Gran Turismo Sport

[MR2 Fan]

If anyone cares, the new GR86 is in GT Sport now

[Rare White Ape]

GT7 comes out in less that a week (can you believe it?) so I decided to unpack my PS4 and get it ready in anticipation of the new game coming out. GT Sport was still in the disc drive so what better chance to play that for a bit one last time? It's been a year since I signed up to iRacing and rocked my own world, and longer still since I last played GTS. I dutifully updated all my software and removed the USB cable for my Fanatec gear from my PC and sent it across to the PS4.

For shits and giggles I entered a daily race in the Gr.3 cars, an intense four-lapper around Dragon Trail Seaside. I thought to myself that having a year of iRacing under my belt would serve me very well and I'd easily win a race, because these PlayStation n00bs don't know a thing about how to handle a race car. Boy was I wrong. What I encountered was a field of players who've played nothing but GT Sport for the whole time I was away and knew how to handle a race car. A GT Sport race car.

GT Sport race cars feel different to iRacing race cars. The FFB is mush and the handling is... OK at best. There is no doubt some magic under the bonnet that I haven't been able to tap into since getting so used to iRacing that any other game feels weird. But the arcadeyness kills me! Rather than being left frustrated by my lack of skill I was left giggling after seeing how collisions affect each car and the weirdness of what happens when someone finally convinces the physics engine that they should spin out. I watched a man squeeze the hell out of another car against a grassy verge (a reportable intentional wreck in iRacing). It took about 150 meters, but that other car eventually spun out and turned into a ghost, then I drove through it to take the spot, then it managed to right itself and the driver passed me back on the very same lap.

On the last lap my Honda NSX GT3 was punted by a guy driving a Volkswagen Beetle when he used his front bumper to lean against my rear wheel while entering a fast kink (another reportable incident in iRacing) rather than waiting for the next hairpin to make an easy clean pass for 14th place. I spun then got magically reset onto the track just in time for the Corvette GT3 in last place to freak out and dodge my ghostly apparition and hit a wall himself. Nearing the end of the lap I overcooked the infamous Chicane of Death and smashed into the wall. Rather than having the left side of my car destroyed I merely bounced off it and lost my exit speed, and old mate in his Corvette took advantage to take my spot.

I finished last. After that I did a few AI races on the two little oval tracks included in the game and decided that I am OK with people - other people - playing GT Sport if they want to. I am sure GT7 will be great but I won't be playing that in any serious way on the internet!

[SkylineObsession]

Here's my absolute favourite sections of the Nordschleife. When you're in the right car, like this Porsche, and can nail most of the corner apexes right while going full bore and staying relatively/mostly on the track while using the whole track, it gives a great feeling of satisfaction. I also love this section because of all the bumps too, and how it can unsettle the cars.

Of course, i had to ruin that momentum eventually, watch the whole vid. I'm a bit rusty, as only did this the other day and haven't driven this Porsche for a good year or so prior.

I'll also take this moment to reiterate, that i'm so glad they bought back and massively improved all the backfire pops and bangs and other such racecar-ey sounds.

[Zevious Zoquis]

Running laps at Nord is essentially all I've done in GT Sport. I have around 150 cars and about 150 hours in the game and I only just did the first set of license tests two days ago. Probably 140 of those hours are me alone at the Ring trying to beat my own times...it's actually a very relaxing - sort of zen-like - thing for me.

[sandydandy]

I played GT Sport for the first time yesterday. Did 2 player battles with my son.

We've always enjoyed doing 2 player battles going back to GT5 and GT6 and it's been a lot of fun. Lots of shenanigans and competitiveness, and we would spend hours. It's always been on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, where we would play 2 or 3 laps. It used to be really fun until the PS3 controllers started acting up and we eventually stopped. Yesterday after a long long absence we felt the itch to play again. PS3 controllers were still the issue as only one works well, (when it wants to), so we tried connecting the PS4 controllers to the PS3. This actually worked very well...to a point. You could use them to navigate throughout the games, (GT5 and 6), select cars/tracks, get into a race...but as soon as the race would start they would stop responding to commands. The cars just rolled backwards forever. Not very exciting.

So my son said why don't we just play GT Sport instead? I said okay. I've never really touched the PS4 since we got it a long time ago, (except to play GTA V and Marvel vs Capcom 3). That's mostly been his console that he keeps in his room. I've been good with the PS3. So he brought it down and hooked it up and away we went.

Graphics, physics...everything about the game is fantastic. We did our usual routine on the Nordschleife and he kept kicking my ass over and over again, and not by small margins either. The gaps were always at least 30 seconds apart. I felt something was off. Even though I hadn't played GT games in a long time, the controls are so similar that you can't really unlearn it. So why did I suddenly forget how to drive?

Whichever car I selected - I simply Could.Not.Keep.It.On.The.Road...no matter how carefully I drove. I was thinking oh man, have I really fallen this far?

After several races with several different cars I said I didn't want to play anymore because it wasn't fun for me. Then we tried one more race and this time went into the pre-race menu. To my horror I saw that my active stability management was off. Duh I thought to myself, that explains it all. It was only off for player 2, which was me. I felt a spark of hope. We did a few more races and suddenly it was fun. He was still winning most of the time but it was much more competitive so I was finally enjoying myself. We played for half an hour more and then he took it back to his room.

GT Sport is a very decent game. My son is deep into his campaign, and I'm thinking I might start my own one day.