Gran Turismo 7 is a lie. For all the words spouted about how this is a return to form of the massive singleplayer campaigns and content of Gran Turismos past, it's really not. It tries, goddamit, and definetly scratches the itch that we all have of Gran Turismo 4 and such... but it never goes more than skin deep.

Because Gran Turismo 7 is just an expansion of GT Sport, and with it, the promise of new stuff to come at an indeterminate date. At time of writing it's just a buy in to a live service.

The kicker here is content. Versus GT sport there's a grand total of... 4 new tracks and two new layouts of existing ones. I'm not joking thats it, and whilst the selection is mostly good - High speed ring, deep forest, and Trial Mountain are classics - there being no completely new additions outright is really sad.

The car selection is also quite small by mainline gt standards. 400 cars which are mostly unique (compared to GT6's deluge of 20 different types of Miata) and all beautifully modelled - but lots of these are ludicrously expensive, the vast majority are imported from GT sport, and there's very few additions in the racing car categories. The overall car selection is also, by now, quite old. Most of the cars here you can track back to about 2015-ish, and there's very few non concept cars from post 2020.

And it kinda all makes sense. The reduced scope of GT7 compared to - particularly GT4, is almost unavoidable. The level of fidelity demanded these days makes something the scope of GT4 or even GT6 basically impossible, and Polyphony arent the crazed madmen sleeping at the office and making Naughty dog's crunch practices look pedestrian anymore.

And thus, the campaign doesn't really work. There's the delightful level of gran turismo charm and cheese which is lovely to have back and is probably my outright biggest criticism of Sport, but the whole thing is too linear, short, and really lacks the freedom of previous GTs.

Particularly dissapointing is the lack of the super high level events from bygone days - Like the wind, Formula grand turismo championships, etc. It's outright bizzare, the game carries the license system from previous games, but there arent even any license requirements over A in the game at time of writing. And it's so weird, because the game dangles these awesome legendary cars in front of you for stonking credit values but there's like fuck all to do with them except online!

But despite it all, there's sparks here. S-10, the final license test, has you wrangling a classic Porsche 917 around a slightly damp Spa Francorchamps. It's probably the most fun i've ever had in a driving game. The handling model in GT7 is top tier, it's implementation of weather and changeable conditions amazing, it's level of fidelity so damn high, the Car such a fun beast to drive - that it all comes together and it's downright magical. It's the apotheosis of the driving fantasy GT has always been trying to fullfill, and it's the best it has ever done it. Some of the other missions and driving tests are also great, but this moment is what makes it, and proves GT7s potential.

But we'll have to wait, i guess. More than even GT sport, this is a game where buying it is buying into a live service and years of updates which will eventually make it the game we all wanted. GT sport eventually got there. And if there's more moments like S-10 coming... I guess i'll be there to see it in GT7.

Gran Turismo 7 is hands down one of the finest racing games i've ever played. It's a real love letter to how the automotive industry has evolved and the gran turismo series has certainly evolved with it, taking everything that was already great about the series and fine tuning the experience to near mastery.

The feel of driving in gran turismo 7 is just superb and on a ps5, it's taken a step further through the dynamic haptic feedback of the controller. I'm not a huge car nerd or anything, I don't properly understand half of the tuning parameters but I do very much appreciate the detail. Infact, detail is key to gt7, every car feels uniquely different to drive. The weight behind accelerating, braking and steering never feels the same, retro and more modern cars are very noticeably different in how they handle and tuning a car adds an extra layer of personalised performance.

What struck me right away was how the ps5 controller enhances the whole experience, the feedback sensations i'd get from the clunk of a gear change or driving over curbs or passing over the metal grates on the tokyo expressway circuit each were very satisfying. It uses the hardware available to craft a driving sensation that i've never felt before and I hope to see used more in future ps5 titles.
All this said, driving in gran turismo 7 is not going to be to everyone's taste. True to the series' nature and history, it is a realistic driving simulator, so don't go in expecting instant responsiveness in handling even at absurdly high speeds or arcadey, explosive presentation. The visuals off the track aren't the focus here, neither are big crashes or high octane street races, it's just not that kind of racing game.

But what gran turismo 7 IS, is a refined, distinguished driving experience just like its predecessors. There's something really comforting to me about how this game presents itself and requires focus and discipline from the player. Going too fast around a corner? Tough, you'll go off track and probably crash. Crashing into other cars on the track on purpose whilst you overtake? You'll be forfeiting a large amount of bonus credits and significantly slowing yourself down. I know because I was guilty of this when I first picked it up. I hadn't played a GT game since GT5 back in the day and playing games like burnout and kart racers made me play that way seemingly by default. But as I kept it up and got better at the game through its challenging license tests and lengthy races I began to notice the satisfaction of staying focused and watching my speed. So then eventually, I was able to cruise around tracks at immense speeds with total precision and it felt amazing, it just takes practice, just like when I learnt to drive for real!
I specifically remember struggling with it and then, with practice, perfectly executing the back to back S curves on suzuka circuit in my beloved (tuned up) aston martin v8 vantage. That gave me a big stupid smile.

Outside of racing, I fell in love with this game's overall presentation, music and feel. Gran Turismo got me into modern jazz and lounge music and allowed me to go on to discover some great artists that I listen to on the regular now like T-Square and Casiopea. So listening to some familiar and new tracks in the world map gave me a tingle of nostalgia. Complimenting this is gran turismo's always quality user interface and delicate, classy vibe. When you're not on the track gran turismo feels like coming home after a long day. Taking trips to gt auto, the tuning shop, scapes, the garage and the dealerships felt familiar yet new and deeply personal. Pick a car you really like, show it some love at gt auto and the tuning shop, personalise it (and your racer) to no end with the help of a massive online library of assets, take it for a ride or take a photograph. That brings me to 'scapes', GT7's new 'photo mode' - an already essential part of gran turismo taken even further yet again.

'Scapes' allows you to take any vehicles from your garage, frame them in over 2500 locations and then take a snapshot. The library of gorgeous photographs of real world locations around the globe is absolute magic, the way they allow you to superimpose any car(s) into one of these scenes and still make it look convincing blew me away. Not to mention that the sheer number of camera positioning options, trickery and effects make it easily one of the most nuanced and enjoyable in game photo experiences that i've ever used. Granted there are some limitations to how much freedom you are allowed in certain scenes and many of the effects were too dramatic for me to want to use them (some even downright unpleasant), but it matters little considering the massive library of things for you to play with. The panning options in particular make for some really cool action shots.

Now onto where I think this game feels held back. For starters, basically all career races are rolling starts. Inherently this isn't an issue but when you take into account that you always start the race in last place, races don't really feel like races so much as one big game of catch up. The distance between first and last place before the race even begins is often a good 30 second difference - meaning they could be almost half way around an average track before you've even passed the starting line. Therefore, instead of an exciting battle for a podium position and the tension of maintaining your position once you're there, the majority of your time is spent carefully overtaking and climbing your way to the front. This also means that you need your car to perform above average or you won't have a chance of getting to the front of the pack before the race ends, which for me at least, takes away an element of the freedom that picking the car you want to use allows.

Visually this game does look great and I know it isn't the focus but it would also be nice to have some more detail in the crowds and extra details on the side of the tracks to make the overall experience a bit more immersive. There's also some modes and styles of races that appeal to me very much on paper but weren't up to snuff for me in the actual game. Like music rally, extreme weather races and dirt/gravel rallying. Music rally in particular was hailed as a new 'focus' for the game and earns a place on the menu screen right next to the main world map. But the actual event itself is just underwhelming with no real incentive to keep playing and with generally pretty uninteresting music choices (would have loved to see some callbacks to classic GT tracks). It's something I tried out while the game was installing but had no interest to revisit. If they bring in some really good tunes i'll definitely give it another go though.
As for extreme weather races and classic dirt/gravel rally, I never felt that these were as strong in gran turismo as in other games like dirt, and gran turismo 7 is unfortunately not an exception. In gran turismo it feels almost too much like you're not in control - which I know is the game trying to be realistic but I find myself slipping and sliding all over the place so I really need to slow down and sometimes grind almost to a halt to keep the car steady which just isn't that fun for me. Then there's the jumps in rally races which feel frustratingly difficult to execute and land without going flying into the barriers and losing your position seemingly everytime; unless, of course, you really slow down the pace and steady yourself which again, is a shame to me because I really just want to get some air haha.

Then there's the fact that the game is always online, the use of micro-transactions (which weren't introduced to the series in this game to be fair) and a general lack of content at the moment, but that will likely change. Disappointingly there's a good few car manufacturers, like mercedes-benz, that I was looking forward to seeing a nice selection of cars from and then there's literally just one in brand central that isn't AMG. Don't get me wrong the number of cars is still huge, it's just not up there with its current competitors and didn't give me the same thrills as previous gran turismo games with its general level of variety. But again, this will most likely change as the game gets updates.

Overall a borderline masterclass driving sim and while i'm not actually a huge motor head, I found myself drawn in with its inclusive, accessible methodology to teach the player about automotive history and mechanics. For big car fanatics, this will be a real treat of a game i'm sure. The cafe was a great and different but totally welcomed new way to introduce players to gran turismo and go about the game's 'career' mode in a more natural way. It was also a very welcome way to acquire new cars quickly and move up the ranks/tiers in terms of performance and cost.
The nostalgia was major with this one and i'm sure that i'll be coming back to it when I want a fun yet challenging and rewarding driving experience!

While finishing off some of the Menus in single player it really stood out how bad the races against the AI are in this. Enforcing rolling starts means you're always 30-40 seconds behind the leader, which means you need a substantially faster car than the ones at the front to progress, which you can do just by applying upgrades up to the specific race limit. I wouldn't mind this so much for an arcade racer but GT is meant to be more focused on realism and it really takes you out of it.

Being so fast removes any on track battling as you whizz past on the straight as the game becomes a glorified time trial, and even then the game doesn't punish you for basically cheating and heavily cutting chicanes. This removes any nuance in the process, meaning you don't have to learn the car or track to progress.

Online is still fun though.

Maybe don't have as much time with this as I could but I need to get some stuff logged and move on, so let's do this one.

My first entry in the Gran Turismo series (planning on picking up 4 for sure though), so that colors my experience a bit. There's a few things I've seen people get upset about being included or not included from prior titles, but everything's new to me.

The most obvious place to start is the graphical fidelity. The whopping 100+ gb file on PS5 isn't just for show (or... I guess it is for show?), because this is downright gorgeous. The cars, the tracks, the weather, just absolutely breathtaking. I'll return to them in the future, but Scapes are shockingly real. This game is indistinguishable from reality a solid percentage of the time.

The other most notable thing about this game is presentation. The loving 25 year anniversary celebration video that details the history of the automobile in RIDICULOUS length, the cute little menu options, the little Sims town where all your gamemodes are, it's all just very cute. Yamauchi clearly cares a lot about the aesthetic of the game and of the experience playing it. The real star is stuff like the commentary from car designers and industry veterans at the Cafe, the site of your "story" missions. They're really interesting and if you're not super well versed in car history you'll learn a ton.

As for the gameplay: it's simulation racing. The quality of the nitty-gritty of physics simulation is up for debate here and there and I certainly don't like that practically every single race is a rolling start, but this is a complex racer that takes a lot of work to get good at. It's maybe not the absolute peak of sim racing (Assetto Corsa or others exist) but it's pretty close, and I'm mostly pretty bad at it, lol. You have to put in the work to get good, and it rewards that, for sure, as I'm sure it does playing with a racing setup. I don't really see anyone complaining about the actual gameplay itself much, and I won't either. The AI is perhaps a little too perfect and the damage model is eh, but that's all I can conjure up. Otherwise, this is a tight and rewarding racing experience that can feel downright magical at its best. Putting the time in to do the many different tests and challenges available will improve your racing ability despite the immense frustration you may experience.

Sound - The original music is pretty alright, although the Spotify integration is not native (come on, really?), and even a bit buggy for some reason.

Scapes are probably my favorite thing in the whole game. I've gotten really into photo modes in the last couple years and this one is just staggering. Incredible graphic fidelity is obvious, but the IMMENSE number of landscapes to seamlessly put your cars into and create really cool shots with? Just amazing. Turning photos into 3D spaces you can place digital cars is just the sort of thing that feels like the future. I've had a ton of fun just taking pictures.

The economy is this game's biggest failing. Cars are insanely expensive and your options to get them all are either shell out tons of real cash or grind a lot. It's pretty unacceptable and Polyphony should really look deep and recognize that just because live service games exist doesn't mean a racing game should adapt their ideas. It feels pretty at odds with the vibe of the game too, this isn't World of Tanks, where you're simulating massive warfare, this is a game where a funny guy in a Cafe tells me about Japanese hot hatchbacks. Maybe this will change in the future, but I doubt it.

It's a game with a lot of charm and character that can feel straight up hypnotic at times, dulled by terrible business practices. Make of that what you will.

When you feel the haptics on the DualSense pushing back on you, when you finally run a track enough times that you have every little time-saving maneuver memorized, when you tune a car so that you not only make it faster and more reliable but also just make it feel right, when you squeak out a last second burst to nose across the line to take first...when GT7 works, it really works.

It's just everything else that makes this kind of miserable.

•Arbitrary 20 million free credit limit so you can't save for expensive cars rotating into the store. Allowing you to have as many paid (microtransaction) credits as you want but only allowing you to keep 20 million that you earned for free is the kind of rapacious nonsense I'd expect from a company like EA or Ubisoft.

•Low race payouts, and then some of the best races got nerfed because PD want you buying MTX bundles.

•Awful UI that looks sleek but is far too clunky. For example, if I go to a race, and decide I want new tires, just let me buy a new type of tires from the car settings page. Don't make me back out three menus, then go into the garage, buy them there, back out of the garage, and go back through three menus to get back into the race. That's not immersive, that's asinine. Pure style over substance.

•Basically every race in the brief "career" (the menu books) is a rolling start. Rolling starts are a snooze fest when implemented like this. No qualifying round, you're always at the back and nary a grid start in sight to switch things up.

•AI is godawful, and almost certainly the reason that everything is a rolling start race, because they're too stupid to actually compete against you even on harder difficulties. When you combine this level of bad AI with the rolling starts, this barely qualifies as racing. It's like a sprint race on an obstacle course.

•Weird gacha-esque system to win money, cars, parts and purchase invitations. The parts and invitations are the worst options. You can "win" parts for cars that you don't own, and you can't sell the parts off. And you can get invitations to buy special, limited cars for millions...and the tickets expire. Which is basically a painfully obvious attempt to get you to FOMO into buying an MTX package so you don't have to grind for 20 hours.

•Speaking of "can't sell," in keeping with the obvious "PD wants you to buy MTX bundles" theme, you can't sell cars. I don't care if it's at a decent loss, there's like 30 cars I will never drive in my garage that I would like to sell for some credits to spend on tuning and actual good cars.

•Abysmal always-online implementation. It's one thing to be like Hitman and not allow unlocks to be used, and that's already bad enough. When this game is offline (as it was a day or two ago because PD nuked it with a bad update), this game might as well be a paperweight.

Maybe this will be fixed in a year or two, but I don't expect it to be at this point. Their profit-minded focus is very evident here, and I'm not wasting disk space keeping this installed to see if they do an about face.

Gran Turismo 7 is what happens when somebody has so much fun knowing that they could that they didn’t stop to think whether they should. Kazunori Yamauchi’s borderline fetish for awkward design choices reaches its ugly peak with a game that doesn’t know what it wants to be.

The career mode is basically a barely 10-Hour long slog of fetch quests, with the odd side objective thrown in to stop you from getting bored. Most of them involve going to a location on the World Map and using one of its facilities, a process that takes approximately thirty seconds.

This is made more frustrating by the fact that Gran Turismo 7 seems to assume that the player has never seen a car in real life nor knows what a car is, with tutorials that are so patronising and AI that are so catastrophically slow that it feels like an insult directed towards long-time fans of the series. Even after completing all of the menu books, which unlocks a bunch of harder “Expert Level” races, the AI still pose little to no challenge.

Buying cars to use in races requires a level of grinding I have never seen before in a racing game, thanks to pitifully low payouts for many of the game’s early races. Some of the post-endgame events are more generous, with WTC800 at Sardegna currently the best race in the game for grinding cash, but the sometimes obscene prices for cars again makes it a slog. Legendary Cars Dealership, you know who you are.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. GT7 is arguably the best demonstration of the PlayStation 5’s capabilities, with stunning visuals tied together by gorgeous lighting and almost nonexistent loading times thanks to lightning-fast SSD technology.

The physics are satisfying and direct, with punishing consequences for pushing too hard. However, it never feels unfair except for the odd car or two. Those are the exception, rather than the rule.

Sport Mode is a clusterfuck, but it’s a fun clusterfuck. Racing in the No DR/SR Tracking races is beautiful carnage, with paint being traded for several laps straight, whilst the ranked races are generally a little bit calmer if still unhinged at times and really help with practicing close-quarters racing if you can find a lobby that doesn’t have too many morons.

Finally is something that was missing from Gran Turismo Sport: A sense of ownership. Every car is like a Tamagotchi, with three base stats that deteriorate as you drive them - Oil, Engine and Chassis. Over time, you have to perform maintenance on these cars, which makes you feel like you truly are the owner of a custom-built Toyota GR86 that pumps out almost 400hp through that fully customisable Manual transmission you installed.

In Gran Turismo 7, cars are not just your primary means of competition - They are living, breathing creatures with a heart and soul. And that’s what the game tries to teach you during those agonising 10 hours of listening to some nondescript Italian man tell you how Rallying works, even though you own or have owned every single game in the Colin McRae Rally/DiRT series and play them every single day.

Buy Gran Turismo 7, but only if you can live with a glorified 10 hour long tutorial. And you don’t mind Always Online DRM. Otherwise, something like Need for Speed or Forza is probably more your… Speed.

I love driving in this, I love the graphics, I love how it made me more interested in cars. The obvious problems with the game are progression based, its the always online , the roulettes giving the lowest thing every spin (I've must've spun over forty times at least, and I can only recall once getting something above the bottom tier: stack of coins). The micro transactions are on Fortnite levels as in $27 and you can have Kratos, its expensive to get in-game currency and its a long grind once the campaign is complete. This all being said, I got lost in hours of gameplay. The races can be tough, and some demand upward of twenty minutes of perfect execution with just enough accessibility options to not let you fail, and even with all of it turned on, you must keep your engagement. It is a phenomenal balance of challenge. I constantly find myself leaning toward my television, this is fun, and somehow has found a way into my heart despite all the negatives I listed. The devs cared about this, cars feel unique. Parts feel unique, the weather system is quite breathtaking from time to time. And I loved the campaign structure of collecting cars to progress through the story. Even the ending made me laugh out loud, probably wasn't the intention, but it made me admire it more. The car customization is extensive and has a sticker search engine which gifted me opportunities such as making a Communist Seinfield Mustang. (Flag of china across the top, Seinfield logo on the hood, with blends of green and red across the vehicle. In case you're wondering), People put lots of fun IP into this online database, and I found myself laughing my ass off to what I could come up with. I'm still playing to this day, and will happily continue to.

EDIT: They have improved the rate you make money, and I found that if you wait a day or so the raffles produce better results (Although I think thats a problem still), I have also found the addictiveness of both the online matchmaking and the license centre, the demand it has for perfection, perfecto. The game has earned a half star ;)

2024 02 22 _ GT7, PD
simracing after a 15km 2hr run. figured out to do Le Mans, Nurb, and Spa in one go. time trials. Overcooked Nurb, so switched to STcroix. Then Tokyo Expressway East. drove the honda s800 and mustang 429 boss. tried the human comedy and got beat the fuck down. mean fucking computer but friendly. no progress on the licenses, still at IB and without the final lap attack at Spa

STcroix is fucking gorgeous. my god by jolly what a fucking track. lots of intricate turns, S-curves, and long straights with just insane views of nature

Tokyo Express East fucking took me hard. Every lap finished kept saying, “ok, last one, one more and that’s it”, but nope, I’d be right fucking back around there again.

took a while to change liveries and choose what to drive, noticed in brand central it shows the logo for the car company for a moment before diving into it’s home screen and showing the showroom and whatnot, that’s really fucking neat

suggestions:

it’d be great to be able to make custom championships, save ur favorite car for offline, or ur favorite race and car combo in the home screen

great game already but menu diving between cars and tracks tedious, want more driving, less menus(not car settings tho, that’s still fucking great)

R1/R2 or L-R D-pad in Manual and Beyond the Apex for L3/R3 Scrolling between ToC and Chapters
would accelerate player learning to play from game

I’m nowhere near finished with this game but wanted to just leave a review for the newest entry in one of my favourite series. Gran Turismo has been a constant throughout the time I’ve been a fan of games, and from GT3 and the early PS1 titles I was hooked.

GT Sport on PS4 was good, but felt more like a spinoff than a mainline title as it just didn’t have the credentials to fit with the same vibe that GT games carry. GT7 is a magnificent return to form, and a love letter to all fans of this series. From returning songs from old games, license tests with the difficulty of older GT titles, great menu themes, it feels like GT of old, but with new additions like ray tracing, the café, which makes the game feel like an RPG in a way with the “fetch quests” you have to do, and a change in the usual formula, it feels new and fresh.

You can tell they took their time here, and really wanted this to be the best game they could put out, I haven’t played a GT with this level of detail before and I honestly think it could trump GT3/4 as my favourite in the series, but only time will tell. I am just so glad they got this right and I hope to be playing this game for years to come.

I've rolled credits, but I'm far from done with this yet. Aside from the baffling level of detail, and its execution - which to me is the firmest evidence yet that we could indeed be living inside of a simulation - for me, the thing I'll remember of GT7 is how it felt to experience it.

The closest analogue I can think of is something like the experience of sitting at a bus stop, waiting for a bus, when the person next to you starts talking about something you know next to nothing about. Great, you think, all I wanted was to get on the bus, and here I am now, trapped in a wonky plastic wind shelter, only a third of my arse is supported by the tiny metal rail that's ostensibly installed as a bench, and I have to endure whatever this conversation is going to be.

Hours and buses go by, and there you still are, enraptured, deeply uncomfortable and worried for the future state of your arse, and suddenly an expert in manufacturing innovations. Did you know rally can trace its roots to medieval times? No, me neither. What a weird, wild ride it is.

This is oh so close to being perfect. If it wasn't for the game being tied to life support online even if the game is mostly offline. Like you lose access to your garage and split screen if the servers are down or you can't connect to internet. Which is absolutely ass and makes the game dead once the next comes out unless they patch it. And it didn't need to be this way. You could he mid campaign doing a race and then have Australian wifi just drop for a second. The entire game freezes boots you to the main menu and then on top of that the game can't save. Why. It's actually crap. THAT ASIDES. This games really a virtual museum. The love and detail in the cars of this game is far higher and finer than anything else. Just like gran Turismo used to be. They are pioneering in the details. The photo modes are so deep and adorable. The modes are plentiful and lessons on tracks are very welcome. The liscensing is really user friendly and although there's more of them. They're done in a particular purposefully way teaching you many more unique corners and such. Each car is just full of actual detail no more premium and standard car bs. Even select cars you can have bring to a cafe and get the original designers or engineering lads comment on it. The game fills you on so much history of not just cars but nearly everything? Like it's got a life summary too which is cool. The upgrades are the deepest they've been and come with more descriptive descriptions and finally car livery editor in a main title. The rare cars are a little price gougey and I'm especially not a fan of the top up wallet Promot whenever money is brought up. Microtransactions strike again. But I do really highly recommend this game for learning about cars. On its history or how to drives. It's a lot of fun and patience is so highly rewarding

I played this game on and off for over a year now, forgot to write a review so this is not fresh in my mind but I made up my mind on this game a while back so here it is. I’m no racing enthusiast but I’ve been a GT fan since the first game, the realism, the way it’s a sort of car RPG where you level up cars and get to higher races was always addicting to me. For some strange reason I have only ever played the odd numbered GT games, GT3 being my favorite easily. GT5 felt kind of like the series was lost, spreading more online than focusing on the career mode. Grab Turismo 7 though is a great return to form with an involved meaty campaign and loads of modes to mess with, all tied together in the most slick presentation I have ever seen in a car game.

There are games where you can feel the love from the developers for the topic they are covering, it oozes out of every area of the game. GT7 is a car historian love letter to racing in general. The game itself feels like it was made with white gloves on, as if I am getting a personal history lesson from the most high end car museum. Nearly every car manufacturer represented in the game has their entire history told through a slide show with real photos of their first cars, their first racing wins, their factories, their models, their creators. It is a car enthusiast history lesson, I don’t care too much about racing history but the amount of love this game shows for it was addicting and it made me want to read up on it. Every car gets a detailed history with what year it came out, how much power it had for the time, how long it was in production, was it successful or not and so on. To top it off you can view every car in exquisite detail with the car model viewer, all interiors perfectly recreated. It’s one thing to see it in a tv, seeing it in VR, oh man, might as well be at a car show. I can’t think of a game where I enjoyed the menu information as much as this game, so before even playing a race this game is impressive.

So how is that racing, well it’s easily the best Gran Turismo has ever been. I cannot tell you how accurate the Mustang 67 feels. I can’t tell you if other games have better physics. I can only say as a casual racing player that the feel of the cars is the best I have ever played in a game. Every car feels different, the way each car responds on the tracks feel different. The weight of braking, the acceleration, the pull of turning, it all works so well. From my perspective it feels like I am driving different vehicles rather than arcade like video game cars. Then add things like how the weather and tire wear can affect the driving, it takes it to a whole different level. It’s an absolute joy to drive in this game.

Hell most of my favorite moments was just doing time trail missions against my own ghost, I didn’t even need a race, it’s just me against myself trying to master a turn on a track. That alone was hugely compelling and humbling. I cannot imagine the reflexes and pinpoint accuracy needed to achieve the best times consistently on a turn, it feels inhuman. I could get a good time once, try to replicate it and it’s almost impossible, it matters down to the split second when I brake, how hard I break, what angle I take the turn, it’s all those things and every tiny little bit has a massive impact on the time.

Every track has a time trial mission where it gives you a set car and times to beat for each section of the track, you can earn gold/silver/bronze depending on the time, one final full lap trial awaits the end. I loved these, it taught me how to navigate each track even though gold was usually out of reach for me. Each had a small video showing exactly how they got the best times but watching someone driving and trying it yourself are two different things. If anything this game gave me a new found respect to everyone that can master this game, and by extension awe for those who do this in real life.

GT7 forgoes the usual event tree campaign mode for a new more guided experience that uses “dinner” menus. So you get a menu of a certain kind of car and the races you need to compete with those cars to complete the menu, you then earn some cars as rewards and unlock the next menu. In classic GT fashion you begin with slow cars, the first menu being something like a 70s love van race. You go to the events page and the event for that is available. The events still have the usual cup races where you can enter any car of a certain class or horse power limit but there aren’t the variety of past GT games. It’s best to just follow the menu as it will have you complete the series cups as you play along.

This is where GT7 lost some people, it’s not as open and free as past games. There was a certain joy in starting with a Toyota Camry and slowly buying better cars and racing in better circuits and doing it your way. That’s still present in this game but now it’s done the games way, so everyone will take the same route, getting same cars, following a menu… I prefer the old way, I think most do as well but this method does allow way more cars to shine and get attention. Every manufacturer gets an event, you learn about a bunch of famous car models as you play. It’s part history lesson and part climbing a sort of car tower till you reach the end of the menu and you finally get a real racing car.

Once the menu is done you do get the ending credits but that’s kind of when the main races open up. A bunch of advanced racing cups become available and finally you can do some really long events with points and more traditional settings. The worst part of the menu wasn’t making you play with every car, it was that it really took away the multi race events away. Almost every race in the menu was one time race here, one there, another there. The series of races with points was saved for the “boss” at the end of each license level. So you could play this game for like 30 hours and almost do no real racing events.

Then there is the extremely weird obsession with rolling starts and having zero qualifying races. Basically every “race” is a chase, it’s not a race. You almost never start somewhere in the middle, it’s always starting at the back and it’s a rolling start and you have like 4 laps to catch the front car. This means your car needs to be much faster than the competition to win, so I just picked the fastest car or upgraded some parts to get more horse power and boom I always won the chase. The AI was also on a kind of script and when you replay the races you can see it’s kind of all already predetermined what would happen. So while the act of driving is the best in the series, the way this game handles its racing is kind of disappointing. It’s only till the end when you get the real racing events where your car is always evenly matched that your skills as a racer is the only way to win.

About a month after release there came an update with experimental AI, these were four races against these four AI racers. These races were so different from the standard ones. This AI felt like humans, they raced differently, each had their own temperament. They would react to you trying to overtake them. Like a human they would make mistakes and clearly were not following a script. It’s a damn shame the race options were so limited because that AI was a game changer. Still no word if it will ever be implemented into the game, I doubt it at this point.

The racing part was maybe the weakest but thankfully there are so many ways to play this game. There is a whole mission mode where you get a ton of different missions to complete with a wide variety of cars and situations. Some are as simple as executing a turn perfectly, to doing a certain track in extreme weather. Managing fuel while driving on a track with plenty of downhill driving for momentum was one of my favorites. You will also find the endurance races here but 24 hours of driving is not for me. Licenses are of course in the game and are a great way to learn the ins and outs of racing. The final license was pretty damn hard, there are optional gold medals to go for as well for rewards.

Every event you do or mission you compete earns you money or gift cars. There was a lot of talk about exploitative F2P style monetary systems in this game where they made it very annoying to earn enough money to buy the most exotic cars. Also there are all kinds of free to play staples in this game like roulette wheels (which are broken and always give a totally shit prize that is useless), daily log in bonuses, timers on cars being on sale and so on. Clearly they did this to push real life microtransactions to exploit the players who can’t help themselves. If you are a player that wants to buy every car then this game is impossible, it will take ages to earn enough and it will be infuriating that those with real money can cheat their way to it. But if you are like me and just want to buy whatever cars you like you will have more than enough money to fill the garage with a nice variety of great cars. It’s a shitty practice, it has no business in a GT game but it didn’t change how I played much.

Speaking of cars, as usual there are hundreds to buy and drive. There is an issue though, it feels like this game was made in 2012 or something cause basically all models are from before that. There are a handful of new cars but that’s it, almost everything is from years go. It probably has to do with model reusing of some kind, I’m just guessing. So anyone hoping to race in that new corvette or Ferrari, well you can race an older one.

There is also a complete online mode which is an entire game on its own. I dabbled a little in it but even the intro scared me as it has a video that teaches you to behave when you race, that you will be penalized for any bumping, bad sportsmanship, cutting corners, all kinds of stuff. So I did a few races and I was being penalized all the time, my car gets forced to slow down, everyone is better than me, it was not happening for me. Also a bunch of the races were on a timer, so you had to wait sometimes up to like 8 minutes for a race to start, I guess that’s if you are doing the official GT sport races. Online felt way too major league for me, I am not that serious into racing but for those that are i’m sure it’s good.

I played this game in two parts, I did most my play when it first came out, took a break and came back when PSVR2 hit. This game in VR is something else, it is absolutely incredible. That’s that I don’t have a racing wheel, even with a dumb controller in my hand, the feel of being in the car, being able to turn my head with to follow a turn or see other cars come up beside me is incredible. I can’t imagine going back to standard racing. This has some of the best VR implementation I have ever played and it’s definitely one of the very few reasons to get PSVR2.

This being Gran Turismo you know the game is a graphical showcase. The car models are the best around, especially in VR it’s wildly impressive. The race tracks look great but not exactly the next gen leap I was hoping for. On the music side I was very disappointed. GT games used to have great soundtracks and this game is mostly some unknown tracks in limited genres of music, I didn’t care for any of it.

Gran Turismo 7 was a nice return to form and feels like the best GT game since the PS2 games. Yeah the campaign is changed up for the worst at times but the act of driving is still unmatched. I loved doing the time trials, the missions, trying to beat friends times and so on. Hours and hours can go by as I try different cars on different race tracks. Above all the presentation is top notch, an absolute love letter to everything racing. There is a ton to love with GT7, especially if you have VR.

Overall Score 8.8

An excellent game brought down by greed and deliberately bad choices.

I have loved Gran Turismo since the PS1 days and I think this is another great entry in the series. Gran Turismo has always been more than just a racing game. It is car porn. Gran Turismo 7 continues this tradition. The cars look stunning and are highly detailed inside and out. There is a great line up of diverse cars ready to collect, modify, customise, tune, race, learn about and love. There is an in depth photo mode with its own community to share, like and discuss photos and the same for livery designs too. There is so much here to learn about cars and the history of car makers and it also teaches the broader historical context as well. It is a dream for anyone that likes cars and is easy to get into whether you’re a veteran or newcomer.

Presentation wise Gran Turismo 7 is outstanding. As I already said cars are super detailed and beautiful. Tracks look great and have plenty of detail too. I like the style and menus. Weather looks good, skies look good, and tire smoke looks good. The game runs well and loads quickly. Sound design is impressive and the music selection is cool. There isn’t much to complain about here. Being a cross gen game I don’t think they pushed everything as far as they could with the PS5, obviously car damage is an area that still needs work but overall though I’m really happy with presentation and performance.

Gameplay is fun. Cars feel great and they did well making use of the PS5 controller features. Car handling and physics are what you expect. I know when a car is on the limit of grip and when it’s gone beyond that limit. There is a good sense of speed, weight and momentum. I can feel the road and the unevenness of the surface. Weather and puddles of water are done well and greatly impact driving. Tuning is rewarding. The game as a whole is mostly very rewarding, challenging and fun. I enjoyed slowly getting better and improving my times, making my way through the challenges, earning licenses, learning in the circuit experiences and testing myself against others online. There is lots of content here and they have been continuing to add to it. There are some weaknesses like the main campaign, café mode, being underdeveloped and underwhelming and I didn’t get music rally at all.

Now unfortunately I need to discuss this games big issues and a lot of people will already know what’s coming. Why the hell do I always need to be online for single player? I guess my disc will be useless in the future when it’s all taken down and I’m just screwed anytime I don’t have internet or there is maintenance. Then there is the fact that this game becomes a horrible grind to get and upgrade the more expensive cars. Things start off okay with regular currency and car rewards but once you get further along and everything gets more expensive it just ruins the game. I put around 80 hours in and I would still be playing if not for this bulls**t. Cars are too expensive and rewards are too low so your progress grinds to a halt. This was done on purpose to push people into spending real money on the very over priced in game currency and Gran Turismo 7 is a full priced Sony game too. Why would you do this to your own creation? Imagine making something excellent and then deliberately ruining it. Why would you do this to your brand? Is it really worth it? If you need to make more money off Gran Turismo 7 then find another way, I would rather pay a little extra up front then put up with this crap. To the people that made these decisions and to every person that buys this games currency get away from videogames you are ruining it for the rest of us.

Gran Turismo 7 is really enjoyable and well made even with the horrible issues I still got plenty of time out of it. I just wish I could still be playing it and continuing to build my car collection. I would have rated it way higher if not for this and it could have been one of the absolute best PS5 games. I recommend getting Gran Turismo 7 if you’re into cars just don’t buy those expensive micro transactions and know that at some point it will become an awful grind.

7.8/10

GT7 is frustrating and fun in equal measure. For every exhilarating race, there's a questionable design decision sitting somewhere waiting to pounce on you.

Cars feel great to drive, but some classic tracks have been changed a bit too much, losing their unique identities in the process. You're given interesting and challenging missions to complete, but also have to deal with a neutered campaign that sees you play a cafe customer being talked to by cardboard cutouts more than a driver.

As a return to the classic GT single player CaRPG then, it's quite disappointing. But then you get into Sport mode and everything changes - nothing quite beats the thrill of driving against real people and the races really do feel exciting even if you're only fighting over 13th place. Annoyances still exist - even here you're stuck with too many rolling starts, and the handing out of penalties is inconsistent at best - but it's easily the game's biggest strength.

The economy, microstransactions and economy are a whole other story which I won't get into properly as it doesn't really affect me too much as getting every car isn't what I care about that much in these games - but suffice to say that I still think they've become way too stingy with payouts and cynically so, it's all to railroad you to Spend More Money.

But I keep coming back. 70 hours and counting, dipping into new Sport races as they pop up and honing my skills. Will I keep at it? Possibly not, but it's a very easy game to dip into once you've got through the main single player side of things and honestly, these cars feel great to drive.

I had virtually no interest in cars before playing this, but I wanted something with good graphics for my shiny new PS5 and heard the haptic feedback in this game was incredible. That all ended up being true, but GT7's hardcore (to me) adherence to realistic physics and tuning is primarily responsible for me getting into cars (guess who knows how to change their brake pads and oil now...). It took me about a year of playing a couple races every week or two to "beat" the single player mode. I think treating this very casually was the way to go. Binging it would have been tedious.

That being said, the constant nudging towards spending real money on this game feels terribly out of place. Requiring this game to be always-online in the first place is ridiculous. Too bad modern AAA trends have infected their way into this.

I hear the original score for the older games goes hard. I ended up turning the music off entirely. At least the PS5 has Spotify support.

Gran Turismo 7, na minha opinião, é um dos melhores jogos de corrida de todos os tempos e o melhor simulador que já joguei.

Apesar de ter alguns problemas, é um jogo realmente bonito, com bastante conteúdo single-player (ainda bem que a Polyphony Digital corrigiu isso, pois o Gran Turismo Sport veio com pouco conteúdo single-player), uma grande gama de montadoras e carros e o desafio é muito bom.

Eu não sou um jogador assíduo de simuladores de corrida , então eu joguei nas dificuldades fácil e média e no controle, e achei que o desafio é muito bom e equilibrado. Houveram corridas bem difíceis, onde eu fiquei empacado por dias e precisei fazer muitas tentativas para completá-las, mas ainda assim não chegou a ser frustrante (como qualquer jogo estilo Souls que eu experimentei).

Foi uma experiência muito boa e pretendo continuar a jogar de vez em quando.

After all this time, I finally "cleared" the game.

Still so many cars to unlock, and so many championships to get gold on everything etc.

I just wanted to retire it post credits and move onto something less "simy". Maybe FH5.

Absolutely loved the game though, incredible driving feel and visuals. Soundtrack didn't hit as hard though - mostly played with my own Spotify through the PS app.

I also spend substantial amount of time in PSVR2 and I can say that it is the best VR experience I have ever had. So sweaty!

Those license tests really put my skills to the test and I swear got me more pissed than a DS boss.