Gran Turismo 6 PS3 review 9.0

Gran Turismo is one of my top games. I love racing games. From the days when I used to sit on my dads lap and watch him play Pole Position in the local arcade, I've been hooked on all sorts of racing games. Gran Turismo 1 for the PS1 was such a game changer with racing. Having been used to Need for Speed, it was unheard of when you had to use the brakes in a car game.

Gran Tursimo 6 continues the series. But it doesn't move it along very much. I did just get my copy in the mail about 3 hours ago. And I've put in around 2 hours of gameplay in it already. But for being the next game in sequential order, it just doesn't feel like that much of an upgrade.

They say they've redesigned the suspension and tires from the ground up. Most people probably won't even notice a difference. Graphics don't look any better than they did in GT5. There may be some slight differences in lighting. But really nothing stands out too much.

All the sound FX from all the previous games are still there. The bongs of the menus. The whiny pitch of the engines. And when you hit the walls or other cars, it still sounds like you just hit one of the large 55 gallon rubber barrels. I don't understand why they couldn't get a team to go out and collect realistic sounding noises.

The most disappointing part of the game is that you have to start all over from square one. Since this game already feels like GT4 and 5, I just wish you were able to carry over your progress. So instead, you have to start out on the very first track, again. Sunday Drive on the High Speed Ring. I feel like I've done this 5 times before.

The menu layout has been re-arranged. It doesn't really feel like an improvement, but it doesn't feel like its worse either. Its just re-arranged.

One of the things that GT6 has over GT5 is that you have access to all cars right away. Meaning, with GT5, if you wanted a Standard version of a car (ones that weren't re-done in HD,) you had to wait for it to show up in the used car selection of the game. Now, all those cars are listed under each of the new car's manufactures.

But I'm giving this game 4 stars because I feel I should judge this game for what it is now. And not comparing it to the previous versions. Although that's what most of my complaints are about here. But if you're new to the series, and this will be your first Gran Turismo game, its a fantastic racing game. As long as you don't assume its anywhere near what NFS is. Either you love games where it takes skill like Gran Turismo, or you just love games where you just feel like you always need to have the pedal to the metal like NFS.

Most likely you are reading this to see if its worth buying. It may be, if you're into having some of the newest cars, and some upgraded features. But if you're reading this to see if you'd be interested in Gran Turismo in general, I'd suggest that you buy Gran Turismo 5. For the price, you can't beat it. And if you're unfamiliar to the series, you most likely won't notice much difference between the two.

Hope this review has helped. Like I said, I'm only 2 hours into the game so far, so I don't have everything unlocked yet. Only just a couple slow cars. I'll update this review if I discover something new that I didn't touch on.

Oh, if you have the pre-order promo code, you have to enter the code inside the game. It will look invalid if you enter it in the PS3 dashboard, outside of the game.

***UPDATED*** (12/9/13)
So after spending the weekend playing GT6, my recommendation is to either buy or continue playing GT5. I have put several hours into the game, and I feel that I'd rather be putting that racing money towards the already large bank account I have in GT5.

AI is still very dumb. They don't race. They just drive in single file line, while following a very set path. They are sometimes aware of your location, but I've had the PIT maneuver done on me a few times in a corner. If this was a real race, I'd be getting of of my car, and throwing my helmet at your windshield the next lap.

But they might as well make the game only time trials. This racing game just doesn't seem like a racing game. You're only overtaking opponents one by one. But its been this way since GT1. For once I'd like to try to overtake 2 opponents who are battling between themselves.

ALL sounds are still all horrid. From the same menu SFX that have been in every single game, to the music that sounds like it belongs on the Nintendo, to the car sounds. I don't think that by putting racing exhaust on a 2014 Corvette would make it sound like a 6-cylinder import car. Chevy should be ashamed.

Cars still feel floaty when in the air. I believe the track is Trial Mountain. Its been slightly updated from the previous version. But the last corner has a slight raise against the wall. If you hit it, you'll get some air, but only from the two wheel that run over it. And it just felt the same as before. Like there was a pocket of air surrounding the car, which gently carried it across the track, and gently placed all 4 wheels back onto the ground. Updated suspension and aerodynamic models, my butt. And in reality, if I had actually hit that corner the same way in a real car, it probably would have flipped me over.

So since I did pay full price for this game, I've been trying to get the most out of it. And I've also tried to make it as realistic as possible. I still have my Logitech steering wheel from when I bought GT4. I've turned off all HUD items, and turned off the racing lines. I also drive from the cockpit view. So its as realistic as it can be. Which BTW, cockpit view makes your screen DARK. Not sure why they feel that adding glass makes everything dark. With the nose cam view, the track is bright. In-car, dark. But the rear-view mirror is still bright.

***UPDATED*** (12/16/13)
Few more things. As a commenter point out, I realized I haven't tried online yet. Figured I'd get some better cars first, and learn the tracks with different setups before going online. Unlike others, I try to race without using other cars as brakes.

V-Sync seems to be more of an issue later on, when you're racing against more cars. I've noticed it quite a bit on the Matterhorn track. Its a new original track set in the mountains. It looks beautiful. But am getting v-sync "tearing" around almost every corner. It really doesn't affect gameplay, and frame rate seems to stay quick. But its kind of annoying. But for most people, you may not even notice it.

Night races not in the city are nearly impossible. I really don't want to mess with my TV's brightness settings, but I'm going to have to to be able to finish some races. There's a night race at Willow Springs, and I CANNOT see anything. The headlights don't light up the road, but they do light up the dirt when you run off track. Its near impossible to race like this. The only thing thats somewhat helped is to always stay behind a crowed, and watch the taillights. But even doing this, I finished 6th, and ran off the road several times. One good thing though was that I unlocked an achievement of staying in the air for a second after I hit a minor dirt hill.