Gran Turismo 7 turns everything up to 11: Graphics, music, crowds, weather, all rebuilt...

[Cal Jeffrey]

Highly anticipated: Gran Turismo is not for everybody. Some don't like its grindy nature. Some don't like the difficult physics. However, fans of the series are ardent and take the bad with the good (full disclosure: I'm a big fan). The last GT game strayed from the formula players loved, and Sony noticed. Polyphony redesigned nearly everything in the game for the PS5, and it looks fantastic. Gran Turismo is back and better than ever.

Gran Turismo is back. Sony took a deep dive into Gran Turismo 7 on Wednesday, and it is evident that developer Polyphony Digital is going back to its roots (4K highlights above). The last real GT game in the series launched in 2013. Gran Turismo Sport came out in 2017, but that was a considerable departure from the series.

Sport focused more on multiplayer and lacked the depth of previous iterations. It had fewer tracks, a stripped-down garage, and cosmetic weather effects that didn't affect driving. The single-player portion was stripped to just driving tests, which are fun but are not the whole of the GT we know and love.

Sony's latest State of Play focused solely on Gran Turismo 7. Let's just say everything and more is coming back to the series. Lots of real-world cars? Check. Try out 400 models, including daily drivers. More courses? Check. It has 97 tracks in 34 locations, including classic layouts like Autumn Ring, Deep Forest Raceway, and High-Speed Ring. Plus, Sony plans to add even more tracks and cars in future updates.

Of course, the license trials are still there for players to obsess over getting those gold medals. Purchasing the car of your dreams or your current daily driver (or close to it) is still there, albeit it looks like they will be the usual grind fest. However, it appears Polyphony took customization to the next level. They upped the paint selections and decals while also allowing stickers to be placed in more positions and with more precision. Tuning is more in-depth than previous iterations, too, with over 60 types of after-market parts for each car.

Of course, one of Gran Turismo's greatest draws has been graphical fidelity. Polyphony has always tried to push the limits of the PlayStation hardware, and the PS5 is no exception. The cars, tracks, and environments are as photo-real as they have ever been, even utilizing the PS5's massive power upgrade to employ ray tracing.

The developers have rebuilt the photo mode adding many more options to capture your cars even better than a pro photographer could in real life. This redesign makes the ever-present photo mode, now called "Scapes," even more spectacular. Players have a choice of over 2,500 locations across the world to place their cars, offering a vast array of compositions. It also has a race photo mode for capturing those white-knuckle moments from your latest battle on the track.

But it's not all just shiny new graphics. Sunny or rainy conditions are not just a visual effect. Polyphony implemented an advanced weather simulation that uses meteorological data to create dynamic weather, including cloud formation. The advanced GT7 car physics engine recognizes wet, dry, hot, and cold conditions and makes the car respond appropriately. In longer races, players may have to pit to swap tires due to a weather change. There is also a weather radar on the HUD to track inclement conditions.

Time is also accurately simulated. The sun and moon rise and set in the proper location depending on location, time of day, and date. The game engine models stars and planets accurately as well.

As Kazunori Yamauchi, the Father of Gran Turismo, said in the presentation (masthead), "Skies in Japan will change as they do in Japan, and skies in California will change as they do in California."

Spectators are a significant improvement this time. Crowds seem alive now. They can be seen in the background cheering, moving around, and even looking at the camera. Check out the time-lapse at the 14:42 mark to see how the spectators are animated in the background. It's not perfect, but it's better than any previous attempts at creating a "real" crowd.

What you looking at, Mister?

Yamauchi's passion for vehicles and car culture has allured many Gran Turismo fans. Car buffs and noobs to the scene seem to enjoy learning little know facts about the cars they drive or those they wish they could.

Polyphony has brought this back with a Gran Turismo Café, where players can fill up a "car menu" by completing various challenges. Sometimes the creators of those cars will show up at the café to talk about the model's history and design. Additionally, there is a car museum where players can learn about various manufacturers. Even the car lot where you purchase your vehicles has facts and tidbits that those interested can optionally peruse.

More enhancements like dynamic music and a "Music Rally" mode have been added to spice things up. There is a new focus on drifting, with specific races and trials all about getting sideways. It looks like it will be an excellent addition to the series.

As a long-time fan, I'm looking forward to Gran Turismo 7's release on March 4 for the PS4 and PS5. In the meantime, enjoy these images captured in-game below.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93259-gran-turismo-7-turns-everything-up-11-graphics.html

 

[king cleanass]

Weren’t there rumors that GT was coming to PC a while back? Forza’s a bit underwhelming, and I have a lot of great childhood memories on GT and GT2. Been out of the console game for a while though.

 

[thelatestmodel]

Weren’t there rumors that GT was coming to PC a while back? Forza’s a bit underwhelming, and I have a lot of great childhood memories on GT and GT2. Been out of the console game for a while though.

Nope, don't remember anything like that. GT has always been strongly associated with the PlayStation brand and I don't expect that will ever change.

As a PS5 owner myself I'm going to be sinking hundreds of happy hours into this.

 

[Vulcanproject]

I avidly played the earlier games but my love for the series cooled off after the zenith which was GT4. GT5 and GT6 exhibited obvious flaws and rivals had moved the genre on further. They lacked polish and felt inconsistent. Scale was prioritised above quality.

So, the response was GT Sport. It was a skeleton of a game on launch, but gradually has become quite impressive after several years of support.

If GT7 can launch as a more polished product and then also enjoys the excellent support GT Sport has had, it could bring back the good times for the series. I'm looking forward to launch. PS5 needs the heavy hitters this year.

Sony would do well to put the series on PC like many of their other games. I would imagine it would be a big hit on that platform given the popularity of competitive simulations. If they can smooth out the console version with 18 months worth of updates and then drop the refined version onto PC end of next year it'll be a commercial success.

 

[Nobina]

Weren’t there rumors that GT was coming to PC a while back? Forza’s a bit underwhelming, and I have a lot of great childhood memories on GT and GT2. Been out of the console game for a while though.

There were some rumours if I remember correctly but even then it was obvious it's highly unlikely for this to happen. Especially now that Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard Sony will want to keep their exclusives to themselves. I would love for those rumours to be true though since PlayStation only has 2-3 exclusives that make me want to get a PS5 and one of them is GT.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Nope, don't remember anything like that. GT has always been strongly associated with the PlayStation brand and I don't expect that will ever change.

As a PS5 owner myself I'm going to be sinking hundreds of happy hours into this.

True, but Sony has started to relax on some of its exclusives, so there's a chance. Last Summer Hermen Hulst said:

""We're still early on in our planning for PC. And Horizon Zero Dawn has been very successful. I think it shows there's an appetite from gamers outside the PlayStation ecosystem ... I want to emphasize that PlayStation will remain the best place to play our PlayStation Studios titles at launch. But we do value PC gamers, and we'll continue to look at the right times to launch each game. Bend Studio just released the PC version of Days Gone on May 18. So that's about two years after the PS4 release."

So we could potentially see GT7 on PC in 2024. Cross your fingers.

I know. I know. Promises made are promises broken and things change. That statement was before M$ bought Activision Blizzard and Zenimax Bethesda. They might chill with the previous plan.

What I suspect MIGHT happen is there might be some negotiating between M$ and Sony -- something like, "Hey let's sit down and trade some exclusives." Maybe I'm dreaming, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

 

[dangh]

Gts is really great game, best sim racing option on consoles imo, and even try to touch games as iracing or race room - still a tad bit lacking in physic department (not talking about damage visualization) but that's not a big issue
I'm sure gt7 will be even better. If only I had a time to enjoy it.

 

[poshflamingos]

Nope, don't remember anything like that. GT has always been strongly associated with the PlayStation brand and I don't expect that will ever change.

As a PS5 owner myself I'm going to be sinking hundreds of happy hours into this.

The exact same thing was said about God of War. "It's the prime Playstation exclusive, it will never go to other platforms." And here we are.

If God of War wasn't off-limits for them, then nothing else is.

 

[Avro Arrow]

So I guess that Sony is hoping that GT7 revitalises the franchise the same way that GT3 did. Only time will tell.

 

[fluffydroid]

Gts is really great game, best sim racing option on consoles imo, and even try to touch games as iracing or race room - still a tad bit lacking in physic department (not talking about damage visualization) but that's not a big issue
I'm sure gt7 will be even better. If only I had a time to enjoy it.

Have to give credit to Polyphony and Sony for supporting the game with so many added cars, tracks, and the GT league over the years. It made the SP game a lot better vs launch content.

 

[mcclurken]

I'm hardly a gamer and barely a console guy. But I have so many fond memories of my hours and hours and hours spent on GT of various versions. The big surprise for me was how much I enjoyed the B-spec, I think they called it, it was a play mode in GT5 I think, the first GT for PS3 I think. Anyway, in the mode you managed a driver and the car and it was great fun. These days I'm blessed to be able to afford a racing wheel and pedals and I look forward to driving GT7. I'm a pretty good driver in real life and assume the perceived difficulty of GT can be well met with real controls versus a gamepad, but the other part of the difficulty is probably that most of us aren't used to handling such high powered machines. Hey, that's why we have sims, right?
.....if only I can find a PS5 to buy in the next couple months. For MSRP or close to it. sigh........

 

[hel0sn8]

Nope, don't remember anything like that. GT has always been strongly associated with the PlayStation brand and I don't expect that will ever change.

As a PS5 owner myself I'm going to be sinking hundreds of happy hours into this.

Yep - never ever has GT been said as coming to PC. Doubtful ever will.
I'm so jealous of you lol. Love GT. Would love a PS5 to play this! Lucky

 

[kiwigraeme]

I'm a pretty good driver in real life

You probably are - but in studies say in The USA nearly all men say they are better than average than their peers - probably similar in most countries .

I do consider myself better than average as a defensive driver and understanding car flow - amazes me went you see people with poor flow knowledge just thinking only about their car .

I don't know how to rally, ice ( turn wheels in - never gone that fast ) - oversteer , understeer - couldn't tell one from the other - do kind of know power through corner with front steer - and on the few times it's snowed - it seems to make a big difference to has more sliding about to all the inexperienced drivers- plus how the weight to tires are distributed .
I learn in my travels driving over sand and mud are completely different
I can drive smooth - limited braking and still go fast enough , good lines.
Plus I have quick reactions times for my age - very rarely lost at snap ( the card game)- It feels I can program my lower brain to take over - and can beat anyone the the young off the lights if I so choose.

Know I'm bad on a boring road - on a hot afternoon - sun hitting me - makes me sleepy . Definitely not good enough to be a truck driver for this reason - plus would need to improve backing skills - with trailers ( just good enough at dump- but cheat by straightening up line )- always amazed by some truck drivers reversing double trailers

Hate texting , social media - so no phone distraction - must be a plus

 

[shark975]

It's a shame the game has often flat textures and lighting. It's too be expected though as Ps5 isn't really next gen with only 9 TF. Asking 4k (checkerboard/upscaled), 60 FPS etc out of a PlayStation is a very hard lift and sacrifices will be made (most playstation exclusives are 25-30 FPS or low resolution like Returnal)

I thought RT was also only in photo mode or replay mode or something, not gameplay? Which it's the same on Forza.

 

[AMDGeForceRX4090]

Looks nice except for the completely static dead trees

 

[AMDGeForceRX4090]

It's a shame the game has often flat textures and lighting. It's too be expected though as Ps5 isn't really next gen with only 9 TF. Asking 4k (checkerboard/upscaled), 60 FPS etc out of a PlayStation is a very hard lift and sacrifices will be made (most playstation exclusives are 25-30 FPS or low resolution like Returnal)

I thought RT was also only in photo mode or replay mode or something, not gameplay? Which it's the same on Forza.

More like about 10TF, similar to RTX 2070 level. That's a giant increase over a 1.8TF PS4. And the giant CPU performance increase. There's plenty of pretty games on PS5. Look at Ratchet and Clank, that's beautiful. I'd happily accept DRS to maintain 60fps. And with the Series X at 12TF it's not gonna make much difference in multiplats. Certainly nothing like the difference between PS4 and Xbox One, with Xbox One being only 1.2TF.

 

[pencea]

Good stuff. Looking forward to it. Had fond memories of playing Gran Turismo back in the Psone & PS2 days.

 

[mcclurken]

You probably are - but in studies say in The USA nearly all men say they are better than average than their peers - probably similar in most countries .

I do consider myself better than average as a defensive driver and understanding car flow - amazes me went you see people with poor flow knowledge just thinking only about their car .

Yeah, please note I did NOT call myself an expert or great driver. The bar is depressingly low. I think I'm a good driver mainly because I DRIVE when I'm in a car rather than eat, talk on the phone, groom, text, race, read a book, email, etc. About 10 years ago I decided to learn and earn a motorcycle endorsement. I took and completed a college course. I'm a better car driver now as a result, safer simply from better awareness. So, in my opinion, just being aware and acknowledging the risks and doing something about it makes me a relatively better driver than many I see rolling by around me. I try to be realistic which also means acknowledging I don't have the best reaction time in the world (evidence: my performance in platformer/side-scroller games) and I try to use this knowledge in my own little internal realtime risk calculation. Plus some knowledge about the physics of momentum and tire adhesion, etc. That's what I really mean but 'pretty good driver'. My clean driving record plus the fact that driving is still fun and enjoyable makes me think I'm on the right track. My hope is games like GT are accurate enough to give people a chance to try things safely, hopefully learning the limits, instead of trying it in rush hour traffic on a Tuesday morning around a bunch of sleepy drivers more interested in getting that breakfast and coffee down than driving.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Yeah, please note I did NOT call myself an expert or great driver. The bar is depressingly low. I think I'm a good driver mainly because I DRIVE when I'm in a car rather than eat, talk on

I think you are right , an awareness of your strengths and weaknesses is the best start . I have never driven a car drunk, but I once drove my motorbike late at night as a Uni Student drunk ( only in town 50Km roads ) - so I concentrated much more knowing that , kept my speed at 50Km - as knew drunks can be spotted by going too slow . Started decision making early for intersections etc .
Here in my hometown - I remember that bible story about God selecting an army - you drink without watching the horizon - you're out.
I think a lot of people think headlights are solely for them to see .
It depresses/saddens/annoys me to see people driving especially dark/silver cars on very heavy dark rain days with no lights - or with the sun behind them .
You have to remember some of these people don't know how to use the demister , some have barely adequate eyesight , some can barely judge speed and distance ( much harder at night ) ,
I feel sorry for a lot of older people as the number of cars on the road , weird intersections - so less nonpeak time in certain places ie lots more decision making .
I remember in my smaller home town cycling say 3km up a long housed street and maybe seeing one car - most families had one car - Dads mainly cycled or walked to work . Mum would do a weekly big shop or farmers would come into town for monthly huge shop - they had huge and/or multiple freezers.

Plus no one ever locked their cars - our house could not even be locked , not even a catch on the inside - A relative/friend arriving unannounced say from overnight ferry ( between Islands ) - knew where the spare room was- see them in the morning .

 

[scavengerspc]

Oh crap!!! Techspot has their hands on the next Sony exclusive.
Prepare for the 70+ more fawning articles over the next 10 years!!

 

[Mjswooosh]

I’m cautiously optimistic & reservedly excited. Forza & especially Forza Horizon has been blowing GT away for years. It’ll be nice to have GT back in form if they can pull it off.

 

[scavengerspc]

I’m cautiously optimistic & reservedly excited. Forza & especially Forza Horizon has been blowing GT away for years. It’ll be nice to have GT back in form if they can pull it off.

Yeah, when Cal says "GT7 will make you love Gran Turismo again" I immediately hope that it is like GT 3 A-Spec. Loved that game.

 

[DrewTheBrave]

I’m cautiously optimistic & reservedly excited. Forza & especially Forza Horizon has been blowing GT away for years. It’ll be nice to have GT back in form if they can pull it off.

Agreed. I LOVED GT1-4, but the series stagnated after that while Forza (especially Horizon) really put together a much more fun & polished experience. I still prefer the GT physics and *feel*, but Forza Horizon was just a blast to play, and I grew tired of waiting for another true GT game.

I'm really excited to see some of the original Gran Turismo charm back in force with GT7. I don't preorder games, but am eagerly awaiting reviews and will likely buy it if the reviews say there aren't any glaring flaws.

 

[Rdmetz]

There were some rumours if I remember correctly but even then it was obvious it's highly unlikely for this to happen. Especially now that Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard Sony will want to keep their exclusives to themselves. I would love for those rumours to be true though since PlayStation only has 2-3 exclusives that make me want to get a PS5 and one of them is GT.

These acquisitions are actually more likely to have Sony expediting their pc releases va slowing down.

They "console war" is over Sony was the last holdout and even they have now at the very least took pc as secondary home for their games.

I said years ago this console war was turning into a platform war and Xbox was leading that charge (having accepted they could never win the plastic box war they instead went and started a completely new fight) now its about "services and ecosystems"

Playstation will likley start to look ALOT more like xbox as far as their release plans and services as we move forward.

While I don't think they'll mirror them exactly things like cross play, day and date pc releases, and monthly services being much more or a focus will start to trickle in to their announcements.

Day 1 may not happen til the end of this generation but watch for the time between console and pc release continue to shrink and shrink with each release until we finally get there for PS6.

They know they WANT more avenues for revenue and that these will definitely make it happen but they are also aware of how absolutey furious so many of their fanboys would be if they just announced that tomorrow out of the blue.


No like the boiling water and the frog they know they can't just throw them in else they'll immediately jump out... No they already put them in the water while it's much cooler and they'll slowly turn the temp up while they are oblivious as to what's coming.

 

[Rdmetz]

It's a shame the game has often flat textures and lighting. It's too be expected though as Ps5 isn't really next gen with only 9 TF. Asking 4k (checkerboard/upscaled), 60 FPS etc out of a PlayStation is a very hard lift and sacrifices will be made (most playstation exclusives are 25-30 FPS or low resolution like Returnal)

I thought RT was also only in photo mode or replay mode or something, not gameplay? Which it's the same on Forza.

Yea there's just something about this game that makes it look kinda "flat" and "sterile"

I know it's supposed to be "photo realistic" but to me it looks worse in some way than even GT sport or GT 6 let alone forza horizon 5.

I'm still going to get it but I just can't put my finger on why after every display of the game so far I've been left just feeling kinda meh.

And yes no in game ray tracing only in menus or replays and I'm not sure if all replays or only some types.

I managed to turn on Ray tracing all the time in forza horizon 5 on pc and while it's a suttle change when you notice what it does change its pretty impactful for sure and changes the look of many cars making them look ultra real.