Gaming Influence: Thoughts - Gran Turismo 7 State of Play 2/2/22

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to Gaming Influence which is a reboot of the same name that I created back in WrestleCorp. However, not only will I be giving my thoughts on certain video games and video game series, but also video game movies, video game anime, video game digital presentations, etc.

For this edition of Gaming Influence, I will be discussing the State of Play of Gran Turismo 7 that happened on February 2, 2022. 

So let's get started!

Now, first off, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Gran Turismo series, it's a racing simulation series developed by Polyphony Digital. Gran Turismo 7 is the eighth primary mainline game for the Gran Turismo series which will be released for PS4 and PS5 on March 4, 2022. Yes, despite having the number 7 is its name, it's not the seventh primary mainline game for the series as that belongs to Gran Turismo Sport which was released on PS4 back in 2017. 

With this game coming out next month, did PlayStation did enough to satisfy Gran Turismo fans as well as players who never played the series before? Well, let's find out and talked about what they've shown.

Intro

The presentation starts off with Kazunori Yamauchi, the producer of Gran Turismo series, talked about the history of Gran Turismo as this year, they're celebrating their 25th anniversary, as well as giving a few highlights on what this game will contain including over 400 different types of cars, 34 locations with 97 layouts, and more content will be added to the game with updates after the game's release. 

Nice layout on how much content is in the game compared to past Gran Turismo games and it's definitely a nice way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Gran Turismo series which I can't believe it's been that long. Unbelievable. Either way, a solid introduction to start off the presentation so let's get to the meaty content.

World Map

The world map is beautifully designed as it's basically the menu screen for the game. The game will set off by helping the player buy their first car and will go through a campaign in order to upgrade your car. There is a new feature in the game called the Gran Turismo Cafe where there will be a menu for a car selection and more car selections will be added to the menu after winning races in the campaign. The car selection in the menu in the Gran Turismo Cafe lets you view the history of the cars on when and where they were made. Brand Central is the shopping area in the game where players can purchase their cars with over 300+ selections. There is also a Museum for the game where players can look at the history of manufacturers that produce and created the cars in the game. Players can also purchase used cars as they can't afford any new cars. The world circuits in the game will include 34 locations with 97 layouts where tracks from past games are back with modern visuals. License tests are back in the game where players can learn driving techniques to improve their driving in races. 

I just have to say, dang, they're bringing a lot new content in the game, but also keeping the traditional content that will help both hardcore and casual players alike so they did a pretty job showcasing that in this part of the presentation.

 Visuals & Simulation

The game is using photo-realistic graphics with ray tracing to produce and create the cars in-game. 

Not much to say here, but holy crap, these models of the cars look exactly like the cars in real life. No joke. From the lighting and design, it's unbelievable. Polyphony Digital did a great job utilizing the power of the PS5 for these impressive visuals for the game. Incredible.

Time & Weather Simulation

The weather in the game will be formed similar to how weather is formed in the real world. Depending on the location of the race in the game, the weather will reflect on the atmosphere on the actual location itself just like in the real world on how the clouds will be formed and what is going to appear on the sky. The weather can also affect the actual track itself especially when it rains.

Holy crap, Polyphony Digital definitely went the extra mile and did their research on weather conditions and how it will affect gameplay in the actual races itself. Very great stuff here and a great way to showcase it as well especially with the rain example.

Replay Mode

Replay mode is back for players to replay a race that the player has raced before.

This was a main feature back in the other Gran Turismo games so great to see it back here. If you want to see the replays of the races you've done, this is a great way to do it.

Music Replay

Music replay is a new feature for the Gran Turismo games as not only players can replay the races that they have race, but also have the player choose which music to play for that replay.

This is a pretty cool feature so if you want to have the replay be intense, relaxed, or funny with the music track you pick, you can do that here so I say that it's pretty awesome that it's being done in this mode. Very interested to see what the community will come up with when they play with this feature.

Car Physics

With Polyphony Digital getting help from car physics experts, they were able to replicate the actual physics of the cars themselves for players to experience when actually driving their car in-game. For example, with the DualSense controller for PS5, players can feel the tension and pressure of the front wheels of the car while driving. 

Okay, Polyphony Digital is actually going all out by actually developing the actual car physics in the game. Very impressive. I'm intrigued on how it will feel on the DualSense controller when testing it out.

3D Audio

Players can experience sounds like no other with the use of 3D audio where they can hear sound from any direction just like how it is in real life. 

Oh snap, the actual examples that Polyphony Digital made us hear for the 3D audio is impressive. They're definitely making great use of the PS5 hardware and I love it.

Tuning & Car Customization

Tuning mode is back for this game as players can tune their car to improve performance. In addition, car customization is back with thousands of customizations for players to choose from as the amount of stickers have been increased compared to past Gran Turismo games.

Oh yeah, Polyphony Digital is definitely letting the player customize their cars with a lot of options so this is very nice so have your heart content on whatever your dream car you want to make.

Scapes

Scapes allow the players to travel the world with their cars and take pictures. 

Basically, this is the photo mode for the game and any game that has a photo mode is an instant masterpiece so yeah, this game is going to be awesome.

Gameplay

They then ended the presentation by showing more gameplay of the game as the game continues to look amazing. The gameplay hasn't changed much so expect the same fun gameplay of Gran Turismo on the new hardware consoles. It should be a lot of fun.

You can view the full presentation right here:

Overall, this was a solid presentation from PlayStation about Gran Turismo 7 as it definitely shows what this game will offer. Granted, this game won't be for everyone and for me, despite not being a huge fan of realistic racing games, this looks quite impressive. We'll see how the game will turn out on March 4, 2022.

Those are my thoughts on the PlayStation State of Play of Gran Turismo 7. Did this presentation convince you to purhacse the game?

Let me know why or why not and thank you for reading.