today is the 25th anniversary of gaming's foremost driving simulator, Gran Turismo. And to celebrate the occasion, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Pol??yph?ony Digital released a video message, thanking the community and the team for delivering over two decades of critically acclaimed racing action.

The first Gran Turismo launched on PlayStation on December 23, 1997, kicking off a franchise that aimed to bring a sense of realism and technical authen?ticity to the racing game genre. With the ever-evolving technology of PlayStation hardware, developer Polyphony Digital has been afforded the opportunity to push the envelope further and further, with sequels boasting increasingly photo-realistic visuals and immersive driving physics almost unparalleled in the genre.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zIcBFcLM7U&a?mp;ab_ch?annel=GRANTURISMOTV

A lengthy letter from Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi, released for the anniversary, reflects on the history of the franchise, while also revealing that a staggering 90 million Gran Turismo titles have been sold since the series' debut. Yamauchi speaks of his and the Polyphony team's immense pride in the franchise, noting that the studio still carries a sense of revitalized determination into the cur??rent and forthcoming gaming generations.

"I can’t ever thank enough the Gran Turismo users and people of the Gran Turismo community who have played our new titles, which at times could be said to have been very experimental, writes Yamauchi. "We are here today because of all the people who supported us. I believe the Gran Turismo ?series have always pursued “beauty.�The beauty of the cars, the beauty of the scenery, the beauty of the lighting, the beauty of driving?, the beauty of sounds/music and the beauty of the graphics."

"The “pursuit of beauty�is the motivation for creating Gran Turismo."

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The Last Stardriver

Sony Interactive Entertainment's premier driving simulator, Gran Turismo, is getting ready to burn rubber on the big screen. According to a new report from the Tinseltown insiders over at Deadline, Columbia Pictures is scoping a summer 2023 release date for the fast and furious movie adaptation.

Directed by Neil Blomkamp, (the big chair behind the great District 9 and the abominable CHAPPiE), Gran Turismo has something of a strange plot concept. Reportedly, the movie will follow the exploit of the world's greatest Gran Turismo player, who transitions their digital racing skills onto the real-world professional car racing circuit. Think The Last Starfighter, but without the world-saving angle.

As cheesy as that premise sounds, it is, surprisingly, an adaptati??on of a true story. British racing driver Jann Mardenborough legitimately won a Nissan-sponsored GT Academy contest in 2011, securing themselves a scholarship in the Nissan’s Driver Development Programme. Since the competition, Mardenborough has gone on to compete in numerous major race tournaments includ?ing Japan's GT Super series and the famous 24-hour Le Mans rally.

Personally, I prefer my driving movies to focus on people in pleather flame trousers stealing DVD players, but each to their own. Gran Turismo is the latest in a series of film and TV adaptations based on PlayStation properties. Live-action takes on The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Twisted Metal are already in the works, while the Tom Holland vehicle Uncharted launched earlier in 2022.

Gran Turismo is tentatively scheduled to arrive in theaters Aug??ust 11, 2023.

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The developer has also adjusted its event rewards

Gran Turismo 7 servers are back online,? after an extended maintenance period kept it offline for over 24 ho?urs. Developer Polyphony Digital announced it has issued Update 1.08, after discovering a rare issue before the release of 1.07.

Yesterday, Polyphony Digital announced it was extending server maintenance, with no completion time set. "Due to an issue found with Update 1.07, we are extending the current server maintenance period," the update reads. "We will confirm the co??mpletion time as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and ask for your patience while we work to resolve the issue."

//twi??tter.com/thegranturis??mo/status/1504435541038833665

Polyphony CEO Kazunori Yamauchi addressed the maintenance in an update on the Gran Turismo 7 site.

"Immediately before the release of the 1.07 update, we discovered an issue where the game would not start properly in some cases on product versions for the PS4 and PS5," writes Yamauchi. "This was a rare issue that was not seen during tests on the development hardware or the QA sessions prior to th?e release, but in order to prioritize the safety of the save data of the users,? we decided to interrupt the release of the 1.07 update, and to make a 1.08 correctional update."

Several facets of Gran Turismo 7, including single-players modes like the campaign, require a connection to GT7's servers. Players were posting about the outages, as well as concerns about the in-game economy, on forums like the Gran Turismo subreddit. And folks like Digital Foundry's John Linneman have noted how this illustrates the issue with required server connectivity for games. User reviews have also been dropping on Metacritic.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCabpb5HRv0

Yamauchi says the event rewards for Gran Turismo 7 were adjusted in the update as well. Describing th??e team's pl??ans going forward, he says he would like users to enjoy many cars and races "even without microtransactions."

He also says it's i??mportant for car prices to be linked with real-world price tags, to convey value and ??rarity.

"We will in time let you know the update plans for additional content, additional race events and additional features that will constructively resolve this," Yamauchi says. "It pains me that I can’t explain the details regarding this at this moment, but we plan on continuing to revise GT7 so that as many players as possible can enjoy the game. We would really appreciate it if everyone could watch over the growth of Gran Turismo 7 from a somewhat longer term point of view."

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It's been 84 years...

Back when Gran Turismo was one of the only simulation-heavy racing games, it was an institution: both at large and in my home. Gran Turismo 2 is one of my most-played games of all time, period, over my lifetime. But somewhere around the "Prologue" release of the fifth iteration, I started to get a little more distant. Instead of living in its world, I was merely a frequent tourist. Gran Turismo 7 changed that.

Gran Turismo 7 (PS4, PS5)
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: March 4, 2022
MSRP: $59.99 (PS4), $69.99 (PS5)

One of the first things I noticed about Gran Turismo 7 is that its loading screens are littered with jazz and basketball facts. Historical?? facts, actually.

Polyphony Digital is really leaning into nostalgia this time around, and not just for the GT series, but nostalgia as a whole. And you know what? It works. The whole product, from top to bottom, feels like it h??as stuff packed in, so that something is always going on, even if you're looking at brief text on-screen.

The second thing I noticed about the new entry is the visual style. I experienced the game on PS5, where it looks stunning and runs fantastically. A few screens looked like they were real, and GT7 along with the Forza series? has brought in a hyper-realistic style that works super well for mode??rn racers. While a lot of visual mediums suffer from it, it's a boon for the genre, especially when the weather kicks in.

Since numbers often matter to racing fans, here are the cold hard stats as to what GT7 entails at launch:

• Over 400 cars (in-game I have a "there are 424 cars to collect" notification)
• 60 manufacturers
• 34 tracks (with 97 layouts total) with traditional races and a "music rally" arcade mode

Your main sense of progression is going to come from the hub, which facilitates café questlines (mostly involving completing objectives like a specific race to chase, or collecting a certain array of cars), license challenges (gates that allow you to unlock more content), and general races that up your cashflow [credits] and let you buy more cars to store in your garage. There are a few hubs you can visit in the text-based overworld (like your garage, used car dealerships, the aforementioned café, and so on). That's the loop. And to GT fans, it's very familiar.

The café itself is a bizarre bourgeois location where you acquire literal restaurant menus as "quests," and try a?nd complete them to move on to the next set of menus. It's strange, and I want to meet the person behind the concept because I think they'd have a lot of interesting things to say. You can see this come through in the dialogue from the "car experts" in-universe, where? they wax poetic about the olden days of car design and spout car facts left and right.

All of those descriptors are compliments. While GT7 looks traditional on the surface, it can get a little weird at times and strangely contemplative. While I wouldn't say that I encountered "gates" so to speak in a traditional sense, there were lull peri??ods, where I was expected to dabble in ra??cing cheaper cars for a bit to appreciate them before moving on to the next loose "stage."

Depending on the type of person you are, it can be exhausting at times, and can feel like a drip-feed of unlocks. But GT7 does make it clear that you should stop and smell the roses and not rush: there's plenty to get to. Circling back to those track layouts, there are multiple ways to play a course. You can do a classic reverse racing situation, as well as dabble in parts of the track (to the point where it doesn't even feel like the same location, in a good way), and take on time trials, free play lobbies (where you can just drive around and chill), arc??ade mode, and events.

If you're concerned that Gran Turismo 7 is going to be too "simmy," you can change that. The difficulty settings have a ton of sliders, and you can alter pretty much every facet of actual driving and how the map presents information. You can turn on brake areas, and have your car automatically brake in those zones. Or you can do a combination of that, put turn? markers on so you see how to tackle a course, and have visual cues or straight-up autopilot on with several driving mechanics. Tutorials like starting and stopping your car also help you learn the basics.

As time has gone on, some studios (mainly first-party Sony outfits) have started to really justify the DualSense. It started wonderfully with Astro's Playroom at launch, but a lot of developers just kind of...forgot about it. Polyphony Digital on the other hand uses haptic feedback to simulate sliding, understeering, and road conditions. To say it's "immersive" is a bit cliché, but it helps soften the blow for folks who don't want to shell out hundreds of bucks for a racing wheel. To its credit, Microsoft did this a generation ago with Forza, and it was better for it: I like the trend! Fully customizable controls and even full menus for individual racing wheels are going to make a lot of people happy.

GT7 is an approachable sim that will also cater to people who like to just tinker and flip through menus, or look at the cars they picked up at their own pace. That tinkering can get as broad as installing a new air filter to get a slight edge, or changing your oil and giving your vehicle a car wash. And you know what? It kind of offers the same experience as a Tamagotchi pet, and it's still addicting. Gran Turismo allows you to invest in specific cars, and it's easy to bond with these formations of pixels. Picking out cars that can show potential is a skill, and the game makes i?t convenient to continue to hone in on that intuition.

Which leads me to the photo mode. When combined with the tune-up portion, it really becomes a "game away from the game." For some people, a lot of your time isn't going to be spent actually racing: you're doing side activities that can often lead into more side activities. And it's arguably the best part of some racing games. As sims have leaned more into the "get inside and check out the car" mechanics, I've leaned with it. I'm no car audio expert �and I'm sure some people might have issues with the engine notes �but the 3D audio in Gran Turismo 7 sounds fantastic as well.

Gran Turismo 7 isn't the second coming of racing games, and it doesn't need?? to?? be. It still captures that feeling of spending hours and hours admiring your garage and flipping through car facts from a few of the best entries in the series, and still feels like a big-budget racer.

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Shut Up and Drive

Last night saw Sony hold a brand new State of Play presentation, entirely focused on Polyphony Digital's upcoming racing simulator, Gran Turismo 7. In a "deep dive" video breakdown, fans were rushed with a 30-minute breakdown of the new sequel's mechanics, features, and modes, accompanied by some very polished-looking visuals, as is to be exp??ected from the typically classy driv?ing franchise.

Eschewing the more open approach of Gran Turismo Sport, Polyphony Digital is aiming to take the Gran Turismo series back to its roots, offering players a career-style journey that will see them behind the wheel of several modest starter cars, eventually working their way up through?? eye-watering high-performance vehicles and stunning concept models. In all, some 400 cars are expected to be available at launch, with a buy-and-sell scheme that hopes to reflect each model's real-world value.

//youtu.be/JlbMzBnfnzM

Gran Turismo 7 will feature what looks to be the deepest customization mode in series history, with players able to tinker with their vehicle with razor finesse. While the exterior of the vehicle can be decorated in all manner of colors, and emblazoned with liveries, sponsor ads, decals, under the hood fanatics can twea??k various components within the vehicle's engine �fine-tuning speed, acceleration, balance, exhaust output, braking, and Dominic Toretto-pleasing superchargers.

Utilizing the power of new hardware PlayStation 5, fans can expect the famously classy visuals of the GT series to dazzle like never before. Dynamic weather conditions will add to the overall immersion, while the Haptic Feedba?ck and Adaptive Trigger mechanics of the Dual Sense controlle??r will provide authentic levels of control of your chosen mean machine. Just gun it at every corner. That's what I do.

There is way, way more on offer than I can extol here. Be sure to check out the feature video abov?e for all of the details pertaining to this long-awaited title �sure to be a smash hit among racing fans when it arrives, March 4, on PlayStation platforms.

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So much greenery

With Forza Horizon 5 absolutely sucking up all the attention from racing game fans as of late, it's easy to forget we're just a couple of months away from the release of the latest entry in Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo franchise. GT 7 is the first numbered entry in the series since 2013, and following the less-than-stellar reception of Gran Turismo Sport, I think a lot is riding on this game knocking all of our socks off and showcasing the power of the PlayStation 5. We've seen some trailers already for the racer, but this weekend PlayStation dropped a new look at the game with a lap around the Gran Turismo 7 Deep Forest Raceway.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsvYQd-axrw

Yeah, I can't wait to see that on my big screen in 4K. I remember driving the Deep Forest Raceway quite often back in college in Gran Turismo 4. It taug??ht me everything I needed to know about cornering. If you're familiar with the track, you should have been able to see some of the changes in the trailer that have been made to the track's layout, including more barriers and a hairpin turn in the last half of the track. If my experience with hairpin turns in other racing games is any indication, I'm going to be slamming into other cars a lot in that spot.

Gran Turismo 7 will release on March 4, 2022, for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. As a reminder, if you purchase the PS4 version and wish to upgrade to the PS5 edition, there will be a $10 digital upgrade charge.

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Accelerated Advertising

Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Polyphony Digital have released a new developer diary for the latter's premium driving simulator Gran Turismo 7, still traveling the long road to release on PlayStation platforms next spring. Among some very attractive in-game visuals, the new video focuses on the Gran Turismo 7 "Livery Editor," a feature that allows for the cus?tomization of the decals and advertisements on the sequel's lush garage of speedsters.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNZ_hpAvxAg

The editor will allow owners to scale, customize and rotate any number of decals and sponsor ads, turning your beautiful road-ripper into a 200 m.p.h. tribute to capitalism. Just because you're out in the beautiful mountain ranges and lush valleys of the world, doesn't mean you can't help make the rich that little bit richer.

I jest, of course. The Gran Turismo 7 Livery Editor will also allow for a huge palette of colors to be added to your chosen vehicle, allowing for the creation of the car of your dreams. This franchise has always gone all-in on the top-tier visual elements of its releases, and while Gran Turismo 7 is sure taking its sweet time to reach the starting grid, you can be sure that it will arrive in style, ripped and ready for the green flag. Alongside this new and improved Livery Editor, GT7 also promises smart weather mechanics, a hugely im??proved photo mode, returning fan-favorite circuits, and a fully re-designed campaign mode.

Gran Turismo 7 launches March 7, 2022, exclusively on Pl?ayStation platforms.

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$90 edition includes a PS5 disc and PS4 code

Barring any more delays (and here I am bracing for accusations of totally jinxing it), Gran Turismo 7 will be out on March 4, 2022. It's arguably too early to start thinking about pre-orders, but for those of you who are open to that possibility, or just love GT enough to be into a collector's edition, here's the latest. As announced on the PlayStation Blog, Gran Turismo 7 will have a 25th Anniversary Edition with a rather ?sleek SteelBook cas??e.

Aside from the cover art (and the included in-game cars, like the Castrol TOM'S Supra), the most interesting thing about the 25th Anniversary Edition is that it comes with two versions of Gran Turismo 7: a physical ??PS5 disc, and a digital PS4 voucher code.

That might seem like a no-brainer, but it's a semi-surprising sight in the realm of cross-generation PlayStation releases. It's been a messy situation all around.

For $90, the physical Gran Turismo 7 25th Anniversary Edition comes with:

• PS5 game disc
• PS4 game voucher
• 1,100,000 CR (credits)
• Toyota GR Yaris with country-specific Livery
• 30 Manufacturer / Partner Avatars
• The Music of Gran Turismo Official Soundtrack
• Toyota Castrol TOM’S Supra
• Mazda RX-VISION GT3 Concept (Stealth)
• Porsche 917K Living Legend

The digital version of the 25th Anniversary Edition is also $90, and it comes with th??e funnily-named PS4/PS5 "dual entitlement."

Worth remembering: if you get Gran Turismo 7 on PS4 (which will be $60 at launch) and you want to upgrade to the PS5 edition ??(which launches at $70), you'll have to pay $10.

As for other bonuses and cars, especially for folks who just want the dang game, the (pre-order) "Launch Edition" of GT7 comes with 100,000 credit??s, the Toyota Castrol TOM'S Supra, Mazda RX-VISION GT3 Concept (Stealth), and Porsche 917K Living Legend.

If you're wondering about the eyebrow-raising "internet required for most functionality" warnings, it's true �GT7 is set up that way to "prevent cheating overall from people trying to modify the save data," per Eurogamer's interview with Kazunori Yamauchi.

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March 4 release date confirmed for PS4 and PS5

Gran Turismo 7 was quickly confirmed for PlayStation 5, but we're still waiting, and waiting. It's the natural order of thi??ngs. During this afternoo?n's PlayStation Showcase 2021, Polyphony Digital brought fresh gameplay and a new release date: March 4, 2022.

We already knew 2022 was on the cards for GT7 �a Sony rep cited "Covid-rel?ated production challenges" back in February �so reall?y, March isn't too bad at all.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tBUsXIkG1A

"We're aware that long-time fans of the Gran Turismo series strongly desired the return of the GT Campaign mode, and now, having seen the trailer, hopefully everyone will be able to get a feel for the atmosphere of the newly designed Campaign mode," Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi said on the PlayStation Blog. There's a world map!

Gran Turismo 7 is even more of a "car collecting game," according to Yamauchi. "Players will progress and complete missions in the GT Café by acquiring prize cars from various races within the world, as well as from the Brand Centra?l and the Used Car Dealership."

A few other notes from the big boss:

• The Livery Editor is said to have better utility and accessibility with a new UI.
• You can take photos of your cars in 2,500+ locations spread across 43 countries, including HDR support, using Scapes.
• The High-Speed Ring and Trial Mountain circuits are returning, as is GT Auto.

An?d a weir??dly wordy statement about the weather and time-of-day simulation:

"Referencing a massive amount of meteorological observation data, we have recreated spatial / time of day conditions for particle size distribution and concentration distribution of aerosol particles in the atmosphere on a global environmental scale, in a procedure that is unique to the Gran Turismo series."

If you've tuned out the Gran Turismo news cycle, you might've missed that GT7 is coming to not just PS5, where it's hoping to be a showpiece, but also PS4. That's still the case. The March 4 release date goes for both versions, and there will be a $10 digital upgrade.

Still have room in your heart for GT like the old days?

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'I think, display resolution-wise, 4K resolution is enough'

Racing fans can't think about PlayStation 5 without also wondering about the fate of Gran Turismo. What's the next major advancement for this series? What's the biggest priority for Gran Turismo 7?

In a recent interview (as reported by GTPlanet), Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi made a few forward-looking comments about what Gran Turismo could be like on PlayStation 5 and beyond.

"I think, display resolution-wise, 4K resolution is? enough," Yamauchi said.

"Rather than a spatial resolution that you're talking about, I'm more interested in the advancements we can make in terms of the time resolution," he said during a roundtable with Australian media. "In terms of frames per second, rather than staying at 60 fps, I'm more in??terested in raising?? it to 120 fps or even 240 fps. I think that's what's going to be changing the experience from here on forward."

It's not a firm commitment or anything, but it's the kind of comment I love to hear as someone who generally cares more about frame rate than visual fidelity. That said, I get the sense that fans are hoping for further refinements and layers to the simulation above all else. GT Sport is super pretty as is.

Obviously, priorities can and will change. I won't be surprised when, one day, after 4K has adequat??ely settled into place, we'll hear that "it's fine, if you're into that sorta thin?g, but it could be so much better."

Gran Turismo's Future: '4K Resolution is E??nough,' But 240fps is ??the Target [GTPlanet]

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Hopefully it releases in the next decade

In a recent interview with fansite GT Planet at the Nurburgring World Tour event, Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi teased what the future of the racing series may hold. Speaking with regards to the follow-up for Gran Turismo Sport, Yamauchi stated, "Obviously we're working on the next Gran Turismo already, and the world of sport we've achieved through GT Sport is something I've always imagined to be the future of Gran Turismo. We were able to establish that now."

Yamauchi then explains that while he typically doesn't return to older titles, his recent tours in promotion of the series has been met with fans approaching him and showing love for Gran Turismo 2 and 3, specifically. Seeing that outpouring of support has spurred Yamauchi t??o revisit those titles, ??to which he said, "it's surprising how much I've forgotten!"

Developer Polyphony Digital's push to redefine the future with each entry has potentially distracted them from what made past entries so good. "Having done all these World Tours, it gave me the opportunity to feel the history of Gran Turismo," Yamauchi said. "It gives me pointers and hints of the things we should make sure that we do in the future of the series. I think the next title that we're going to create will be a combination of the past, present, and future – a complete form of Gran Turismo."

That's all I could really ask for, too. I understand that Polyphony Digital tried something different with Sport, but its laser focus on online competition created a package that felt threadbare at release. Even with constant content updates, the game still didn't improve much a year after release. Maybe a single-player campaign isn't the most important thing around, but the lack of vehicles and weather effects created a static game that felt stuck between two different era??s of racers. The lack of reason to interact with that content was the real stinger, though.

As f?or what platform the inevitable follow-up will land on, Yamauchi couldn't say. For him, VR seems to be what he is most interested in. "The first thing that’s going to be affected by more power is VR," believes Yamauchi. "I don't think that there's anything else that requires that much processing power. I really like VR; I'm one to believe in the possibilities of it, and it's very suited for a driving game." He explains that VR is something that will continue to get better as GPU power increases, which is what excites him.

So while we're clearly a ways off from Gran Turismo 7, at least we know Polyphony Digital is taking the time to evaluate what made the series so special in the first place. I can only hope they get there because there is no reason why Forza should be running unopposed o??n the console ra??cing front.

Next Gran Turismo Will be a 'Combination of Past, Present??, and Future' [GT Planet]

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Bring your brolly

Possibly in a move to make British players more immersed in an authentic driving experience, Polyphony Digital will be adding a new "wet weather" effect to its 2017 racing title Gran Turismo Sport.

A recent video posted by the developer lets us see the grim conditions in effect on the game's Red Bull Ring track. In the video, professional simulation driver Coque Lopez braves the rain to showcase how this weather ?will effect the game's handling, so don't go gunning through puddles like nobody's business, lest you find yourself wrapped around a stand full of innocent onl?ookers. (Unlikely, I know.)

No spec??ific date has been given for the new weather update to arrive in-game, but its shouldn't take too long before dark clouds start forming, so better take your coat.

Gran Turismo Sport is available now on PS4.

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Update 1.34 available today

Tarmac-melting racing game Gran Turismo Sport has gotten a new update today, courtesy of developer Polyphony Digital. Update 1.34 brings a new track to Sony's classy driving? ??sim, as well as five ne??w cars for you to take out for a test drive?.

The new track is Autopolis in Japan, the site of recent Super GT and Super Formula races, renown for its twisty sections giving way to pedal-gunning straights. Autopolis comes in both a standard and "shortcut" configuration. Of course, what is a track without cars? GT Sport offers up five new vehicles for your cruising pleasure. Arriving in this update are the Mazda Eunos Roadster ??(NA Special Package) ’89, the McLaren F1 GTR – BMW (Kokusai Kaihatsu UK Racing) ’95, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren ’09, Pagani Huayra ’13, and finally the Toyota GR Supra RZ ’19. Vroom.

Finally, four new GT League events have been added. The Premium Sports Lounge, the All Japan GT Car Championships, the Gr. 3 Endurance series, and finally Rounds 6 and 7 of the Mazda Roadster Cup, so that should scratch your gear-stick for the time being. Tweaks and bug fixes have also been made across the board. You can find the full patch notes right here. Gran Turismo Sport is available now on PS4.

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Still off track

In the year since its release, Gran Turismo Sport has seen quite a few substantial updates. A new career mode, more tracks, a crapton of cars and even microtransactions: Sport is a much heartier title than its 2017 incarnation. Even with tho??se additions, though, the core of the game still feels off.

I booted up the game a week ago to see just how substantial all of these additions would be. In my review from last year, I ended up scoring Sony’s premier racing franchise a 6/10 and citing a lack of content as my chief complaint. While the content factor has definitely been increased, I think the real heart of my problems with GT Sport is just th?at it puts so many odd restrictions on the player.

Despite having what Polyphony Digital has deemed a career mode now, GT Sport still demands players have a persistent? online connection. With more cars coming into the fray, players are s??till limited in the online “Sport” mode to which vehicles they can drive. Worse still, the “Safety Rating” system has not seen any noticeable change, making for some seriously frustrating moments of tapping a rival and tanking your safety score.

In our modern era of post-launch updates and bug fixes, I figured stepping back into the world of GT Sport would y??ield something more. The game isn’t without its moments, but this is still a shallow shell of what the series’ past had on offer for players. For all the strides made with car customization and minute stat tracking, you still only get around seven cars per manufacturer and no dynamic/alternate time of day settings for tracks.

In all honesty, I feel like Polyphony Digital and Sony have failed to bring the racing series up to next-generation standards. The content on offer does match that of Gran Turismo 3, but that game came out 16 years ago. No amount of restarting development or focus on specific game modes should have come to the conclusion that axing series staples was appropriate for the series’ PS4 debut. Despite now boasting 233 cars and 48 courses (a number that is bloated by having alternate versions as different tracks), the game still feels like a tech demo for a proper Gran Turismo 7.

I definitely appreciate Polyphony taking a fine-toothed comb to its car models and creating photo-realistic environments. While the game doesn’t really hold my attention for long, I am still quite impressed with how excellent the visual design is, especially on PS4 Pro. You can tell nailing the look, sound, and feel of each vehicle was a l??abor of love from the design team. Everything comes off super accurate and captures the essence of what racing is all about. That being said, what does this offer for fans that have been there for every entry?

Certain concessions might need to happen to evolve a series, sure, but to cut out basic genre options? Did FIA regulatio??ns really force the odd online restrictions, thus eliminating offline play? What reason was there to excise different classes in favor of focusing purely o?n sports cars? These are still questions I can’t quite figure out, though you can now drive a Volkswagen bus around tracks.

My only real conclusion is that online play was mandated so that microtransactions could come into play. For some wild reason, GT Sport now gi?ves players the option to purchase individual cars for around one to three dollars apiece. This only really impacts the added “career” mode, since “Sport” mode has harsh r??estrictions on which make, model, and year of vehicle you’ll be driving in. With a super convoluted menu system and some odd requirements the farther you get in, the whole system just seems like a way to strangle people out of cash.

The game doesn’t give you an option to buy the car needed for a career event from the career menu, so you’ll need to click an exclamation point, discover which models are allowed and then back all?? the way out to the main menu. After that, you’ll navigate the “brands” feature to find the particular man??ufacturer and then buy whichever car you’ll need. On one occasion, I bought an entirely different car because I confused the model and I had to repeat the process.

Maybe allowing the quick purchase of a car was something that just couldn’t be done in GT Sport. Loading most menus brings up a full-scale model of the vehicle and there could be a possible reason doin??g that from within career mode wasn’t optimal. What I really think, though, is that the menu was purposely made tedious to trick people into wasting credits on the wrong car for the job. Why else would microtransactions be added?

At least in the case of money, credits are given out so regularly that I can&rsqu??o;t even envision a scenario where someone runs out of cash. Since career mode wasn’t even a thing for my review, I had a spare 1 million credits laying around for me to make mistaken purchases with. For people starting out, though, this could end up with scenarios where you’ll be making some progress and then get halted because the car you need is far too expensive. You could ??just slip a few singles over to Polyphony Digital, though, and get right back into the action.

That is mostly a nit-pick, however. In all honesty, the career mode is so forgettable and barebones that it might as well not exist. It is the bare minimum one would have to do to bring a feature into a game and it still acts mostly as a way to prepare you for online competition. That is the true focus of GT Sport and ?not much else has changed. The lobby system for custom races is still ridiculously dead and the “Sport” mode doesn’t fill up the way ?it used to.

Even with all of these additions to the core game, GT Sport is still just limp. Really and truly, I think Gran Turismo’s days are well behind it. It would take a radical re-invention of the series to bring it up to speed for whatever Sony’s next console ends up being. If GT Sport 2 is just this game but with more that really won’t be good enough. More content is nice, but an actual reason to interact with that content would be better. That is truly what is missing from GT Sport and always has been.

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Getcha motor running

An announcement from Sony and developer Polyphony Digital has confirmed that a brand new update is rolling out for sleek racing title Gran Turismo Sport on PS4 today. U??pdate 1.25 brings with it a selection of cars and a new track with which to burn rubber.

Among the new vehicles on offer are the compact Mini Cooper "S" '65, the Herbie-like Volkswagon 1200 '66?? and the high-performance Ford Mark IV ?Race Car '67. This completely free addition to the title also includes a track based on Austria's Red Bull Ring.

In addition to the new content, three new GT League events will be set live; the Group 3 Cup - Amateur League, the Beetle & Samba Bus Festa - Beginner League and finally the Nostalgic 1979 - Professional League. You can find the full patch notes right here a?nd check out a?? trailer featuring the new content below.

Gran Turismo Sport is available now on PS4.

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Sony does what Microsoft don't...

Just days after the announcement that Turn 10 Studios would be removing loot boxes from Forza 7, Polyphony Digital has announced that Gran Turismo Sport will be receiving microtransactions for its in-game store. I'm kind of baffled at the flip-flopping that is going on between these two games. Gran Turismo Sport seemed to be on a good path with its added "GT League" career mode and free extra cars, but now we're heading back into nonsen??se?? territory.

For the most part, the new July update is actually chock full of good stuff. I'm mostly in awe of how Sony just casually throws in the mention that you can outright buy cars in GT Sport now. Anyway, the biggest addition has to be the new "Circuit de Sainte-Croix" circuit that comes in three configurations along with more events for "GT Leagu?e." As well as that, seven new cars are available (and not available through microtransactions). They are as? follows:

• Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ 2017 (Gr.X)
• Mazda 787B '91 (Gr.1)
• Ford GT LM Spec II Test Car (Gr.3)
• Ferrari 250 GTO CN.3729GT '62 (Gr.X)
• HONDA S660 '15 (N100)
• Honda Beat '91 (N100)
• Daihatsu Copen Active Top '02 (N100)

As for the microtransactions, all cars that cost less than 2,000,000 in-game credits can be acquired directly through the Play???Station Store. The service will launch tomorrow in Asia and America while it won't launch until August 2 in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania.

You can catch a trailer below for a look at the new cars in motion. I suppose the added microtransactions aren't horrible, but it just leaves a bad ta?ste in my mouth.

Introducing the "Gran Turismo Sport" July Update: The Mercedes F1 and a N??ew Tr??ack Joins the Lineup [Gran Turismo]

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New cars, events and a new track

It's been quite some time since I thought about Gran Turismo Sport, but developer Polyphony Digital has been trucking along with updates to the game. The newest patch hitting the game, the "May 2018" update, will be landing on May 30 and introduce a whole slew of new content to chug through. In addition to one new track, the famed Circuit de la Sarthe, Sport will receive new ?GT League events ?and nine new cars.

This trailer lays out the new rides you'll be seeing. While I'm not particularly big on any of them, I know Destructoid's o???wn Dan Roemer is interested in the Fiat 500 F. Maybe I can finally play this game with a friend, though waiting around for online events to start is a bit of a drag.

Gran Turismo Sport - May Update 1.19 | PS4 [PlayStation via YouTube]

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VROOM VROOM

It has been some time since we last heard about updates to Gran Turismo Sport, but with the game being in a much?? better state than at launch, I'm eager to check these new features out. January's patch is a bit lighter than th?e December one, but it still includes a couple of neat cars, some new tracks and even some new events for the "GT League" campaign.

The first bit is four new events for "GT League." They ??each focus on a single racing discipline and two of them lock you to specific car manufacturers. The first is the "Raptor Survival," which is all about Ford F-150's. The second is "J-Sport Meeting," which deals with Japanese sports cars. In third comes "La Festa Cavallino," where you'll race in Ferrari's and the final event is the "Gr.3 Endurance Series," which is all about long duration races.

New tracks include the "Monza Circuit" (which was available in Gran Turismo 5 and 6) and three variations for the "Autodrome Lago Maggiore (a new course to the series). The ten cars include a mix of different models from popular manufacturers, the best of which is the now discontinued Dodge Vipe??r GTS. How Dodge can just get rid of their most iconic car is beyond me, but I suppose you have to make way for the Demon.

New Cars

• Toyota Supra RZ (N300)
• Toyota 2000GT (N200)
• Toyota FT-1 (N500)
• Jaguar XJ13 (Gr.X)
• McLaren F1 (N600)
• Ferrari 512BB (N400)
• Ferrari 330 P4 (Gr.X)
• Lamborghini Diablo GT (N600)
• Ford GT (N600)
• Dodge Viper GTS (N500)

New Tracks

• Monza Circuit
• Autodrome Lago Maggiore "Centre" Layout
• Autodrome Lago Maggiore "East" Layout
• Autodrome Lago Maggiore "West" Layout

The update should be live on the PSN right now, but the website doesn't actually mention a date. That being said, I did have it download earlier when I was fooling around on my PS4, so you shouldn't need to wait to get in.

Introducing the 'Gran Turismo Sport' January Update: Adding Monza Circ??uit and New Sports Cars [Gran Turismo]

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Victory Lap

The final laps are drawing ever closer for Gran Turismo 6. The penultimate inst?allment for PS3 will see a??ll online services cease on March 28, 2018. All available DLC will also stop being sold on January 31 to prepare for the inevitable closure of the game's online portion.

What this entails is everything relating to community features, multiplayer lobbies, the track editor and seasonal events. To be clear, you can still use the track editor offline, but you won't be able to share any new courses online or download any currently available ones. If you'd p?urchased any microtransactions for your save file, you'll need to navigate to the PlayStation store download list to ??redownload them if you uninstall the game and its updates.

Gran Turismo 6 online services to end on March 28 [Gematsu]

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Because one month after launch is still launch

For some odd reason, Gran Turismo Sport launched with an always online requirement. Even with a stronger focus on online racing, locking players out of most modes when offline was just baffling. Why you couldn't take a photo of your car when offline is beyond me. With Sport's upcoming patches, that online ??requirement is going to get tweaked.

The firs??t new update, which will be coming on November 27, will add a few cars and lay off on some of the online requirements. You'll be able to utilize the Livery Editor, Scapes (photo) mode and play the "Campaign" while not connected to the internet. The second update, which is planned for December, will add a more traditional career mode ??to the mix called "GT League."

In Sony's own words, "Launching in December, we’ll be introducing a brand new single player mode called ??'GT League'. Based on the old 'GT mode' of previous titles, players can now look forward to racing through a series of cup competitions from beginner to pro levels, a?nd even partake in endurance races." Sounds like something that should have launched with the game. Alongside that will come 12 new vehicles which are listed below.

November Update

• ISO Rivolta Zagato VGT
• Audi R18
• Shelby Cobra 427

December Update

• Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A (FD)
• Nissan Skyline GT-R V spec II (R32)
• Nissan Skyline GT-R V spec II Nür (R34)
• Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
• Lamborghini Countach LP400
• Ferrari F40
• Ferrari Enzo Ferrari
• KTM X-BOW R
• Suzuki Swift Sport
• Volkswagen Sambabus Typ 2 (T1)
• Chris Holstrom Concepts 1967 Chevy Nova
• Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible (C3)

Polyphony Digital is also planning on adding new tracks and around 50 cars between now and March of next year. It seems all of this content will be coming for free, as wel??l, so there ??won't be any reason to not check it out.

One of my biggest complaints with Gran Turismo Sport is that it felt like a tech demo. I can understand wanting to take the series in a new ?direction, but th??ere really wasn't enough content to justify a $60 purchase at launch. The introduction of "GT League" may just change my opinion of the game, since there would finally be something else to do instead of waiting around for online races to start.

Now we just need Forza 7 to dump loot boxes and I'll be in racing bliss.

Gran Turismo Sport: Incoming Updates Add New Cars, Offline Play, GT L??eague &? More [PlayStation Blog]

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Sport Model

Developer Polyphony Digital is a group of perfectionists. Its attention to detail has led to the creation of some of the most detailed car models on the market. The realism presented in the Gran Turismo series is unmatched on consol??es and each successive release has upped the ante in terms of the amount of cars and tracks available to the player.

While the more recent entries may have been too bloated for their own good, the first entry on PlayStation 4 sees Polyphony Digital strip back to the point that this feels like an entirely different series. This isn’t your father’s Gran Turismo and it probably w??on’t be one you’ll return to for very long.

Gran Turismo Sport (PS4)
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: October 17, 2017
MSRP: $59.99

Gran Turismo Sport marks a bold new direction for Sony’s flagship racing series. Instead of providing the extensive museum of cars and massive list of player options, Polyphony Digital has decided to pare back the focus of the game t?o become an official FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) representation of motorsport racing.

As such, GT Sport is an online-only title. If you want to make any progress in your career or collect any of the 162 cars available, you’ll need to be connected to the internet. Even the incredibly basic car?eer mode requires a persistent connection per FIA guidelines. The reasoning behind this is to avoid any kind of cheating or unfair advantages while racing online, but it brings up so many questions about the odd requirement.

Since the career mode is, essentially, a glorified Driver’s Ed test, why Polyphony saw it fit to restrict that to an online connection is beyond me. You never race any other players during these tests, so what was the point? Even if you accept the provided answer, the career is s?o short and devoid of different challenges that it comes off feeling like an afterthought. If you hunker down and focus on each test, accepting a bronze just to coast by, you could be done with everything in roughly three hours with only better medals enticing you to return.

That isn’t to say the information isn’t useful. Before each test, you can load up a video tutorial (that requires a connection to YouTube) that will walk ?you through what each challenge requires and the information contained is pertinent to real-life driving. I doubt anyone reading this is actually training to become a NASCAR racer, but these are some thoroughly explained tests that are all curated to make you a better driver.

As I progressed through the career, I did notice my lap times decreasing and my overall understanding of the handling in GT Sport becoming better. I suppose the short length can be forgiven for that (since the game had a tangible impact on my abilities), but if you have no interest in online competition, the only thing you’ll gain from playing GT Sport is better driving?? skills with nowhere to use them.

Anyone without a persistent online connection can play the “Arcade” options available. These include things like time trials, single race options, a VR mode, and even a drift challenge mode, but without an online connection, you won’t be able to save your progress. All of? those hard-fought lap times and money earned will be for naught.

To make things worse, arcade mode locks most of the courses out if you aren’t a specific driver level, so with no ability to save, you won’t even be able to race on most of the game’s courses. Even if you could use them all, GT Sport’s stripped-back approach sees only 28 courses being available with som??e having no alternate variations. Weather and time of day are also static, so some courses don’t even provide the option of mixing things up with rain or nightfall. This is not a game with a lot of content and there doesn’t seem to be any plans on adding more.

I find it hard to believe the FIA had such a big issue with Gran Turismo 6’s track editor that they demanded it be removed from any future entries. Having such a feature would definitely have extended the life of this game, but the FIA requirements mostly stifle the ability GT Sport has?? with making a connection with anyone. You can only race the same courses so many times before you’ve seen it all and without different routes or variations, the lac?k of content is going to catch up to most people quickly.

At least there is a livery editor, for once. You can customize each of the meticulously modeled cars to look as goofy or as professional as you want. In typical modern triple-A fashion, some options from the editor are missing at launch (like custom image uploading), but this feature finally brings Gran Turismo up to speed with its competition.

Being so focused on online competition, you’d think GT Sport would deliver without question. Sadly, this also seems like a half measure. Being FIA regulated, the online races are very realistic and have a level of competition that is hyper-professional. Before you can even enter into anything, you’ll have to watch a video that instructs you on the proper etiquette of racing and introduces you to the new “Safety Rating” system that GT Sport employs for online competition.

This “Safety Rating” is a measure of your ability to drive safely and avoid being a jackass. If you’re ramming other cars or trying to pull off stupid stunts on the track, your safety rating will go down and you’ll be matched with other less careful drivers. While the theory is sound, ?the implementation is incredibly flawed. For instance, someone rear ending your car results with you losing safety points, which makes no s??ense.

That then leads to making it incredibly difficult to regain your safety rating, since having other imbeciles bumping you all the time means you’ll barely make enough points to actually recover from genuine mistakes. I know real drivers aren’t bumpin?g each other or slamming into walls all the time, but when stuff like that does happen, the game should have a better understanding of who initiated the incident to properly rate players.

With that out of the way, your only options in the game’s &l??dquo;Sport” mode are three daily races and a competition bracket. Since competitions won’t be live until November 4, you&rs?quo;ll be limited to daily races that go live every 20 minutes. What this means is you can only race about three times an hour, since each provided track has a countdown timer for signing up and requires you to put up a qualifying lap along with racing between four and six laps around the course.

I like the attention to realism, but this makes for some extremely limited pickings. A private lobby system does allow players to make up their own stipulations and select any track, but most people aren’t racing in these lobbies for it to really matter. A lot of the competition, in general, has dropped out of the sport mode, too. When I first started playing on release, I could easily find a 24-person room, but now I’m struggling to get more than 11 people in races. That might have to do with the botched safety rating (since I’m sitting at a C for some reason), but it is concerning for the longevity of GT Sport.

With all the gameplay and feature shortcomings, at least Gran Turismo Sport looks photorealistic. I thought Forza 7 was mindblowing, but certain aspects of GT Sport blow Turn 10&rsq?uo;s production out of the water (even on the base PS4!). The shadow detail and dynamic lighting lend a sense of depth to each scene, but the car models, in particular, can pass for real life. This feeds into the game’s “Scapes” mode (which lets you pose the cars on top of real-life p??hotos) very well, but my god is there so much detail packed into these vehicles.

That probably explains why there is such a small selection of cars, since each one has been remade from scratch, but I don’t feel that was a compromise worth taking. One of the joys of Gran Turismo’s past was amassing an army of cars to drive in literally any condition or style. GT Sport’s stripped-down approach sees the selection limited to only track vehicles and usually just four from each manufacturer. It lacks diversity, but it also j?ust plain lacks substance.

I feel that is the best way to describe Gran Turismo Sport. The game has a razor-sharp focus on what it wants to deliver, but does so at the cost of diversity and content. I suppose quality should always be more important, but for $60, you’d figure GT Sport would at least be comparable to past entries in the series. This comes off feeling like a tech demo for what Polyphony wants to do with Gran Turismo more than a full game.

I could take the lack of content if the gameplay options gave me more to do. Seeing as how even the online modes have weird time limits or aren’t fully ready, Gran Turismo Sport is honestly not worth looking into at the moment. Maybe this will mature into a better racing game in the future (much like Driveclub), but you can presently get so much better on PS4 that I’m not sure why GT Sport wasn’t delayed to add some more content. The ulta realism isn’t enough to justify the cuts done to the core GT gameplay of the past.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

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Sever maintenance

Once upon a time, Gran Turismo was the undisputed champion of console racing simulators. It paved the way for many of the features we take for granted in modern racing games and developer Polyphony Digital has always striven to be at the top of its class. Gran Turismo had such a striking sense of realism t?hat jus?t watching the games in motion was a pure joy.

Somewhere along the line, Gran Turismo stopped being so relevant. Competitors (chiefly Forza Motorsport) stole the crown and Sony’s relaxed development cycles and constant releases of what amounted to demos confused players about what the next entry even was. It’s been quite a confusing mess since the release of Gran Turismo 3.

While the intentions behind Gran Turismo Sport, PlayStation 4’s first entry in this storied series, are noble, this really feels like a full-priced demo more so than the next best thing in racing. That GT Sport also features some pretty anti-consumer practices with its always-online requiremen?t makes it even harder to swallow.

Gran Turismo Sport (PS4)
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: October 17, 2017
MSRP: $59.99

To start off, if you have no intention of playing online races or have spotty internet, Gran Turismo Sport is not for you. Not only is most of the game focused on preparing you for entering online competitions, but most of the game is also not available if you aren’t connected to ??Sony’s s?ervers. The “career” mode acts like an extended Driver’s Ed class, but you can’t even access that if your internet goes down.

That is where I start to ??get confused. Why are simple things like driving challenges and a tutorial locked to an internet connection? The relatively neat “Scapes” mode, where you super impose your car onto real-life photos, is also not even available if you aren’t online. How does that make any sense? You can’t even look at your purchased cars in the garage if you aren’t online, so obviously someone really wants to make sure you aren’t cheating.

That someone is the FIA, or the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Sony has partnered with the FIA to ensure that Gran Turismo Sport is one of ?the most realistic racing games around. They have a strict set of guidelines for ensuring that motorsport racing is fair and balanced, so I?? suppose posing cars in photos also falls under those stipulations. While I’m being facetious with that last bit, FIA seems to be needlessly restrictive about what can and cannot be played offline.

That being said, if you’re fine with the online requirement, you’ll find that GT Sport is one of the most realistic racing experiences around. Forza has always straddled a line between realistic and arcadey, but GT Sport just goes full on into its subtitle, “The Real Driving Simulator.” This feels remarkably similar to Assetto Corsa and even excludes such features as rewinds to? make you really commit to your a??ctions.

You also cannot take shortcuts of any kind, since the game will place you back on the track behind your point of diversion. This can really screw up your placing, but I feel it’s perfectly fine and preferable to how Gran Turismo 4 did basically nothing to punish people looking for a shortcut. It all falls into GT Sport’s philosophy of training? you? for honest online competition.

Before jumping online, you’ll need to watch some training videos that explain all the details of how this new Gran Turismo works. Here you’ll be shown the proper etiquette of racing as well as? get a quick?? explanation of the brand new Safety Rating system.

Being cribbed straight from iRacing, a Safety Rating is a score based on how safe of a driver you are.?? If you are constantly ramming people or pulling stupid stunts? on the track, your Safety Rating will drop and you’ll be matched up with other irresponsible racers online. I like the idea, but the implementation of this system is flawed.

The biggest complaint is that your own personal Safety Rating will drop when another player collides with you. You can be cruising fine and making perfect t?urns, but if some jackass decides to rear-end you, your rating is going to ?drop. The reverse is the same, too; you can be drafting an opponent who then decides to slam on the brakes to piss you off. You’ll inevitably collide and then lose some of that rating.

That oddity aside, the online racing is pretty fleshed out. There are a variety o?f options available for different races and the lobby system for making custom criteria is extensive. At least that shift away from single-player content hasn’t resulted in an online option that feels half-baked. I’m not sure why competition races are still not active (the first going live on November 4), but the online i??s definitely an improvement over past titles.

What hasn’t been improved is the car or track roster. I can understand wanting to cut out the fluff of Gran Turismo 6’s 1,226 cars, but how did Polyphony Digital think dropping the count to 1/10th of the selection was the correct response? Browsing the in-game store for cars is depressingly small and it really ?makes that $60 price tag sting.

The tracks on offer are also severely cut back, featuring roughly 1/4th of the selection from 6. This one makes less sense to me since you’d think an online ra?cing game would want to give ?players as many options as possible. Instead, you’re going to be racing on the same 28 courses for the majority of your time and there aren’t even many variations for different circuits. It is an incredibly limited game in terms of actual content.

But hey, Gran Turismo finally has a livery editor! You can also make custom driver outfits without having to resort to loot boxes, so that is cool. The customization aspect of Gran Turismo has finally caught up to the competition. Even sharing content is just as seamless as Forza, so you can get an abundance of designs just by tak??ing a quick? look online. At least you can personalize that small list of cars to your heart’s content.

So far, I’m just not sure what the idea behind Gran Turismo Sport was. I can understand wanting to focus more on online competition, but did that ??need to be at the expense of cars and tracks? Did it also mean completely foregoing a campaign mode and demanding players connect to Sony’s servers? That d?oesn’t sit right with me.

At the moment (at least from my roughly seven hours of playtime), I can’t really recommend Polyphony’s latest installment. This reminds me of GT5 Prologue, where it was cool, but obviously a work in progress. GT Sport doesn’t label itself as that, though, so clearly this is meant to be the next step in Gran Turismo’s evolution. It also costs full retail price and will p??otentially have DLC down the line, so that really stinks.

_{[This review in progress is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

The post Review in Progress: Gran Turismo Sport appeared first on Destructoid.

Offline players beware

Always online DRM has been a hot topic for years now. While I can understand wanting to combat piracy, putting such a stipulation mostly hurts legitimate buyers when server issues crop up. Gran Turismo Sport looks to be the next ga?me th??at suffers when offline, since playing without internet limits you to only arcade mode with no ability to save. Just let that last bit sink in.

So say you run out and grab your copy today (something I will be doing soon), but there is some issue with your ISP that prevents you from connecting to the internet. Well, I guess you won't be doing much with you brand new, fully priced game. Campaign mode, buying new cars, viewing your garage, car livery editing and even taking photos won't be available to you. ?At least you can play split-screen...and have limited VR use...

To be fair, Sony did warn about this on their blog last month. As they stated, "GT Sport will require an Internet connection for the majority of functionalit??y." Apparen??tly, though, the requirement was, "to ensure that  progress, car availability, and driver ratings are properly maintained at all times."

Part of that also has to do with the FIA, which is the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. They are a global organization that runs and maintains world motorsport and have partnered with Polyphony Digital to ensure that GT Sport is as ac??curate as possible. I guess to reach that level of integrity means that people with crappy internet connections just have to suffer.

So if you don't have the best internet around or really want to play GT Sport while in an RV at a race track, you're gonna?? be out of luck. Hopefully the rest of the game holds up, because this restriction is already cau?sing some alarm bells to ring for me.

Gran Turismo Sport is extremely limited in offline mode [Ars Technica]

The post Gran Tu??rismo Sport is barely functional when offline appeared first on Destructoid.

Race Day

Hey guys, I'm launching a new show for Destructoid's YouTube channel! Using a name I've been kicking around since my old blogging days on Screwattack, DEMOlition?? will be a series where I take a first look at demos and betas of upcoming games while gi??ving my first impressions on them. It may be a well worn idea, but I feel that the entire experience of playing something for the first time can be just as valuable as putting in tens of hours and writing a review.

For the first entry in this series, I took a look at the Gran Turismo Sport open beta to see how it stacks up to the series' past and the current competition of Forza Motorsport 7. To say that racing games don't make the most exciting videos would be an understatement, but there should be some useful information contained in this video to help you guys get an impr??ession of how Polyphony Digital is transitioning their long running series onto the next-ge?neration Sony console.

This may be a little rough around the edges, but I'll be taking any feedback from you guys and hopefull?y improving any future videos. I like the low production approach I'm taking since most people won't be playing games with flashy graphics or catchy theme tunes. Maybe I can record a cover of The Police's "Demolition Man" on ??my bass, though; that would be neat.

The post Video – Gran Turismo Sport beta impressions appeared first on Destructoid.

There are some hoops to jump through

I hope you aren't burned out on racing games for the year. Following a delay, Gran Turismo Sport is pushing toward an October 17 launch, but before then, you'll be able ??to go h??ands-on with a demo.

There are some less-than-ideal restrictions, however. The demo itself is time-limited and will run from October 9 through October 12, with PlayStation Plus members getting a head start on pre-loadin?g beginning O??ctober 7 at 8:00am Pacific and playing on October 9 at 12:00am Pacific. Non-members will be able to download and then play the demo starting October 9 at 6:00pm Pacific.

The good news is that credits you earn (up to $1 million) and vehicles you unlock will carry over to the full version of Gran Turismo Sport. "At the start of the demo, drivers will have the option to expe?rience a taste of Sport, Campaign, or Arcade mode. New features such as ?the innovative Scapes Photography mode and Custom Livery Editor are also available for the very first time."

Sony also notes that we'll be able to race offline in two-player split-s?creen.

Gran Turismo Sport: Free Limited Time Demo Launching Oc?tober 9 [PlayStation Blog]

The post Look out for the limited-time Gran Turismo Sp?ort demo appeared first on Destructoid.

Don't be surprised if it's delayed though

I could never get into Forza. No particular reason, just didn't click with me (though I still want to give Horizon a go). For realistic driving games, I played the poop out of Gran Turismo 4 after my friend got me hooked on it. No, I definitely did not copy his file with the endurance races completed or an?ything.

Anyway, after missing 5 and 6, I think I'm ready to try my hand at Gran Turismo again with Gran Turismo Sport this fall on October 17, 2017. Europe gets it a day later on October 18. I'm sure it won't look as pretty on my regular PlayStation 4 as it would on a PS4 Pro, but as long as I can smash super cars up against walls until they spin around like a tornado I'll be satisfied. But? seriously, I'm starting to appreciate the simplicity of driving games more. No complex systems, just drive and listen to music or podcasts.

The post Gran Turismo Sport finally has a release date appeared first on Destructoid.