So the first trailer of Forza Horizon 3 has been released. Guess what other car racing video game saw the need to drop a little tease of its own. Give yourselves a nice pat on the back if your answer is Gran Turismo Sport. Yes, E3 season is upon us and just like in previous years, a host of video game developers are dropping loads of trailers and teases to drive up interest in some of their high-profile games in development. In Sony’s case, one of those games is Gran Turismo Sport, the latest video game to come out of the long-running Gran Turismo franchise.
Gran Turismo Sport is shaping up to be a lot of the things Sony and Polyphony Digital hyped it to be when the game was announced back in May 2016. There’s a lot of the traditional elements of Gran Turismo that we’ve come to love and enjoy, but the real interesting thing about this trailer is how comprehensive it is in tackling the myriad of new features that are going to be added to the game. There’s a create-a-driver feature that allows you to build your identity and create a following akin to how real-life social media works. You can also create your own livery design. There’s also a new feature called “Scapes” that apparently lets you place your virtual cars in real-world environments. It’s like Gran Turismo’s own version of auto Photoshop. Oh, and of course, there’s a lot of highly detailed racing, none more important it seems than the “first “ FIA Gran Turismo Championships that likely came to be because of the series’ partnership with the real FIA.
Obviously, more cars and more race tracks are also expected to be included in Gran Turismo Sport. Unfortunately, the game isn’t due to be released until November 15, 2016, two months after Forza Horizon 3 hits shelves.
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Why it matters
There’s always a conundrum whenever Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsports release their respective games close to each other. What am I going to play? How long before I switch to the other one? Will I just stick to one and return the other back to the store? That’s what I expect will happen when Forza Horizon 3 and Gran Turismo Sport both go on sale in the latter part of the year.
To be fair, both games look very promising and while Forza Horizon 3 has its share of interesting features, so does Gran Turismo Sport. The high-quality racing has always been one of Gran Turismo’s trademarks and I don’t expect anything less with the new game. But in addition to that, the trailer also introduced a social aspect to the game that makes it feel like you actually live in the game and have a separate life outside of it. The Scapes feature and the FIA-sanctioned FIA Championship are the two other notable parts of the trailer that might compel me to start a rigorous training program for my thumbs.
If I knew what to expect from both games, I might have a better idea on which way I’d lean to. But the truth is, there’s still a lot of details about Gran Turismo Sport that haven’t been made public. I’m excited to find out though, just as I’m excited to see if this game can really reignite some spark back into the franchise as a whole. I’m optimistic that it can and judging by that trailer, I think the people behind it are confident of the same thing too.