Gran Turismo 7 Review: Return of the King

[Monkey Man]

...it started by forcing me to do the weird "musical rally" thing with some of the most atrocious "music" I've heard in a long, long time, "Hooked on classics," a medley of well-known classical pieces - all heavily quantized to line up with the trite four-on-the-floor drum beat that's mixed in, telling me to "enjoy it." That just felt stupid

It wasn't "heavily quantised". Wasn't quantised at all.

It was a big hit worldwide in 1981, using the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and selling many millions of copies. I remember it well 'cause it had people scratching their heads even back then, but it was seen as a possible gateway to peeps' beginning to appreciate classical music.

 

[o000o]

To give the AI even the tiniest chance, probably.

And I suspect this is also the reason why Qualifying got removed. It's wrong to say PD has never known about Qualifying or such, as they did implement that in GT1, GT3, and GT4 (championship only).

 

[ArR29]

That's the craziest part, Kaz has raced professionally. He knows exactly how real racing works, so as I say, the catch up rolling start format is an "artistic" choice.

The problem here is the way they structured the main single player campaign. It was obviously design for grinding and they want the player to win all the time. Sport mode has all the proper racing structure. It has qualifying, damage, point system, grid and more realistic rolling start. A single player version of sport mode where you race with AIs instead of real people would probably be a good alternative.

 

[Skinny McLean]

It wasn't "heavily quantised". Wasn't quantised at all.

It was a big hit worldwide in 1981, using the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and selling many millions of copies. I remember it well 'cause it had people scratching their heads even back then, but it was seen as a possible gateway to peeps' beginning to appreciate classical music.

All live-recorded music played by humans that can be perfectly synchronized with a drum machine was either quantized, recorded to a metronome or click track (or to a drum machine, of course,) all of which produces the same effect. Maybe the RPO recorded it that way? I don't know. But I'm glad to hear that it's forty years old, though, and not something new. Either way, my point still stands - I found it entirely dreadful. It actually makes "A fifth of Beethoven" sound like a masterpiece.

 

[Monkey Man]

Yeah, wasn't arguing your point mate, just correcting your assertion that it was quantised.

They obviously recorded it to a click track 'cause audio-quantising technology only appeared decades later.

 

[slthree]

Help, Please

1. I bought a 25th anniversary edition and I don't see my 1.5 million credits

2. Is there any way to get rid of that horrible band at the bottom of the screen with all the different information squares?

3. How do I get out of that circuit Cafe menu thing to set up a custom race?

 

[Rotax2020]

Expensive microtransactions are making this a worde launch-day :-(

 

[o000o]

The problem here is the way they structured the main single player campaign. It was obviously design for grinding and they want the player to win all the time. Sport mode has all the proper racing structure. It has qualifying, damage, point system, grid and more realistic rolling start. A single player version of sport mode where you race with AIs instead of real people would probably be a good alternative.

The opposite of it; there should be an option to race online or offline on each of the events, like events like GT Cup being given a choice for online or offline; the AI will fill the rest of the grid if the players who enter isn't full.

 

[anxiety24]

After being into the story for about 2h I actually like the new gameplay. I honestly think they got the progression thing right this time, but need more playing time to verify. By now, the races on the world tracks are pretty easy with a car matching the points.

Regarding the AI difficulty:
I preordered and therefor got the two GT3 cars, and gave them a try at the Suzuka GT3 Cup race. I'm a B(+)-Player in Sport Mode but the AI gave me a real challenge keeping up with them. They are really quick out of the corners and I even noticed them defending the racing line approaching corners after the long straight, so in sum they are really fast and decent. I tried setting the difficulty to "normal" then, but almost couldn't feel a difference. Don't know if its just me having to get used to the physics again after not playing for quite some time...

Same is with the track experiences: If I remember correctly, this was no challenge at all on GT Sport, and I completed almost all sections on familiar tracks in gold on the first attempt. In GT7, I hardly got silver on the first sector in Suzuka and just got close to gold on brands hatch, which I (thought I) know quite well.

All in all, I really like the game, the gameplay and of course the graphics. To me, its like a breath of fresh air after GT Sport and I'm curious what they have in store for us in the future (updates, DLC, etc.) Of course I would have loved to give the new cars like the F8 or AMG Black Series a try immediately, but its ok that you need to be in a game for a certain amount of time to get there. Just like in open world titles, where your character is weak and the map is undiscovered in the beginning.

 

[Imari]

That's the impression I've always gotten - if they were human players, it'd be like they're afraid to press R2 more than halfway. Through rose-tinted glasses I always remembered GT4 AI being at least faster, but I just ran an Arcade Race with 10/10 difficulty and had a significant lead carved out just a few minutes in. I guess that was passable in the PS2 era, but jeez, this really has been an issue for a very long time.

It's been an issue since the first game basically. The difference then was that bad AI was the norm in just about every racing game, and the power of the hardware available (and general state of AI programming knowledge) meant that there were good reasons why the AI was never going to be spectacular.

As the years went on that became less and less the case, and somewhere in the late-PS2/early-PS3 generation the Gran Turismo AI fell to a level that was substandard compared to other games of the time. They've made incremental improvements, but they still seem set on making sure that it's unable to challenge anyone who can hold down the accelerator and keep a car mostly on the road.

That's fine, there's people that works for but the complete ignorance of anyone with driving skills higher than a bunch of asparagus is a gaping hole in the gameplay. GT Legends and GTR2 did better than this more than 15 years ago.

Obviously PD is aware! Unfortunately their solution was not ready to be implemented into GT7 at launch. We have to wait and see what improvements Sophy will make and those who are disappointed with the AI and have not bought the game will simply wait. It's not good business on part of PD but the alternative would have been to delay the game substantially until sophy was ready.

They're aware, but they think that the way that the AI is in game now is good. This is intentional design.

GT4 and earlier it could have been hardware or programming limitations, but the fact that the career AI has performed basically the same since GT5 means we know it's a design decision. This is what Polyphony thinks good gameplay looks like, and even if they had better AI they wouldn't give it to you in career mode because that's not how they want a career to work.

They want short chase-the-rabbit races against slow cars. They think that's what the players want. People keep buying it, so it's hard to say that they're wrong.

 

[o000o]

After being into the story for about 2h I actually like the new gameplay. I honestly think they got the progression thing right this time, but need more playing time to verify. By now, the races on the world tracks are pretty easy with a car matching the points.

Regarding the AI difficulty:
I preordered and therefor got the two GT3 cars, and gave them a try at the Suzuka GT3 Cup race. I'm a B(+)-Player in Sport Mode but the AI gave me a real challenge keeping up with them. They are really quick out of the corners and I even noticed them defending the racing line approaching corners after the long straight, so in sum they are really fast and decent. I tried setting the difficulty to "normal" then, but almost couldn't feel a difference. Don't know if its just me having to get used to the physics again after not playing for quite some time...

The GT3 Cup Race? I guess those races have independent difficulty settings separate from the options, shown in how those events have peppers on it (ranging from 1 to 5).

How many peppers for the event you played there?

 

[CHEN255]

Playing on PS5 & 65" OLED

The quickest review....

3 hours in......do not fear, it's brilliant!!!!

Yes, it's a slow burner at first, but really enjoyed it and I am blown away with the graphics and gameplay. It feels so different to GT Sport, but in a really good way. It takes about 2 hours or so to unlock multiplayer. AI are poor on career BUT set up a custom race and they are actually decent!! Way better than on sport, actually gave me a challenge.
Sound, really good.
Graphics, insane!
Physics, a massive step up from GT Sport! Great fun when all assists are off
Weather and time, rain is amazing, night looks stunning

Ray Tracing mode - Don't bother! It's not worth the sacrifice in performance. The performance mode is absolutely fine

Bugs? A few, a little bit of lag on replays (in performance mode when full grid, or certain tracks/time. 95% of the time, it's like butter

Wants? Full VR support on the new headset due next year, this would be a game changer!

Happy? Oh yes

So glad to read your impressions of Custom Race Mode. This was one of my go to modes in GTS and to find out that the AI is harder than in GTS is music to my ears, because I found them to be plenty hard enough in GTS. I’ll check out Custom Races once i get some decent cars.

 

[CHEN255]

The problem here is the way they structured the main single player campaign. It was obviously design for grinding and they want the player to win all the time. Sport mode has all the proper racing structure. It has qualifying, damage, point system, grid and more realistic rolling start. A single player version of sport mode where you race with AIs instead of real people would probably be a good alternative.

Custom Race Mode with qualifying and the other things you mention would be job done.

 

[anxiety24]

The GT3 Cup Race? I guess those races have independent difficulty settings separate from the options, shown in how those events have peppers on it (ranging from 1 to 5).
View attachment 1119735
How many peppers for the event you played there?

Ahh, makes sense - explains why there are the peppers! If I remember correct, it was also 2-3 peppers out of the 5 - but hard to image how 5/5 peppers will play out then...

I didn't finish the races though yet (quitted early), so maybe they do make pitstops and refuel on the last lap (even if they certainly don't have to)

 

[Mr_D]

Very disappointing to hear about the AI. I knew it would likely be this way because there was no indication it wouldnt be and every indication (all previous iterations) that it would be bad. Real shame.

I'm on the fence now. I'll get it eventually but probably at a sale..

 

[mariodiniz21]

Having played all the GTs since GT1, and most of the racing simulators, I'm so happy with GT7 after playing for 1.5 hours last night.

Some might say the tire physics feel the same as GT Sport but that is so so wrong, the cars in GT7 feel so much better, more natural, alive and much more realistic at the limit, finally I can control the car over the limit again, like I do in real life, they don't have the same unrealistic behavior as in GT Sport, this is a huge improvement and so much fun. GT5 was good, but the physics were screwed on GT6 and GT Sport, I wasn't expecting at all that PD would correct these issues in GT7 but they did. Can't wait to get out of work today.

The car sounds are still crap, but who cares... the king is definitely back, at least for me!

 

[o000o]

Very disappointing to hear about the AI. I knew it would likely be this way because there was no indication it wouldnt be and every indication (all previous iterations) that it would be bad. Real shame.

I'm on the fence now. I'll get it eventually but probably at a sale..

For most of the preview (until the 2nd trailer) yeah there were no indication (like the car sounds in GTS being improved after hiring Mike Caviezel while all previous iterations have terrible "vacuum cleaner" sounds). But close before release Sophy was announced but they did said that it'd be available at GT7 in future but not in launch.

The car sounds are still crap, but who cares... the king is definitely back, at least for me!

How did you think that the car sounds are crap?? Car sounds aren't always exaggerated. GTS already made the car sounds pretty good.

 

[TotosaLoko]

I was watching videos of the Le Mans circuit, the quality of the details of the environment around the track still inconsistent, with a lack of attention to detail as it was before, with some objects, textures and buildings coming straight from the Playstation 2. Disappointing. 😢

 

[Strittan]

This is a rollercoaster like nothing I’ve experienced before. First I hated it, then I really enjoyed it, now I’m almost back to hating it again.

The horrible AI along with the insane distance of which the cars are spread out during the rolling starts is the big party pooper. With horrible AI I don’t necessarily mean slow either, but stupid, always in your way, unsportsmanlike and unpredictable.

Then there’s the constant messages from all the annoying characters. Oh, and the campaign itself is waaaay too linear. It’s not as if you can just skip the menu books either, because you want to unlock everything on the map first, right?

Navigating through menus still feels as slow as ever, despite the fast loading times on PS5.

Oh yeah, and the HUD is too busy and not customisable either.

The cons outnumber the pros so far. I’m sure I’ll live it whenever I’ve unlocked everything, but who knows when that’ll be.

 

[Rotax2020]

I think its clear that PD needs to bring patches

• better AI
• more custimization of HUD / remove wheel in cockpit
• lower prices for microtransactions

 

[mariodiniz21]

For most of the preview (until the 2nd trailer) yeah there were no indication (like the car sounds in GTS being improved after hiring Mike Caviezel while all previous iterations have terrible "vacuum cleaner" sounds). But close before release Sophy was announced but they did said that it'd be available at GT7 in future but not in launch.

How did you think that the car sounds are crap?? Car sounds aren't always exaggerated. GTS already made the car sounds pretty good.

Most cars still sound like vacuums, based on the limited amount I played last night.

 

[jrbabbitt]

Help, Please

1. I bought a 25th anniversary edition and I don't see my 1.5 million credits

2. Is there any way to get rid of that horrible band at the bottom of the screen with all the different information squares?

3. How do I get out of that circuit Cafe menu thing to set up a custom race?

I had bought the 25th also, I got my money, cars, music on my primary account, on alt account I got all but the credits. Can anyone explain...

 

[o000o]

Most cars still sound like vacuums, based on the limited amount I played last night.

These are vacuums and these are GTS' sound:

 

[klondike]

Does the game support PS VR in any modes at all ?

 

[Mr_D]

This is a rollercoaster like nothing I’ve experienced before. First I hated it, then I really enjoyed it, now I’m almost back to hating it again.

The horrible AI along with the insane distance of which the cars are spread out during the rolling starts is the big party pooper. With horrible AI I don’t necessarily mean slow either, but stupid, always in your way, unsportsmanlike and unpredictable.

Then there’s the constant messages from all the annoying characters. Oh, and the campaign itself is waaaay too linear. It’s not as if you can just skip the menu books either, because you want to unlock everything on the map first, right?

Navigating through menus still feels as slow as ever, despite the fast loading times on PS5.

Oh yeah, and the HUD is too busy and not customisable either.

The cons outnumber the pros so far. I’m sure I’ll live it whenever I’ve unlocked everything, but who knows when that’ll be.

Ugh yeah that HUD thing has allways been GTs hallmark. This is our HUD, take it or leave it

 

[DonZonda]

After playing several hours I somewhat find the cars lose grip way too easy especially FR cars oversteering like crazy with the smalles amount of throttle even on sport tires. I felt that especially in the License test on suzuka with the NSX in the hairpain. Almost Impossible to get it straight out of that corner...
I also spun out several Times on high speed ring and blue moon bay in high speed corners. Suddenly the rear feels like on ice.

 

[gigio79]

GT7 is a racing game, my opinion is that priority should not be the quality of the images but that of the game. GT7 must be beautiful to play, entertain and fill the servers with users. GT sport has been doing this for over 4 years, I hope it will be the same for GT7. I got a mail from Amazon saying this evening they will delivery the game to my home. Can't wait to begin new era.

 

[Scaff]

My first thoughts

 

[mariodiniz21]

These are vacuums and these are GTS' sound:

I'm not worried about the sounds, some cars are okay others aren't. To me most sound synthesized, and not mechanical, engine sound, gearshift sounds, etc. all a bit fake like always had.

I care much more about the driving physics.

 

[pburford]

I have now played a couple of hours of the game and as yet I cannot say I had much fun, perhaps I was spoilt by the simplicity of GT Sport but GT 7 seems overloaded with side activities that I have to complete to actually get to the good stuff. If I have to do many more chase the rabbit 2 lap races I think will be seriously pi**ed off.