As part of Thursday’s PlayStation Showcase, Sony blessed us all with another trailer for Gran Turismo 7. More importantly, perhaps, it also assigned the game a concrete release date: March 4, 2022.
This means there are only six months before GT is back in its car-collecting simulator, number-in-the-title form. What’s more, those who have yet to get their hands on a PlayStation 5 won’t be left out because GT7 will officially be available on PS4 as well, with players on last-gen having the option to upgrade their copy to PS5 in the future for $10.
Judging from the new trailer, it looks like they’re going all-in on the nostalgia with this one. They dedicated a full minute of the clip paying homage to title sequences from the first four Gran Turismo games—arguably the series’ golden age. Also throwing back to the good ol’ days is a main menu system laid out on a geographic map, albeit now rendered in much greater three-dimensional detail than before and incorporating a day-night cycle.
Make no mistake, Gran Turismo‘s apparent return to the past isn’t merely aesthetic. After spending an entire console generation dilly-dallying with esports and becoming an official Olympic event with Gran Turismo Sport, PlayStation’s car game franchise will get back to its roots in the gameplay department as well. GT7 is set to feature a full Campaign Mode where you start out in a humble (likely Japanese) hatchback and race your way to a collection of increasingly more potent cars, increasingly shinier trophies, and, of course, virtual “drivers licenses” that seem to increase in difficulty exponentially.
The game has apparently expanded on the car collection aspect, including an entire GT Café section containing automobile acquisition side-goals and rewards. Cars amassed can also be modified and tuned, with the in-game GT Auto shop offering both performance and cosmetic mods and—get this—the return of virtual oil changes and car washes.
GT7 will also feature an extensive livery editor and the return of the shutterbug-favorite Scapes photography mode featuring 2,500 real-life backdrops across 43 countries. Iconic, original GT tracks like Trial Mountain and High Speed Ring will also make a comeback and join a decent roster of real-world circuits like Le Mans, Laguna Seca, and, of course, the Nürburgring. Marking an upgrade from GT Sport is the inclusion of variable time and simulated weather for an unspecified number of said circuits.
Interestingly, while the end of the trailer quite confidently states that Gran Turismo 7 will be available this coming March, GT‘s own webpage for the game says it currently has a “planned release” for March 4, 2022. Given this franchise’s track record for delays (and, admittedly, that of blockbuster video games in general), seems like a prudently appropriate choice of words.
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