So recently the Legend got me a Lego Gran Turismo Car. I wrote about it here. I then had to play Gran Turismo and buy that actual car. Which I did. Here are some scapes photographs I took of this car.
Gran Turismo Stuff
Lego 68 – Model 76923
According to this website the last Lego model I made was in 2020, it has been a while! I’m not sure why it’s been this long, probably my kids no longer need my help with Lego and I haven’t bought any – where do I put it? This model was bought for my cake-day by the Legend and it super pleases me. It covers two things I really enjoy; cars and gaming. This model is the Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT Super Car which exists within the game of Gran Turismo 7.
I need to go and buy the car in the game and then take some scapes photos with it. I will post those here when I have completed that side-quest.
I’m hoping the car drives well. I’ve got a few races still to complete in the standard section of GT so I will be working on that.
Recent Racing
I am currently trying to complete a few games, or at least play them more. I got Astrobot recently and it is exactly my kind of game. It’s a 3D platformer with some easy and some difficult levels. I really enjoy it, it’s like Ratchet and Clank but without the guns. I’ve also been messing around in Gran Turismo a little more recently. They have added weekly challenges to the game and so it’s a good sense of achievement to log in and complete those. I am also working my way through the licence tests and challenges bit by bit. I want to complete the Cafe Menus and that means getting credits to buy some serious cars.
I have found a useful method for gaining credits to be the time challenges they now have in the game that change every few weeks. I spend about twenty minutes driving and I can normally get a Silver time but definitely a Bronze time within the game. I recently completed some laps of the Nurburgring GP circuit in some electric car and got a pretty good result for a worldwide competition.
Another method for gaining credits which is remarkably innefficient is to complete the daily driving distance – one marathon – and then hope fo rthe best in the lucky dip reward. As much as this feels like a loot box it isn’t a loot box because you aren’t paying real money for the rewards. It’s cheeky but it’s not as immoral as some loot boxes in other games. Every now and then you do get 1,000,000 credits in the circle of doom.
This amount of credits might seem useful but when some cars are valued at 20,000,000 you know there’s a long way to go.
Gran Turismo HUD
As much as I really enjoy Gran Turismo and play the game quite a lot there hasn’t been much on here about it from me. I’m still heading through the game and aiming to complete it, if that is possible. I’m currently stuck on one of the license tests where I have completed the course within 0.05 seconds of the gold target time but haven’t quite made it through that barrier.
I have upgraded to the G390 wheel which supposedly has “true feel” or something like that. All I know is that there is more feedback through the wheel and you can “feel” the limits of the grip a little more and also notice when you might be burning through the tires with late braking and excessive cornering.
Somehow I stumbled across a telemetry display that fits to all types of steering wheel. I thought about it and then ordered one along with a new spring for the brake on the G390 pedals and the current spring is waaaay too tough. The new spring has a progressive feel to it and “feels” better.
The telemetry unit was easy to set up and instantly did a firmware update. You use the browser on your phone to enter your wifi settings and the little box does all the rest. It connects to the PS5 output over wifi via UDP. It would be nice if the PS5 output more details that can be read by the little box, but I’m very happy with the results. The rev LEDs are really useful and give good feedback to my peripharal vision.
In this image you can see the current gear (3), tyre temperatures, revs (8552), fastest lap time (2:10:496), lap counter and speed. The digits on the right don’t currently change with the game.
Phew
I’ve spent some time trying to work through the new Gran Turismo Licences that came in a recent update. Sometimes these are frustrating because I’m sure the demonstration video car has more front end grip than I do. I had a similar feeling when I looked at the Lewis Hamilton replays in a previous challenge. Anyway, assuming my times are distributed with a mean close to the Gold time I will eventually get Gold because of natural variation. Curiously if I’m a second behind I know there’s lots of room for improvement and I don’t feel despondent but if I’m close to the Gold time I get most frustrated because I’m continually close but not great. I can’t remember which particular trial I’m taking in the picture but I was very glad to get Gold.
Random Events In Pairs
I’m really not a fan of “loot boxes” in computer games. The latest version of Gran Turismo has a kinda-loot box but at least it’s not one you can use real money to get. The task is to complete just over 26 miles of driving within the game within a day. If you manage that you then get a “random” prize. The prizes go from around 5000 in-game credits to cars and even a million in-game credits [I think]. Anyway, plenty of people moan about the consistency of “winning” the 5000 credits. As a counter argument this is what happened to me on consecutive days:
I guess it’s not all bad.
Platinum Trophy
Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve got all the Trophies in Gran Turismo 7, or any PlayStation game, and I am happy. For the last couple of months I have been either working through challenges, racing online, or grinding to get money. I had three trophies to get when I thought a Platinum was within reach. I had to complete 50 races online, this was easy, just time and frustration at people trying to knock me off the track, but I completed the 50. I had to take 100 pictures using Scapes mode, this was time again especially as I didn’t just want to keep pressing the shutter button – I wanted most of the pictures to be a decent quality. The final trophy was to buy three absolute classic cars.
- A Jaguar valued at 20,000,000 credits
- A ford valued at around 5,000,000 credits
- A Ferrari valued around 9,500,000 credits
These cars appear occasionally in some in-game dealership and so not only did I need the money to get them I also needed to keep checking the dealership to buy the car when they appeared. I think this has taken around a month. I managed to get the Jag and Ford easy enough but have spent the last two weeks waiting for the Ferrari. I also as orking hard to secure the 9,500,000 credits I needed. Part of me considered using actual real cash to buy some in-game credits but they are about GBP15 for 2,000,000 credits and so I asn’t going to spaff GBP60 or so real money on an in-game car. The grinding continued.
Yesterday morning I checked the game store and the Ferrari was in there. However for whatever reason was decided it now cost 20,000,000. I was a little gutted as I had already saved 9,500,000 for the original price. I decided that I could wait and then it struck me. I have loads of cars I don’t care about and so I sold some of the racing cars I own. This I did and very quickly made the required purchase price.
I now own a Platinum trophy in the cybers and I’m very happy. There’s still plenty of the game I have left to complete. I’ve got to get gold in all the new licences, win every standard race and then maybe compete a little online. Oh, there are also the challenges or mission things to do so I have plenty more things to be getting on with.
The Cost Per Unit Time Is Low
I was exploring the options within the PS5 menu and I noticed that the games I play get totalled up in terms of time played. I’m not sure if I was shocked or just pleased at the amount of time I have spent playing. I do know that it certainly justifies me spending the money on the hardware and infrastructure to experience these things.
In case you can’t quite see the numbers in the above graphic let me write them down below. I just want to point out that the game could be a PS4 game that is played on the PS5 and register timewise as a PS4 time. Hence, while I tend to play Minecraft on the PS5 its total comes only from PS4 playtime.
- Gran Turismo 7 – 120 hours
- Fortnite – 111 hours
- Minecraft – 722 hours
Now the Gran Turismo times clearly do not include all the time I have spent playing other versions. Let’s be clear. Gran Turismo is 25 years old this year and I’ve been playing it for that long. In terms of cost/benefit I think I’ve done very well.
It’s Been A While But I’m Back
Last night I powered up Gran Turismo 7 for the first time in quite a while and I enjoyed myself. I even managed to enjoy myself driving Willow Springs which, as a circuit, I don’t like. I did the Circuit Experience section of the game as it’s about thirty minutes play to smash the gold on these. I’m still distracted quite a bit by Fortnite, which feels such a terrible admission but I do enjoy that game. Anyway, I recorded the gold winning lap and zapped it to YouTube.
Gran Turismo Progress
I’m still playing Gran Turismo occasionally. I’m slowly working through the challenges and completing racing tasks. It’s still great fun and a really nice way to shut the brain off.
I have currently driven a total of 8395.10 miles. I think my favourite statistic is that my average fuel consumption is 35 litres per 100km driven. The real car I drive can do 2 litres per 100km. I suspect that in the future, driving virtual cars will be the only way to enjoy the noise and feel of these vehicles. They should be banned already. Oh, by the way, electric cars aren’t the answer either – they won’t save the planet, they will only save the car industry.