Polyphony Digital CEO and Gran Turismo boss Kazunori Yamauchi recently talked to Driving about Gran Turismo Sport, and some of the design philosophy behind the game. He talked about simplifying aspects of the game due to players lacking car knowledge, and addressed complaints about the single-player structure.
“[It’s not quite true that] there’s no campaign mode, or no GT Mode anymore,” said Yamauchi while talking to Driving. “It’s just a change to the UI. All the things that you were able to do in the past in those modes are in the game. Right now we have a very well organised menu and top menu, but if we’d placed all the features you see in the menus into a map format, I think [players] would have felt it to be the exact same thing we had in the past.”
He explained that the reconfigured user interface was also to make tuning cars more simplified, as he believes that many gamers lack the car knowledge they once had. “Twenty years ago, when we did the first Gran Turismo, people knew what happens when you change an air filter; people knew what increased compression ratios do to your car. But the new users don’t have that knowledge anymore because they’re not as interested in the cars, so we’ve simplified that area [of the game] so you can do the exact same thing you were doing in the past, but it’s more user-friendly for people just getting into cars.”
For more on Polyphony Digital’s latest simulation title, check out our GT Sport review. Here’s a snippet of what I had to say about the recently released PS4 exclusive:
One’s enjoyment of Gran Turismo Sport will solely be determined by whether the prospect of learning different tracks and competing in three different online races per day is exciting to them. If you can’t get into that gameplay loop then you’ll want to play something else, as the single-player content is extremely limited, and even the online offerings aren’t rich with features. GT Sport does a few things exceptionally well (you won’t find a better looking and playing racing game), but it ultimately left me wanting more content out of it. Hopefully over time, either through updates or DLC, the size and scope of it will be expanded, but for now players can enjoy some incredible racing, even if it’s quite limited.
Gran Turismo Sport is available now for PlayStation 4.
[Source: Driving]
