After a slow period following the end of year holiday season, Gran Turismo updates return with a pretty major one. PSVR2 support was of course expected, but it's not coming alone: the addition of Sophy just a year after being unveiled to the public, and the arrival of long awaited fans favourite. And of course, new cars.
PSVR2 support was avertised a while ago already, and a few priviledged guests got the opportunity to test it, with everyone speaking highly of it, and nobody so far has complained about feeling sick after using PSVR2 on GT7. VR is supported on the whole game, including Sport Mode and Showrooms, with the exception of split screen. Please note that PSVR2 is PS5 exclusive.
Sony's deep learning racing AI, Sophy, also finds its way into Gran Turismo 7 with this update under the form of seasonal events that allow players to race against 4 AI opponent, with different difficulty levels to choose from. Sophys will make their mood known to you via emotes and sounds, and provide more human-like racing. Sophy is only available on the PS5 version of the game though - which was to be expected, a complex AI like this being extremely CPU hungry. And it works really well: Sophy is well aware of its surroundings, will avoid crashing into you even when you're performing unexpected manoeuvers, use advanced techniques like left foot braking with partial throttle on front wheel drive cars, and throw dummies and feint moves at you to overtake.
Fun fact: the sound assets seem to be taken from the Toyota Pod concept, a car featured in Gran Turismo Concept 2002 which expressed emotions through light diffusers, sounds, and a wagging dog tail.
Long time Gran Turismo fans will be happy to hear that absolute classic Grand Valley is returning to the track roster, although the makeover makes it hard to recognize at first glance and might prompt mixed feelings. It is now even named Highway instead of Speedway. With Polyphony Digital's efforts to get every original track matched to a real world location and terrain, and the highly fantasy nature of the original track, it was already mentionned a few times in the past that this track would be a challenge to port to the studio's current standards.
Amazingly, they found a way to fit the original layout, mostly untouched, onto the Pacific Coast of California, even reproducing local architecture such as the Ragged Point Inn & Resort or the Coronado Bridge. The track has been modeled more like a road, using markings and signs fashioned like those of the famous Highway 1, but still retains racetrack like width despite appearances. A myriad of easter eggs have found their way on and around the circuit as well: trying to find them all if you own the game could keep you busy for a while.
Last part of the main content additions, 4 new cars make their way into GT7, with 3 classics and a new VGT. First is the 1970 Citroën DS21 Pallas, at the time a flagship for french technology and luxury. It was famous for it's hydro-pneumatic suspension system, and for being one of the rare french cars to be exported to the USA. The DS21 is also famous for having saved french president De Gaulle's life from an assassination attempt.
Following is the original Porsche 911 from 1973, in its rare Carrera RS 2.7 form. This is the car which basically set the trend for ducktail spoilers... and a lot of racing records. Its value has gone up tremendously in recent years, and the game reflects that with a 750.000 Cr price tag.
Interesting and unexpected addition, we have an old Formula 1 car from 1965, a time when these cars had no wings and produced lift at high speeds rather than downforce. The Honda RA272 is known for being the first Japanese car to ever win a F1 Grand Prix (1965 Mexico GP). Its small 1.5 V12 engine will happily scream into your speakers as it revs way past 10.000 rpm.
Finally, we get a new Vision GT car from Italdesign, the EXENEO. The car features a rear mid mounted hybrid V10 engine outputting a total of 1200 hp, and is available in 2 versions: the regular Street one, and an Offroad version with larger tyres and higher ride height.
Photo mode gets its own update as well with a new feature: Drift Mode in Scapes. As the name suggests, this allows you to take pictures of a drifting car, and it does it in a very interesting way: you get sliders to adjust the line travelled by the car indepedently of the angle it's oriented, the steering angle, and even the amount, thickness and texture of the smoke (which allows you to match it to dirt or snowy surfaces for instance). It is also possible to pick which wheels are producing the smoke, and the option is not tied to the car's drivetrain, meaning you do stupid things like make the tutorial's RX-7 look like it's doing a burnout from the front wheels.
Moreover, it turns out this feature is also very useful for regular dynamic scapes pictures: you can turn the smoke effect completely off and just use the feature to get a finer control of how you want the car to move across the scene.
The update also adds a bunch of minor features and bug fixes, with a little Quality of Life addition to lobbies in the form of a results screen that can be accessed after a race. Dirty air on "real" slipstream setting seem to have been reduced - which is a good thing as it was overly exagerated before, to the point the World Tour build of the game used a different version of it. BoP changes affect the in-game classes, and Sport Mode gets the ability to restrict specific setup options for races - a feature that would be desperately needed in lobbies as well, but like many other Sport Mode specific features, the mysteries of Polyphony Digital's game design decisions keep holding back important features away from most players and crippling lobbies' potential.
Overall, this update is really nice, although only PS5 users will get the most out of it. The game still needs to fix some important underlying issues it has by design, especially regarding the single player career experience and lobbies.
Find the full patchnotes on the next page of this article.
PSVR2 support was avertised a while ago already, and a few priviledged guests got the opportunity to test it, with everyone speaking highly of it, and nobody so far has complained about feeling sick after using PSVR2 on GT7. VR is supported on the whole game, including Sport Mode and Showrooms, with the exception of split screen. Please note that PSVR2 is PS5 exclusive.
Sony's deep learning racing AI, Sophy, also finds its way into Gran Turismo 7 with this update under the form of seasonal events that allow players to race against 4 AI opponent, with different difficulty levels to choose from. Sophys will make their mood known to you via emotes and sounds, and provide more human-like racing. Sophy is only available on the PS5 version of the game though - which was to be expected, a complex AI like this being extremely CPU hungry. And it works really well: Sophy is well aware of its surroundings, will avoid crashing into you even when you're performing unexpected manoeuvers, use advanced techniques like left foot braking with partial throttle on front wheel drive cars, and throw dummies and feint moves at you to overtake.
Fun fact: the sound assets seem to be taken from the Toyota Pod concept, a car featured in Gran Turismo Concept 2002 which expressed emotions through light diffusers, sounds, and a wagging dog tail.
Long time Gran Turismo fans will be happy to hear that absolute classic Grand Valley is returning to the track roster, although the makeover makes it hard to recognize at first glance and might prompt mixed feelings. It is now even named Highway instead of Speedway. With Polyphony Digital's efforts to get every original track matched to a real world location and terrain, and the highly fantasy nature of the original track, it was already mentionned a few times in the past that this track would be a challenge to port to the studio's current standards.
Amazingly, they found a way to fit the original layout, mostly untouched, onto the Pacific Coast of California, even reproducing local architecture such as the Ragged Point Inn & Resort or the Coronado Bridge. The track has been modeled more like a road, using markings and signs fashioned like those of the famous Highway 1, but still retains racetrack like width despite appearances. A myriad of easter eggs have found their way on and around the circuit as well: trying to find them all if you own the game could keep you busy for a while.
Last part of the main content additions, 4 new cars make their way into GT7, with 3 classics and a new VGT. First is the 1970 Citroën DS21 Pallas, at the time a flagship for french technology and luxury. It was famous for it's hydro-pneumatic suspension system, and for being one of the rare french cars to be exported to the USA. The DS21 is also famous for having saved french president De Gaulle's life from an assassination attempt.
Following is the original Porsche 911 from 1973, in its rare Carrera RS 2.7 form. This is the car which basically set the trend for ducktail spoilers... and a lot of racing records. Its value has gone up tremendously in recent years, and the game reflects that with a 750.000 Cr price tag.
Interesting and unexpected addition, we have an old Formula 1 car from 1965, a time when these cars had no wings and produced lift at high speeds rather than downforce. The Honda RA272 is known for being the first Japanese car to ever win a F1 Grand Prix (1965 Mexico GP). Its small 1.5 V12 engine will happily scream into your speakers as it revs way past 10.000 rpm.
Finally, we get a new Vision GT car from Italdesign, the EXENEO. The car features a rear mid mounted hybrid V10 engine outputting a total of 1200 hp, and is available in 2 versions: the regular Street one, and an Offroad version with larger tyres and higher ride height.
Photo mode gets its own update as well with a new feature: Drift Mode in Scapes. As the name suggests, this allows you to take pictures of a drifting car, and it does it in a very interesting way: you get sliders to adjust the line travelled by the car indepedently of the angle it's oriented, the steering angle, and even the amount, thickness and texture of the smoke (which allows you to match it to dirt or snowy surfaces for instance). It is also possible to pick which wheels are producing the smoke, and the option is not tied to the car's drivetrain, meaning you do stupid things like make the tutorial's RX-7 look like it's doing a burnout from the front wheels.
Moreover, it turns out this feature is also very useful for regular dynamic scapes pictures: you can turn the smoke effect completely off and just use the feature to get a finer control of how you want the car to move across the scene.
The update also adds a bunch of minor features and bug fixes, with a little Quality of Life addition to lobbies in the form of a results screen that can be accessed after a race. Dirty air on "real" slipstream setting seem to have been reduced - which is a good thing as it was overly exagerated before, to the point the World Tour build of the game used a different version of it. BoP changes affect the in-game classes, and Sport Mode gets the ability to restrict specific setup options for races - a feature that would be desperately needed in lobbies as well, but like many other Sport Mode specific features, the mysteries of Polyphony Digital's game design decisions keep holding back important features away from most players and crippling lobbies' potential.
Overall, this update is really nice, although only PS5 users will get the most out of it. The game still needs to fix some important underlying issues it has by design, especially regarding the single player career experience and lobbies.
Find the full patchnotes on the next page of this article.
- Next page: Patch Notes
