The latest installment of the Gran Turismo series, Gran Turismo 7, was released earlier this month delivering Sony’s most realistic driving experience yet, drawing comparisons to the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. While players in Gran Turismo 7 cannot take to the skies, the racing game markets itself as the real driving simulator. Gran Turismo 7’s graphics, especially on the next-generation PlayStation 5, are more lifelike and immersive than ever before. Although Gran Turismo 7 received positive reviews at launch, it has since been heavily criticized for its implementation of microtransactions.
Gran Turismo 7 was first announced in June 2020 during the PlayStation 5 reveal livestream, with a planned 2020 release. The eighth installment in the Gran Turismo series was then delayed to 2021, before being delayed a second time due to COVID-related production challenges, which pushed its release date back to 2022. The game was finally released on PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles on March 4, 2022. As the first installment in the series since 2017’s Gran Turismo Sport, the graphics have improved significantly, with side-by-side comparisons of the two games showing Gran Turismo 7’s incredible attention to detail, especially when played on a next-generation PS5 console.
On top of lifelike graphics, Gran Turismo 7 aims to simulate driving with 3D spatial audio, and dynamic weather conditions, to create an immersive driving experience. This is similar to Microsoft Flight Simulator, the long-running amateur flight simulator series, which allows players to get behind the wheel of an aircraft, enjoying dynamic audio to match. First released in 1979 for the Apple II 8-bit home computer, Microsoft Flight Simulator pairs a flying simulation experience with realistic landscapes, taking players all around the world with the game’s latest update, World Update 8: Iberia, being released this week. Gran Turismo 7‘s robust track list also takes players around the world, with over 30 tracks, including perfect depictions of iconic circuits.
Gran Turismo 7 Provides A Realistic Driving Simulator Experience
Although Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 4 offers visual improvements over 2017’s Gran Turismo Sport, where Gran Turismo 7 shines best is on the next-generation PlayStation 5. When connected to a 4K TV, the PS5 offers HDR 4K visuals, with ray-tracing available in certain modes including Photo Mode, which enables players to admire cars away from the race track. Additionally, shadow filtering and ambient occlusion are noticeably better on the PS5, contributing to the realism. Another area where the PS5 version of Gran Turismo 7 shines is its updated DualSense controllers which offer adaptive trigger and haptic feedback functionality, which let players feel the road. Many players have praised the racing game’s use of these new controllers, with the haptic feedback helping players feel like they really are behind the wheel.
While Gran Turismo 7 is a PlayStation exclusive, and the Flight Simulator series comes from Microsoft, creators of the Xbox, the two games aim to offer a realistic simulator experience to players. With recent advancements such as next-gen consoles and updated controllers with haptic feedback, GT7’s driving simulator experience is more realistic than ever before. Although for players on older consoles the improvements are not as vast, Gran Turismo 7 still boasts near real-life visuals. With Microsoft Flight Simulator planning on releasing a new world update on March 24, fans of simulator games are in for a fantastic month of content.
