It's just under two months until Gran Turismo 7will launch and the hype train has been put into overdrive. After waiting over a year since GT7 was confirmed, we finally got our first official gameplay last year. 2022 has gotten off to an excellent start as well, as we've been treated to more GT7 gameplay already.
PlayStation have posted a new four-minute video of a race around the Daytona International Speedway to their YouTube channel, and we love the look of it. But let's take an in-depth look at the first gameplay from 2021, from the Deep Forest Raceway.
There's a lot to go through here, and it's easy to miss some of the details, so we're going to analyse these 123 seconds of gameplay for you.
Latest news - Sony AI unveil Sophy
Kazunori Yamauchi, the head of Polyphony, has stated on a number of occasions that Gran Turismo 7's AI was going to be better the best in the series' history. Some of the gameplay demos have shown this as well, with the AI obviously more realistic than that in GT Sport.
Sony AI and Polyphony have taken this up a notch too, with the invention of Sophy. Sophy is a new AI that races like a human player and is quicker than the fastest GT esports players in the world.
We don't expect Sophy to feature in GT7 (at least not right away) but it has massive implications for video gaming. We believe it could revolutionise racing games by giving GT a huge advantage over the competition. If you want to learn more about Sophy, Sony AI released the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l948hMaTPuo
A familiar setting
The Deep Forest Raceway is one of the original Gran Turismo circuits. Having debuted in the original GT in 1997, it made sense that Polyphony would reveal the gameplay in this fashion to celebrate GT's 25th anniversary.
The first thing you'll notice is the graphics. It's fair to say that not many games have pushed the boundaries of what the PlayStation 5 can graphically achieve so far. That's about to change though, because these graphics are the best we've seen on the new system.
The familiar sound of the lights going out rings and you're sent on your way to get to the front of the pack. The HUD display looks pretty much the same as it has done in GT for decades now. However, the graphics for the interior of the car look fantastically detailed.
The sense of speed is brilliant, and the sound is a thing of beauty. When we go alongside another car, it really feels as though it's right there even when watching on a TV. The 3D sound that will be available through the Pulse 3D headset will be a step above what we're used to in racing games.
Let's not forget about the engine noise of the car we're in either, it sounds awesome!
The artificial intelligence
We haven't seen Deep Forest since GT6, but the track seems to have gotten even better, with side-by-side action being witnessed throughout the lap.
You can tell that the AI have been improved upon a lot since GT Sport as well. They often go to the inside of the circuit to defend their line and react to what you do. Even when racing each other, they put on a great show, something we've not really seen in this series before.
We only get to look at one lap in-game, but that's definitely enough to whet our appetites.
Full Gameplay video
If you haven't seen it yet, don't worry, we've got you covered. Here is the full gameplay video from the Deep Forest Raceway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsvYQd-axrw
Release Date
Gran Turismo 7 will launch on 4th March 2022 on both the PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles.