Gran Turismo 6’s release is right around the corner and they’ve been doing a whole lot more to keep up with things. The improvements to the series goes much deeper than simply another installment on the racing franchise. There are some real improvements to the series, and it’s going to be great to get our hands on all the changes that are going into the franchise.

"The painful loading times from Gran Turismo 5 have been reduced, and the graphics have been improved by several notches. While Polyphony is certainly following their standard development schedule of two games per console generation, GT6 certainly isn’t just a filler in this franchise to just keep up with their release schedule."

The Gran Turismo series has always strived to make the most realistic racing game they possibly can, and with each iteration that is released, Polyphony seems to be getting a little bit closer. The Polyphony team has been collecting data on tracks and cars since the release of GT5 and it’s looking like it will really pay off for them. According to the developers they’ve rebuilt the physics engine along with complex aerodynamics and suspension system. This brings a much more realistic weight displacement as players race through corners and over hills. For instances, it’s clear to see how the vehicle shifts it’s weight from one wheel to the other in the trailers, when the player breaks hard, and swings through a corner. This is a much more true-to-life addition to the game that may not be immediately noticeable, but would be if you went back to play the older ones on the PlayStation 2.

The developers have done a good job of improving the franchise from the ground up. The painful loading times from Gran Turismo 5 have been reduced, and the graphics have been improved by several notches. While Polyphony is certainly following their standard development schedule of two games per console generation, GT6 certainly isn’t just a filler in this franchise to just keep up with their release schedule. Lead developer, Kazunori Yamauchi is probably one of the biggest critics of the franchise. He knows what is wrong with each game and what he wants to fix moving forward. It’s this honesty with himself and his development team that allows for vast improvements from game to game.

Not only has Polyphony made changes to the physics, they’ve made extensive overhauls to the audio in the game. While this may not sound like too much, it’s incredibly important. The right audio queues can tell the player how they approach a corner, whether it’s too fast, too slow, just perfect or completely over the limit. The developers are trying incredibly hard to make this game feel like you’re really racing and with a steering wheel and pedals they very well may have nailed the formula for the ultimate simulator.

"Polyphony is releasing GT6 with full 1080p and 60 frames a second support, giving the feeling of a much more fast paced, nail-biting experience. This is a vast improvement over GT5. While this is a great move overall for the game, it definitely seems to suffer from a lack of hardware boost on the PS3."

Polyphony has also done it’s damnedest to keep things that have worked in the past, while changing many aspects of the game. The driver’s view is something they have improved upon. With a static camera they’ve managed to nail the feeling of acceleration and deceleration. While many racing games use various visual effects and physics to control this feeling, making it a dramatic shift between braking and accelerating, GT6 is looking to make it as realistic as it can. The feeling of deceleration takes time and the player can almost feel the weight of the car as players move through the turns.

Polyphony Digital and lead designer, Kazunori Yamauchi are certainly willing to change anything that they feel needs a face lift though. The previous games only serve as a benchmark to move things forward. They’ve decided what worked, and what didn’t work. Remember that sluggishness in control that took awhile to get used to in GT5? Yeah, Yamauchi and his team admitted that it was a problem, without even batting an eye either. The changes to weight distribution in the turns and more accurate physics makes all this feel much more smooth and much more accurate.

Polyphony is releasing GT6 with full 1080p and 60 frames a second support, giving the feeling of a much more fast paced, nail-biting experience. This is a vast improvement over GT5. While this is a great move overall for the game, it definitely seems to suffer from a lack of hardware boost on the PS3. The current demo for GT6 works well so far, however there are a few issues with it, the game has a tendency to skip or feel jittery from time to time, especially leaning into corners with quite a few vehicles around it. While it’s relatively rare, gamers may get annoyed with it if it’s not fixed before release. The good news is that this game doesn’t have to be played in 1080p, and playing in a lower HD resolution seems to fix the frame dropping issues.

There’s really a lot to look forward to in Gran Turismo 6. Polyphony keeps pushing the envelope with each release. Unfortunately, as with every new entry, we may be waiting a bit to see what comes next in the Gran Turismo series on the PlayStation 4, but it will be well worth the wait seeing as there’s already a plenty of differences between Gran Turismo 5 and 6.

The Last generation of PS3 games is upon us. With the PS4 hitting shelves sometime in November there really aren’t going to be too many more games coming out of the PS3 for long. While there are going to be some new cross-platform titles releasing on it in 2014, the sun has begun to set on the PS3 with the announcement of the next generation.

This is more than alright though, the best titles for a console tend to come out towards the end of it’s life. It’s a bittersweet affair that happens in every successful console’s life cycle. Just look at what we’ve seen this year for the PS3 and it’s been a good year for gaming in general as we usher out the old and bring in the new. The PlayStation 3 still has a few exclusive gems to share with us before the year is done.

1. The Last Guardian:

The Last Guardian promises to be interesting with Team ICO behind the game’s development there is a lot to look forward to. The story is about a boy as he becomes friends with a giant, wild- yet friendly creature as they try to escape what appears to be a monolithic and ancient castle.

The wonderful cinematic sequences, creature design and art style are going to be a treat for anyone who is a fan of games like Shadow of the Colossus and Ico. The action ans well as  game-play in The Last Guardian also looks like it will bring a fresh twist to the Action-Adventure genre. It will be interesting to see how a young boy deals with large, armored soldiers while apparently not having any real weapons. The underlying tone of friendship and dedication is a nice touch of emotion that we should be seeing more of in gaming.

Given the questionable absence of the game, we think that this will be a cross generation game.

For now, we’ll just keep speculating. The last title in the franchise Gran Turismo 5 was release in November 2010 to above average reviews. It’s best known as the game that featured World Rally Championship, NASCAR and Super GT licenses for the first time in the series.

As of September 2012, Sony has shipped 9.19 million units of the game and became the best-selling PS3 exclusive in Europe. So there’s definitely money in the GT franchise.

Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi confirmed while speaking to Autoweek that a sixth installment in the long running racing sim franchise is already under development. When he was asked when the game will be released, Yamauchi was reluctant to answer. Okay, so Gran Turismo 5 is taking ages to release, and they’re already working on a sixth GT? Awesome.

“It’s not something that we can talk that lightly on,” he said. “It took 2,000 days to get all the ideas that went into GT5. It’s just too early to be talking about GT6.”

It’s still good news to hear that if Gran Turismo 6 is in development, it will be released someday, and for that, Gran Turismo 5 will have to release first- it will happen, then.