Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

[RunN1st]

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Ok, Gents... Let's post those impressions. Here's what I'm curious about.

1. Visuals - Smooth frame rate? Jaggies? Lighting?

2. Driving Model - Sense of control and speed?

3. Single Player - Licensing and Challenges, thoughts?

4. Multiplayer - Laggy or smooth? Options heavy or light?

5. Garage and customizing - Realistic Parts and paint capabilities?

6. Tracks - Any thoughts?

7. What's your favorite car to drive?

8. List any bugs you may have encountered.

[shon]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

I bought the Download version and the install took about 4 hours.

I have a CSR Elite Wheel and it works/feels perfect, you can really feel the differences between the cars. I started playing in Cockpit view and the sense of speed wasn't there, of course you do start off with slow cars so it could just be that, but when I switched to the hood or road camera it did seem to be faster.

I'm playing on a PC monitor at 1080P and it's not as sharp as a PC race game but it isn't that bad. I have noticed a couple of road textures that aren't sharp before the race and some of the cockpits aren't hi-def but overall it looks great. I haven't noticed any screen tearing which I read on other forums. There are some jagged and flickering edges from time to time, but it hasn't been distracting. The replays look good.

The single player campaign is fun they mix things up with different events like hitting cones and other challenges that aren't just races so it make things interesting. They do force you to pick your first car from a selection of 1, I didn't like that. I don't think I've opened up multi-player yet but hopefully I'll get a chance tonight. The AI isn't fantastic, but they have given me a little challenge on some races but there isn't a way to increase the difficulty during the campaign just the arcade mode.

I was really worried about the loading times because of GT5 and I almost bought an SSD but with a normal hard drive they are minimal maybe 5-10 seconds, which is awesome. I hate the loading times on Forza 5, plus my wheel isn't compatible, that's another discussion.

I've completed about 25 races and I've liked all the tracks so far, each one feels different and has their own challenges. The races occur at different times of day and some of the effects look great, racing at dusk is awesome.

Overall I'm having a blast and the initial impression is so much better than GT5. I like the looks of the menu's and they are quick and easy to navigate.

Don't forget to change your oil when you get a new car.

[TCrouch]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Got it at lunch, and after downloading a 1207MB update, installing, and trying to configure my CSR Elite...mine DIDN'T work perfectly. I tried turning it off and back on and calibrating it, but nothing worked except the D-pad and buttons.

I've got a Thrustmaster T500RS on another wheel stand that I'll try after work, but my first experience was just installing, updating, control issues, restarting, still control issues, etc.

[demencia_total]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Graphics on my display at least are incredibly meh, tons of jaggies all over. Shadows are odd just like in GT5. Quality of the cars that are not premiums is much better, although some are better than others. Sounds are still underwhelming. The driving however, is sublime. Cars feel like they are alive from the accelerating and braking to the handling. Better than Forza in my opinion and on par with some PC sims.

The car lineup is just insane, not many cars that I can think of that are missing (although I'm sure people will find some). Menus and loading times are definitely better.

[JMD]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

The Game looks great, some tracks / environments look better than others. Game feels great as well , very smooth , cars handle nice. I'm a few races into my career and so far I only have a couple complaints:
1. The sound of the tires squealing is very annoying, we should be able to turn this down or off.
2. We should also be able to adjust what we want to see on screen HUD wise individually. I want to know what place I'm in and what lap I'm on but I don't want the driver names obstructing my view in my rear view mirror. It appears to be everything off or on.


EDIT: I now only have one complaint because I just discovered under the Global setting I can turn the driver names and speedometer off.

[JMD]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Just a heads up about buying cars from the dealership. Personally I only want premium cars with the good cockpit view. When buying a car if it can not be viewed in the "View Gallery" it is a standard car and will have a blacked out cockpit.

[demencia_total]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Just a heads up about buying cars from the dealership. Personally I only want premium cars with the good cockpit view. When buying a car if it can not be viewed in the "View Gallery" it is a standard car and will have a blacked out cockpit.

This was my policy in GT5, only race Premiums. However, given how awesome the handling is and how some "standards" have been improved greatly I have completely broken this rule for this game. So many awesome cars to try that don't have interiors.

Also, be aware that all(not 100% sure) "special edition" version of cars cannot be visually upgraded. Meaning, you can't change the wheels or customize with aero parts.

[RunN1st]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Got my copy today but probably won't get to play until tomorrow. Been watching some Twitch feeds and other forum postings... Most indications say it's awesome!

[bcruise]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Finally playing now after some weather-related issues caused me to not pick up the game until a day late. Will report back later (preferably after I get through the novice part of career mode)

[Yrogergj24]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Picked up my preorder on Friday, I can't play until tomorrow, but I'll edit this post with my impressions.

[bcruise]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

Okay, a few things so far:

- Playing the disc version, first of all. After the patch download and installation, it launched right into the intro and the tutorial race, without any need for a long install. I've read that it actually installs while you're playing the game, so that's a very welcome difference from GT5. Load times are okay so far, but a little on the long side when you switch from the pre-race screen to the actual race. That might change once the game's full installed.

- Damn, this game is pretty on my 1080p monitor. I know it's only PS3 and it doesn't compare to what I've seen of F5 in streams, but it's definitely improved from what I remember of GT5. And the photos you can take are, once again, absolutely mind-blowing with some of the filters you can apply to it. Game appears to run at 60 FPS during gameplay, only dropping to 30 (and sometimes below) when in replay mode or otherwise outside of the action.

- I'll give some more thoughts on how the game feels later on when I plug my wheel in. But it seems to handle very well with the controller (albeit in the slow-*** car I'm driving - more on that in a bit). I don't seem to skid around corners quite as much as I did in 5 on the with the dualshock, but again I'm not using a particularly fast car yet.

- So far I'm finding the difficulty of career mode a bit underwhelming. I've only gotten the Nat B license and done the first race in the 2nd star group, but it's pretty apparent that I'm hanging right with the AI cars in a car significantly below the Max PP limit for the early races - the very first car you're given in the game. I haven't even had a need to tweak it yet. At least I'm building up credits in the meantime, but I don't really plan on tweaking the car (or buying a new one) until I absolutely have to, and right now that seems like it might be a ways off. If I was near max PP for these races I'd be absolutely destroying the AI cars, guaranteed. It's not like this is anything new for GT - you basically get what you want out of the game as far as difficulty goes because of your car and upgrade choices.

So far the most challenge for me has come in the license tests and Mission challenges, which are basically the short-segment time trials. I've been aiming to get at least silver on all of them, because the gold times are pretty hard to reach. One cool thing about these is that you can see lines on the track representing your friends' times in real-time.

No mechanical damage in career mode, at least with how far I am into it. There is the GT Auto thing which allows you to do several repair-type functions, but so far it hasn't indicated I need them and I've rubbed paint quite a few times in the early races (mostly due to AI cars braking hard right in front of me).

- No comment on online since I haven't done it yet. But I have heard that the options are much more robust, including damage settings.

Only bug I've noticed so far is that part of the car body flickered a bit while I was using the in-car camera - was kind of jarring when it happened.

Enjoying it so far as much as I thought I would, but I need more time and experience to judge whether the AI will get any better. And I need to get my wheel working.

[King of Kings]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

I've gotten a good amount of time in with 50+ races, 7.5 hours on track, 24% completed rate, and reaching S level license. It's an improvement over GT5, it just feels smoother all around. Physics feel better, graphics are phenomenal, menus are slicker, and load times are faster. Unfortunately, I have the same two complaints I've had for years.

1-"Seasons" are a joke. A 5 race series composed of a maximum of 5 laps doesn't cut it. Why can't I play an actual season with all of these wonderful cars? GT, LMP, DTM, Australian V8s, etc. are all in the game. Let me construct my own schedule of 10 rounds with 20+ laps per race, where points are carried over from race to race. Games like TOCA on PS2 or Race Pro on the 360 had that feature. Are the developers of Gran Turismo incapable of doing the same? Without a true season mode, we're basically playing nothing but exhibition races. Can you imagine the outcry if Madden or NBA 2K14 tried giving us no season mode? Why is it acceptable for racing games?

2-Why can't I choose my opponents for a single player exhibition race? When at Le Mans in my '11 Audi R18, I don't want to see a 50 year old car on my tail. It removes me from the experience. Let me choose my opponents. We could also use that as a makeshift solution to no season mode by tracking our own exhibition races with pen and paper. By this point in gaming, we should have more freedom with how we want to play. I wouldn't buy Madden if I could only play exhibition games against randomly chosen opponents. Make these races mean something.

Aside from those major (for me) complaints, the game is excellent.

[TCrouch]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

This is sort of a personal observation regarding FM5 and GT6, so take it for what it's worth. I am not trying to proclaim one better than the other, but I've been playing both quite a bit, and have noticed each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. With regards to GT6...

After I finally got my CSR Elite working properly (operator error. I hadn't used it with my PS3 in so long I forgot how to properly sync it. Thanks Google!), the controls and force feedback on GT6 are incredible. Some of the best I've felt, even. It just feels like you'd expect a car to respond to you. It's not overly difficult to drive the lower-tier cars with all assists off, and you can overcook corners and back the car down without losing complete control more often than not.

It looks really, really bad to me--but that's because I'm playing it on the same TV that I'm playing Forza 5 on seconds earlier. But Forza has a problem of so few tracks and no steering wheel I can get my hands on (have tried numerous times to get the Thrustmaster Italia TX and cannot get it anywhere), so I've sort of split my time between Forza 5 and GT6.

GT obviously has the edge when it comes to courses and cars. That isn't even in dispute by anybody, really. But the control is impeccable IMO. It just feels right.

Where it all falls apart is where every GT game has for me--the AI cars. I'm racing career races with 6 total cars early on (I assume the field grows later on in your career, as the standings pages have placeholders up to 16, but all I've ever raced against is 6 so far), and when you race, they follow each other in a line...still. In this day and age, such a low car count with cars that barely ever deviate and actually race with each other just makes it all come unhinged for me.

Particularly when I spent many races right before battling 16-car grids in FM5, and through some of that drivatar wizardry, watch them go three wide, jostle for position, and take each other out. Or take me out. Or I take them out. Bottom line is, no two races feel the same, really. In GT6 almost every race I've run has been the tried-and-true GT formula of "beat them to the inside, outbrake them, and if need be, use them to slow down. 8 tires beats 4!" method.

I really don't know which one I'd rather play. The graphics don't bother me too much in GT6 because the control is so good. But if I had a wheel I could use on my XBox One (or go figure, they wouldn't have made it so my CSR Elite didn't work...), that could end up being a wash. GT6 feels like "more GT" to me, which is exactly what I expected, and what I got. There's nothing really fresh about it, but the controls are so good that it makes sense that they market it with the tag line "The Real Driving Simulator".

It sure as heck does feel like real driving. Just not necessarily racing against real people. Even though that's not exactly newsworthy or some new development, it's worth mentioning (again).

[bcruise]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

In regards to the AI, I have seen some good things. The best thing I saw was in the game's idle demo (let it sit on the home screen for 3 minutes) with the NASCARs on Daytona. Despite the horrible-looking single file rolling start (with the cars spread way apart) within about a minute all 10 were bunched together 2x2 and it looked like a scaled-down actual NASCAR race with some jostling and some sparks flying up as a result.

Haven't seen anything close to that in normal racing on my game, but I did see the AI go 3 wide on a road course with the player on a twitch stream once. I believe the reason we don't see things like this happening often is because the gameplay is solely focused on you trying to get your car from last to first in every race, in extremely short races. I never liked this direction the series has always taken, but as you guys mentioned the driving is just so much fun (especially with a wheel) that I play it regardless. I guess that's why I like just running time trials almost as much as the actual racing.

[RunN1st]

Re: Official Gran Turismo 6 | Impresssions and Discussion Thread

1. Visuals - Smooth frame rate? Jaggies? Lighting? Well, IMO it's very similar to GT5. Seems a little darker to me. I haven't had an issue with the framerate but I'm running the game on 720p. There are noticeable issues with shadows from the fences which blink and just look off during the race intro and replays. Unfortunately, there are also noticeable jaggies on both the track and some of the buildings... However, the jaggies that stand out the most are the lines drawn on the race pavement.

After switching to 1080p I see a noticeable improvement on the jaggies... the fencing is still noticebly jagged but all else seems to have cleared up!

2. Driving Model - Sense of control and speed? So far I've only unlocked the B license cars, thus have only used the controller but boy does it drive great. I can't believe how awesome it feels when I'm pushing the car to the limit, slow down to nail the turns and try and hit the apex. The rumble strips are very, very, very well done! Now keep in mind, I'm only running the B license cars but I'm in controller heaven. (I'm going to test with the G27 tonight.)

3. Single Player - Licensing and Challenges, thoughts? This is where it gets tedious... The best and most common way people have describe liecensing and challenges is "grind". Yes, indeed it feels like a grind to make it through to keep moving along. Also noteworthy, the amount of credits won for the various races seems very low. It's a no wonder some folks are complaining about PD trying to micro-transaction milk you.

4. Multiplayer - Laggy or smooth? Options heavy or light? Got my "A" class license, boys! I immediately jumped online and did a BMW M3 Touring only race at Brands and Bathurst... with 12 dudes online and it didn't hitch at all. The netcode seems to be dialed in from what I can tell. The race set up is very similar to what we had on GT5... Being able to set weather, time and temp is very cool. You can also force a pitstop along with mandatory tire change. And hold on to your hats... they have pit crews! The spectator mode has the ability to listen to the GT6 soundtrack and it adds a little kick to the immersion level! So far, so good, gents.

5. Garage and customizing - Realistic Parts and paint capabilities? This is very similar to GT5 but you now can opt to purchase the highest rated upgrade vs. having to upgrade a level at a time. The parts seem legit and there are also some cool features... like adding a camper to an El Camino and a T-top to a Firebird. Painting the cars is limited to the paint colors you collect, purchase or win. I didn't see the option to add your own decals or customer designs.

6. Tracks - Any thoughts? Brands Hatch, Bathurst, and Spa are 3 of my all-time favorites and they are all in! I'm loving the tracks and being able to add weather, time and climate to each. They are not the most visually advanced tracks but are very well done. Also, the Willow Springs track is unreal! Photo mode at this track will fool some it's a real picture.

7. What's your favorite car to drive? This is going to sound silly but I haven't driven a car that I didn't like. The controls are so well done it's easy to realize where the limits and strenghts are on each car. Standards and Premium cars are still present but once on the track you will care very little if you are racing against a premium or standard car.

8. List any bugs you may have encountered. Not sure if this is a bug bug but during my online race I received a 100 sec. penalty and I have no clue what I did.

Other things noticed and pointed out:-The tire and suspension model is very well done. Probably why the controls are awesome!
-Much faster loading times and menu navigation.
-Customize the color of your gauges - In a race, hit pause & go to quick options & at the bottom GT Instrument Customization. (36 combos available)
-You can enable the blindspot indicator.
-You can now choose the color of your gifted cars. GT5 gave you a random color.
-You can add NOS to some cars!
-No more B Spec. (I never got into it on GT5.)
-Looking forward to the addition of the clubs and online events.
-Changing rim sizes; such a small addition makes a difference. The Evo 6, 7 and 8 RSs don't look stupid anymore with their tiny wheels.
-You get to see your friends times when you do license tests, just getting gold ain't good enough anymore.
-It feels like a GT game again. (It just drives awesome.)

Updates in blue above.