I’m not a big fan of Gran Turismo as a series, and in particular Gran Turismo 7, which I consider a step back from the entertaining Gran Turismo Sport. Gran Turismo 7 is too outdated for my taste. It contains way too much grind for me, and I hate this old, stale practice beyond belief. The whole business of presenting cars and the automobile as holy scripture in a 19th century library just doesn’t sit well with me and my ideas. Today, I search for “something more” when I spend time inside a virtual car. Something more racing flavored, something more substantial, more real motorsport focused and of course I have no desire to pay $30 to unlock a car in a game I’ve already paid $80 for $ more.
That being said, Polyphony has continued to polish the driving experience in Gran Turismo 7 and, after fixing a bunch of bugs, GT7 online racing has been pretty good over the past six months. Moreover, the graphics are incredibly attractive and the feeling of speed is the best in a GT game. Driving an Audi R8 GTE through the northern loop is very different from doing the same thing, for example, in Assetto Corsa. There’s clearly more speed in Polyphony’s latest work, and if you lower the “field of view” settings in nearly every other racing sim, there’s not much that can compete with Gran Turismo. 7.
For a little over a day, GT7 has also been fully compatible with PS VR2, and we’re talking about the full game, in VR. Forget those few contentless, fast-paced VR races that were a very limited part of Gran Turismo Sport (and PSVR), here, as I said, it’s perfectly possible to run through every inch of Yamauchi’s latest homage to the car, with the new plastic Sony Headphones on the head. And it works very, very well.
Advertisement:
I have done races in VR. The best until a few days ago, in my opinion, was Automobilista 2, whose VR support was repeatedly praised by many speed-mad gamers. Dirt Rally 2.0, Codemasters’ brilliant rally sim, also supports VR, as does Assetto Corsa, iRacing and Raceroom. However, none of them can compete with the VR support and the quality of its implementation in Gran Turismo 7, and of course Polyphony has all the credit.
GT7 on PS VR2 is a fantastic experience out of the box. The feeling of total immersion when I get into my Ferrari F40 with my helmet on for my first race is something every racing fan must experience. Two years ago, we knew that Polyphony had spent more time inside GT7 cars than virtually any other developer in the genre, but now, in my opinion, is where it really stands out: while seated, I can lean over to take a look at the materials of the steering wheel and the buttons on the dashboard. The plastic feels like plastic, the carbon fiber feels like carbon fiber, and there’s a feeling of depth that I don’t think any other game in the racing genre can match. The distance between me and the steering wheel, between the steering wheel and the front windshield, between the front windshield and the hood, and between the headlights and the road, is so convincing and well tuned that it absorbs me and I can’t help but be surprised many times in my first three races.
There are definitely some minor issues with scaling, in my opinion. My hands and legs look very small, but it can be assumed that they are inspired by a Japanese racing driver and not a 2 meter tall adult from northern Sweden as is the case , so the only small complaint I have here should be ignored. The sharpness, clarity, depth and smoothness of the image offered by PS VR2 make Gran Turismo 7 the perfect game to test out your newly acquired PS VR2. Because it’s not Horizon: Call of the Mountain or Resident Evil: Village, the “killer app” for the new PS Vr2 headset is, without a doubt, Gran Turismo 7.
Advertisement: