I know I haven’t updated the blog for quite a while now however I have some good reasons for that. Or perhaps they’re more like excuses! Evenings tend to be when I have free time to do as I please and lately I’ve been using them to catch up on my game progress in Gran Turismo 6. The game came out just 2 days before I left for vacation which left me no chance of playing it until I came back 3 weeks later. Needless to say, I felt as if I were behind the curve.
Spending late nights at work catching up on everything I couldn’t do while I was away also cut into my free time. However, I’m past all of that now and where I should be at progress wise in GT6. I wanted to get enough seat time with the game before I wrote this review rather than shooting from the hip. I’ll be making a few comparisons to Gran Turismo 5 since I was heavily involved with it.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, it is a title developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for use on the Playstation 3. It’s touted as the best driving simulator on the market for gaming consoles.
What I found the largest improvement in Gran Turismo 6 to be was not necessarily what I expected it to be. I was hoping for next generation graphics and that is not what I got. They are indeed a cut above GT5’s graphics in terms of clarity and color quality however. Instead, it is the game play which has really turned me on.
Gran Turismo 6 Suspension & Car Physics
For once we now have cars which handle predictably in Gran Turismo 6. GT5 was a disaster in this department looking back. Due to great efforts by Polyphony Digital in collaborating with KW Suspension to develop an entirely new suspension model. Drivers may now have greater control over the cars through taking advantage of realistic body roll and throttle/brake inputs.
Improved Game Play
The AI in Gran Turismo 6 is much more intelligent. Once you start progressing up into the International B and International A races, they actually get challenging barring you don’t unreasonably modify your cars of choice. There are no more levels in the game but rather a star system. A minimum amount of stars are required to progress through each licence level which honestly takes the grinding factor out of the game. Game menus load almost instantly now. I remember GT5 almost wound up being painful to play. In fact, one would spend more time waiting for menus to load rather than racing! In addition to the licence specific races, once you unlock your International B license, you now have access to the Red Bull X Challenge which starts you out in a Red Bull karting championship, moves onto a Red Bull X2014 Junior series and then the Red Bull X2014 standard championship with Sebastian Vettel narrating the way. After you complete those, you will have a crack at actually racing Sebastian himself.
Variety Is The Spice Of Life
The game now boasts 1200 cars versus the slightly north of 1000 that Gran Turismo 5 contained. Add to that 33 locations and 71 track layouts with 20 of the tracks being all-new. The Nürburgring Nordschleife will always be an old favorite of mine however in terms of new additions to GT6, I’ve started taking a liking to Spa Francorchamps and the Daytona road course. For those hill climb junkies out there, the Goodwood Festival Of Speed is also included. Another new concept found in GT6 is Vision Gran Turismo. Simply put, it is another menu within the game where beautiful but unrealistic cars are posted for in-game sale by automotive manufacturers and well known brand names such as Michael Jordan. I’m sure there is an agenda for presenting these ultra advanced vehicles but I don’t think anyone has figured it out yet.
Ranking Love
Since the games inception, all of the seasonal events have been a world ranked time trial. It takes your quickest lap time and ranks you against other drivers. I like this much better than the easy and boring seasonal events that Gran Turismo 5 offered. Yes, it did contain some time trials however they did not receive the same attention from players for whatever reason. In GT6 you still receive great rewards for setting a gold time. However, you can only win the prize credits once! Competition is getting a little stiffer these days as I can generally rank within the top 3000 in the world on any given seasonal event. I was doing better on GT5.
I was slightly hesitant at first to purchase the game due to many negative reviews with people calling in Gran Turismo 5.1. As of writing this, I’ve got no regrets with quite a number of hours already into the game. Coincidentally, it’s on sale at Amazon for $45.99 which isn’t bad at all considering I paid $60.
