My 2c on these new previews/campaign:
Campaign being a host of tutorials that teach you how to race instead of a proper career mode is a copout for a fully priced product, really. There's nothing wrong with a multiplayer or online-focused title, but if that's your design and marketing angle, you better have way more to it than what is comparable to competitive games in the space who are also primarily eSports and online-focused. Take relative to Project Cars 2, for instance: less cars, less tracks, less track condition/configurable options, less disciplines represented, more tutorials, offline races that have had nonzero effort put into their structure (particularly a missed opportunity given the legacy of cars GT games tend to include). In exchange for a green screen photomode, an automotive codex, and some more tedious-looking tutorials? Laziness, especially when your game is focused on professional racing and could easily drum up themed AI events like Forza, many sims, and GT itself has had for years.
The real appeal of this game relative to others then is the FIA sponsorship and the brand relationships that Polyphony has cultivated. PCars 2 has been doing the eSports thing for a while too, but there's no mistaking that the FIA stamp is a significant one, and official capacity of that alongside the broadcast options feels like a concerted effort from PD that stands out, whether it is indeed preferable for people who are into multiplayer or eSports in particular.
Developing relationships with brands is perhaps the best investment PD has made over the years, which allows them to get something like Brand Central in the game. Which is totally, and pretty transparently quid pro quo advertising for the brands they have included, but much like the blurbs Jeremy Clarkson did in Autovista mode in Forza 4, having that historical component and context in a game for people who love cars is a great addition and fits pretty well. This also allowed for development of unique Vision Gran Turismo vehicles which is suuuuuuper cool to me as someone who hasn't played much GT, but I feel many GT fans are over it.
The presentation of the game is slick but never really great as a UI. Polyphony doesn't have UI designers so much as they have people who like making cool looking menus.
The livery editor looks pretty rudimentary, like it's missing a lot of the options or conveniences that Forza has learned over the years, but if you can import PNGs, that'll change the game. I doubt it though, and as is it looks like they're starting from scratch vs. learning what advances livery editors on console have made over the years. Hints of "making your own stickers" sounds like you can just save composite shapes like you've been able to do in Forza since forever.
- - -
Overall, I'm still on the fence. I primarily play offline, so a single player mode that is patently underwhelming relative to racing game standards in favour of more expansive tutorials where you largely practice track segments in isolation is pretty unenticing, and I'm a huge completionist too so I feel like I should like this sort of thing but it seems pretty lame and probably not as useful or valid as actually just driving a course naturally. Feels like they just didn't want to put that little bit of extra effort in that every other dev does, which is doubly ridiculous with the presence of a persistent progression system that carries offline.
It's crazy but all the non-racing aspects of the game are most appealing to me. Scapes, the embedded history of automobiles, etc. That's all that stands out, unfortunately. And the graphics, I suppose, but really only in those related non-racing modes where you can see all that car porn close up.
