In a word? Wow!
The best way for me to clarify the experience of being behind the wheel in GT Legends is to say this: all discussion of driving models, and G-force, and that elusive "in-car feel" falls happily by the wayside to be replaced by a silly grin as you occupy the virtual cockpit of your very first car (the mini cooper). Papyrus' Nascar Racing series made you go, "Oh, I think I get it! Yeah, I can do this ... great driving model!" TOCA 3 makes you ask rhetorically, "How can they do this with so many cars?" GTL makes you shut up and pay attention to the road, because you are convinced you're in a race car.
At first I was lamenting the fact that I'd be months away from driving some of the more exciting cars in the simulation, because the program makes you earn them through winning or placing well in tournaments. But then I realized two things: first, I needed the practice before I could really enjoy driving those fire-breathing beasts, and second, driving any car in this game is just so much fun!
A word about scalable difficulty: GTL is absolutely the best I've seen in this category. There are five levels from Novice to Professional. All are drivable from the start, but good luck winning on the Pro level without a substantial investment in laps! The only gripe I have here is that you can't separate out the accuracy of the driving model from the performance of the other drivers. I other words, you can't race against mediocre computer opponents with the most realistic driving model turned on-- both these features scale upward together. Oh, well!
Now I come to my favorite part -- the start. How many of you experienced sim racers have had to restart your races time and again in a frustrating loop of race starts? In NASCAR? In GPL? Even the TOCA series? Cars inexplicably bashing into each other, and you completely incapable of avoiding a wreck as your car squeals and slides toward turn one. Too slow? You're rammed from behind. Too fast? You eat the pipes of the guy in front. Well, I'm happy to inform you that, at long last, you will be able to start races just once. The auto clutch works flawlessly, and scedes no advantage to either player or computer drivers. Thank God!
To sum it up, this is the best racing simulation available today, and it goes for $20! My advice to all of you good people out there is to race right out and buy it! You'll thank me. You'll thank SimBin. Or maybe you'll be too busy driving.
PS Get a force feedback steering wheel. It's a must for this one.