Gran Turismo 7

amazon Gran Turismo 7 reviews

Whenever it comes to the simulation racing game series, no one can deny the influence of the two names that have become iconic Gran Turismo and Forza, respectively from the two giants Sony and Microsoft are their strategic cards in the fierce competition in the console game market.

Experiencing many ups and downs, if the Forza series is “favored” with a dense release frequency while branching into Forza Motorsport, Forza Horizon, and the sequels that appear almost every year since 2005, it is in the opposite direction. Again, the last official version of Gran Turismo (if not counting Gran Turismo Sport) was almost… a decade ago!

It has also been 25 years since Polys Entertainment (the predecessor of Polyphony Digital) launched Gran Turismo, becoming one of the Playstation’s best-selling games of all time, with more than 10 million copies worldwide.

It was surprising that at the annual State of Play event in February, Sony devoted all the time to the legendary director Kazunori Yamauchi (CEO of Polyphony Digital and “father” of Gran Turismo) to waiting to introduce the new game Gran Turismo 7, with the promise of bringing the franchise back to its heyday.

More than just a competitive racing sports game, Gran Turismo 7 also wears something very nostalgic from the mainstream use of classical symphonies to the interface design and version of Gran Turismo 4’s old-fashioned look.

As soon as entering the game, players will enjoy a short film about the development history of the car industry from the dawn of time, when mankind invented the combustion engine to the modern era of electric vehicles.

Not only that, even when “unlocking” any car from the quest reward or buying it yourself, we can also see a brief introduction to the history and technical features of the vehicle.

The focus on the map of Gran Turismo 7 is also located at GT Café, a true cultural center for people with the same passion for cars to socialize and gather.

The character Luca, the owner of the restaurant here, will give players the main tasks through a series of “Menu Book” lists with the reward of the iconic cars of the series.

For example, a menu called “Porsche 911” will ask to unlock all three Porsche sports cars through generations, the 911 Turbo 1981, the 911 Carrera RS 1992, and the 911 Carrera RS 1995.

Often these menus also have very simple goals such as finishing in the “top 3” of required races or instructing players on the basic features of the game.

Speaking of cars, Gran Turismo 7 brings a massive library with more than 420 cars from classic to contemporary, from compact Japanese compacts, American muscle cars, European supercars to luxury cars, racing cars for the Super Formula, or even the unique and eye-catching fantasy cars (Vision Gran Turismo).

Players can buy these cars with a realistic experience by walking around the showrooms of each company located in the Brand Central area with separate promotional websites and videos, or visiting a specialized car store “second-hand” has a ‘low’ price but can not choose colors, spare parts are “cleaned” and can also be “overpriced” if they are limited special versions of cars that have been discontinued.

Depending on the number of cars collected, the player also levels up with a progress bar called Collector Level, the higher it is, the more advanced components are unlocked to “customize” the car.

The car “tuning” in the game is also taken care of by Polyphony Digital very carefully.

The first time I looked at the detailed performance data sheet of a car, the writer was quite “shocked” because it was so detailed, with dozens of replaceable parts and the analysis graph was quite intuitive and easy to understand.

Specifically, you can change each type of tire, circuit board, pedal, or shock absorber to the wide body kit and then attach it to each stamp, a decal (livery), change paint color, or add or remove racing accessories to decorate “cool” such as fenders, tailgate, bonnet.

Just the color change and paint materials alone, there are hundreds of choices, from the original paint samples of real-life cars to the self-mixed colors.

Over time, the car will also degrade, causing the performance index to decrease and the player also needs to bring the car to the center for maintenance, car wash, and oil change just like in real life.

There is no open-world mechanic like Forza Horizon that is more about a professional racing experience, so Gran Turismo 7 offers more than 60 tracks from 34 locations around the world.

From real-life tracks like Monza, and Mount Panorama to traditional fantasy roads of the series like Trial Mountain Circuit.

The most outstanding advantage of Gran Turismo 7 is the ability to simulate the physics of cars so accurately that it is difficult for any game on the market to compare.

The clear proof is when the player must pass the Test to get the license. These challenges are not only difficult but also very practical, which can be applied to both in-game and real-world racing.

From basic techniques such as clicking the brakes in a corner so that the brakes are not locked, the difference when driving between front-wheel drive (FR) and rear-wheel drive (RR) vehicles to advanced like slipstream using the vehicle in front of the windbreak to pass in a narrow range.

Gran Turismo 7 also brings back the realistic environment system (removed in Gran Turismo Sport) with impressive constantly changing weather and lighting.

It is also raised to new heights with the power of the PS5 engine when applying features such as Raytracing to characterize reflectivity and material surface most realistically.

When the track gets wet after a rain, over time it will dry out on its own, but the grass on the edge and the lowlands are still waterlogged and is a big problem if the player doesn’t replace the right tires.

The unique features of the Dualsense controller are also brought into play. Thanks to Haptic Feedback, I feel every tiny vibration of the wheel when rolling on different terrain surfaces or the bouncing force every time the car changes gears.

Adaptive Triggers, give weight and interactivity to the two trigger buttons (R2, and L2) to create a feeling of pedaling, releasing two real car pedals.

In addition, a lot of customizations have been added to make the game easily accessible to everyone, from new players putting their hands on the wheel for the first time to most veteran and elite racers.

Typically, you can turn on the steering assist features from automatic to gears, anti-lock braking (ABS), anti-skid from the track (ASM) to visual displays such as the brake point indicator line good idea or even let the game… Auto-Drive.

For me, one of the most interesting experiences in Gran Turismo 7 is “dropping your soul” into the melodious symphonies, enjoying the new dream cars, and “buying” rolling on the road famous landmarks, recreated in the unique Scapes Movie mode!

Perhaps Polyphony Digital also understands that many people can spend hours just admiring the meticulously built interior and exterior details of each car in the game, so the company also provides a photo mode that is so impressive!

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Players can unleash their creativity like a real photographer by fine-tuning camera parameters such as aperture, shutter, focus point (AF), exposure to the gloss of the “frame”, the opening of the tail wing and finally clicking the render button to produce a high-quality image that is no different from a specialized 3D design software.

Not to mention the game also has a separate social network for players to share photos and interact.

Gran Turismo 7 has yet to overcome a major drawback of the previous Gran Turismo Sport: requiring players to maintain a constant network connection to experience almost all of the main game modes.

If you are offline, you will only have a few default cars to participate in meager single-player modes like Music Rally, Single Race, or Trial Race, and worse, not even updated into the rewarding process.

The game also encountered a few “potholes” in performance when in frame-rate mode, but still could not maintain at 60 frames on roads with high environmental detail like Trial Mountain.

The Ray Tracing graphics feature only works when replaying the race.

The writer also feels a bit sorry that the car library is quite large, but the reality is quite similar when it is the same car but just different life. There are many new models from 2018 to now that are almost still absent like Tesla currently only has a Tesla S version.

The car model in the game is very realistic, but when it comes to physical collision, there is not much chipping or significant deformation!