Gran Turismo 7 - First Impressions

I came into this game not knowing at all if I'd like it or not, I watched some reviews before buying it but it seems like everyone is split 50/50 on their opinions about Gran Turismo 7.

Still, I haven't played a proper Gran Turismo game since 4 on the PS2 over a decade ago. So I wanted to see how the franchise is doing and if it's still fun. I wanted to go in as blind as possible, so I ordered my copy and stopped watching those reviews.

I was surprised to see the "Legendas em Português" label, or "Portuguese Subtitles."
It is a Sony game so it's somewhat to be expected but it's still nice to see something available in my own language.

After a somewhat lenghty install process, I got into the game... Well, kind of.
The install consists of two discs, a data disc and a play disc. I have no idea why it has to be this way, but uhh sure. It works.
After you install the install disc, the play disc has to install even MORE stuff.

But at least you're not stuck watching a blue loading screen.

Whilst you install the game you have a selection of 3 songs you can play on this rhythm game/time attack hybrid game mode, and I found it to be surprisingly fun. I played all 3 tracks, and now that the game is installed I have access to even more, it's quite fun and entertaining.

It's pretty cool to see a dev putting something in the game for you to do whilst it installs, this was definitely a lot more common during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, but if it's needed here, then we might as well have something as fun as this.

This is the main-menu after installing. It's a bit... ugly, when compared to Gran Turismo 4 at least.
You have the musical rally mode and the world map, where you get to play most of the game.

At the start you get to choose a car, I of course went with the Honda Fit Hybrid '14 since my dad owned a Fit '09 way back in the day and I loved that car. So many fun travels in it.

Sure, the 2014 model looks a whole lot better, but it's still the same bodyshape that I recognize from as a kid.

The graphical presentation here is in general really good, specially for a PS4 last-gen title. I'm quite surprised with what they're able to deliver at 60FPS 1080p here.

And of course rainy weather always makes games look a bit better

So, how's the main "campaign"?

The game takes place in a café, where you complete sets of missions for a narrator type of guy and you win stuff from that.
Most of the prizes so far have been scratch cards that work like the gacha component of Forza, the wheelspin.

I haven't really gotten anything too good yet out of those cards, but it's nice that I'm unlocking content at the same time.
Content such as cars, tracks and things to do.

When you complete something like a set of cars, you get a nice little picture of them. It's quaint, it's nice.

License tests are still here though, the bane of every Gran Turismo player! (jk, they're not that hard).

I've been doing them at my own leisure and they're really not too bad here, I'm glad we don't have coffee breaks anymore as those were HARD!

Tuning now feels a whole lot simpler, it's really easy to add, remove, change and even limit the performance of your car through the tuning option in the main menu. I like it, it makes it easy to get your car exactly the way you want it to be.

There's a used car menu that I forgot to capture a screenshot of, but you can also buy new cars straight from the manufacturers.
New consists of cars from 2001 forwards.

You also get a museum and a "channel" to learn more about certain car brands. This is nice and just adds more to the notion that Gran Turismo is a celebration of all things motorsport.
There's even a Lewis Hamilton category!

Here's the Renault expo, as far as I can tell the Renault/Dacia Duster isn't in the game so screw this aaaaaa.
I've yet to see a racing game include the Duster or the Sandero and this is just real dang sad, the Duster is one of my favourite cars. I know it's an odd choice, but it has a lot of sentimental value to me.

But well, it's not like I expected it to be here anyway.

Just like I didn't expect my dad's 2019 Nissan Sentra to be here... Well, it might still be in the used cars shop, but I doubt it. At least we get this cool 2020 concept that will never actually become a car, as is with most concept cars lmao.

This is the win screen, which I very much like.

And this is the rewards screen that comes after it. It's really clean and nice to see, Polyphony did a great job with the UI and UX in this game;
Even if the menus can be a bit slow on the PS4 version of the game... But hey, keep reading my posts and maybe one day I'll be able to test this on the PS5 😛

So, what do we have here?
A beautifully constructed game that as far as I can tell launched with many mistakes, but that after a good amount of updates has gotten considerably better.
A game that looks gorgeous on new and last-gen hardware and that most importantly: plays like a dream.

Gran Turismo 7 is everything I was expecting out of something called Gran Turismo, and more.
Polyphony Digital did not fail here, at least for me. I can definitely see how old fans of the series would have issues with this one, but as a long time non-player and someone who paid far from full price on this little gem, I'm really satisfied.

And specially when compared to Forza Motorsport (2023), this game stands out as the best amongst its peers. There's a lot to do, a lot to see and lots of fun to be had.

Thanks for reading! (Even if this post was mostly photos haha).