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Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

The first Gran Turismo game I won't buy

I've owned and played all previous 6 iterations of Gran Turismo, and I'm sorry to say I will not be purchasing the newly released Gran Turismo Sport anytime soon. After reading the reviews, I can't justify spending the proper $60 for a game with so little content and such draconian requirements in order to play. 

The core attraction of Gran Turismo for me is the sheer number of cars spanning all eras and the numerous tracks I can drive those cars on. I can still remember the seminal moment it was to drive the full Nurburgring Nordschleife in GT4. The car and track count in GT:S is, without mincing words, utterly atrocious. Discounting all the variations, there's only about 90 unique cars in the game, a system shock to those us used to 600+ car libraries. GT:S only has six real-world tracks, which is bizarrely embarrassing especially when the main focus of the game is e-sport online racing utilizing the FIA license.

How did Polyphony manage to partner with the FIA yet only produce six real-world locations? Where's Silverstone? Where's La Sarthe? Spa? 

The online racing component also brings with it an enormous negative externality: GT:S requires a constant Internet connection in order to play most parts of the game. I did not think ill of this until I found out that even non-racing portions of the game such as the amazingly beautiful photo-mode is locked behind the online authentication wall. If Polyphony ever decides to turn off its game servers (as it has for GT5), GT:S as constituted today would be no more than a drink coaster. 

GT:S would need to the following updates before I part with my money: massively increase the amount of cars and tracks, add more single-player campaign events/races, bring back dynamic time/weather (how they have regressed on this from GT6 is baffling), and get rid of the online connection requirement for parts of the game that obviously don't need it. 

GT: Sport photo mode

If there’s one party-piece of the forthcoming Gran Turismo Sport I’m most excited about, it’s definitely the photo mode. For sure I’m also massively looking forward to driving on the new tracks and sampling the new cars - reminds me I’ve got to purchase a new steering wheel device - but for a semi-serious photographic hobbyist like me, the 1,000 photo ‘Scapes’ available looks absolutely delicious. It combines the three things I love: photography, automobile, and travel, for the mere price of the game itself. 

I never got into the photo mode in previous iterations of GT due to the pathetic and appalling “camera” output of 1080p. For someone whose starter camera had 12 megapixels - commence snickering from older folks that started earlier than I on digital - the 2.1 megapixels of 1080p is insufficient. Not to say one wasn’t able to get incredible shots in GT5 or GT6 - there’s definitely some killer gems out there - but I guess I’m more of a stats-whore than I want to believe. 

GT Sport with the power of the PS4 should change things tremendously. There will not be enough hours in the day come October.