Tomorrow marks the release of the latest game in the Gran Turismo franchise which has kept fans waiting for five years and is the first release for the current console generation, with the last game release in 2013 for the PS3. The game is already out in America and had a short Beta release last week which has led to some widely differing opinions from the gaming community.
The new instalment has three main modes, campaign, arcade and sport. The campaign mode is a collection of driving lessons and challenges reminiscent of the driving licenses in earlier games. Arcade mode allows player vs AI racing and time trials and sport is the new online racing mode which uses a matchmaking system to pit players against each other online. If you just like admiring the cars then there is also a photo mode which combines the CG cars with a real world background. The game is also VR compatible but due to technical limitations only allows one on one races when in VR mode and is limited to the arcade mode.
The main complaints raised by the gaming community are related to the removal of the career mode which was a favourite with many players. It has also been raised that there are only half the number of race tracks of the previous title and only 120 cars as opposed to 1200 in the previous title. That said, many of the critics have praised the quality of the content included, and that the game feels more focused as a result of the restriction with only high end sports cars being included and not your everyday city cars. Another area of contention is the title’s reliance on an internet connection, as only the arcade mode is available while playing offline with the rest reliant on online servers.
This is a title that I have been following for a while, and it was my intention to pick up a copy on launch. However, following reports of a lack of single player content with the game focusing more on online play, I’ve decided to delay my investment. Most of the fun I had with previous titles involved elements left out of this title, like purchasing cars in the career mode, striping down the weight and turbo charging the engines.
While there is little doubt that this is a well-made and enjoyable title, I’m not really a fan of online PvP games and rarely get my money’s worth out of them. However, I’ll be keeping an eye on the game’s reception when it is release in the EU tomorrow and will certainly pick up a copy, if it proves to have enough single player content to justify the cost.
