Once again thank you all for the positive response. I put a lot of effort into this video unsure if there would many be people who'd actually care, but clearly I'm not alone on this. There's been a lot of interesting feedback in terms of possible reasons. The more I think about it the more it does seem clearly intentional in a lot of ways to make them so unrealistically bad in most situations. Do they think this is the type of 'racing' that the majority wants? Or is it made so people who want to have a real race are practically forced into sport mode to get their fix? Whatever their reasons may be it's clear to see that it's pushed many people away from the game and even the franchise as a whole. They're so fixated on this format for races and AI manipulation that it's hard to see this ever changing unless there's some sort of widespread backlash (à la the in-game economy just after release).

It blows me away the amount of time, energy, and money PD puts into presentation, audio, realism, car models, etc., but then they have whatever hobo walks in do all their AI work. It's such a bad design decision.

my biggest gripe with GT's AI is how sometimes they drive like they're on a rail.. PD needs to watch your videos. you have explained our issues with the game so succinctly!

Being a rural dweller where high speed internet isn’t blazing fast, single player campaigns and robust single player racing is needed to get the most out of my games. Great job on articulating so many shortcomings, and thanks for the ideas on how to get more out of the game!

I tend to be pretty bad at GT’s online races. I feel like I’d improve more if I could play offline with 3-5 opponents that are actually competitive rather than 30 that suck until the last second, or it would at least make replaying races offline a lot more fun. Would also love to be able to filter cars for custom races by year, country, engine type, etc. the more filters the better. Was really hyped for gt7 but now I just want a way to play the old games again.

Its rare that I give a video a like, but this one resonates with my opinion on the game so much, that I simply want these 30 minutes to go viral and eventually reach someone in charge who could change this whole situation. Excellent work man.

I drove the 1 hour Kyoto race yesterday and I caught up within 6-8 laps (something like that). Immediately after I entered 1st, the previous 1st place drive began to drive like a bay out of hell. I was not able to shake him no matter how hard I tried…. It’s just odd.

The easy money guide thumbnail was hilarious. Don't miss this game at all

the ai is just as bad as the menu books "play it like we want not how you want"

i think my biggest issue with the AI is specifically two of the things you spoke about in this video. the stark shifts in difficulty, and their actual universal awareness. the shifts in difficulty i actually didn't immediately experience, which was nice. it was actually once i played that Mini clubman + race that i saw what the AI could really do, and considering it starts the same, it almost felt unfair at the time. im not allowed to tune my Mini much further past what its at stock, and yet its so much slower than what the AI is handling? it was so jarring that i haven't actually touched the Gr.3 or that race in particular again, in favour of continuing the neutered form of racing with "car collection" as an apology. but the issue is, you see it again elsewhere, in particular in the missions and license centres, places where polyphony *cant* kill the fun with slow AI, missions that *require* you to be focused and prepared! the S10 of the super license is one of the only things i've actually had to spend HOURS trying to do in this game, nothing else comes close. and i really just have to wonder where the team that made these went for the main games content? what happened to the team that gave you a super formula and asked you to pelt it around every corner like your name was Aryton Senna himself to get gold? where did they go for the 30 odd menu books of "beat easy race, collect car, life moves on" ??? and the 2nd issue, their awareness. this is the one that has pulled me off the game. for days. the AI cannot, in any circumstances, race wheel to wheel. its impossible. some wouldn't even qualify for a standard driving license the way they seem incapable of checking mirrors. its almost a learned rule of thumb to avoid the inside of a corner, regardless of how big of a gap it is, because the AI will shut the door, regardless of how far in you are. tight bunches of cars are left to stumble with themselves, blue flags may as well not exist if they dont obey them, and the fact that this is all hidden behind a clean race bonus for *not hitting them?* it turns the game into a frustrating form of on track day care quicker than anything else could.

The bit with Super GT was funny not only because I love to watch his videos, but also because just today I was playing GT6 and got an AI opponent named S. Alvarez. I took a picture as that's likely the only chance I'll ever get to race Steve, haha. Anyway, as someone who's only played GT1, 2 and 6 (the latter being the one I've played the most, still do actively), it's a shame that not much has changed for years now. Not that I didn't know that already, as I occasionally read posts on GT Planet and comments on KZfaq as well. It's interesting because many of the things that you mention in this video are the things that go through my head when playing GT6. The AI is obviously flawed in multiple ways, but sometimes it *can* put up a half-decent fight. What I've noticed is that AI cars seem to pick a line that they'll take through a corner prior to entering the corner. It's as if each track is divided into sections (no, I don't mean sectors) and the line that the AI takes depends on the car's "state". This "state" is defined by the AI's position on the track and the positions of rival cars, including the player, at the very beginning of the section. For example, if there are no rival cars in the vicinity of the AI at the start of a section, it will evaluate the section to be "clear" and will go for the normal racing line. If you're driving behind an AI on a straight, approaching a corner with a big braking zone, the AI will sometimes evaluate its "state" as needing to take a defensive line through the upcoming section, which it will then proceed to do. If you're roughly halfway alongside an AI car at the beggining of a section, it most likely *will* give you enough space and you will be able to navigate the corner in double file. And so on. The problem is that once an AI's "state" has been determined, it is unlikely to change until the next section begins, and I think this is where most criticism about the AI being braindead and unresponsive comes from. Because players often go for late lunges or change lines mid-corner thinking that the AI will react to their presence, but this does not happen. The AI *does* in fact react, but only to other AI cars, and it may react to the player only upon very aggressive contact - I've noticed that AI cars sometimes move out of the way or adjust their line even mid-corner if I accidentally hit them from behind (which we all know happens much too frequently because of their absurd mid-corner braking). This is why I've said that the AI can sometimes put up a decent fight, in the sense that once you learn how they behave on each track, you can anticipate their movements and sometimes actually make it look like an actual race. I know this doesn't reallly sound exciting, but I've found that it actually suits my playstyle because I always try to go for smooth, clean driving and realistic-looking replays (yes, I almost always watch the replay after a race) because I like the immersion that way. But as one of the other commenters has said, that probably means that I'm actually quite a slow driver and if I were to try racing online in the newer games, I would probably be embarrassed. My point is that Polyphony really has a specific way of doing the AI - a way that hasn't changed much for over a decade, it would seem. But judging from everything I've learned by playing their games and watching videos like this, I don't think it's incompetence on their part, but rather a design choice. Why this is, I am not really sure, but my guess is that they are trying to make the games more accessible, which is understandable as we know your average gamer doesn't really care for race etiquette or realistic racing, they just want to hop into a gorgeous-looking virtual car, win a race or two and feel good about themselves. But the flip side to that is that we long-time fans end up with a somewhat disappointing game that never really fully utilizes its potential. Self-defeating indeed, just as you describe it. Thanks for the video.

GT fans: We want single player races to be fair and balanced. Polyphony: Sure, have fun hunting down a car that is 100-150 PP over the event’s limit. With a 30-second handicap. In just 10 laps. While overtaking 18 other cars. Super balanced! In all seriousness, great video. GT7’s single player isn’t talked about nearly enough.

This race design managed to extinguish my temptation to get a PS5 and really get into this game (I just got it for my old PS4). Congrats PD on costing sony 600 of my canuck coins

Spot on, the AI always has been awful in the GT series but it hit's an all-time low in GT7. The only place that the AI is a challenge is in the 1 hour endurance races but even then it's highly inconsistent. The 1 hour Tsukuba race in the challenge menue is a great example, if your difficulty is set to hard then the leader will be doing a 59 second lap but if your difficulty is set to easy then the leader will be doing a 57 second lap. It's so stupid, your difficulty settings aren't supposed effect the challenges and you most certainly shouldn't have an easier race on hard difficulty than on easy.

Man I was really looking forward to this sequel of your first GT Critique and I can say that you didn't disappoint in that regard. Really well though out video ! The part that I really like is probably the epilogue. I was desperately waiting for content creators to talk about the abysmal number of issues that surrounds the single player. Not only in terms of racing but also in terms of rewards, progression etc. And the best thing about this video for me alongside that epilogue : you've combined my two most beloved video game franchises into one vid which is Gran Turismo and the Yakuza Series with the use of some songs from 0 and 4 ! I wasn't expecting it but I'm pleasantly surprised You definitely earned my sub !

I’d like to rant now, but I won’t. One thing though, someone here said it too: back in the day, there were no onlines, and I thought I was pretty good. Then I went online in gt6, and discovered how slow I was. Well, no matter, there were no standings. Only in gts I started to improve. My big issue is that I can’t train anywhere but by going online and just diving in. Driving fast is one thing, actually racing your opponents and fighting for your place is quite another. Somewhat timid, unsure people like me, we hardly dare show our face. I nééd the AI to be good or I don’t dare to go online. In gts, my biceps actually shook during the first race of the day, just being nervous

2:48 The _Ridge Racer_ formula... Amazin't.

I'm primarily a single player racer. Just for fun, car collecting, relaxation. The AI is one huge reason why I no longer play daily. Aside from the one big concern of the AI simply refusing to change course, and will hard nose their driving line, there is another fun issue. When you start a race, you start from the back. Usually 15-20 seconds, sometimes 30 or more seconds. Once you weave your way to the front, THEN, the AI really kicks in to give you a good race. But not really. Suddenly, the AI that you just schooled, went last to first, quashed a 20 second deficit, suddenly races like Wind and any minor mistake will cost you first place. It's a weird and frustrating dynamic.

Fun fact in the WTC700 race at Deep Forest, the Mustang loops it in the last kink on lap 3 100% of the time.

You’ve nailed it! It’s so bizarre. I play single player 95% of the time so this really resonates with me

Thanks for this video, it resonates so much. I guess because the AI on other titles has become more advanced in recent years, it’s more noticeable how outdated it is on GT7. It feels like the AI cars are just obstacles to avoid rather than cars to race against.

Man, this video pretty much nails it! I know the AI gets some flack, but I’m honestly surprised this is not talked about more. For a game trying to be a sim, this is baffling.

Yep, Clubman Plus series is pretty brilliant.

33:30 yes! I’ve been wondering about that. Onlines are all about bopped racecars or bog standard roadcars. So, here’s this great part of the game where you build up and tune your roadcar collection. I like doing that, especially the bodykits look amaaaazing! But that’s only of any use if career mode lives up to it. Right now, my mate and I do career mode to build our collection, so we can race each other in private lobbies. Which is fast becoming the main reason why we play at all. That, and me making fun of his somewhat lackluster liveries. Sorry, Sani, you’re my mate. Without that, you might as well just buy racecars and ignore the main game

29:00 oh my goodness...I immediately was transported back in time hearing that music

This hits the nail on the head so well. I've always gotten so frustrated with how the ai works on this game.

I have lost the 1 hour Lago race on my first try due to AI actively taking me out in the first corner

Oh god thanks for reminding me the AI from GT6. Halfway through the game I realized that the AI drivers always started and finished in the same spots. Whoever starts first finishes first (or second behind me), and so on. And then you have like 16 cars and the last two seem to be slower, then the first two being way faster than the rest of the pack. They wouldn't even attempt to overtake or anything. I swear this thing is still bugging me to this day and I actually had to take a break to forget about it

Thank you for this, i have done custom races ever since release, its like clock work that the ai slows doen half way through the race, i drove a 2j vs an 2x, 10 laps on spa, i got lapped on lap 5, then i unlapped myself, caught up and finished 1 second behind and "boost" was off. But thank you i have seen no one talk about this

When I saw the point about how the custom grid rolling start gap gets stuck at 15 meters, it reminded me also that on the part where you can change the names of the opponents, the country list doesn't include Argentina despite the game being able to generate as from Argentina. Would also be good to have more countries listed in general so you can recreate real life grids better. An example of this would be to have "S. Buemi", who is from Switzerland. Switzerland isn't a selectable option, which is even weirder given there is a circuit set there in the form of Deep Forest. There are other examples of this but listing so many countries would take forever.

The Tokyo expressway clubman cup plus race genuinely was what showed me that the game's singleplayer could've been better. The first time i went into it, i just entered in a near-stock RE-Amemiya RX7, and got paired with what was essentially 3 other tuners. It felt genuinely thrilling running what essentially was a scene straight out of Wangan Midnight against a handful of racers i could actually perceive as rivals.

Another excellent video, great job. Loved the use of Yakuza music! It's an exciting time ahead of us with more advanced AI hopefully making for more immersive worlds in racing and much more.

I love how they can drive on rails in the wet, while I follow them on wets and slide all over the place. Then if I pass, the just spin me out.

everything you said is so true, that’s what I think 100% of time while completing single player races. Glad I am not the only one

It's funny how your proposal to tune down the car to have more fun on offline mode is exactly how I used to play GT6 back in the day. I had a Civic Type R '97 tuned down to have a bit less than half the PP of the AI with an extremely fine tuned handling and gearbox settings, in a track that had a 360º curve that I can't remember the name. I had to be cirurgically precise to finish it at 1st in a 5 laps race. It was my favorite way of play that game. When my kids grow up a bit more I hope to have time to go back playing racing games. Maybe they'll even play them with me.

Well done video. Solid production, a very smooth voice, and well planned script.

I remember noticing that internal clock as a kid playing GT4, obviously not knowing about, but still noticing that the leader would speed up the closer you came. Really shows how extreme it is I guess!

Blast, I already subscribed earlier. Hope your channel goes on to greatness. You’re asking all the right questions imo

what I miss from GT Sport was in custom races you were able to set as opponents any class (as group) used to race the Nurburgring with cars 3-4 classes higher on Expert difficulty starting from back of the grid. That way the race was really on. Surprised me that GT7 doesn't have the same settings possibility. Anyways good tips in the video, will be trying out to have some challenging races.

I just did the Super Formula extra menu book because i have 2 and wanted to get some credits, and especially at fuji, its like the AI don’t even know you’re there. I would be on the inside, hugging the apex, and the AI hears “sharp right” from no one and crashes into me

FINALLY something that encapsulates my frustration with GT’s AI in such a straightforward manner. My Gran Turismo playthroughs pretty much turn into “how slow of a car can I enter and still win” - for example, I took an AE86 with sports tires and under 200HP to win WTC600, and I maxed a non-swapped Beetle to win the Schwartz league (That was pain, but since I found out how short the campaign was and how little the AI would get better, I figured I’d give myself an artificial challenge). Something I observed in my repetition of these particular events that you didn’t bring up was that the AI in GT7 are particularly programmed not only to be obstructive, but consistently so at the exact same spots on the track. No matter how I changed my pace, tune, whatever, there’d be an AI car or two at the exact time distance leading into the death chicane at DT Seaside, which always resulted in an absurdly slow car blocking the entire at the exact same place through final corner in the complex. Same situation with two hard braking corners on Red Bull Ring, AI would zoom past me and brake in very specific ways non-conductive to the racing line, and further brake at the apex partly on the racing line. All of these at the exact same spot to the inch, every lap, no matter which particular AI car (and I could even change which AI it was by manipulating championship orders in the earlier rounds). There’s clearly dev time being put into AI, but it’s specifically to make it as annoying and non-raceably obstructive as possible, rather than close and competitive.

Really enjoyed this video, well put together. Keep it up mate

As someone who has put thousands of hours into the series over the years, thanks for these videos, they articulate a lot of the feelings I have about GT7. There are a hundred things I could say about the state it's in, but I think it can be summed up in that the game's engine is a great starting point. Visually it looks fantastic and it drives fairly well. Unfortunately it's been implemented in a game that just isn't very good and that struggles to be fun, challenging or entertaining. Like a badly built house on good foundations, it doesn't matter what colour of paint you put on the walls or how many fancy light fixtures you put up, the only way to truly fix it is from the ground up.

Excellent video mate, thanks for the upload 👍👍👍

Dope video man. Your passion for the series is wonderful. I've had pretty similar experiences with the AI in GT7. I really hate them. I literally whispered "get him, get him!" to myself whenever you bumped them.

GT7's AI kind of reminds me of GT5's B-Spec mode. It's not just affected by how close the player car is, but also by other AI cars nearby.

The research behind this video is very good. You put some effort into this! I look forward to much more content.

Nice video. Lots of testing and messing around with the AI. Your analysis is on point, well done !

Yesterday I saw your both new videos about GT7. I AM SO GLAD SOMEBODY FINALLY ADRESSES THE SINGLEPLAYER ISSUES!!! Your analysis really helps classifying some aspects of the ai I did not understand before. There ist one more point to the ai: it always and always tries to turn the rear of your car. I dont't know how many races I could not finish properly because of that. It is particularly bad if you come between two cars in the region of a corner; the car before you will try to slow you down so that the car behind you can turn your car. AAArgh!!! One other aspect of the game was never adressed before: I like to drive in cockpit-perspective. In GT Sport the game saved your settings regarding this perspective for every car. In GT7 i have to set it each and every time I change a car. How dull and unnecessary ist that? All the multiplayer gamers don't care, because they don't ever use the cockpitview, because it slows them down, and they want to win. I also like to win, but in the first place I like an immersive experience. Last point: if you really want to have immersion and fun with authentic races, GT7 ist simply unplayable. It's a good diving simulator, but a disaster as a singleplayer racing game.

I have also run into a problem in custom races that the AI knocks out a FL that is 10 seconds faster than the world record for one lap but still that guy ends up in 10th. I feel like if they are making it so that the AI is acting weird to make you feel like there is more going on for beginners then it should be connected to the difficulty level. Professional on hard level should feel like an actual race where you can do well or bad based on how you are driving and the AI not being effected by that at all. They also need to be made to be aware of what is going on and not being stuck on rails and driving into you if you are in their already planned line. And lastly I don’t see any problem with having the payout higher for custom races because that gives the game so much replayability instead of always doing the same races again and again you could set up your own and actually make some credits doing so. The payouts for online are not that great either

After you've mentioned the Clubman+ races, I've decided to give them a try myself (did play them a while back, but never gave them a 2nd try), and wow, it is exactly how you describe it. The worst thing is that we know this game has potential, but we're being forced to some questionable design choices that spoil the fun. GT5 to me was the last real Gran Turismo with how it felt to play. In GT7, menu books are weak, but what also buggers me is that they decided to split events not based on actual car requirements but on track locations - this kind of makes me race one track over and over until I clear all the events, rather than build one car and drive it in 3-5 events. It also demotivates me from building cars, as I'd rather just use something stock that's fast enough (but also handles like a boat) Tldr: the game is full of wasted potential, and you do not have enough views and subs

In custom races set boost to weak. You will notice how A.I doesn’t slow down as much(they only do during last 2-3 laps of the race ,if they are leading). With boost set to off they slow down very early.

I just watched the entire video, then scrolled down to realise that you only have a thousand subscribers! Lets get that number up!

Starting every race in 20th 30 seconds behind the leader is the most maddening aspect of this game. Its the thing that really pushed me onto PC racing in the end.

the question is why should a developer work on a good ai that battles and behaves like a human being when most people can't even put themselves together online to race each other? especially if the aim is to win/get medals as a challenge which targets the simple ability of driving a few laps in a row with increasing difficulty.I know, not appealing in the long run with todays understanding of racing games. in the long run its not appealing to stick to rules nor working on finding the right bop to race the ai. but that's how i am still racing gt5/6 today on ps3. I understand the frustration but its probably the outcome of technical limitations and the player base itself. if sophi is capable of mixing the adaptive ai from r3e but without having weird rubberbanding in certain single corners. nice video, watched it all the way through!

Remember how much marketing they put into their ai 💀💀💀 How much "realistic" it was and it was a robot that was trained by learning from players or some shit

discovered your channel recently love your vids 😌

Amazing video, really nailed it. super interesting and entertaining . Tskuba clubman+ is the best race by far and I'm still yet to beat it 😅. The group 3 and above races are challenging too. On custom races you missed a strange ai limit, thier throttle input is limited to 90% on some groups. This makes them super slow.

This is a really good vid and absolutely explains perfectly my and everyone else’s experiences with the AI in this game. I also noticed that the throttle input on the AI cars isn’t even fully planted when on straights, they’re not even trying to hide the fact they’re on purposely slowing them up. It’s the worst AI I’ve ever experienced and I really hoped they’d have fixed it for this generation of gaming. With the addition of Sophy recently, we can only hope that they build on that and have some sort of difficulty slider implemented for Sophy in the near future.

I recently started watching your channel and this is the best video so far. Offline racing is all I do now. I did progress online to a BS rating but it's not my thing. I would love an option in GT with a new higher AI level 4 to make all the races spicy. I remember the race at Goodwood and I experienced the same thing before Tidgney posted it in one of his videos. If you get a lead the AI car posts unbelievably fast times.

I’ve sent 8 complaint emails to PD about custom races for all the reasons you’ve said. I do 30 minute enduro races, gives me the best race over all I find. But If i spin all the cars slow down, if you pit before them they slow down, if you let them pit first I get in and out ahead but as you’ve noted they get very fast always table the FL off me yet I still always win.

The supergt reference earned you a subscriber my friend lol

They should just give us the gt sofie ai with a difficulty slider

I’m so addicted to GT7 and I’m not big on multiplayer so it’s sad you can’t have great challenging races against the AI…

I'm surprised there aren't more videos about this. Also what I've noticed is just about every PP rated race is fairly competitive.

The Main Problem on GT7. Thank you for covering the topic.

love your vids mate!

Went looking for this after noticing in the Tokyo Expressway "Race" challenge how much faster the Top 3 cars got once I got there. Thought I was going insane for a minute, glad to know I was not.

This is best video on granturismo i have seen so far.very cool and infotmative. Btw great Choise of music.let these video's Come.cheers.

Awesome video Looks like a lot of work !

Making go karts go flying into the sun on Daytona with a Tomahawk X is how I get revenge on the AI

Subbed. This was a GREAT video.

I just did an hour long endurance race on Nurburgring , the AI drove like I wasn’t even there, they’d turn into me, and drive me straight into the walls/ barriers , there was one car that actually indicated for me to pass them , only to then once I was passing , to drive into me ( side) 🤷🏼‍♂️

"If the game's not going to respect me as a player, I sure as hell am not respecting it." I feel the same way. So many games just... don't.

The best AI in a simcade game I find so far is in the F1 series. With qualifying and pit stop strategies it do feels like you are aactuallyin a simulated race weekend instead of playing a mini game of "can you win from the back of the grid in 5 laps". Ais also defend properly, give spaces when are other cars are side by side, or brake/actually tries to avoid obstacles (mainly other cars) on track. You can also adjust the AI so they are around your pace so you don't have to be an esport player to keep up with them, and can adjust them accordingly when your skills improves.

In gran turismo 4 i noticed in replaying races they would repeatedly wash out on the same part of the track on the exact same lap when im 5 seconds behind

I'm enjoying these videos my dude. My feedback on video production would be make your voice louder (using some dynamic/volume compression might do the trick). I have my phone volume maxed out to hear you clearly (not needed for KZfaq in general) and then the adverts can seem pretty loud in comparison.

It's the inconsistency that gets to me. I'm playing with a controller and not a great player, but I breezed through the game on Normal difficulty. I went and raced the Group 1 races at Daytona and Suzuka and won those handily. But then I went to the Gr1 race at Road Atlanta and got absolutely slaughtered no matter what strategy I tried, and I don't get it. The AI is just too fast and on top of that, they'll punt you off into the fence without a second thought. Horrible inconsistency.

All while I'm sitting here playing Grid 1&2 having white knuckle races for 1st. The AI manipulation in Grid is pretty awesome.

What you are looking for is the Human Comedy missions, that AI in those missions is rral tough

I love these long form essay vids. You're onto something with this series, and given there are MILLIONS of disgruntled GT fans, you've got a wide-open market to exploit. Keep at it and you'll be well above 100k subs in no time!

Love the Yakuza music lol

Honestly that's probably the sole reason I stopped playing GT games. If I, an average driver with experience of three GT games, can start 20th with the hardest settings and pass everyone on the first lap, what's the point? I don't like doing online racing because offline I have much more freedom, I can race any racetrack I want with any car I want. As you said, either I must run a race that essentially is a timetrail with some opponents as obstacles in between, or I must do a custom race and dunk on all AI drivers. And that's why I migrated to Project Cars 2 and F1 for my racing nowdays.

I agree wholeheartedly, and I play on the base PS4! I’d personally LOVE to see you do a video on the Forza series’s Driveatar system, compared to what GT offers. 😉

You hit the nail on the head about the A.I. and something I said for a while. Polyphony Digital can easily put the same effort into the A.I. opponents as their visuals and livery editor, but they just don't want to. It could be for a push in favor of online racing and I honestly theorized that when GTSport first came out. but it's likely not that, more like they just don't care enough. A lot of the GT World Tour mode feels like this theme of not caring.

Excellent analysis btw, take my sub!

You put more effort in the videos than polyphony designing and testing these races

Something I notices is that the ai isn't good at lapping other ai. I've done some custom races with mixed class racing, and sometimes a gr.1 car will basically stop and tail a gr.4 car instead of passing. It makes it easy to pass some cars by taking any line that isn't the racing line.

What a fantastic video! Earned a sub from myself. This is exactly how I feel. The driving feels fantastic, especially on a whee, but the ai isn't great. And I never even thought about the daft time gap you have to make up during single player races. Opened my eyes.

Since GT3, I've had a 100% winning ratio in single player. So I've never really had an opportunity to question the AI, I've always considered offline as a time trial, "beat my previous lap"

I’ve had A.I consistently post laps slower than mine, and once I take the lead they absolutely embarrass me by putting up a time 10 seconds faster than my fastest ever time on Nurb 24h circuit, all the while using Racing Hard tyres. It’s just frustrating how they shift from 10 seconds slower per lap to 10 seconds faster depending on my position to them. Oh and all of this is with “boost” (rubberbanding) set to Off. sure…

Firstly this is an excellent video. Hands down. A few things to ponder at least for me are how do you separate accessibility (in the racing/reach term) from what is good racing ai. It's tough on a few levels being pragmatic. The second pragmatic part is audience range. When I was playing GT 1 no one could see me abuse the AI with errrr considerate nudging off in my 900 gazillion hp skyline.... There are a few realities in terms of player accomplishment which may dictate but not excuse some of the game play design choices. What does make things hard to swallow is the licenses and the missions being heavily contact penalty aware but in all but a few the AI doesn't follow those models just it's lines I'm not as annoyed with the way the AI rubber banding is, more the format they use that requires it that is frustrating for someone who is a driver and racer, all that said 15 year old Glen got frustrated racing the GT1 AI and just smashed them with tunes in cars I'd never heard of (Tommy Kaira???) The chilli pepper races and HC missions do their job well in upping the challenge. As to Sophy, I'm not sure that is what you need for compelling single player racing, because again you are nerfing what is inherently better than all but the top 0.001% to make it playable against us mortals. Where Sophy does help is it helps PD understand AI decision making when to push, when to look inside, when to lean on the brakes. AI is hard, making competitive AI that is balanced is even harder. What PD have done is copped out of either in GT7. Probably for gameplay reasons but at the detriment of slightly less than casual customers.

Don’t forget the refuse to give full gas except on special stage road x or the campaign

Random site note, some AI cars can run out of fuel during the Road Atlanta GR 1 race...

Great analysis and presentation; really enjoyed the video. I wonder if there was some research done into what was most enjoyable/engaging experience for the 'average player' and then applied that to the bulk of the main menu books. I also wonder what demographic they considered the "average player" Purely speculating on my side I suspect the target demographic, for the main menu books at least, is age 10-16 and the 'long snake of cars' format reminds me of those old Top Gear 'races' (e.g. car vs train across France) that were manufactured to be close. The constant 'overtakes' give a sense of race progression and the stage managed pacing of the opponents keep a sense of close racing. Throw in the odd hard race to stop you from always winning to maximize 'engagement'. Though not to my taste I can see that this approach would guarantee more consistency in terms of race experience over a more emergent approach which would have more highs and lows. This approach was probably quite appealing from a development time-saving perspective too; take this basic formula for races, change the car type, add in some tuning parameters for Easy, Medium and Hard and you've got something of a cookie-cutter approach to creating a number of events relatively quickly

The worst aspect of the whole single player mode on GT7 is that you're forced to start from behind EVERY.SINGLE.RACE. and it goes agains the whole realism thing that PD seemingly has been trying to push for so many years. It makes the races unrealistic and forces you to either try to race with an OP car just so you can pass all the other racers in a short race or resort to questionable tactics to make way in time. At the end of the day it made completing the single player career not fun at all for me and I gave up midway through, to never play this game again despite having spend $70 on release day on it.

So it's not a justification but I feel like the custom race tire compound issue might be down to the processing power it would take for the system to work out all those vehicles with all those compounds since tires are arguably the most crucial part of the cars handling model

I had to retry so many races because of the behaviour of the AI, they drive like you don't even exist on the track and just ram you or turn you around.

Fine video. Great intel on the Clubman Plus Races. Didn't really have a massive problem at High Speed Ring, although I did find it more challenging than most other races, but I seriously struggled at Tsukubu to the extent that I felt the need to torpedo the leader at the final corner of the last lap to win it for the first time. I've won it legitimately a few times since, but what I didn't know was that the Beetle had been "engine-swapped". I could never understand why my highly modified Beetle still only had a top speed of, I dunno, 100 mph,? (not a clue off the top of my head) and yet I couldn't keep up with the AI Beetle in an RX-7 or whatever I was driving. Makes sense now. Really wish the AI would stop braking mid-corner and/or on exit. Lost count of the number of times I've followed the AI through a corner planning to slipstream down the straight before out-braking at the next corner, only to punt them off due to sudden braking. I don't follow like that now. I always take a different line.

Great video. Accurate analysis of the Ai. I prefer to play single player, so I mostly play time trials when in sports mode. I would like to see improvements to the AI and the custom race payouts. But the thing I hate most about GT7, is the fact we can't play the single player game without being online. If your internet connection goes down, you can't make any progress in the game at all. You can't even time trial cars that are in your garage.