It’s been a busy time lately for driving games. We’ve had the release of Forza Motorsport 7, riding the wave of Xbox One X excitement with it’s 4K at 60fps glory.
Then there was Project Cars 2 which answered all the criticisms on the good but flawed original. For those after a more “The Fast and the Furious” vibe, EA released Need for Speed: Payback with its new “action driving” sequences. But the most anticipated racer this year must undeniably have been the return of the grand daddy of motor sims, Gran Turismo.
Gran Turismo Sport launched with much fan fair with its photorealistic visuals, amazing handling and enough in-depth tweaking for even the most hardcore of petrolheads. Plus it brought with it compatibility with Sony’s PSVR for a totally immersive driving experience.
Unfortunately it wasnt all wine and roses as the game came under some heavy fire for what was missing, namely a lot of cars and an offline solo campaign. At launch, there was not much for you to do if the servers where down or your broadband connection was acting up. Pretty much everything needed you to be logged on. This did not go down well with a lot of people and it seemed like Gran Turismo Sport would be stuck in the pits while it’s competition pulled away.
Sony & developers Polyphony Digital obviously didn’t like their premier racer being left in the dust and announced details of the titles free November & December updates and its looks like they are gunning for first place and kicking into to high gear (last car analogy I promise).
Details quoted from the official PlayStation Blog:
“Patch 1.06 (Coming November 27th, 2017)
From November 27th we’ll begin rolling out new cars, and kicking off with three free new cars.
In addition to the new cars, when the patch drops on November 27 you can also look forward to the Livery Editor, Scapes and Campaign modes becoming available to play offline (you will still require internet access to save your progress). There will also be various tweaks and adjustments to balance the gameplay.
GT League (Coming December 2017)
Launching as part of our free December update, we’ll be introducing a brand new single player mode called “GT League”. Based on the old “GT mode” of previous titles, players can now look forward to racing through a series of cup competitions from beginner to pro levels, and and even partake in endurance races!
New Cars: (Coming December 2017)
In addition, the following 12 cars will be added to the game in the free update of December 2017:
- Mazda — RX-7 Spirit R Type A (FD)
- Nissan — Skyline GT-R V・spec II (R32)
- Nissan — Skyline GT-R V・spec II Nür (R34)
- Ford — F-150 SVT Raptor
- Lamborghini — Countach LP400
- Ferrari — F40
- Ferrari — Enzo Ferrari
- KTM — X-BOW R
- Suzuki — Swift Sport
- Volkswagen — Samba Bus Type 2 (T1)
- Chris Holstrom Concepts — 1967 Chevy Nova
- Chevrolet — Corvette Stingray Convertible (C3)
From now to March 2018, a total of approximately 50 cars are already planned for addition to the game. And the updates will continue beyond March”
While the “you will still require internet access to save your progress” line may still annoy some, you can’t deny that massive improvements are on the way.
