Gran Turismo 7: One Year Later...

[hyperspeed980]

I want to love GT7. I really do. The graphics are obviously beautiful (for the most part), the physics are easily the best in the series, and the sound design is such a step up from the previous games that it makes them sound awful in comparison.

But all of these are things you'd expect from a modern title. Besides those things, GT7 has some of the most confusing and oftentimes frustrating design decisions I've ever seen in a game, to the point that it makes you wonder "what the hell was Kaz thinking?"

The lackluster event list, the menu books that make the career a linear slog, the extremely inconsistent payouts between races, the strange duplicates of certain cars and omission of much more obvious choices (I dare not say the three letters), the nonsensical roulette system...

I think the fact that a two-week glitch period was easily the most fun I (and many others) have had on this game says a lot. PD devs, if you're somehow reading this, I want you to know that scrapping old features just 'cause you can is not a good way to handle things. Let Kaz know that seasonal events and shuffle mode were some of the greatest ideas the franchise has ever had, and would potentially save GT7.

 

[Seikenfreak]

I think I'm generally happy with it?

Personally, I'd be more happy if they added a bunch more cars, tracks, and events to the game. I think they've been adding good cars with every update, but it's just not enough. The backlog of cars that should be in the game is so big, I'm not sure if they'll ever catch up. I'd be okay paying for car packs if it meant we got more of them and faster. And I'm not sure how much of their time/resources are taken up by Vision GT but that stuff is a major waste of potential cars being added.

Fix up and flesh out the Custom Race mode: Custom championships, better payouts, multi-class etc. If they can't or don't want to spend a lot of time making new events then they could just do this and we could make our own.

Replace the AI with Sophy.

And also I'd prefer if they spent less time/resources on the E-Sports side of things/Sport mode, assuming they do. I'd hazard a guess they design around and worry too much about balance and competition rather than fun and features.

But I will continue to casually play the game, see where things go, and hope for cool cars with each update!

Edit: Remember that whole "Sell Cars" option everyone was freaking out about and demanding? Once it arrived, I looked through my huge list and I think I sold 1 car? Hope they didn't waste a ton of dev time adding that over the year.

 

[juanffy18]

- Maybe the game right now is really much better, but the lack of offline or a proper offline career mode is the first and main problem for all of us.

- The car list roster is not the worst part but it's a notorious part of the game, we have 450 cars right now but most of them are just nothing, the miss of some great race cars to complete the groups is notorious, GT1, Group C, DTM are a high requested for the comunity, but no VGT for everyone. Some games with less car list feels more complete than GT right now, Pcars 3, Grid Legends for example.

 

[Mariangello]

I think I'm generally happy with it?

Personally, I'd be more happy if they added a bunch more cars, tracks, and events to the game. I think they've been adding good cars with every update, but it's just not enough. The backlog of cars that should be in the game is so big, I'm not sure if they'll ever catch up. I'd be okay paying for car packs if it meant we got more of them and faster. And I'm not sure how much of their time/resources are taken up by Vision GT but that stuff is a major waste of potential cars being added.

Fix up and flesh out the Custom Race mode: Custom championships, better payouts, multi-class etc. If they can't or don't want to spend a lot of time making new events then they could just do this and we could make our own.

Replace the AI with Sophy.

And also I'd prefer if they spent less time/resources on the E-Sports side of things/Sport mode, assuming they do. I'd hazard a guess they design around and worry too much about balance and competition rather than fun and features.

But I will continue to casually play the game, see where things go, and hope for cool cars with each update!

Edit: Remember that whole "Sell Cars" option everyone was freaking out about and demanding? Once it arrived, I looked through my huge list and I think I sold 1 car? Hope they didn't waste a ton of dev time adding that over the year.

Imagine if they change a basic AI with hardest Sophy AI for all the (grind) events. That would mean it would be so much harder to get a lot of credits in a short time. 😄
Honestly, I think they will do it...

 

[Chikane_GTR]

I only have around 4 months with it and have over 450+ hours and I have enjoy my time with it. Buying and driving new cars is just so much fun my car collection is at 371/459 and 495 cars in my garage.


Overall the only thing I hate is the ticket system stuff.

 

[aguia]

Parabéns Gran Turismo 7.
Change a few things for the better and you're still the best game in the world.

 

[Canucks_9419]

Given how the past year has gone, to be honest I have a hard time not feeling like the game should be just releasing now. I have still enjoyed my time with the game this passed year though, strange and unnecessary design and function exemptions and all. 😅

I can't help but feel that these next couple updates will be quite telling as to if they  actually are going to improve the game's problems or not.

 

[Lomic]

This will be an unpopular opinion, but I wish they went all out on Sport mode and improved upon that. I've been playing GT for the past 15 years (and even more casually) and I've never cared for career, caffe, car maintenance, wasting credits on car parts and tires, etc. Have more weekly races and make them pay out drastically more credits (because they are actually challenging, unlike chasing AI), a few time trials every week or two, and an ocassional challenge mode like Hamilton DLC we had in Sport. So yeah, I basically wanted Sport 2, but I understand that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Sophy could change things, but no matter how realistically it behaves, it's still just an AI, that's not fun for me.

I'd wish we could have both, actually we have neither.

 

[XSRacing111]

Played every single day, got the daily workout roulette tickets, and STILL to this day I have yet to receive a single S-Part. I’ve gotten some engines, but no S-Parts, no Ultra Turbos, no Weight Reduction Stage 5s, nothing. Even when I got the few 6-Star Parts tickets from Cafe Menus (including one I got from a daily workout) each time I got kicked in the groin by receiving ceramic brakes for cars I already bought them for at Under Steer. 🤬

Sorry but, Roulette Tickets have GOT TO GO! In their place should be the daily log-in bonus from the past three titles. All S-parts should be purchasable at the Extreme Section of Under Steer, Engines and New Car Bodies when purchased should just be added to your parts inventory to be used later (making engine swapping much easier if you didn’t abuse the glitch from a few months back), and the Invitation Cars should just always be available for purchase.

Just these four implementations would seriously improve the quality of the game. I’ve advocated for S-Parts in the Extreme Section many times, but it’ll never be implemented unless I’m joined by thousands of other players lobbying Kaz for its implementation.

Other than that, I’ve enjoyed my time with the game, especially racing against the cars in my garage even with the lousy AI.

 

[alp]

I haven't played it extensively yet but it does feel short in campaign content compared to older titles, which is a shame given the tracks and the cars in the game. I mean the ingredients are there but somehow PD is not using them.

 

[Sonic939]

For me it has been the SAME, since they still do not remove the permanent connection: https://www.change.org/p/sony-make-gran-turismo-7-available-to-play-offline?signed=true

 

[Benny44]

I'm still enjoying the game, and plan to continue to do so. There are a few issues I personally have - the roulette is one. I'd almost rather they not have it. Or, if they don't want us getting a lot of money, make the prizes $2500, $5000, $10000, and $25000 and make them even odds to get one. And once in a while add in a bigger prize, maybe after 10 days in a row or something. So much more they could do without giving away larger chunks of cash.

And I do wish the payouts were increased a bit more. Another 50% would make it way better. This is one I have hope for actually happening in the near future, or adding seasonal events like GT6 did after quite a while of it being out.

They've fixed the multi-player lobbies immensely, IMO. Race shop, changing tracks, changing conditions. Yeah, it should've been there at the start, but it's here now. You can actually do a race night with friends or run a league now.

I know I'll get destroyed for this, but the whole MT thing seemed WAY blown out of proportion. I didn't even notice it there until I saw people's life ending online because they saw it and their lives were ruined.

All in all, I think my play time may actually increase this year because, after the updates, it feels like a legit GT game

 

[kilesa4568]

The prize wheel is detestable to the point of spamming x and not looking at it, a career mode that lacks coherence and even feels like an afterthought when the finale rolls around so soon and even though Kaz allegedly didn't want it, yet another credit grind that's priced out a lot of cars I might have wanted because I don't want to continually run the same race over and over.

That said, I really like the driving physics. It's not perfect but it's more than good enough to keep me coming back for more.

 

[hardvibes]

In a year I uninstalled it 3-4 times to make space for other games. Unbelievable. A Gran Turismo title. And I was one of the most avid fans of the series.
I played it again to try the 911 RS '73, did a couple of B races on Catalunya and that's it, uninstalled it again.
For ME this game doesn't have anything to offer. I'm not a sim nut, I don't have a wheel (actually I do have the G920 but can't use it on PS4), I don't spend hours and hours tuning cars or doing championships/endurance races. I just want to have casual, fun races with sim physics: take all cars in the game with the best setups and liveries and compete in matchmaking against 15 real opponents on all circuits available for 3-6 laps each race.
The user created lobbies are pointless for me (1-2 players out of 16 in each? Are you kidding me? Aren't you even ashamed of this mode PD? Hard pass), and we all know that Sport mode is always limited with the A-B-C races with no continuous track rotation and always the same cars to choose between. A few months ago I tried to do the B races on repeat, but since it's always on repeat, for an entire week, in the end I get tired of it.
Maybe I've been "spoiled" since I bought my first Forza Motorsport title in 2009, but that's what a fun series must have for me. It is the proof that it's possible to make things fun, despite some flaws. PD just refuse to do so. So I can't keep playing GT. Simple.

EDIT: and the outrageous economy system + the total absence of a career mode offline don't help at all.

 

[Eggstor]

One year later and we have gotten only chance to purchase the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peaks only once from Hagerty's, that's some BS. LOL.

Twice, but it's been gone for nearly 7 months...despite being a featured car in November's GTWS and a time trial based on that.

 

[Yuto55]

Once again, after 1 year i truly expect that the features, which will be the best in the game, to be fully available to buy/earn in any way possible by the players in the next update, engines/invitations/parts, how on earth is still not noticeable for them after 1 year locking the most fun features of the game on ******** ticket mechanics ? Seems like purposely making the game worse for a thing that is already there with no extra work needed.
And while the car updates have been very good, i really liked all the variable selection, there is still some very glaring omissions of recent cars that even 2017 games like PC2 has, but i think they will still include them in the future, maybe more than 3 it will be ideal, i remember even 8 cars came to GT Sport once.
Apart from that the game's great, oh and seasonal events/missions like in GT5/6 are badly needed, a time trial once 2 weeks is very poor.

 

[o000o]

The problem still hasn't been fixed yet, which is the PD staff itself.

 

[Galvston]

i love this game.

 

[RacingFan1]

They have made some good progress, but still, some silly missing features that still are not added, mainly in lobbies... Can't filter by brand? Can't filter by transmission? Can't do the "30 seconds until race start so everyone join now"? All of those were in GT6. SMH.

Also, still there are some ridiculus bugs that remain to be fixed, like the pit bug at the Goodwood track, its been there since GT Sport, still not fixed, I mean... Kaz, "push" your employees further... Lol.

 

[Yard_Sale]

Alternate take here:

I think the fact that PD seemingly is moving at a slower than expected pace with updates, races, cars, features, etc. is very telling that this iteration of Gran Turismo is going to be the Gran Turismo we’ll have for a while. Maybe even the entire life of the PS5 console. I'd be curious to see their internal numbers on how much it cost to produce the game vs how much they've made. It very well could be that they've decided to follow the Grand Theft Auto business plan, and keep updating this version through mostly free DLC, and some paid DLC in the future.

Outside looking in from a non-triggered "the sky is falling - SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!!" viewpoint, PD is waaaaaaaaay too capable of a studio to give us a game with so much potential, yet with substance that falls short in its current state. I can only surmise, that said substance is coming. I still think the pandemic very much screwed them. I also do very much think that we're going to see the PS4 slowly get muscled out of the GT7 landscape. I'm a little more skeptical wether or not they're working on a PC version, but it very much could be a possibility.

One think I'm disappointed with is the Polyphony - Fanatec partnership. Seems like a lot of missed opportunities on several fronts - FFB being the most obvious, but also, GT7 branded peripherals.

Lack of dynamic SP content such as multi-class endurance racing, and seasonal are inexcusable at this stage in the game. But multi-class endurance racing on a sport mode level, comoplete with driver swaps, unfortunately I believe is being held back by cross-platform compatibility.

As for the economy; doesn't bother me. I have a lot of time to build the garage I want.

As for the ~$100 price tag for GT7? Best $100 I've ever spent. Not even close.


Even in its current state, I do believe this is the most "complete" Gran Turismo title to date. The graphics, the physics, the cars, the customization potential, the custom races, and now VR. Pssssssst... I've never had more fun playing a racing game in my life.

 

[kraftwerkd]

I definitely appreciate the tracks and cars that have been added through the year, but I can't help but stress "Where is GT League?". A lot of the player indignation would have been avoided by just having a well-crafted GT League like every other numbered iteration.

And I don't want to discount the technical feats of the game either. VR looks absolutely mega and I can't wait to try it, the atmosphere effects on the circuits is top-tier, the car models are all top-notch, and even for all of its faults, the actual driving simulation is pretty darn tootin'.

But that to me doesn't qualify for a quality experience. You need something that's going to draw the player back on their own volition, not by hanging a carrot in front of their face with Roulette prizes, daily mileage thresholds, UCD/LCD rotations, etc.

I'm a Warframe player. I know when a company uses all of their resources to make a game that feeds on addiction, because that is exactly what Warframe does.* It draws you back, but in a compelling fashion. There's always a reason to 'chase the carrot' so to speak, a goal to achieve, something with meaning.

Polyphony and GT7 have failed spectacularly in this regard.* It's obvious (where's your proof, huh?) all these F2P/MMO-lite systems are there for one reason and one reason only - boost daily player engagement and make players chase a carrot. But they don't give you a good reason to login every day. Grind the same 4 races for a week to be able to buy a $20M Legends car you can't use in any of the World Circuit races? Build up a grid of LMP1's to race around the N24 in a Custom Race with AI that can't even use the full range of the throttle?

At least in past titles there was that push to make it up the leagues, get further through the progression, test yourself in an endurance race, get faster and faster. Now that seems to only exist in the online domain. What else do you have?* Cafe Menus? GTF outta here with that nonsense and do not talk to my son.

Y'know, and maybe some people don't need that. Maybe they just enjoy taking whatever car is in their garage against pathetically programmed AI that sandbags itself on purpose. People also like pineapple on their pizza, so I won't judge.

The only compelling reason that draws me to play GT7 is because I like cars, and the cars I like along with some of the circuits I like just so happen to be in the game. The visual tuning options are a nice bonus to the classic GT tuning system. But everything surrounding that, including the totally unimaginative and downright insulting AI gets me soured on the experience not too long after turning the game on.

I would like for, and do hope for, a better experience. I know PD have it in them to knock it out of the park for us Single Players, the inevitable Spec 2.0 has to have a GT League (mega-cope) somewhere in there, please..

It's getting to the point I'm at the Bargaining stage with PD/GT7.

*I linked to some commentary videos that provide additional insight that I think is valid.

 

[Techlet]

Alternate take here:

I think the fact that PD seemingly is moving at a slower than expected pace with updates, races, cars, features, etc. is very telling that this iteration of Gran Turismo is going to be the Gran Turismo we’ll have for a while. Maybe even the entire life of the PS5 console. I'd be curious to see their internal numbers on how much it cost to produce the game vs how much they've made. It very well could be that they've decided to follow the Grand Theft Auto business plan, and keep updating this version through mostly free DLC, and some paid DLC in the future.

Alternatively they could very well decide to go the Forza/F1/EA route and turn GT into a yearly sports game release.

Is it likely? Who knows. PD goes above and beyond to not communicate with its customers.

 

[SuperSportX]

I still have the same feelings as the first few weeks after playing the game, the base is pretty much almost perfect though the mechanics could really use a ton of work.

DLC is too slow and the fact that we only get 3-4 cars at a time doesn't help as the DLC is largely hit or miss as far as the content goes though that's my personal opinion. With GT Sport it's clear that PD could pump out 10 cars a month if they wanted to, though for some reason they choose not to with GT7.

Car classes such as Gr.2 and F1 being pretty much forgotten about which sucks as they make for some of the funnest custom races; the Gr.2 class also has probably the widest performance gap i've seen of non-BOP cars, the 08 and older GT500 cars might as well be Gr.3 as the newer cars easily beat those and the GT1 cars are even better.

Not enough events and we need more actual endurance events, also more high paying events too as since release we only really have 3 decent paying events. If we had a Le Mans 700 type event for every track and atleast one of each class such as Gr.3, Gr.2, 850PP, 950PP .etc then the game wouldn't be such a grindfest since you would be able to earn decent credits doing events that you actually want to do.

Locking mechanics such as invites and engine swaps behind tickets has to be one of the worst mechanics I have seen in a racing game, the invites in particular could've been executed so much better than they currently are.

Car sounds are a 7.5/10 in my opinion, they all pretty much sound correct though alot of the racecars sound too muffled/muted compared to their real counterparts when not using 1st person.

Custom races would be perfect if we had higher payouts, I honestly would not need any new events at all if the custom races paid out atleast 10-15x what they do now.

Overall the car list is solid and so is the track list IMO, it's just that there aren't enough events to really use alot of the cars unless you nerf them to a lower PP, they could have even included events from previous GTs and no one would've complained. GT4 had probably the best event list of all of the GT games and they could've just added all of those + some new ones.

 

[NW_Saint]

It's simply the best..

There it is..

People can complain and b**** all they want, but the reality is it's a pretty badass sim.. especially having to wait for it after all these years... yeah, I dig it!


NW.

 

[GTboyz]

I, like most people commented here feels the same. The game was great for a few months but it got stale.

From technical side, this game is amazing. Sure the lobbies are still a mess (at least on my end, never successfully got into a single lobby other than Sport Mode) but the graphics, sounds and physics are quite well done and probably the best one in the series. The attention to detail is quite insane too. The VR seems to be quite successful as a lot of people are praising it (I personally not that interested in it but it's cool that people are enjoying it).

Now from career progression, economy and some of PD design choices, it's still a huge mess IMO :
-There are still only 4 high paying races since last year and most races aren't varied enough that some cars don't have events to use.
-The Legendary Car rotation is so screwed that few cars hasn't cycled back to the dealership.
-The absolute terrible roulette system, brand invitation, how hard it is to get new engines (most probably we wouldn't ever get in this lifetime lol). The bonanza and Tomahawk glitch for the most part were the most fun times I and some other people had back then 😂
-The increasing of the cars value while new races still pays so low.
-Custom races rewards not paying enough.
-Updates still feels a bit dripfed IMO but at least a bit better than the 1st few months.

I played this game everyday up until around November. December onwards I only play for a bit after each update drops. Honestly I'm just disappointed because this game is what made me get a PS4 in the 1st place, I guess I expected too much. Photomode is still fun though but I miss the old career mode. On the other hand, I'm kinda glad that other people that never played GT before are starting to like the game, especially after the VR update drops. I don't think I would buy another GT after this unless they fixed the problems in this one.

Still, happy 1st anniversary Gran Turismo 7.

 

[Benny44]

Alternate take here:

I think the fact that PD seemingly is moving at a slower than expected pace with updates, races, cars, features, etc. is very telling that this iteration of Gran Turismo is going to be the Gran Turismo we’ll have for a while. Maybe even the entire life of the PS5 console. I'd be curious to see their internal numbers on how much it cost to produce the game vs how much they've made. It very well could be that they've decided to follow the Grand Theft Auto business plan, and keep updating this version through mostly free DLC, and some paid DLC in the future.

Outside looking in from a non-triggered "the sky is falling - SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!!" viewpoint, PD is waaaaaaaaay too capable of a studio to give us a game with so much potential, yet with substance that falls short in its current state. I can only surmise, that said substance is coming. I still think the pandemic very much screwed them. I also do very much think that we're going to see the PS4 slowly get muscled out of the GT7 landscape. I'm a little more skeptical wether or not they're working on a PC version, but it very much could be a possibility.

One think I'm disappointed with is the Polyphony - Fanatec partnership. Seems like a lot of missed opportunities on several fronts - FFB being the most obvious, but also, GT7 branded peripherals.

Lack of dynamic SP content such as multi-class endurance racing, and seasonal are inexcusable at this stage in the game. But multi-class endurance racing on a sport mode level, comoplete with driver swaps, unfortunately I believe is being held back by cross-platform compatibility.

As for the economy; doesn't bother me. I have a lot of time to build the garage I want.

As for the ~$100 price tag for GT7? Best $100 I've ever spent. Not even close.


Even in its current state, I do believe this is the most "complete" Gran Turismo title to date. The graphics, the physics, the cars, the customization potential, the custom races, and now VR. Pssssssst... I've never had more fun playing a racing game in my life.

I agree with much of this, especially the slow play by PD. I think we're going to get some good content in the coming months. GT6 had MTs I believe (could be wrong, going from memory) and the economy was not great. Eventually we got ways to make extra money, but - again if memory serves - it was a long time after launch. I think there's still lots of hope.

Also, to anyone complaining about Sport mode lobbies - join a league! There's plenty right here on this site, and you'll probably find someone that suits your wants https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/board/gt7-leagues-online-racing.456/ . Having actual accountability makes people race clean. Or cleaner, at least.

 

[brockie]

I think they’ve done a good job with this, lots of new content, personally, I look forward to each Monday and new dailies to tackle.

Platinum came pretty quickly I have to say, so I’m even back on gt sport the last few months, finishing the 322/91/65 online.

I’d like to see a little more variety in the online, I will only race in the b category, so it would nice to have some further category to race, mini, Clio cup, gr.1, f1, oval nascar?

Overall for £60 this is a proper value game

 

[engrmariano]

here’s my 1 year looks like.

 

[05XR8]

Wasn’t logged on 365 days, due to the GT7 blackout and me being away on holiday.

 

[kartman21]

GT7 could be great, it have a nice car collection, a good driving feeling, good customisation, but the economy is broken and the solo campaign is just empty compare to the older GT games.

It has the potential to be great, but the lack of events and the hability to earn some serious money make me leave this game, too bad.

I do not mention the dayly workout gift with always the minimal price...

It's been one year, and sadly the game doesn't seem to evolve in the right direction, how could you pretend to buy the legend cars at 20 Millions or more when the earnings are so low ?