Mini review from a long time PD critic

[Igano]

After years of roasting PD (rightly so), I acquired a copy of GT7 at 1/4 of the price which I thought would be a good move so even if I was let down I wouldn't have paid much. Imagine I had a PS5 sitting before GT7's release and I didn't buy it all this time because of the negativity going on after the release.

I have recently surpassed 40 hours on my GT 7 save game and having completed Cafe Menu 39 I think I can give an honest and balanced review on my experience so far. The reason I want to do that? Simply because I have bashed them after GT6 was announced and up to GT 7 first year of release.

My experience is half from the standard controller and half from the Logitech G PRO that I acquired after I was sold on GT7. Also I am reviewing the current state of the game as I started playing a month or two ago occasionaly.

Graphics: Crazy good, especially the lightning which sometimes makes it look like real life! ( I had no complaints about GT5 either, except standard cars of course)

Sound: is OK, not the crap that we had in GT5, but nothing mind blowing. Of course there are cars that sound quite a lot better and some are very dull.

Physics: The last sim I played with a G27 wheel back in GT5 days was AC when it first came out. When I drive in GT7 with my G PRO I have a very good feeling from the FFB and the car behaves realistic enough. I actually rate GT7 roughly on AC's level (which I drove with a much worse wheel keep in mind). I dont remember enough details to justify this and I am only talking feeling wise. The one difference I have noticed is that GT7 is more easy on saving the car from exiting the track. (the game pad experience is top for what it is, I have tried both modes with the analogues stick and by rotating the controller)

Car list: I actually love the car list because it has cars that matter, not like GT5 or GT6. I like the new additions and they cover many different types of cars.

Gameplay: There is definite improvement on the AI department from GT5 era. The only problem is there is no consistency in the various events. I am playing on the highest difficulty with no assists and I have made these observations:
-Arcade, the slowest possible AI you can beat that quite easily but at least they will challenge you or try to defend even if they are quite slower than you.
-Championships with PP limitations: these are quite good, I mean for a 7 lap race. I always had to be at the PP limit. They fight well and will capitalise in your every mistake. Their speed is OK and you will have to have a compettive car.
-Races with PP suggestions: these are medium difficulty from the other two which I could beat with a lower PP than suggested. I have managed it even with 100 PP less.
-Hard races (with the peppers). Ouch! These are hot! I need to get some practice in order to beat this and have a suitable tuned car. These are just perfect for my current skill.
-Haven't tried Sophy yet as i have much to do still.

I haven't finished all the available stuff yet, I could say I am around halfway through or a bit less. It doesnt feel very small, comparing it to GT5 which was very compact (except the endurance races). There's still plenty of circuit experiences (I love those), side races,the rest of the Cafe and the hard races. I believe if PD wanted to fix the career it's very easy to do as they already have the formulas for it. Just make plenty of races available and please bring back the Dailies, I loved those in GT5! Of course spec 2 could come and change all this in a second (one can only dream I guess).

My conclusion is that is a good game with a very solid core but with some silly flaws. My gut is telling me that they did this as a prologue and they will release the gt4 experience as GT8 near the end of the PS5 lifetime. They are only looking to solidify the features for the next game imho for the rest of GT7's life. Nonetheless I have a great time enjoying top graphics, an excellent car list, realistic physics with great tuning options for the first time in one complete package.

I am happy to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you GTplanet for keeping me busy on your forums instead of working for a decade and a half

 

[Igano]

I forgot to touch on 2 gameplay issues:
The invitations shouldn't expire. You've unlocked the cars and it should stay this way. Otherwise you're getting your roulettes wasted for nothing.
About the economy some cars are quite expensive considered classics which kinda hurts but it is bearable. If you aren't looking to buy every single car in the game than you can have a good pace getting what you want, but once you complete the whole career you have to end up to some silly grinding. It shouldn't be this way for the end game.

 

[pedrocor]

An honest review, in my opinion.

Maybe because you didn't had sky high expectations on what the game would!

Although can't agree on the AI assessment, it's as dull as ever, can be fast or slow but they will drive as if you aren't there. This is worst when you are starting behind 19 dull AIs with a 30 or 40 sec gap to the first and you have only a handful of laps to get to the front, being this the element of the game that brings most difficulty.

 

[Igano]

An honest review, in my opinion.

Maybe because you didn't had sky high expectations on what the game would!

Although can't agree on the AI assessment, it's as dull as ever, can be fast or slow but they will drive as if you aren't there. This is worst when you are starting behind 19 dull AIs with a 30 or 40 sec gap to the first and you have only a handful of laps to get to the front, being this the element of the game that brings most difficulty.

The real problem is they will ram you some times completely ignoring you in the front. I believe this parameter has been turned off in order to increase the AI ability to challenge your position. It is very annoying at times as you are swept outside the track, but from having the complete passiveness of GT5 where they would slow down I prefer the raming AI version.

Have you done the FR race in Tsukuba with the difficult settings? I didn't find them slow at all for my skill level.

 

[Ande3200]

Sounds sure is not perfect but its huge step up campared to previous games, overall they are still pretty good for a game with that big selection of cars

 

[Igano]

Sounds sure is not perfect but its huge step up campared to previous games, overall they are still pretty good for a game with that big selection of cars

Yes, this is how I see it as well.

 

[sebpap]

I forgot to touch on 2 gameplay issues:
The invitations shouldn't expire. You've unlocked the cars and it should stay this way. Otherwise you're getting your roulette wasted for nothing.
About the economy some cars are quite expensive considered classics which kinda hurts but it is bearable. If you aren't looking to buy every single car in the game than you can have a good pace getting what you want, but once you complete the whole career you have to end up to some silly grinding. It shouldn't be this way for the end game.

This. Invitation stuff is crazy. I've waited a whole year to get a Bugatti invitation, and I do my marathon every day ; invitation which was necessary to finish an extra menu. And then, I got two more Bugatti invitation in the two weeks who followed, wasted, obviously.

 

[Igano]

This. Invitation stuff is crazy. I've waited a whole year to get a Bugatti invitation, and I do my marathon every day ; invitation which was necessary to finish an extra menu. And then, I got two more Bugatti invitation in the two weeks who followed, wasted, obviously.

Imagine I had Bugatti, Ferrari,Aston Martin and Porsche invitations before I got my 2nd million...

 

[sebpap]

Imagine I had Bugatti, Ferrari,Aston Martin and Porsche invitations before I got my 2nd million...

Same, after the servers downtime for the first update, I got the whole invitation package. Yeah, I could visit the dealership, but without money, that doesn't help.

 

[Igano]

Same, after the servers downtime for the first update, I got the whole invitation package. Yeah, I could visit the dealership, but without money, that doesn't help.

Τhis is something totally aimed at whales. Just Kaz being extra greedy xD

 

[pedrocor]

The real problem is they will ram you some times completely ignoring you in the front. I believe this parameter has been turned off in order to increase the AI ability to challenge your position. It is very annoying at times as you are swept outside the track, but from having the complete passiveness of GT5 where they would slow down I prefer the raming AI version.

Have you done the FR race in Tsukuba with the difficult settings? I didn't find them slow at all for my skill level.

I'm playing on hard since day one.
Can't recall how hard it was, it was a year ago. The main thing in this race is that you have less than 4 miles to overtake 7 cars and overcome a 10 second delta to the front. One detail is that, being a "recommended" PP limit, there is a AI car over that limit on stock condition the Nissan Z32 (about 480pp) and it isn't even the fastest car.

EDIT: For me, the hardest race (except those hardcore Gr. 1 950pp) is the Monza Clubman Plus 550pp race. The AI is damn blood fast on straights, as always, and there aren't so much of slow sections where they will loose time, so it's always on edge, that one.

 

[Igano]

I'm playing on hard since day one.
Can't recall how hard it was, it was a year ago. The main thing in this race is that you have less than 4 miles to overtake 7 cars and overcome a 10 second delta to the front. One detail is that, being a "recommended" PP limit, there is a AI car over that limit on stock condition the Nissan Z32 (about 480pp) and it isn't even the fastest car.

EDIT: For me, the hardest race (except those hardcore Gr. 1 950pp) is the Monza Clubman Plus 550pp race. The AI is damn blood fast on straights, as always, and there aren't so much of slow sections where they will loose time, so it's always on edge, that one.

Could there be differences in the campaign? Since I played almost a year after release?

 

[pedrocor]

Could there be differences in the campaign? Since I played almost a year after release?

Not significative changes, I was saying a year ago, on the way I don't really remember which car I used then to win the race, for menu completion matters.
There are slight changes, the physics model changed several times through updates (notably the way the weight transfer was handled and the tire model), the PP calculation was adjusted several times because of some exploits the community was discovering (notably putting the 1300hp Tomahawk under 600pp to enter the Tokyo WTC 600 race to grind...
The bigger difference is on Circuit Experience, Licence tests and Missions, as the benchmarks were set for the original physics model, which had some weird weight transfer handling, some FR and MR were simply undriveable, nowadays it's possible to go way faster (the B-6 license test with the Nissan Fairlady Z at Tsukuba chicane was epic to gold, now is much easier and the gold time still the same), but on races, the physics and tire wear changes affect all cars, ours and AI cars also, so no huge differences.