Gran Turismo 7 Standard Edition For PS5

From the first honk of the series’ iconic countdown klaxon, there are moments during Gran Turismo 7 when it feels almost like a remake of the 1997 original. In the space of a moment I’m 16 again and stuffing earthshaking turbos into a bright red Mitsubishi GTO, wondering how I’m going to be able to beat my dad around Trial Mountain when he always gets the DualShock and I have to make do with our only other controller – a terrible, translucent blue aftermarket job with no analogue sticks. That’s a kind of magic a video game series can’t buy; it can only earn. Gran Turismo 7 has that magic; that compulsive car upgrade loop the series established, plus the hot looks and sterling handling to back it up. But there’s a lot more to Gran Turismo 7 than the sum of its nostalgia – even if there are still a few traditions it should’ve left in its rear-view mirror.

Nostalgia isn’t a requirement, though: Gran Turismo 7 is the most welcoming GT ever, with dozens of hours of curated races and tasks designed to induct a new generation of players into the classic GT experience. GT7 achieves this via the Gran Turismo Café, an eccentric but effective little hub that the developers at Polyphony have placed right in the middle of its world map. When we drop in, the café owner assigns us specific races and tasks via a series of 39 so-called “menu books.” Working through those gradually introduces new drivers to how things work in GT – from earning licences and finding and buying cars, to customisation and racing. Some of it may initially seem like busywork to long-time GT players, but the racing events the Gran Turismo Café deliberately threads us through all make up part of the large list of career races we’d be otherwise doing anyhow – and the decent collection of reward cars offered for working through the menu books makes it well worth your time.

You’ll definitely be able to win many more cars this way than you’d be able to afford to buy in your first week with GT7, that much is clear. Payouts aren’t particularly extravagant and car upgrade costs can be surprisingly high for some items, like tyres that cost twice as much as an entire MX-5, or $100,000 nitrous systems no amount of boosted DVD players would ever pay for. Even neat ideas, like the huge range of official manufacturer paint colours we can use in the design booth, annoyingly come with a cost attached.