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Taking Some Laps With GT Sport's New Single-Player Content
By its very name, GT Sport, was never meant to be a typical Gran Turismo entry. While creators Polyphony Digital assured fans that GT Sport wasn't a truncated experience like GT Prologue, GT Sport also wasn't simply Gran Turismo 7 by another name (click here for my review). GT Sport is online focused right down to using cloud saves over those on your hard drive, but it also includes some single-player content. The problem, though, was it wasn't enough content. Recently Polyphony has addressed this via the GT League: four tiers of single-player content via a free update (1.10) that bolsters the game for those looking for some good old-fashioned GT single-player racing.
The GT League (Beginner, Amateur, Professional, and Endurance tiers) contains 45 races spread over 15 series/cups. Many of these series or cups, like in traditional Gran Turismo titles of the past, are formatted around certain restrictions. While the Clubman Cup lets you race with any car, the Midship Challenge, for instance, requires you have a mid-engine car.
While these series contain multiple races (except the ones in the Endurance League), they're not actual championships in which you accumulate points from race to race that tally toward a place in the standings or which pay out in a car reward (at least not the ones I raced in), even if you get the gold trophy in every race. However, all your milage driven, credits, and time accrued counts to your overall profile and thus your level and other progress statuses. So, in this way you will be rewarded for your progress in the GT League at some point, even if it's not for your placing in a specific race or cup.
The GT League isn't a true test of your abilities since the A.I. cars aren't world-beaters, and your own car can be tuned and upgraded to give yourself a leg up. How much you use this to your advantage or challenge yourself is up to you, of course. There is some minor unlocking with the tiers themselves, which open up according to your profile level, and needing certain cars for the series is also a carrot of sorts. Overall, however, The GT League is a nice addition that has its limitations. Track repetition is an issue as it is in the rest of the game (at least the new Kyoto layout is cool), and although the League adds content to the campaign mode, it doesn't provide a good, satisfying sense of progress.
Polyphony Digital has also added other content via updates, including a dozen cars, the new layout for the Kyoto track, new Scapes photo spots, and more. Click here for more details.
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