I’ve had two days to play around with the limited-time GT Sport, and while I can’t comment on the online play (I don’t have PS+) I can at least drop my thoughts on the gameplay, graphics, etc.
I’ll first put up the requisite disclaimer that I’ve been a Forza fan since the very first Forza Motorsport back in 2005. That said, before it came along I played the ever-loving hell out of Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, and have wanted to stay in love with the series ever since. Forza and GT have always offered something different, and in my opinion, can easily co-exist in an ecosystem. I can play one on my Xbox and enjoy it, and then fire up the Playstation and not feel like I’m playing the exact same thing. It’s great.
So I eagerly awaited the demo to be available to us po-dunk regular PSN members, and downloaded the gargantuan 43GB demo.
The game is flashy, and the presentation is top notch. The menus look great, the weird Scapes photo mode makes the game look deceivingly good, but once you’re on the track, actually racing, the texture work and assets leave a bit to be desired. The lighting is spot-on, which is a staple of Sony’s first party games, and playing in the evening shows it off stunningly. Play in the middle of the day though, and it’s, well, average. Because I do not have a Pro, or a 4k HDR television, I can’t comment on what the game looks like with maxed out settings. I can only comment on its base console settings, and by that regard, they are less than impressive. By comparison, I also play Forza on a base Xbox without the added HDR, and personally I think Forza gets the edge.
Also, as a person who prefers to play using the third person chase cam, it’s fixed to the back of the car, which is awkward. That means that the car does not move independently from the camera, not even a little, which is weird and reminds me of old NES racers where the track moved but the car graphic stayed in the middle of the screen. It’s hard to judge turns this way. It’s not exactly a secret that the “primary” view for the GT series has always been the cockpit or hood view, so it works better this way. In addition, I can’t help but feel there’s a graphics filter at work here, as the game does seem to look slightly better when viewing the track through the windshield. This could be my imagination, though, as the cockpit view puts you lower and into the action. Plus you can’t see those awful ground textures. The same holds true in the Forza series.
No matter what view you’re in though, GT has a bit of a speed issue. You never really quite feel like you’re going as fast as you are. This is something that we will probably acclimate to, and after a while it won’t be much of an issue, but at the start a lot of people will be overshooting a lot of curves.
All of your racing and driving school progress is tallied up on your profile. There’s a generous amount of stats and goals to work toward, with rewards for hitting milestones. I feel like this is the meat of the game, and the driving is just a means of building up this driver profile, customizing his gear, helmets, etc. and collecting cars and badges. It’s one of the things that Forza 7 took a step toward this year, and I hope this trend continues in both of these games. I don’t want to just collect cars, I want to feel like my driver is amassing this wealth of awards and trophies and awesome stuff. I want the racing equivalent of NFL 2K5’s cribs.
I’m not a fan of the always online syncing though. I’m not a fan of the meat of the game taking place in online races. This is a personal preference, but I’ve always liked keeping my terrible driving to myself. The fact they’ve made this a large focus of the game is a bit disappointing, even though they’ve made this clear from the start. Here’s to hoping for add-on content in the future to flesh out some single player stuff, in the way of more challenges or something.
GT Sport is shaping up to be a pretty good racer on Playstation. It’s at least better than DriveClub, which was terrible, even after the patches. I look forward to playing it in a more relaxed manner and hopefully with a few minor annoyances fixed. As it stands right now there’s a network error that will pop up and block your view of the action whenever the game has a problem contacting the server. This needs to be reduced to an icon or message at the bottom of the screen, as it will occur every time the game attempts to save if your having connectivity issues (or in my case, just ‘cuz).
I can’t say it will be enough to overthrow Forza as my favorite series, but it’ll be a great game to dig into once I’ve exhausted my Forza championships.
