Well, we can’t say Polyphony Digital (PD) was just sitting around not doing anything since the release of Gran Turismo 6 (GT6). The amount of gloss on this closed beta, the next iteration of Gran Turismo and the first of the series on the PlayStation 4, is pretty staggering.
Each day since being accepted to the closed beta I’ve been streaming on our YouTube Page. This was not only to archive my reactions to the beta so far, but to also share with those who were unable to get an invite. Luckily PD has expanded invitations are we are now seeing more and more of our friends join in.
The Gran Turismo Sport (GTS) closed beta greets you with a cool intro movie, showcasing different vehicles and tracks as to be expected. No real surprises here from what has already been released through the various other GT Sport trailers and images. Everything looks amazing, the lighting on the cars and track are impressive, the colors pop and the edges are smooth. Surely this intro trailer would not represent actual gameplay graphics. Wrong.
Graphics
This has always been the eye candy release on every generation of Playstation console. The beta does not disappoint. The images and video speaks for itself. I will say I was disappointed to see that the car’s headlights during morning and sunset racing had little to no perceivable impact on the cars and track surroundings. The reflections of headlights would have put this over the top, and hopefully were only an omission for the beta release.
Vehicle Selection
Before you even get to drive a car, three are given to you, one from each class available in the beta. N300, Group 4 and Group 3 classes are represented in the beta. N300 are everyday road cars. Group 4 are race modified versions of a mixture of both road and super cars. Group 3 cars are your heavily race modified super cars, an equivalent to the GT3 class that is standard in GT racing today.
All of the classes contain real makes of vehicles, but the Gr.3 class expands this with adding a sprinkle of the Vision GT cars that first made appearances in GT6. Needless to say, I’m not a huge fan of these fictional models. Makes like the Toyota FT-1 is a looker, and completely passable as it’s actually going into production. However the VW VGT with it’s open cockpit, and the straight out of a campy sci-fi movie looking Peugeot VGT are just hideous, although I’m sure they drive just dandy. I am, however a fan of taking real makes without a real world racing version, and giving it one in GTS. This works very well, and you really don’t flinch at seeing a Gr.3 Hyundai Genesis next to a modern day, tried and true Aston Martin GT3. I’m eager to see what other makes PD adds to other groups.
My only gripe with the latter, is that it feels like PD will use it to bump up the overall car number in GTS. Example, having the same model Mustang in Gr.4, Gr.3, from the trailers a Rally version, and one can only assume a road version, seems sort of flaky. Similar to the way people complained about the 50+ variants of Skylines and MX5s in previous Gran Turismo games.
The three cars I was graced with were the Ford Focus ST, VW Scirocco Gr.4, and the Alfa Romeo 4C Gr.3. All cars I was given did not include the option to change color or livery. The Alfa is especially fantastic looking. It is one of those makeovers that don’t share a real-world counterpart. But I damn sure wish it did!
Acquiring cars in the beta is done by doing a Daily Workout, more or less driving a certain number of miles per day. Once a driver hits just over 26 miles per day, a new, random vehicle will be added to your garage. This seems like it will be expanded on and used for prizes within GTS. After a race, in the Reward field, the page looks setup to hold various different workouts to achieve, which could mean more than just daily workouts. Perhaps, weekly or other criteria would be added as well. The feature is a neat way to acquire vehicles opposed to the previous GT method of currency, which I believe is still a part of the game as the cars all have a greyed-out “Sell” button at the bottom of their page.
UI
Perhaps the most impressive part of the beta is the User Interface. PD has always had a knack for clean aesthetics and organized navigation menus, and this just improves on everything they have included to date. Tabs for Campaign, Sport, Online, Arcade, VR, Brand Central and Scapes modes are at the top, with only Sport and Arcade being available in the beta. Icons along the left side for your garage, user profile, and settings are out of the way, yet easy to access and make sense. The shear amount of options on the main home screen are proof that this will be more than just the Gran Turismo 7 Prologue people are claiming, wrongly in my opinion, Sport will be.
There are great sorting options in the Garage, almost like a sleek spreadsheet, with ways to organize your cars however you’d like. The default grid view and it’s icons for the cars are similar to the ones in GT6. For the most part, everything you want to know about the cars is there, what seems to be lacking, at least in the beta, is more information about the car and it’s history. Minor, but car culture and history has always been a staple in the GT franchise and it seems weird that is left out.
Navigating into Arcade mode is very simple, with all your options front and center, making it very easy to start racing. After a few matches you’ll be a pro and muscle memory will get you through the settings and in the race even faster.
Sport mode is slightly more visually overwhelming due to it’s online nature and the amount of information displayed. Here you can view the fast lap rankings of your friends as well as the current top ten playing the beta. The feel is 100% Gran Turismo goodness, and in my opinion one of the things that makes GT, GT.
The UI in-car has a LOT of information. In fact it has ALL the information, and while well laid out, there were no options in the beta to hide or change the various settings, with the exception of the MFD display. The MFD display lets you toggle car settings on the fly; such as adjusting the amount of traction on the car mid-race. The on track UI also changes layouts based on your current view, of which there are currently four: Chase, Cockpit, Bumper and Hood/Roof.
The cars now feature multiple sheets for tuning, up to 10, which is a very welcome feature. And while all the tuning options are there from the previous games, the tuning UI leads me to believe there will still be upgrades an modifications available to cars.
Gameplay and Sound
It’s not just the UI where the beta feels like a Gran Turismo game, the cars handle similar to GT6, but have been improved. There are noticeable shakes and shimmies that happen to your car when you hit curbs or go off track, just like a real car would do. Most impressive to me was actually feeling the compression the car goes through coming out of turn 1 at Brands Hatch up to turn 2. Those same shakes and shimmies also give cool audio of the car rattling around and settling down.
Feeling those shakes and shimmies was a bit of a letdown in regards to the force feedback of my T300RS. Force feedback feels VERY weak in the beta, and while it is stronger in the Gr.3 than N300 cars, it is still concerning to have feedback so low on a modern racer. There are only 2 options to adjust FFB and I had both maxed out, with little difference between them.
The audio is improved off GT6, but only slightly. Engine noises are more unique and seem to have more range, but the infamous tire squeal is still present. I was hoping for an audio slider to adjust something like the tire squeal, but nothing like that in the beta exists. My other gripe is when using the cockpit view, all the vehicles exhibit very loud transmission whine. While cool to hear at first, it quickly gets old as it drowns out any engine and road noises. It’s almost more fun to drive behind the other cars just to listen to their engine note, which is where you can tell the sound is most improved.
Modes
The beta supports two modes, Arcade and Sport. Arcade mode is your straight forward single race or time trial mode. Time trial lets you set hot laps in any of your unlocked cars on the only track available in the arcade mode, Brands Hatch GP.
The races in arcade mode are against 19 AI drivers in the same class as the make you chose. The AI drivers are NOT good. This needs to be an area of improvement for PD going forward. The AI brakes far too early, and uses predictable and repeatable lines through the track. They are decent enough at giving you a bit of space in tight quarters, but that hasn’t stopped them from bumping and spinning me off track. That said, it is still fun to race, when your racing options are limited.
Things get more interesting in Sport mode, which is the only Online mode in the beta. Tracks, car class, and car settings are locked down to a few events that take place daily. At the time of this writing, the events available in Sport mode were N300s at Tokyo Expressway, Gr.4 at Brands Hatch Indy, and Gr.3 at Northern Isles Speedway.
The events are an hour apart but once available, can be entered an eventually matched with other real life racers. I had initially assumed matching would be based off your qualifying time. However it appears your Sportsman and Driver Ratings have much more to do with it.
The Driver and Sportsman Ratings work fairly well and are straight forward. If you finish a sector cleanly, without going off track, or hitting walls and other drivers, your rating goes up. Otherwise, it will go down. It will also go down if you are on the receiving end of a hit, which is going to be a point of contention for sure. It will be interesting to see how this pans out during the full retail release of the game.
Overall
I’ve been involved in a few beta tests for various types of games on the PS4, and this is by far the most ‘locked in’ and ready to go one I’ve been a part of. I have run into very, very few bugs. In fact, my first 8 days with the beta were 100% bug free. On Day 9 the screen froze black with the cursor while going into a Sport Mode Qualifying session. and Day 10 saw my first disconnect, also in Sport Mode.
In my experience with the game, I’m left impressed, and wanting more. I think the game will be fun, and that is why we play games anyways right? While I think some other sim racers coming out might have more realism and control over how you play, Gran Turismo Sport looks to bring fun, accessible racing to the masses while still leaving more than enough for the hardcore to blow everyone away. I hope so.
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