Game news Gran Turismo 7: The details that would make the long-awaited homecoming
Last Thursday’s PlayStation Showcase allowed Sony to highlight upcoming games for this end of the year, 2022 and beyond. Although the stars of the evening were God of War Ragnarök or the announcement of Spider-Man 2 with Venom as a bonus, Gran Turismo 7 managed to strike a chord with fans, with a trailer filled with subtleties and references. What if it signaled the comeback of a series that got lost along the way?
Gran Turismo: The best of the past?
Formerly the firmament of the racing game genre, Gran Turismo today serves as Proust’s madeleine. Certainly the most hardcore fans are undoubtedly finishing their 3,171st lap of the Nürburgring on Gran Turismo Sport, but part of the community ended up leaving the ship, losing interest in the series after Gran Turismo 4, the last episode to really be. achieve unanimity. The reason is, in our opinion, the following: in its beginnings, Polyphony Digital’s racing game had attracted many players who were not keen on the genre, thanks to an original approach to game design. It offered a real evolution of the experience, like an RPG. Equipping your car with better parts to tackle new categories, gradually unlocking cars often hidden behind specific races, opening the way to new events via the permit system, it is possible that many memories will come back to you. mind reading its lines. Unfortunately, this formidable concept began to wither from Gran Turismo 5, until it almost disappeared for Gran Turismo Sport, which gives pride of place to online competitions. Admittedly the last episodes keep great qualities, but only die-hard fans of racing games find their account, leaving a whole fringe of the public idle.
But those dark times may well come to an end. Indeed, the creator of the Kazunori Yamauchi series clearly expressed himself at the beginning of the year on the ambitions of Gran Turismo 7 (in the columns of the Japanese media Octane), insisting on the need to make this opus a real homecoming. Well aware of the disappointment of some of the fans, Yamauchi-san made it clear that the Gran Turismo 7 solo experience would be inspired by the first four games., while also retaining the in-line competition dimension of Gran Turismo Sport. The best of both worlds ? How could I say no?
To rediscover the golden age, you might as well be inspired by it
Since we have not yet had the chance to taste the asphalt of Gran Turismo 7, it is of course impossible to be sure that this new opus is indeed the big return of the “RPG” of the racing game, As announced. However, the elements that go in this direction are starting to accumulate, and the last trailer is also a true love letter to the first quartet of episodes, thanks to an intro worthy of its predecessors. As you can see below in the comparison made by the Youtuber Password 6863, some of the iconic shots from the introductory cinematics of the first four games have been reused for a result of infinite beauty. The first four and not the next? Nice message from Yamauchi-San.
Although we are here in the nostalgic wink, the images that follow (but also a few that appeared in a previous trailer) highlight the return of used cars, pushing the player to hunt for rare cases. at a lower cost, but also the purchase of parts to turn his 110 horsepower tin can into war machines. Gran Turismo 7 also seems to want to develop all of its visual customization part, whether through photo mode, decals, rims and any other cosmetic modification. But the most important information remains the aspect “evolutionary game experience” which seems indeed to be back with the progressive release of the championships restricted by the type of car that we were able to collect., which means that we will have to finely manage our finances in order to open all the trials. We also discover a car collection system through which, by collecting several specific models, we access new circuits while winning roulette tickets, probably to win a new vehicle at random.
Everything suggests, between the speech of the studio and the first elements that we glimpse, that Gran Turismo 7 is going in the right direction, at least in terms of game design. However, there are still many question marks as to the driving sensations, visual appearance and line dimension. Given the trends of the last episodes, it is certain that Gran Turismo 7 will offer regular content and it is precisely this service dimension that will define the longevity of this new iteration. Six months from the release, we will probably have to wait a bit before knowing more, but we can however note that the efforts of Polyphony Digital seem to be going in the right direction.
Gran Turismo 7 is scheduled for release March 4, 2022 on PS5 and PS4.
