Gran Turismo 7: Everything We Know

While we might tend to jump to more narrative-heavy games when we think of PlayStation exclusives–games like The Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon–you’d be remiss to leave the Gran Turismo series off your list of impressive Sony franchises. Created in 1997, the Gran Turismo series is one of the most celebrated racing simulator series in the world, holding the record of PlayStation’s best-selling exclusive property even today. In 2022, the hit series turns 25 years old and, perhaps more importantly, is celebrating the momentous occasion with a brand-new title: Gran Turismo 7.

The eighth installment in the mainline Gran Turismo series, Gran Turismo 7 is billed as an ode to all the GT games that came before it, carefully selecting all the best parts of each title to curate what the game’s official site refers to as a “culmination of the Gran Turismo series.” Potentially both a retrospective of automobiles and a compelling glimpse at the future of racing games, there’s a lot to be excited about in Gran Turismo 7, so here’s everything we know about it so far.

Release date

For those of you who can’t wait to get back behind the wheel, you’ll be happy to know Gran Turismo 7 is scheduled to release March 4, 2022. While that is a good five years after the last Gran Turismo hit PlayStation, it’s interesting to note that even with its delay, that’s actually less than a year after the game was first announced–a welcome surprise in a world where many games are announced years before they ever hit shelves.

Platforms

Just like the rest of the titles in the hit racing game series, Gran Turismo 7 is a PlayStation exclusive. However, Gran Turismo 7 is unique in that it’s the first game in the series to release on two consoles: PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Polyphony Digital has expressed that the PlayStation 5 version is the best way to play GT7, as the console is expected to run the game at 60fps in 4K resolution with HDR support and ray tracing capabilities.

Trailers

Revealed during PlayStation’s Future of Gaming event back in 2021, Gran Turismo 7’s first trailer packed a whole lot of punch for clocking in at just under three minutes. With hyper-realistic graphics, an exhaustive customization center, and the highly anticipated return of Gran Turismo’s campaign mode, it was one of the show’s highlights.

Following the game’s announcement, Polyphony Digital and producer Kazunori Yamauchi released a behind-the-scenes video that both explains and celebrates car culture–as well as shows how the team implemented their love of it in Gran Turismo 7.

In October 2021, Polyphony Digital released another behind-the-scenes clip, this time focused on everything the PlayStation 5’s DualSense has to offer the game. Thanks to the controller’s unique and intuitive vibrations, producer Yamauchi said players will be now able to feel the racing experience in its most authentic form yet.

A month later, Polyphony Digital shared another behind-the-scenes video on tuners and car customization, showcasing the game’s robust customization options that enables players to tweak just about any part of their cars they can imagine.

What we know

Okay, sure–we know we can expect good ol’ fashioned racing in Gran Turismo 7, but let’s delve a bit more into all the modes and overall experience of the game. First and foremost, let’s talk cars.

Gran Turismo 7 producer Kazunori Yamauchi has billed the game as an “automotive retrospective,” saying that having a wide variety of cars from all throughout history was paramount to the game’s experience. As such, the studio has announced the game will feature over 400 different vehicles. While that number definitely pales in comparison to Gran Turismo 6‘s whopping 1,200 and Forza Motorsport 7‘s 700+, it’s certainly not too shabby.

More impressive than the game’s cars, however, is the actual breadth of the game. Based on the gameplay we’ve seen so far, it looks as if Gran Turismo 7 is pulling inspiration from quite a few previous Gran Turismo games to create one, cohesive “Gran Turismo experience.” Perhaps most notably similar to GT7 is Gran Turismo 4. The game’s main menu looks strikingly similar to the one in the series’ fourth installment, and also revealed something pretty exciting: the return of GT’s single-player campaign feature, GT Mode.

In addition to GT Mode, GT7 is also bringing back some other classic components, such as traditional racing tracks, dynamic time and weather effects, Special Events, Championships, driving school, the tuning parts shop, used car dealerships, and GT Auto. Thankfully, however, all these revivals are not coming at the expense of Polyphony Digital including some of the series’ new modes and locations that were introduced in 2017’s Gran Turismo Sport, like GT Sport Mode, Brand Central, and Discover. The game will also feature a few new elements, including the Car Cafe–a place where car collectors can interact with characters that will provide them assistance in acquiring rare cars–and the new dynamic photo mode “Scapes.”

Considering Polyphonic Digital stated the goal of Gran Turismo 7 was to “convey the same values of the first Gran Turismo, which was released 25 years ago, but in a much broader all-encompassing fashion,” the melding of all these modes makes complete sense–and should offer both longtime Gran Turismo fans and newcomers alike a pretty expansive experience.

Can you preorder Gran Turismo 7?

You sure can! There are currently three different editions of Gran Turismo 7 available for preorder on the PlayStation Store: two standard editions (one for each console) and a Digital Deluxe edition exclusive to PlayStation 5. While the standard editions are, well, standard, if you pick up the $90 USD Digital Deluxe edition, you’ll receive an exclusive Toyota GR Yaris, 30 PSN avatars, the Gran Turismo 7 official soundtrack, and 1,500,000 in-game credits in addition to both PS4 and PS5 versions of the game. You can also preorder Gran Turismo 7 from Amazon, GameStop, and Best Buy.

Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gran-turismo-7-everything-we-know/1100-6499154/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f