Gran Turismo 6

Gran Turismo – one of those games that you can not love, but it is extremely difficult not to respect. At design time, its creators are fenced off almost from the outside world, many ignore the latest trends and simply make the project of his dreams. And it comes at them as much as they say, from the soul that does not feel the hard.

Get your hands on a huge budget and carte blanche to complete creative freedom, Polyphony Digital on the loose at the total – have created dozens of trails carried over to the game to within centimeters, hundreds of cars, worked to each screw, painted sky up to each sprocket and even allowed Statement simulate almost the whole city. And this is not to mention that with what zeal they took the most important thing – racing.

DRIVING LESSONS

For those who just joined this celebration of life, briefly outline the essence. Gran Turismo – a real excursion into the world of motorsport. The game, which offers not just ride on machines, but little by little, slowly, explains far from automotive person how they work. And why millions are willing to give such huge amounts of money for any brand-new supercar.

One would be so unusual, we just go through a specific set of events designed for a variety of cars – at first light, then a little harder. But the thing is. that access to new races need to obtain certain licenses, during exams developers almost on the fingers explain how to slow down and in what direction to turn the steering wheel, and many details as system damage, and does appear only towards the end. It was at that moment when the players on the idea should turn from green beginners to experienced pilots.

A friend recently said that Gran Turismo helped him learn about driving more than lessons in a driving school. And it’s easy to believe, because the series has always been not even about the race itself, and not about the fight with rivals, but rather of a fierce duel with himself. She made finding approach to each new car, shows how they are different and at the same time similar and, more importantly, almost step by step taught to pass every single turn, drive in different conditions and be patient. Needless to say that all these lessons are useful not only in front of the monitor screen?

STEP BY STEP

This relatively simple concept has not changed for many years. And this time too it was not touched. Many wondered after the announcement – why it was necessary to develop the sixth part to attain the age PlayStation 3, instead of a little patience and release all that stuff on the next-generation consoles? The answer was simple: because. in fact, the sixth part – is well modified fifth. What was better still grown on the head, and the disadvantages and remained there somewhere. under the baseboard. Longtime fans of the series will immediately feel at home.

Changes here are really not very much. Rather as … dozens of new routes, another hundred-odd cars redone UI (it loaded much faster, though still not the most comfortable). For some Need for Speed ​​would be enough for almost two to three full games. But Gran Turismo, with its scale, is just a drop in the sea. In addition, part of the structure and mechanic has changed nothing.

However, the view changes completely when you get acquainted with the most important – physics. Seemed to have the last time developers closer to the ideal as much as possible: after training driving virtual cars, many players managed to change without any problems for real. But the sixth part is taking another step forward – it felt completely different cars.

Thanks to cooperation with Yokohama Rubber Japanese managed to introduce an entirely new model of behavior of rubber: depending on the material, structure, and other factors different tires leave a different feeling from the ride. A stand of semioporny KW Automotive allowed to completely change the behavior of the suspension: every bump, every jump feel literally on yourself. Just like driving a real car. And it’s not talking about a completely new approach to aerodynamics, which is based on the technology applied in May when designing real supercars.

LOT – not always good

At the same time, oddly enough, called Gran Turismo ideal language is not rotated. She regularly loves to annoy as trifles, like inability to break in the car before you buy, and much more serious drawbacks. Trips to moonwalker, drawing stars in the sky and simulation of entire cities for photo mode – it’s certainly good. But. fascinated by such minor things, developers again forgotten to pay enough attention to the old and much more significant problems. We’re not going to talk about here is not the most advanced graphics or very easy to use interface, all this stuff, which is quite possible to reconcile. Another thing, when it comes to aspects such as artificial intelligence.

Opponents are not simply unable to force the fight, they are like robots, almost do not react to external stimuli, never wrong and did not really know how to overtake, repeatedly kicking you in the bumper, the car did not deploy until. Everything would be fine (as we have said, Gran Turismo is primarily a game about fighting with itself), but sometimes because of inadequate behavior of opponents happen quite so unpleasant incidents: spending a great and clean race, go to meet a side because of another security antics of artificial intelligence, agree pleasant enough.

Here, unfortunately, stands out another problem – damage system, which let GT6 and there, but still rudimentary. It’s not even that it is not punished for the mistakes, even as it punishes – the later levels for the accident has to pay in full. But when you really do not see the damage at the car, then disappears unforgettable feeling of danger at every turn, when you feel that you need only to make a mistake – and all the skiff. How would barbaric and wild as it sounds, the race so popular not only because of the beautiful overtaking, and for many it is a way to see another show – beautifully fragile cars. And Gran Turismo deprives us of this spectacle. What draft hopefuls “most realistic simulations of the world” to do, of course, is not necessary.

Finally, the last significant problem of the game – her car. There are many, even very much. And this is exactly the dignity to the same extent as the downside. The fact that the majority of vehicles without changes moved from the fifth, and they simply do not have the cabin (despite the fact that the opportunity to steer with a first-person still remains), muddy textures, angular body. Frankly, I wish they were not there at all, when in one race converge highly polished and handsome carved like an ax “old”, the impression is not the most pleasant. The more detailed the number of machines is enough to pull in splendid isolation, several full games.

MORE THAN A GAME

But long angry still does not come out in five minutes Gran Turismo again captures a thousand details, love, attention and years of labor invested in the project. For all the claims put forward in such moments even feel ashamed. After the creation of Polyphony Digital – this is not a game, but a real phenomenon – a large and exciting, which manages to unite millions of people regardless of whether they like or not like entertainment. Kazunori Yamauchi, the chief ideologue of the series, a young man set himself a goal – to create the world’s best race. But reaching that point. moved on, turning his creation of the world’s best in autosimulator true cultural phenomenon.

No other developer has not won the prestigious race “24 Hours Nürburgring” (in class), did not participate in creating vehicles and was honored to walk down the street, called his name. And certainly not for any other game designers Mercedes or Adrian will not design a completely new concept cars and tried to Gran Turismo. As part of a special project dedicated to the anniversary of the series, three dozen major companies decided to develop futuristic vehicles. That you understand the scale of ideas: on each model employs hundreds of people, and Adrian did not anyone anyhow. a brilliant designer “Formula 1″, with which the team Williams. McLaren, Red Bull and in the last twenty years have won nearly half of all titles.

Finally, you can imagine that after some Need for Speed ​​players have successfully become a real racer and it does not just fulfill the role of outsiders, but actually won the professionals? And for Gran Turismo – this is normal.

Gran Turismo is still infinitely far from ideal. And, given the pace of development of the series, it is unlikely to ever reach. But she still remains the biggest, most important, expensive and at the same psychic race in the world. Yes, probably, in the Need for Speed ​​to play better, and GRID prettier and smarter cars beat rivals, but to give those emotions that appear in the game GT, yet transcends them. In the end, then – just the game, and the creation of Kazunori Yamauchi is something more.

Gran Turismo 6