Better sound, better graphics, better physics—the Gran Turismo 7 review

Enlarge / In 1997, Gran Turismo was one of the standout hits for the original Playstation. Now, GT7 is ready for Sony's current consoles. (credit: Sony)

Can you believe more than eight years have passed since the last full Gran Turismo game? Actually, who am I kidding-fans of the series have become accustomed to lengthy waits between installments. That wait is very nearly over, though, because on Thursday, Gran Turismo 7 arrives for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles.

It has been a wait filled with some trepidation. Although GT titles were massively overrepresented in my very unscientific ranking of console racing games a while back, some installments of the franchise from Polyphony Digital have not been as good as others-looking at you, GT5. But that was then, and this is now, and there's an entirely new generation of hardware to show off the series' trademark dazzling realism.

GT7 shows that Polyphony Digital has not lost its touch. There's room for improvement-history suggests that updates will happen over time-and there's no doubt that the game plays better on the hard-to-find PS5 than the more commonplace PS4. But in trying times, GT7 is the racing game equivalent of comfort food, made from a recipe refined over 25 years but updated for the 4K generation.

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