Exclusive to PlayStation 3
Is this a preview or a review? Well, it’s a little bit of both. This week Sony released its long-awaited demo of Gran Turismo 6 onto the PlayStation Store. Tied into Nissan’s GT Academy contest, it covers two cars – the Nissan Leaf and the 370Z – two two-race events across the classic Autumn Ring, Suzuka Circuit and Grand Valley Speedway tracks, and climaxes in a series of five time trials set on the new Silverstone track.
It’s free, and while it’s not GT6: Prologue it still works as a game in and of itself. It also gives us our first extended taste of what we can expect when Gran Turismo 6 releases later on this year.
Watch the GT6 launch trailer:
See all the latest Gran Turismo 6 news, screenshots and cars
GT6: Simulation v Game
Here there’s good news and bad news depending on where you sit on the Gran Turismo series. Kanunori Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony Digital have long been pushing a vision for Gran Turismo as a realistic driving simulator rather than a game, and the GT6 demo is very much in that tradition.
The focus is on the authentic driving experience rather than on, say, high-speed thrills or seat-of-the-pants racing. If you’re looking for a sensation of raw speed and tight races against aggressive opponents, then Gran Turismo isn’t even trying to compete with Forza Motorsport 5, let alone Shift 2: Unleashed or the arcade racing crowd.
Opponent AI, in case you’re wondering, is still faintly embarrassing. In our time with the demo we’ve seen a few moves that might be described as assertive, but most of the time we’re still in a world of polite processions around each and every corner, with your driving a disrupting influence that spoils the even flow.
The approach to vehicle damage also seems no different from what we saw in Gran Turismo 5. Nudge your opponents out of position or use them as means to slow your speed – it won’t stop you from winning the race.
GT6: Graphics
Visually, there are some notable improvements. GT6 looks incredibly crisp and if the textures and detail levels don’t seem a vast leap forwards, then the lighting is stunning, adding a new sheen to the beautifully-modelled cars and trackside scenery and gluing all the elements onscreen together in a way that didn’t quite happen at times in GT5.
It’s hard to gauge visual quality on three slightly uninspiring tracks, but from what we’ve seen here and in the extensive trailers, GT6 could easily eclipse Forza 4 and Forza Horizon as the best looking racer on current console hardware.
The new Ronda track, in particular, looks an absolute stunner. This might not mean much once Forza 5, Need for Speed: Rivals and DriveClub appear on next-gen platforms, but there’s a danger that the new GT might leave them looking not quite so next-gen.
GT6: Handling
More importantly, GT6’s most impressive achievement isn’t what you can see, but what you can feel. GT5 still has its rivals beaten when it comes to realistic handling, and GT6 looks set to take this mantle onwards. Polyphony has apparently been working with the Japanese tyre manufacture, Yokohama, and the suspension specialist, KW, to drag in more real-world data for use in the game’s physics model.
Racing the 370Z around Silverstone, you can sense the forces of weight and momentum working on the car, and when you reach the car’s cornering limits, you can feel the rear end tearing out of your control. The sense of tyres on track is even more pronounced than in GT5, yet also more subtle. Your wheels don’t suddenly abandon course when under pressure, but start to slide and get progressively worse.
Complete the GT Academy events, and you’ll unlock an additional event and an extra surprise car, and at higher speeds with a bit more bounce to the suspension, you’ll notice the improvements to the handling even more. Whether you’re the kind of player who sits at a steering wheel with all driving aids switched off or an average Joe playing with an automatic shift on a Dual Shock 3 you will feel the difference – and we’ve now played GT6 both ways.
First Impressions
We still have concerns about GT6 from playing the demo. From the menus to the hyper-clean visuals to the timid AI, it can still feel oddly clinical, and there are times when you wish that Yamauchi and Co. would relax a little bit about authenticity and work harder at producing a more thrilling racing game.
Yet that authenticity is the soul of Gran Turismo. It might be a little conservative, a little staid, but GT6 seems to be bending over backwards to deliver the most realistic console driving simulation yet. Most importantly, this is just a demo, without the finished systems and content of the full GT6 release.
With a more competitive AI and a new approach to damage, GT6 might have a chance of upsetting the Microsoft competition, and beat the next-generation racers using current-generation hardware. What a feat that would be!
Next, read our hands-on PS4 review or take a look at our Xbox One vs PS4 comparison.
