Gran Turismo 7’s State of Play reminded me that I won’t appreciated it as much

Sony Interactive Entertainment just released a new State of Play video presentation solely focused on the upcoming racing simulator Gran Turismo 7, highlighting it’s core features as it’s set to launch on the PlayStation 5 on March 4, 2022. In this presentation that lasted roughly around 30-minutes, I was solely convinced it’s more of a celebration of car culture than a game that would blow your mind with it’s realistic gameplay and visuals.

Gran Turismo has always been a simulator first and with the series now on it’s 25th anniversary this year, it seems they want to maintain that impression with GT7. No characters, no story or flashy new game mode never before seen in the series. Just an insane amount of cars and tracks packed in with probably one of the most realistic car racing experiences you could find in video games. The icing is then a series of tools and features to really geek out with all the types of cars available. It’s simply car porn enhanced for 2022.

The ability to customize your dream car, the option to fine-tune classics like the Volkswagen Beetle to hit 90 miles per hour in just seconds, listening to soothing or up-beat music as you hit the track – All of this featured in the video, quite honestly, sounds rather boring to me as I’ve never been a car enthusiast nor did I ever appreciate car racing to the point that I would pop off when I see a player take a corner so gracefully. But there are players that do. Players that love the thrill of being on the road at top speeds in real life. Fans that light up when they see a car they love on the road. This game looks like it’s prepared to resonate with these kinds of players once again. 

Gran Turismo Cafe is here to educate

The State of Play went through every major game mode in Gran Turismo 7 and the features that are said to deliver a grounded realistic experience. But there’s one mode that stood out for me – the Gran Turismo Cafe. 

When completing a menu (which will task you to collect a list of cars) you are rewarded with the real history of various car brands and car culture, likely related to the cars you just obtained. It sounds like a great addition and an opportunity to educate. Sure, we currently live in a “on demand” world where you can simply whip out any device hooked onto the internet and get whatever information you need in seconds, but I kind of appreciate that Gran Turismo 7 can be another avenue of information for would-be car enthusiasts that find themselves naturally drawn to cars and are just fascinated by it’s inner workings and design. Well, assuming the player is indeed rewarded with significant information and not just a one-liner saying when Toyota was established as a company. 

Once the presentation was done, I was left thinking that the 7th main entry in the series doesn’t seem like it didn’t change it’s core interior to be more attractive to a wider audience, just polished to death with what they can do with PlayStation 5’s hardware. It’s a game that I can’t appreciate whole-heartedly, but I’m curious to see if this game is truly welcoming to those that are new and open to car culture. If Gran Turismo 7 fails to make a player appreciate cars with all that detail, I simply don’t know what will.