Previous titles like Gran Turismo 6 or GT Sport certainly had their flaws, but remained well appreciated by fans.
Gran Turismo installments earned a reputation as being some of the most realistic racing PlayStation exclusives, with unrivaled driving physics and an extremely generous selection of the best real-world and fictional tracks to keep you busy.
The developers, Polyphony Digital, have been playing by a dangerous strategy on the last game in the lineup, Gran Turismo Sport. It just seemed to depart from what made its predecessors great, placing a higher emphasis on PvP online racing, rather than a well-structured, engaging career mode.
A limited variety of cars and tracks, along with the introduction of those despised micro-transactions left players seriously unimpressed, to say the least. Sure, the option of competing against other players online can be insanely rewarding, but quickly becomes stale when it doesn’t offer diversity and fails to meet fans’ expectations.
Photo: Polyphony Digital
Gran Turismo 7 was announced alongside the PlayStation 5 itself on June 11th as one of the first titles to be available on Sony’s new console. In addition to the gorgeous world premiere trailer that gave us a glimpse of some gameplay, the mastermind behind Polyphony’s racing simulator, Kazunori Yamauchi mentioned that we would be seeing that solid campaign we all want.
Well, isn’t that great? It was just about time.
The trailer reveals a genuinely beautiful game, with a glorious return of the beloved Trial Mountain fictional circuit being one of the main highlights. Some of the world’s most renown circuits were also confirmed for GT 7, including Daytona International Speedway, Goodwood Motor Circuit and Red Bull Ring.
We notice a main menu similar to that of Gran Turismo 4, along with icons such as Championships, School and Tuning Parts Shop. This leads us to believe that we’ll be starting out as novices, tasked with gradually working our way up through championships and licenses in the GT universe.
Photo: Polyphony Digital
I don’t know about you, but this type of career mode resonates with my expectations from a racing simulator perfectly.
In the area of graphics, Polyphony’s newborn is one of the most visually impressive games I’ve yet seen, period. The developer takes full advantage of the new opportunities offered by the advanced PlayStation 5 technology, placing GT 7 miles ahead of its forerunners.
It is rumored the game will run at up to 120fps and 8K resolution, which is mind-blowing! However, this remains a speculation for the time being. Would you just look at that delicious real-time ray tracing in the trailer, though?
Photo: Polyphony Digital
There is no confirmation as to how many car models or brands will be present in Gran Turismo’s latest installment, but I hope the list will be longer than what we’ve received in GT Sport.
You will immediately notice a 2016 Aston Martin DB11 Coupe on the menu screen, as well as (most notably) a 1999 Lamborghini Diablo GT, 1956 Porsche 356 A/1500 GS GT Carrera Speedster, 2020 Mazda RX-Vision GT3 Concept and many more speeding away on the track.
One thing’s for sure, Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 7 is a title I’ll be keeping my eyes on, even though it’s a PS5 exclusive and I'm more of a PC gamer.
Who knows, it might make me consider getting a console and a bigger TV in my living room.
A bit of an artist himself, Silvian sees two- and four-wheeled machines as a form of art, especially restomods and custom rides. Oh, and if you come across a cafe racer article on our website, it’s most likely his doing. Full profile
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