Gran Turismo Sport Gets the Green Flag on PS4
You knew this was coming. 2016 looked set to be
GT Sport‘s year; the Forza series was on its arcade-racer alternate year,
Project CARS support was winding down, and
Assetto Corsa suffered a few speed bumps on its way to consoles. The one-two punch of
the public beta being shelved in the first half of the year and
the game being pushed to this year in the second means
GT Sport will now be entering a crowded 2017 arena.
When exactly that will be is still up in the air.
Contrary to some rumblings out of Sony South Africa, it’s looking incredibly unlikely we’ll be receiving the game this month. With the heavy focus on organized online racing via the afore-mentioned FIA partnership, perhaps a release closely aligned with the start of Spring (and the F1 season) is a possibility. There needs to be enough time to run a season before that awards ceremony in December, after all.
We know
GT Sport will launch with 140 cars (
though Kazunori has teased a much larger final total), 19 locations and 27 circuit layouts. Thanks to a presentation at PlayStation Experience last month, we know the game will
feature full 4K and HDR support via PS4 Pro,
as well as a dedicated “VR Tour” Mode. Dynamic time and weather may be gone, but
Polyphony will be providing a smattering of pre-selected combinations at all circuits.
At the Copper Box reveal event — where our man Jordan had co-host duties —
we saw the first hints of flags in the FIA Pre-Season Test. Creative types were overjoyed by
the series-first inclusion of a livery editor at that same event, though it hasn’t been explored in greater detail since then. These features, alongside the TV-style replays the series is known for, will enable
GT Sport to better resemble real-world motorsports than any GT title before it.
Due to this,
Gran Turismo Sport still seems like one of the best vehicles (pardon the pun) to deliver driving game eSports to the masses.
GT6 crossed the five million sales milestone last August, making it the best-selling realistic racing game since, well,
Gran Turismo 5.
GT Sport may represent the biggest change in the franchise’s two-decade history, but no other series boasts the name-recognition that comes with a 76-million strong sales background.
There you have it. The year has just begun, but on the evidence above, it could shape up to be the finest one yet for racing games. Have your own list? Share it!
