Can you believe more than eight years have passed since the last full Gran Turismo game? Actually, who am I kidding—fans of the series have become accustomed to lengthy waits between installments. That wait is very nearly over, though, because on Thursday, Gran Turismo 7 arrives for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles.
It has been a wait filled with some trepidation. Although GT titles were massively overrepresented in my very unscientific ranking of console racing games a while back, some installments of the franchise from Polyphony Digital have not been as good as others—looking at you, GT5. But that was then, and this is now, and there's an entirely new generation of hardware to show off the series' trademark dazzling realism.
GT7 shows that Polyphony Digital has not lost its touch. There's room for improvement—history suggests that updates will happen over time—and there's no doubt that the game plays better on the hard-to-find PS5 than the more commonplace PS4. But in trying times, GT7 is the racing game equivalent of comfort food, made from a recipe refined over 25 years but updated for the 4K generation.
25 years young
Although GT6 debuted on the PS3 at the end of 2013, it wasn't actually the last GT release. Polyphony Digital has gotten into the habit of showcasing its new game engines by releasing "minimally viable games" with relatively few cars and tracks, leading up to a later full game release. In the past, those stripped-down titles often felt like expensive demos. The GT series arrived on the PS4 in 2017 as GT: Sport, a game focused heavily on esports and online multiplayer. GT: Sport got a mixed reception when it was released, but it got better with updates and has remained my go-to if I have free time for a racing fix.
GT7 builds on that game by adding back in all the elements that feel essential to Gran Turismo. The online multiplayer and esports stuff have carried over, but now they're just a small part of the overall package. Like GT: Sport, the game is always online, a requirement to prevent cheating says Polyphony Digital.
The center of GT7's world is the Café, a hub run by a character named Luca. He's prepared menus for you to work your way through, many of which require you to complete certain races to win specific cars—a trio of French hatchbacks or three different Ford Mustangs, for example.
Once you finish each of the menus, you'll be treated to a little montage and some exposition about why your cars are important. When Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauchi briefed us on the game several weeks ago, he said that his goal for the game is "exciting people to the allure of cars," and this is one way GT7 goes about that. In addition to Luca, several other NPCs are ready and waiting in the Café with car-trivia demo scenes.
Arrayed around the Café are various other locations, some of which will be familiar to GT veterans. A tuning shop sells aftermarket performance parts, and it has a more extensive range of modifications than those seen in GT6. Sadly, the old "race modification" upgrade from the first couple of PS1 games hasn't returned. But you can bolt on bigger turbos and stickier tires, and you can strip out weight to your heart's content.
It wouldn’t be Gran Turismo without a car wash and oil change
If the tuning shop is all about making your ride go faster, the GT Auto section is about making your car look faster. This is where you can customize your car with new paint, wheels, and bodywork. You can even personalize your race suit and helmet.
But the tuning shop is also where you do your essential car maintenance. As you add miles to a car, its oil will degrade, the engine will get tired, and eventually the body's rigidity will decline. If GT6 is any guide, you'll need to add thousands of miles to a car before this kind of work is necessary.
Adding new cars happens in one of several ways. Each completed Café menu adds between one and three cars to your garage, so it's possible to amass a large collection without spending any of the credits you earn from completing races and other events and challenges. But you can also just buy cars instead of winning them—that will satisfy Luca just as much as seeing you win the car.
Purchasing happens in three places: the used car dealership, Brand Central, and the Legend Cars collection. The used car dealership is self-explanatory—it sells older cars that have some miles on them. The stock rotates, so you're not guaranteed to find what you're looking for. And even if the car of your dreams is in stock, it may not be cheap. Brand Central carries over from GT: Sport and splits the various OEMs into three geographic regions (America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific). This is where you'll find brand-new cars to buy plus information about each of the car companies. Legend Cars is where you can buy the rarest and most historic—not to mention the most expensive—cars in the game. Be prepared to grind for some of them, though; price tags are as high as 20 million credits.
At launch, GT7 will have about 420 cars, which is a far cry from the earlier titles that offered more than 1,000 to collect. Sadly, you'll have seen a lot of these cars already if you've played GT: Sport. But that game's car count ballooned from 168 at launch to 338 as of this writing, and Polyphony Digital has already told us that it will add more rides and tracks to GT7 as time goes on.
So much to keep you busy
Solo GT7 gameplay can be as structured or freeform as you want. In addition to the guided experience of the Café menus, you can always just go to World Circuits. That's where you'll find 34 different locations, again arrayed across three regions of the world.
All of these will be familiar to players of previous GT games, and some old favorites like Trial Mountain and Deep Forest have reappeared. (We expect more tracks to arrive in the game over time as free DLC, just as we saw in GT: Sport and GT6.) Each track will offer you a range of races to enter, plus a Circuit Experience that provides a guided way of learning the tracks.
There are also championships. Each championship is a series of races that must be completed one after the other, with points awarded at each round. Already, this is more expansive than the solo races in GT: Sport, but it's also far from all the racing on offer.
I'm not sure you could have a GT game without the dreaded license tests. You'll need to complete five licenses in total, from National B through the Super License, with increasing levels of difficulty as you progress. But Polyphony has struck a good balance here. The threshold for achieving a bronze finish in each test is relatively easy to reach, but getting all golds might be a time-consuming and frustrating experience, depending on your skill.
In addition to license tests, there are now also optional Missions that set up specific scenarios for you to complete—overtaking a certain number of cars or hitting a certain speed on a particular track, for example.
Your progression through the game occurs on multiple levels. Completing a race or challenge earns you credits, which you use to buy cars and upgrades. But as long as you drive at least 26.219 miles (42.2 km) a day, you'll earn a roulette ticket that gives you the chance to win credits, upgrades, or even a new car. Odds are good that you'll walk away with the smallest amount of credits, not the car. Be aware that the tuning parts are make- and model-specific, and there's no guarantee that you'll have a compatible vehicle to install them on. Additionally, you're tracked by the cars you collect. As your collection grows, you level up and unlock new missions.
GT7 will try to tempt you to open your real wallet to buy in-game credits a little more frequently than you might like. Each time you buy a car or a tuning part in the game, the dialogue includes an option to top up your credits via the PlayStation Store.
The return of split-screen two-player
Solo play may represent the bulk of the game, but if you're feeling social or just want to race against humans instead of AI, you have options. The Sport location will be familiar to players of GT: Sport—this is where you'll find daily race challenges and enter official FIA esports championships. As with that previous game, you have a pair of stats to worry about. First, there's your driver rating, which increases as you achieve better results in online races. And then there's a sportsmanship rating, which you increase by not hitting other players on track. Good news for GT: Sport players—your driver and sportsmanship ratings carry over to GT7.
But unlike in GT: Sport, you can also create your own lobby in multiplayer mode or join someone else's to enjoy custom races and so on. Multiplayer is also where you'll find the return of the split-screen two-player mode, a staple of the GT series since day one. Unfortunately, there's a limited number of cars from which to pick in this mode, and now that TVs are all widescreen, you and your friend play side by side on the screen, not one atop the other like back in the old days.
If that weren't enough, there are a few other ways to pass your time in the game. Photo mode is back, and it brings new camera features and more than 2,000 locations to use as backdrops for your artistic endeavors. In addition to the World Map, where you find all of the above, there's also a Music Rally mode. Music Rally uses the beats of a song instead of a timer and challenges you to go as far as possible before the song runs out.
PS5 looks better, loads faster
Sony is releasing GT7 on both PS4 and PS5 consoles, and if you buy the PS5 version, you also get access to the PS4 version (you can't have copies running simultaneously on both consoles using the same player profile, however). Obviously, the PS5 version performs better, thanks to the newer console's much more powerful hardware. The PS5 version runs at 60 fps at 4K resolution, with some fancy ray-tracing effects added in for replays and demo scenes.
Finally, music to my ears
Sound in GT, on the other hand, has been a bête noire of mine throughout the years, with cars often sounding more like droning vacuum cleaners than internal combustion machines. Better sound design was a focus of attention by Polyphony this time around, and it shows.
Some of the improvement is down to improved recordings of real vehicles. Unlike in previous games, Polyphony now records a car while it's under load rather than just when someone is revving the engine in neutral. The game also models noise from each tire as it interacts with different track surfaces. Raindrops even sound better as they splatter across your roof and windshield.
PS5 players will also benefit from more feedback via the new DualSense controller. The gamepad will vibrate a trigger if the corresponding front wheel locks up under braking. (The Forza series on the Xbox has offered this feature for a long time.)
For greater immersion, you'll want to play the game with a steering wheel. Any wheel that worked with GT: Sport on the PS4 will continue to work with GT7 on either console.
GT7's physics and tire models have been developed a little from GT: Sport. Some tracks feature dynamic weather, which makes for more realism than in GT6. Puddles build up as rain falls, and the track begins to dry out when the rain stops.
The cars seem to handle a little more delicately now, too. This is probably a consequence of the more accurate tire model developed in conjunction with Michelin. Specifically, overheating your tires in long sweeping corners is easier than I remember. Overheated tires during a corner can result in a spin if you're not quick in balancing the car on the throttle or catching the car as it begins to slide.
The AI appears to have improved as well. It's not the alien-level, neural-net trained AI that I wrote about recently, but computer opponents will race you and each other more aggressively and with more initiative than in any other GT game.
More than one person has asked me whether they'd enjoy GT7 if they thought GT: Sport was too limited. My answer is "yes." Nothing about GT7 is revolutionary, but the game feels like a GT title through and through, striking a careful gameplay balance with just the right amount of grinding. It's the kind of game that can turn a 30-minute session into a marathon before you know it, with a dose of comfortable familiarity thrown in for good measure.
I'll be playing this one for quite some time.
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