Dynamic Time-of-Day and WeatherIt’s been confirmed previously that Gran Turismo Sport will not feature dynamic time-of-day effects or weather. It’s the largest track selection for any racing game on console right now. That’s 60 tracks without counting variations, by the way. Like GT Sport, Brands Hatch, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and Willow Springs are featured, and they’re joined by many, many more (like Laguna Seca, Bathurst, Imola, Daytona, Zolder, Oschersleben, Fuji, Long Beach, Oulton Park, Snetterton, Watkins Glen, Ruapuna Park, Hockenheimring, and others seriously, the list goes on and on). The addition of Nissan and the big three Euro brands will be a huge boost for GT3.Project CARS 2’s 60 tracks include a large variety of licensed and unlicensed circuits. “We pushed really hard in multi-class races, and in single-class races, to flesh out the field.”
“Our GT3 field, for example, has been dramatically expanded,” says Viljoen. We can also expect a wider variety of cars within classes good news considering some of the classes in the original were a bit sparse.
Project CARS 2’s garage features both contemporary and classic cars, plus open-wheelers (including licensed Ind圜ar racers). It’s been confirmed that most of the cars from the original game will return and, according to game director Stephen Viljoen, they’ll be joined by “most key manufacturers from Italy, from Germany, and from Japan, so our fleet of vehicles will be far more complete than what it was in Project CARS 1.” Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Nissan are big brands joining the roster. Project CARS 2 will feature over 170 cars and over 60 tracks.
Polyphony has also unveiled a rally course, a fictional oval track, and a street circuit based on Tokyo’s expressways. Gran Turismo Sport's "Group B" Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.Real tracks revealed for GT Sport so far include Brands Hatch, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and Willow Springs. None so far are models built prior to 2009. Bolstering the final figure is a selection of fantasy cars, including a number of the series’ unique ‘Vision GT’ cars (cutting-edge, special models designed for the game by the manufacturers themselves) and a cluster of custom rally cars Polyphony Digital has built to represent a fictional, modern day ‘Group B’ class. The mix so far is an assortment of popular and familiar roadgoing tuners and sports cars, some high-end supercars, a smattering of GT3 cars from 2011-2016, and some ageing LMP racers. A fraction over 90 of the 140 cars that will feature in GT Sport have either been officially announced or spotted in various screenshots. YES NOFollowing GT Sport’s subsequent delay from late 2016 to an undetermined point in 2017 it is possible, perhaps, that some of this information is out-of-date – but there’s been no chatter about any drastic increases in content at this stage. By July (during a presentation at China’s ACG 2016 conference) the number of locations had apparently been revised down to 15, though still with 27 layouts. This, however, was the content confirmed at the time of its first big gameplay reveal back in May last year. The question now, then, is can it keep up? Vehicles and TracksGran Turismo Sport is set to feature approximately 140 vehicles and 19 locations, with 27 possible layouts.
With a long history of incredible commercial success behind it the Gran Turismo series remains very much the big wheel down at the cracker factory (in terms of racing games only the Need for Speed and Mario Kart series have shifted more copies) but it’s clear now Gran Turismo Sport will actually have less content and fewer features than Project CARS 2. “It’s no secret the Slightly Mad Studios team are gunning for the big, mainstream first-party racing series like Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport – it was part of their audacious original pitch to unwilling publishers in the first place – but the developer is pushing harder than ever for Project CARS 2.