Sony’s first scheduled State of Play of 2022 is a deep dive into Gran Turismo 7, which is scheduled to release on March 4, 2022. Featuring Gran Turismo 7’s producer Kazunori Yamauchi, we’re taken on a journey through Gran Turismo’s 25 years of pedigree, experience, and automotive racing that shows a pure love for cars.

Gran Turismo 7 is dubbed as “the most complete Gran Turismo to date”, making it the pinnacle of its 25-year history and an accessible racer that all players can enjoy.

Celebration of Car Culture

Gran Turismo 7 will feature over 400 cars across 34 locations around the world with 90 track layouts. These features will be available through the World Map, a menu that puts the Gran Turismo Cafe as the central hub where you can access your car collection. In this cafe, you can even interact with some of the car designers, taking you on a history lesson of specific car types like the illustrious Porsche.

There is an elegant feel to the whole affair of acquiring and building your collection. You can use your in-game credits to purchase different brands of cars through different sellers like Brand Central, a retail store where you have access to car modes built from 2001 and later. Used Car Dealerships allow you to purchase some models for a reduced price, while the Legendary Car Dealership specializes in exotic models that will leave a dent in your wallet.

The World Circuit

As you race in the World Circuit, you have access to the various real-world tracks and even fantasy circuits that feature classic Gran Turismo stages such as the Deep Forest and Trial Mountain. Custom race modes allow you to combine AI and your personal records to create personalized races, while the License Tests are now expanded for you to learn basic and advanced techniques to improve your skills. Finally, Mission Races that include Drift Trials and Drag Races provide more variation in the typical events that go above the usual.

If you want to go beyond the single-player experience, there are several ways to interact with other players through multiplayer. There’s the classic local play such as the 2-player split-screen as well as engaging with players in lobbies and meeting places. For the more serious racer, there is the Sport Mode to compete in leaderboards.

Content creators can share their results and collection through an expanded photo mode that allow for fantastic recreations to showcase your collection and take cutting edge HDR photos. You can access a race photo mode to photograph dynamic shots with much greater ease, and you can also travel the world with your favorite car using 2,500 photo spots for that perfect capture.

Players can also access a dynamic replay mode and share high quality replay videos in Gran Turismo 7. You can use the Music Replay feature where different camera positions cut to a new scene, matching the music that’s being played. Music Rally is also another feature where you can enjoy said music while you drive, making it an overall experience that’s a great tool for content creators to share with other players.

Realistic Car Simulator

Visually, Gran Turismo 7 utilizes PS5’s photo-realistic graphics using ray tracing. This accurately depicts lighting and reflections to highlight the shiny surfaces that reflect on your cars. allowing for the unique expression of your car selection.

To improve upon the performance of your car, you can customize it to your preferred look, having several dozen parts allowing for thousands of combinations. You can also add stickers where you couldn’t before, along with the car wash and oil change features to improve performance.

Gran Turismo 7 also employs realistic physics as consulted with different experts in the field, including multiple-time F1 champion Lewis Hamiton. Track lap times are accurate and slipstream effects are recreated with utmost precision.

The DualSense Controller will also be a highlight in the game. Adaptive triggers and haptic vibrations enhance the level of player immersion such as feeling the tire lock state and vibrations of the front tires through the haptics. 3D audio also expresses the positions of the sound sources and movements in a 3D space, so players can perceive where sound is coming from.

Finally, real-time weather effects augment the accuracy of Gran Turismo 7, using meteorological data depending on the weather in the location. Starry skies will be drawn using real-life weather patterns and the time changes are expressed in both the scenery and light. This can affect atmospheric and surface temperatures, consequently affecting tire grip, slipstream effect, and much more.

Even if you’re not a total car enthusiast, there’s plenty to get excited about when Gran Turismo 7 launches for the PS4 and PS5 on March 4, 2022.