One of the key games at the PlayStation Showcase was Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 7, one of the titles delayed until 2022.

Kazunori Yamauchi, the father of Gran Turismo, wrote a detailed PlayStation Blog post about Gran Turismo 7: “I still clearly remember the inexplicable eagerness and excitement of that day when we introduced the first Gran Turismo game to the world for the first time on the original PlayStation 1 console. With that same inexplicable sense of excitement, I’m happy to report that Gran Turismo 7 will be available on March 4, 2022, simultaneously on both the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 4 consoles. The cultural environment surrounding cars has changed dramatically in the past 25 years. Those born in the rich car culture of the times created the first Gran Turismo game, so it may be difficult for the current generation of automotive purists to be in the same type of cultural environment as ourselves back then.

The objective for Gran Turismo 7 in current culture today is to design a game to convey everything from the last 150 years of car and racing culture, whether you are a lifelong fan or discovering cars for the first time. Gran Turismo 7 is the culmination of the series that answers the expectations of Gran Turismo fans throughout the years. At the same time, it is a title that marks a beginning of a difficult mission to contain the full breadth of car culture from the past into a single video game.

[…] The name “Gran Turismo” means “Grand Touring” in Italian. Back in the 17th Century, people would go on long trips across the European continent, learning and growing at their travel destinations. The name is derived from these journeys. In the same spirit, the GT Campaign mode is also where individual players take their unique journeys and gain life learning experiences. We’re aware that long-time fans of the Gran Turismo series strongly desired the return of the GT Campaign mode. Now, having seen the trailer, hopefully, everyone will get a feel for the atmosphere of the newly designed Campaign mode. Returning to the very roots of the GT Campaign mode experience, players will be starting from the GT World Map.

[…] Since the introduction of the Livery Editor in Gran Turismo Sport, we’ve seen millions of complex and creative designs. We were amazed by the quality of the liveries made by our fans in the Livery Editor and their sheer quantity. Knowing this to be an essential feature for our fans, our primary goal for the Livery Editor in Gran Turismo 7 was to improve the user interface and utility and accessibility.

[…] When you own a car that you love, it’s only natural to want to take photos of it in different locations around the world in trying to capture that perfect shot. Scapes allows you to have complete control of photorealistic pictures using HDR technology (with an HDR capable display), expert-level effects, and even panning shots. You will be able to photograph your car freely in photo spots across 43 countries and over 2,500 locations, and every moment captured can be shared with others that have the same love and passion as you.

[…] In addition to the return of the GT Campaign mode, our historic circuits like Trial Mountain and High-Speed Ring will be making a comeback. In the trailer, you may have noticed that these tracks are more detailed to match the PlayStation 5 console’s power of expression, with additional work done on parts of the layout. Bringing back these circuits with a level of detail and richness that matches the PS5 consoles’ power of expression was a new challenge for the team.

[…] The first step in genuinely connecting with car culture is learning and remembering the shapes and names of the cars. This is where love and passion in cars begin—FF, FR, 911, 356, transmission… interest in typical terms like these appearing in car culture only comes from first knowing and recognizing the shapes and names of the cars. Because of this, Gran Turismo 7 is designed as a “Car Collecting Game,” even more so than the GT series of the past. The main feature of the GT Cafe in the game is to navigate the player’s adventures in the world of Gran Turismo, presenting a specific collection of cars that have a cultural meaning from the past, present, and future. Players will progress and complete missions in the GT Cafe by acquiring prize cars from various races within the world and the Brand Central and the Used Car Dealership.

[…] One of the most significant rewards in owning a car is to modify and customize it to suit your taste, and the smallest of changes will have different effects on the behaviour of the vehicle. In Gran Turismo 7, players can once again start with a stock vehicle and build their car up gradually to fit their preference, through adjustments made on engine performance, suspension, transmission gearing, brakes, tires, etc. GT Auto also makes a comeback with wheel changes, wide-body modifications, the addition of roll cages, and other aerodynamic parts. And not to mention engine oil changes and car wash.

[…] The time/weather change simulation brought to life in Gran Turismo 7 is unique to Polyphony Digital, which researched the complexities of nature and tailored it into a video game. Referencing a massive amount of meteorological observation data, we have recreated spatial / time of day conditions for particle size distribution and concentration distribution of aerosol particles in the atmosphere on a global environmental scale, in a unique procedure to the Gran Turismo series. The validity of the simulation was checked using Scapes HDR images, for which we have accumulated data for several thousand spots all around the world. As a result, we have succeeded in expressing real and complex skyscapes and changes in light for different times of day and weather,” Yamauchi wrote.

Gran Turismo 7 launches on March 4 on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

Source: Gematsu