After what felt like yet another endless wait, Gran Turismo 7 launches for PlayStation 4 and 5 on March 4. This time around, it enters a modern video-game racing genre that’s bigger than ever before. Buyers today can choose from arcade-style racers like Grid Legends or Need for Speed or casual kart racers popularized by a famous mustachioed plumber and his Nintendo pals. There are endlessly customizable open-world playgrounds like Forza Horizon 5, hardcore PC simulation racers like iRacing that require wheel and pedal setups, nearly-as-hard-core sims like Assetto Corsa, and even mobile-device-focused drag racing-titles like those in the CSR series.
The 25-year-old PlayStation-exclusive Gran Turismo series occupies a space somewhere between simulation and more serious arcade racers. The original Gran Turismo in 1997 debuted on the original PlayStation and sold more than 10 million copies (as did the next four installments), establishing the franchise as a core pillar of publisher Sony’s content strategy.
Gran Turismo 7 is the latest installment (get all the recent background info here), the first numbered GT entry since 2013 and the successor to 2017’s Gran Turismo Sport. During the past decade or so we’ve heard musings that say the car enthusiast is an endangered species, that electric cars and autonomy and the V-8’s impending death will wipe us all out. But if the passionate folks at Polyphony Digital and Sony keep delivering experiences like Gran Turismo 7, we’re not worried.
Gameplay
Gran Turismo 7’s heart is all about racing and car culture. There’s no capture-the-flag mission, no trendy battle-royale mode, and no open world with hilariously huge ramps to launch yourself off a volcano at 200 mph. The bulk of the game runs through a system centered at the new GT cafe, a hub through which a player is assigned menus to work through.
Most menus focus on collecting a segment of three vehicles—rear-drive Japanese sports cars, French hot hatches, Ford Mustangs throughout the years, etc.—through a series of races in different environments. Upon completing a menu, the cafe host will talk about the cars’ significance as part of the automotive landscape.
Fostering automotive enthusiasm through knowledge and historical context is a central theme throughout GT7. At Brand Central, one of the areas of the game where you can buy new vehicles, most automakers and a few parts manufacturers have digital museums with dozens of slides with period photography and short paragraphs detailing significant moments in their histories. There’s enough content here to keep car nerds busy for hours, and it’s presented handsomely.
Folks who really engage with Gran Turismo 7 won’t just learn history, though; they’ll learn how to drive. Certain race series required by menu books necessitate earning tiered licenses from the License Center, each of which involve a collection of challenges that teach players about mastering different racing lines, cornering in the wet, driving on dirt, and more. You can put these skills to work in individual missions separate from full races.
The tuning shop finally returns (it was absent from Gran Turismo Sport) and features brief descriptions of how each upgrade improves performance. Each vehicle in your garage has a detailed blurb, too. At the cafe, depending on what car you’re driving, designers will pop by to chat about its development and share personal anecdotes. We had a delightful digital sit-down with Tom Matano, who penned the original 1989 Mazda Eunos Roadster, which we know as the Miata. Fabio Filippini of Pininfarina fame shared insights about the Fiat 500 Abarth, too.
Scapes returns for GT7, and we struggle to think of a better photo mode in any video game. There are literally thousands of shoot locations with real-world photo assets in which you can position your digital vehicle and fiddle with camera settings. We’ll have a GT7 Scapes review from one of our photographers in the coming days.
As for the driving physics, Gran Turismo 7 is more of a sim racer than what most console gamers are used to. The developers went to obvious lengths to factor things like location-realistic wind physics into the handling model, just one example of the countless measures Polyphony Digital tool to fine-tune the driving experience. Vehicles feel realistically weighty, and braking and handling take some adjustment before you really get in the flow of things.
This is also one of the areas in which Gran Turismo 7 is an objectively better experience on PlayStation 5. Playing on PS4, you won’t notice exceeding the grip limit until you see it on screen and feel the rumble in your hands. With the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the PS5’s DualSense controller, we were able to sense when we were edging up to that limit and adjust accordingly. Adaptive triggers in the DualSense can also simulate different brake- and gas-pedal feel.
Graphics and Performance
Tragically, loads of players won’t get to experience GT7 on the latest-generation hardware at launch. The PlayStation 5 remains plagued by the same supply-chain shortages as the automotive industry, and even more than a year after its launch you still can’t just walk into a store and pick up one of the ninth-gen consoles. Your best bets are the online waitlists and scheduled drops that sell out immediately, or—if you’ve simply run out of patience—the dreaded resale marketplace.
On PlayStation 4, GT7 is a pretty game but far from a mind-blowing one. Lovingly modeled vehicles with lifelike lighting elements exist alongside rough-edged shadows and environments that, at times, look like they could be running on PS3. That said, the reworked replay system and its dynamic camera angles are properly impressive. Some of the shots look like track footage straight out of an episode of Top Gear.
When we played on PlayStation 5, though, the graphics looked properly next-gen. Gran Turismo 7 supports ray-tracing in some modes and up to 8K(!) resolution with buttery sky-high framerates. Load times on PS5 are also nearly nonexistent, whereas playing on a PS4 necessitates tedious waiting while the aging hardware gets up to speed; we recorded loading into a race taking 30 seconds or more.
Should You Buy Gran Turismo 7 on PS4?
Even if you’re playing on an older machine, the latest entry in the Gran Turismo series is absolutely worth your time. This is an ode to driving and car culture executed with care, and it’s an engaging gaming experience to boot. It plays better on PlayStation 5, which is no surprise, but GT7 on any system is an easy recommendation to every enthusiast and budding car fan we know.
Photo credits: Polyphony Digital
Hot Reads
Cargo Ship Full of New Porsches, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and VWs Sinks Weeks After Major Fire
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Fastback With a 427-inch Cammer Engine!
1967 Camaro Parked Since 1974 Released From Barn-Jail in Texas
Water World: Mercedes-AMG, Mercury Marine, and the Future of the V-8
Ram Outlines Sleek 1500 EV Pickup, Heavy-Duty EV Truck, and a Dakota Replacement
Source: Read Full Article