Gran Turismo Sport

After several years of waiting and a delayed development cycle, Polyphony Digital delivered the seventh installment of the legendary series with Gran Turismo Sport, this time with a marked shift toward online competition and esports at the expense of the traditional career mode. Sport Mode, with its clearly defined system of Driver Rating and Safety Rating, became the backbone of the game and was developed in collaboration with the FIA, enabling official championship series to be run directly within the game.

The driving physics model remained true to the series' philosophy - precise, realistic car behavior on track, where any premature stab of the throttle in a corner immediately results in a loss of grip. The rating system pairs drivers of similar speed and similar levels of consideration into the same race, making online driving feel more disciplined than in typical racing games; prescribed braking points and training challenges, meanwhile, help newcomers understand the ideal racing line. These were complemented by the photorealistic Scapes mode and the Livery Editor for custom bodywork designs, which let players design vehicle liveries with incredible precision and share them with the community, producing an extensive library of creative designs far beyond what the developers originally intended.

A smaller selection of tracks and cars compared to previous entries, along with the missing offline career mode at launch, disappointed part of the fanbase, but gradual free updates significantly expanded the content - adding a career mode along with dozens of new tracks and cars, so that by the end of its lifespan the game offered a much more complete experience than at release. Technically, it was one of the cleanest-looking games on PlayStation 4, with meticulously lit car models and HDR support. The game became Sony's flagship title for simulation racing on the console, cemented its position in professional esports through the FIA Gran Turismo Championship, and proved that the series holds its own even in an era of online-focused live-service titles.