Gran Turismo sets the pace for its rivals
(PEGI 3) PS4, PS5 ★★★★I
THERE was a time when nothing could hold a candle to the Gran Turismo series.
Released in 1997 it took what players knew about racing games and threw it out the window.
While you could whizz around track after track in arcade mode, it was the game’s simulation mode that really caught players’ attention and saw it live up to its subtitle ‘The Real Driving Simulator.’
It boasted a huge roster of vehicles, from top-of-the-range ‘dream’ cars, to beat-up classics that you could spend time lovingly tweaking and upgrading until you were racing with the best in your Citroën Saxo.
Since then it has had a few tricky laps around the block, arguably hitting its peak in 2004 with Gran Turismo 4.
But all of that is about to change. It’s been more than eight years since the last mainline Gran Turismo release, and that was unbelievably on the PS3. So it’s fitting that in its 25th year, the game should finally make its debut on the new generation Playstation.
Since its development was announced in 2020, series producer Kazunori Yamauchi has been keen to point out that this would be the game that took the series back to its roots. And that’s a very good thing. If you’ve never dipped your toe into the GT waters then you’ll find a game that is completely accessible from the word go.
New players can get hours of training races and tasks that ease you into the world of GT.
All of this takes place in the Gran Turismo Café, a hub which sits at the centre of the GT map and walks players through every aspect of the game, from racing and licences, to car buying and customisation.
It’s one of the most comprehensive inductions I’ve ever tried, and it never once felt like a tutorial.
So by the time I found myself at the starting line, and the famous race countdown sounded, I knew the game almost instinctively. I even found myself revving the engine along to the pips, muscle memory kicking in from decades ago.
You don’t need me to tell you that GT7’S graphics are stunning – jaw droppingly, leap-out-of-the-screen stunning.
The cars glide across the tracks, paintwork glinting in the sun as you battle for first place, and even though ray tracing isn’t supported during the actual races, the graphics still look sublime at 60fps.
Attention to detail is phenomenal, with each car painstakingly mapped and modelled to make the driving experience as real as possible.
Even the weather patterns are simulated according to the annual meteorological data for each track’s location.
That driving realism is elevated by the PS5’S controller, using haptic feedback, more dynamic use of the controller’s adaptive triggers and 3D spatial audio, to make it feel like you’re genuinely in the driving seat.
There’s an impressive roster of cars, with more than 400 makes and models to set about collecting.
The car-collecting campaign isn’t quite as straightforward as in previous titles though, and you’ll find yourself oddly constrained at the start, with little mini-lectures to sit through that give facts and figures about various models.
While I can see this being a huge plus for car aficionados, for those – like me – who just want to add a shiny new car to their collection, it does slow the process somewhat.
Speaking of slow, earning money from races can feel glacial, and you’ll find that in the first few hours you’ll win more cars than you’ll be able to purchase.
While payouts are low, upgrade costs can be eye wateringly high. And that leads me to the game’s biggest downside – microtransactions.
The good thing is that nothing in the game is hidden behind a paywall, you can earn your credits through races and save up for the vehicle of your heart’s desire.
But for those who are less patient, you can pay cold hard cash for credits, ranging from £1.99 for 100,000 credits, to £15.99 for two million credits.
The most expensive car in the Legends area is around three million credits – roughly £28 – and these cars are on rotation, meaning if your fantasy car appears, you have a limitedtime to nab it before it’s gone.
And if you think £28 is steep, then you’ll be horrified to hear that the game’s rarest vehicles can set you back 20 million credits – £160. That’s more than twice the price of the game itself.
Add to this the fact you can no longer sell cars you don’t want to earn credits towards buying the model of your dreams, and you can see why grumbles about microtransactions are already taking the shine off what is an exceptional game.
This is easily the most fun I’ve had with a Gran Turismo game in a long time, feeling as much a celebration of cars as the series itself.