GT Manager is a Steam Early Access game that's not mindblowing by any stretch of the imagination, but I found that the more I played it, the more relaxed I became. It's the simple nature of a manager-sim that just chills you out when you enter the right state of mind. GT Manager isn't too difficult, not even for someone who rarely plays these games.
As the title suggests, in GT Manager (2024), you take on the role of the.. wait for it... manager, and click your way through the entire game. The goal is to place as high as you can in the leaderboards.
You create your team, hire and manage staff members, look out for sponsorships, and build various centers that aid you in various ways. For example, you have the Car Factory, Drivers Building, Marketing Building, Research Facility, Private Testing area, and more—nothing you wouldn't expect from a managing sim.
GT Manager hosts 25 officially licensed cars in the GT4, GT3, GT2, GTE, and Hypercar categories. You will find models from the WEC, IMSA SportsCar Championship, and GT World Challenge Europe, such as the BMW M Hybrid V8, Glickenhaus SCG 007, Peugeot 9X8, Alpine A424, etc.
Photo: The Tiny Digital Factory
Gameplay any Good?
There are 40+ drivers and 35 racing teams, so after choosing what's best for you, it's time for some intense clicking. Keep an eye out for the stats because they're vital. Your bread and butter are values like Speed, Wet Speed, Overtaking, and Consistency.
Before every new race, you have to go through the mandatory qualifications. Aside from the drivers, engineers, and whatnot, you select how much fuel you want and the type of tires best suited for the race.
For example, half a tank will last you 6-7 laps, while a full tank lasts longer. It's best to calculate based on the number of laps. The tire types also matter tremendously. First, you will choose between soft, medium, and wet tires. The soft ones perform well but have a short life span. Medium tires aren't as good but last longer. Wet tires speak for themselves.
After the race starts, more intense clicking follows. This time, it can be in real-time, or you can pause the game to think things through. Your eyes constantly shift between fuel capacity, tire condition and temperature, and engine status. When things get too hot, you stop punishing the car so hard and let it cool down. The pit stop is inevitable, but again, try and figure out the best lap to do so. Going to the pits during the 14/15 lap isn't ideal.
Photo: The Tiny Digital Factory
From my point of view, the technical racing aspects weren't bad, but enjoyable. After enough time invested, I started feeling relaxed and even joyous at some points because of the "zen" frame of mind the game put me in.
It's definitely for enthusiasts, but as a gameplay experience, it's nothing I would call broken from a game design perspective. Everything worked as intended from my experience.
PC Performance
Luckily, this game runs on both Windows and Mac. Microsoft enthusiasts require a PC with at least 8GB RAM, an Intel Core i3 Quad-Core, and an Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radeon GPU. MacOS users need an Apple M1 or above chip or an Intel i3 Quad-Core CPU.
As per graphical settings, it checks the bare minimum box. There's the typical overall quality menu that maxes out at Ultra, and aside from Texture, Shadow, and Lighting Quality, along with Antialiasing, Particles, Ambient Occlusion, Bloom, and Depth of Field, you don't have a lot to fiddle with.
On my rig with an Intel i9-13900k and Nvidia RTX 4080, I roughly got 130 fps on average at 4K Ultra Settings. During races, it capped to my monitor's max 144hz refresh rate. And no, I couldn't find the V-sync or uncapped framerate settings. If it rained on the track, the particle effects took quite a toll on the performance, dropping to the mid-90s.
Photo: The Tiny Digital Factory
The sad part is that the graphics aren't what you'd call state-of-the-art. To me, it looked like a late PS3-era title with some PS4 remastering under the hood. I think sims should look much better because of their perceived boring nature.
It's a click simulator at the end of the day, so if you can't entice a larger audience with a thrilling gameplay experience, at least do so visually. I get the team isn't made of 600-person teams with $400 million budgets, but maybe Unreal Engine 5 might have better suited the sim title.
Why Early Access?
GT Manager hits Steam's digital shelves on September 18 in Early Access. Developer and publisher, The Tiny Digital Factory, thought it best to release the game this way to gauge what players want.
I advocate for Early Access games because devs get a chance to feel out the community and see what's working and what's not through a real hands-on approach. Sony's "Concorde" would have massively benefited from an Early Access form. Maybe it wouldn't have been such a monumental failure if they had tested out the waters first. But I digress.
Luckily for GT Manager, it will accumulate player feedback and suggestions to improve game systems. The team intends to keep the game in this state for approximately six months, but unforeseen delays might occur.
Photo: The Tiny Digital Factory
The version I tried has a fully playable career mode, and the complete version will feature more vehicles, teams, drivers, tracks, and similar game elements. New but also improved gameplay mechanics are also planned along the way.
During this period, the Deluxe Edition is discounted and features the elusive Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro and the Bugatti Bolide. The Base Edition stays the same across the board, but the former will increase in price.
Conclusion
GT Manager is a relaxing experience that enthusiasts might grow to love in time because it can quiet everything else around you while you click your way to the top of the leaderboards. You can even enjoy some (healthy) snacks while watching your drivers tear up the tarmac. Because it's an early-access game, I'd wait for more player feedback before pulling the trigger.
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News