The much anticipated PlayStation 3 title Gran Turismo 6 (GT6) is finally here, less than a month after the release of its archrival Forza Motorsport 5.

First things first: it clearly does not look as good as the next-gen Xbox One game, even if it has close to five times more cars and a wider variety of tracks, the reviews still say it shows its GT5 and even GT4 roots (some of the more basic cars are from two iterations ago, a game released in 2004/2005 for the PlayStation 2, have no modeled interiors and look as jagged as they did in GT5).

In fact, against the superior level of polish that the new iteration benefits from, the old cars are even more of an eyesore than before.

Thankfully, there are still a lot of them to choose from, and while the 1,200+ vehicles claim is a bit stretched, given the fact that different versions of the same car are counted too (some only differ visually), it remains the game’s standard feature. However, while there are far fewer cars in Forza 5, acquiring them seems to be more of an event than in GT6, and the Top Gear cast’s voiceovers do bring a certain extra charm that this Sony title lacks.

The driving to me looks very similar to what you may have seen or tried out in GT5, but its developers are keen to point out that they’ve worked on the handling model a lot, to make cars feel yet more natural. Sadly, the sound coming out of the back of these cars is really flat, falling really short of Forza and even Need for Speed: Rivals, both of which have elevated the idea to ridiculous levels of quality – we don’t mind them, though, and would like to see this propagated to the Gran Turismo series too; hopefully number seven will be better.

A patch will reportedly come out and adjust the engine notes (and more) in this latest title too, though, and along with it, Sony will grant access to the online components which have so far been locked, not really allowing reviewers to experience the full breadth of available features.

I, for one, liked Gran Turismo 5 for what it was, given its release date, but this “new” title is a rehash, albeit tweaked and improved quite a lot. However, it won’t be able to make up for its shortcomings forever with a thousand cars, a hundred tracks and the same basic and very slow career progression system that plagued its predecessor too.

It still looks like a good game that is worth the purchase, but from the looks of it, it’s kind-of stagnant and stale.

Scroll down and check out the reviews, then feel free to have your say, particularly if you’ve already gotten your hands on the game and want to tell us what it’s like firsthand.

By Andrei Nedelea

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