For the next couple of days, Ronda is Gran Turismo city. PS3 pods are littered around the cobbled streets, great banners drape from the gorgeous buildings and the bridge across the ravine was today populated by a stunning line up of supercars.
To be honest, the pre-Ascari launch pomp around GT6 and Kazunori-San has already reached rather ridiculous levels of adoration. Not only does Ronda now have a 'Paseo del Kazunori Yamauchi', Mr GT also had the pleasure of watching a fireworks display commence with a 20m tall projection of his face in the foreground. Very weird.
Just a quiet, understated little launch party
Anyway, to the matter at hand. Initial impressions of GT6 are mixed; often it looks plain breathtaking, but there remains the odd clunky tree or spectator here and there. That will surely be addressed with the PS4 version.
Having said that, Bathurst has been rendered fantastically. The bold, bright advertising hoardings contrast with the dull Tarmac and there's a real sense of riding the proverbial roller coaster as the narrow track plummets down Mount Panorama. I can't pretend there wasn't a huge grin on my face chasing an Evo 6 in a Megane RS round there; it was brilliant.
But it still lacks some surprise and delight at this stage. The menus aren't interesting enough, some cars continue with the black interior view and there's just a general lack if excitement until you're out racing. As just a casual fan, it needs to be more engaging more immediately.
But that's just from a total of around 30 minutes playing time today, with plenty more to come tomorrow. There's the small matter of driving some supercars at Ascari too...
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