A little transparency, I have always been a huge fan of the Gran Turismo series, I own a copy of every single retail game in every single variation, and several non-retail disks such as the BMW demo disk given out in very small numbers, a Driving Force GT and a number of other random GT related things.
With that in mind, I firmly believe Polyphony and Sony need to put the franchise to rest.
When the series started, it offered something no other game could, hundreds of real cars and fairly awesomely made tracks (for the time), and each car could be upgraded, modified and tuned, at the time it was revolutionary.
Then came the leap to PlayStation 2, the release of GT3, Concept and Tokyo Geneva all gearing towards the epic that was Gran Turismo 4.
Gran Turismo 4 stands as a testiment to the vision and craftsmanship of the GT team and if a bar they set theirselves that they may never pass again, not simply because of the games features or modes but how it pushed the hardware in very clear and notable ways.
With the release of the PlayStation 3, Polyphonys days in the sun were numbled, and each itteration to the franchise since has been another rotation of the wheel, slipping in reverse down a steep incline, assets borrowed from a previous generation, engine sounds that are no more belieable than those featured in the series TWO generations earlier, but the real icing on the cake being better designed and better presented games from not only the competition but third parties.
Drive club, Forza Horizon 2 and Project Cars all take the progress Polyphony started and push it forwards to a place the genre needs to be, that's something I no longer feel Polyphony is capable of doing, the torch whether they wanted to or not has been passed and their sprint has slowed to a gentle asthmatic jog.
Even without screenshots, we know the direction Polyphony will take, milking the last generation hardware as long as possible knowing that moving to the new platform is an even bigger step than the one they made for the PS3, they simply do not have the manpower, vision or drive to do what is really needed to breath fresh air in the franchise.
Will it really matter if your car has 20,000 more polygons when the majority of the time you will see less than 10% of it?, does the beautiful photo mode make up for droning engines that feel devoid of life?, do the paint effects and attention to minor elevation changes on real world tracks make up for the clinical, cold environments?
Should we really be discussing about a future PlayStation 4 game using assets from a now two generation and DECADE OLD franchise itteration, when the more logical solution would be to scrap them and just add what you can model.
If you really must have a million cars, be realistic, go on a hiring spree, model the shit out of those cars, inside and out, and while you're at it take driveclubs approach to audio.
But the chances of them doing it are slim, so slim any excitement i would long ago have had for a new GT title is replaced with a feeling of regret, regret that every new game to the series only serves as a benchmark to illustrate just how far Polyphony has fallen behind.
I anxiously await the day they release a GT1, 2, 3 and 4 HD re-release, as it would be one of the most appealing HD rereleases ever to me, but not a new entry to the series, please, let it die, don't desecrate it's grave.
