The real driving simulator', runs Gran Turismo's long-serving tagline, a point of pride as well as something of a distinction - whether made consciously or not - between itself and its competitors. Gran Turismo has has always done a great job of the driving. It has not, historically, really delivered when it comes to the racing side of things, though.
That 'Sport' suffix for the series' PlayStation 4 debut sets an expectation which this new Gran Turismo happily meets. The online racing is several steps beyond what's gone before and, judging from a few days with the generous demo that's been live this week, Polyphony Digital has fulfilled one of its main objectives for this new game. Gran Turismo Sport really does feel like an 'iRacing lite' for consoles.
What makes it work - and, perhaps more importantly, why do racing bores like myself keep bringing up iRacing, a PC game that's coming on for a decade old and one with a relatively small, if very dedicated, community? It's because iRacing sets a gold standard for online racing, and its big ideas have taken a bafflingly long time to find their way into other games.
Chief amongst those is the safety rating, which is primarily a way to emulate the sense of risk that comes in real racing. When you're sitting in front of a TV screen, controller or plastic wheel in-hand, there's not quite the sense of danger that comes on the racetrack. How best to instil that in players? Quite simply by attaching a score to your own personal safety - perhaps because people who play games value high scores just as much as they do their own personal well-being.
