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Racing Toward Excellence | Sacred Symbols+ Episode 129

When you do a video game podcast, chances are you're not going to do every release, every series, every genre its due justice. It's just the way it works out; we're only three guys with three distinct gaming tastes. But there's no denying that, when it comes to Sacred Symbols, our Gran Turismo coverage is unacceptably lacking, considering it's not only a first party game, but arguably Sony's most popular IP, ever (it's certainly the best-selling). Thus, today's episode of + is the first of our attempts to help ameliorate our shortcomings. To get the conversation going in earnest, I (Colin) invited Alex Jones (not that one!) to the show. Alex is an industry veteran who, among other things, worked for ESPN on their esports initiatives and tried (but failed) to get the famous sports network to cover GT and other racing series. So he's the perfect person to speak to about the past, present, and future of Gran Turismo leading into GT7's launch, as well as the promise and ultimate demise of Driveclub, EA's aggressive purchase of Codemasters and what that means for the genre, and Nintendo's clever gateway drug known as Mario Kart. So start your engines... or just hit play.

Comments

Shaun Wilkinson

I’ve played every Gran Turismo since the PlayStation 1 and I still play GT Sport every week, so this episode has made me very happy. I couldn’t be more excited for Gran Turismo 7.

Anonymous

Hell yes 🙌🙌

Anonymous

Props to Colin for getting Alex Jones on the podcast 😮

Anonymous

Nice, great conversation! Thanks for having it! I am looking forward to gt7 building on the FIA aspect as well as hopefully getting the more Japanese car centric / car modification aspect back in the conversation. For anyone looking for an easy wheel set up the Playset Challenge seat is an easy fold up chair that can work if you don't have alot of space. Logitech g29 or thustmaster t300rs wheels both are great entry level wheels that perform really well. Im sure there will be new wheels coming around gt7 as well.

Kenny C

Slightly off topic , would Drive Club VR work when I purchase the next iteration of PSVR ?

Alex Jones

Good question! I hope it does, but I don’t think Sony has come out and said anything about backwards compatibility for PS VR.

Kenny C

Here's hoping for support for the older titles then. Really appreciate the quick response. Hope to see you back again soon. Great episode

Chris Dell

Thank God we're getting a racing episode. Nothing is more cathartic than turing on podcast and chasing lap times.

Alex Jones

Thanks! I have heard great things about playseat. I’m still on the hunt for a wheel that can contain someone of my height lol. The G29 and T300RS (especially the alcantara Ferrari one) are definitely great wheels to start out with. I’m personally waiting on the Direct Drive wheel from Fanatec for GT7. As Fanatec is officially the new wheel partner with Polyphony going forward.

Alex Jones

Agreed!! Definitely my go to when trying to get top 10 in GT Sport Daily races.

Not Sure

I'm a 1984er myself, and I've been into GT since the beginning looking at Playstation Magazine with all the previews and articles before I was able to drive. GT was an outlet for me to feel like I could drive and have all those cars in my garage. There's just a certain freedom to be able to go out cruising anywhere, and GT enhances that to real world super cars. Maybe GT could offer street racing in different parts of the world instead of just tracks and/or even drag strips to hone your shifting skills. It would also build on the car culture, I think.

Bryan Cacciattolo

I knew nothing going in to this episode and learned a lot. Thanks Alex, hopefully you return in future episodes

Tyler Bello

This has been debunked a few times.. even though it comes up in arguments. You don’t need size to tell the difference in resolution. You can tell the difference between a 1080, 2k, or 4K 22 inch monitors. 55 inch will display 8k just fine.

Tyler Bello

Also does Dustin know that the same update as the micro transactions for double exp made leveling harder in avengers.

Anonymous

GT4 had a drag Strip in Las Vegas. Cool by the time, but the whole buzz in that discipline was around NFS Underground Series with all the flashines and special effects. Forza Motorsport does have that represented in the latest games. Still a little arcady as well.

Anonymous

Fun Fact: Something to add on the Driveclub trophy discussion. There are DLC Trophies from Driveclub (Main Game) on the spinoff game Driveclub Bikes list. Trophies of a game, on another game. I have never seen that.

Alex Jones

Yup. I believe Driveclub: Bikes had its own platinum as well. Trophies done right

Anonymous

Finally got around to listening to this and it was an absolute banger of an episode! I totally agree with Alex that there's a huge difference between a racing game like Need for Speed and a sim racer like Gran Turismo. A couple years ago I started doing track days at a local raceway here in California and leading up to an event I always play Gran Turismo or Asseto Corsa using my wheel setup to relearn the track and practice different racing lines. It's pretty amazing how well all of the physics and simulation of a "videogame" translate to real life driving. Also funny enough, the first winner of the U.S. GT Academy series, Bryan Heitkotter, is from my hometown and I've met him several times at events.

Not Sure

Yeah, I know it's not it's specialty to have street races, but I think it would be cool. Also, damage effects would be a step up too. Would help eliminate cheating in the tournaments, and could have a review system to see who was at fault, and allow the innocent driver to be damage free. Just have more breakable environments I guess. Maybe I'm asking too much.

Justin Robinson

Alex was awesome. Thanks for doing this episode, Colin!

Greg Hommel

This was good. I’m really happy you guys put forth this effort. I shouldn’t be surprised you had the idea before I did. Alex did a good job. Gran Turismo is just far too big to leave it by the wayside. I hope to hear more about it in the future. I would love to offer my own insights and also to hear from other patrons that love GT like I do.

Greg Horsman

Loved this episode! As someone who loves sim racing (specifically the F1 series), it was great to hear this discussion. I’d definitely love to hear Alex on more SS+ episodes.