This Is Why Gran Turismo 6 Will Be The World's Best Driving Game

Unless you've been living in some kind of bubble for the last 15 years, you'll have heard of Sony's PlayStation racing game franchise Gran Turismo. As the game that launched the console car simulator and customisation genre, pushing the boundaries of physics and graphics for each iteration, GT is hot property - and it's tough to argue with a game that's shipped 70 million copies.

Small wonder then that the launch of a new title in the series is big business - and today's closely-guarded, invite-only Silverstone media event for the game's 15th birthday has seen the wraps taken off Gran Turismo 6. The good news - it's a stunner and it's for your PlayStation 3.

GT6 promises to pick up where GT5 left off, only with more of everything. The already record-breaking car count has been swelled to 1,200 with promises of rolling downloadable content to add to this each month. While the previous game's 1000+ car count was bolstered by previous generation "Standard" models with poorer visuals, early GT6 shots show some of these have been converted to the higher definition "Premium" models.

Additional tracks are promised in a similar fashion, with an additional seven locations over the old game available from the outset - with Polyphony Digital spotted scanning the Bathurst track at Mount Panorama and Silverstone over several seasons, you can be sure there'll be something special in there.

As with every new GT game, there are promises of the physics engine being overhauled. The GT Academy gamer-to-racer program - to return in July - has reportedly helped Polyphony gather more data and early glimpses show more natural and fluid car movement, with evidence of the low-speed grip issues - a traditional weak point - absent.

Other complaints levelled at GT5 include a poor user interface and very long load times, which Sony promise to have overhauled to give a better experience for gamers. The nearly-epic Course Editor from GT5 has been upgraded too, with tens of square kilometres of track available to play with and sculpt.

One of the areas Gran Turismo has traditionally lost out to competitors in is car customisation. While it's unclear right now what level Sony will go to with GT6 - the full Forza Motorsports-esque livery editor or less - it's promised that players will be able to create their own personalised cars, with thousands of wheels and parts available.

The online mode has received a significant tweak too. Players will be able to create their own car clubs and race clubs, organise their own online events and even be able to access their own communities through PC, smartphone and tablet as well as their console.

Of course, a Gran Turismo reveal wouldn't be a Gran Turismo reveal without a vague release date. With Kazunori Yamauchi, Polyphony Digital studio head and Sony vice-president, stating another 6 months to release, it's one to put on the Christmas list (and hopefully not Christmas 2014). If you don't already have a PS3, now might be a good time to go grab one cheap...

In the meantime here's the official trailer: