In one of the numerous behind-the-scenes videos in which he’s been appearing on the PlayStation YouTube channel, Yamauchi explains that to him car culture means different things to different people, and this time he hopes to cater to them all. “Whereas 2017’s Gran Turismo Sport had a clear focus on online racing, this time Yamauchi wants a game that incorporates all elements of car culture.”
#Gran turismo 7 vs forza horizon 4 series
Whereas 2017’s Gran Turismo Sport (the only game in the series to be released on PS4) had a clear focus on online racing, with a simple and grindy single-player ‘campaign’ mode added post-launch almost as an afterthought, this time Yamauchi wants a game that incorporates all elements of car culture. It’s this idea of ‘car culture’ that Yamauchi is pushing with Gran Turismo 7. In a post on the official PlayStation blog earlier this year, Yamauchi said: “The objective for GT7 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.”
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It’s clear that with Gran Turismo 7, series creator and director Kazunori Yamauchi wants to recapture exactly this feeling. Just like the original Gran Turismo did 25 years ago, Forza Horizon makes people with no interest in cars suddenly see the appeal. Horizon in particular really drives home the point about how its cars aren’t just an arbitrary selection of metallic chunks with wheels on them, but that to some people they’re a lifestyle and a passion. The Xbox didn’t even exist when the first Gran Turismo was released, but now it could be argued that the Forza series is the definitive racing experience out there, with Forza Motorsport providing the serious side and Forza Horizon focusing on the sheer fun of driving. Games like Automobilista 2, Project Cars 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione and Codemasters’ F1 series have all made their mark in serious racing games fans’ lives in recent years, meaning Gran Turismo 7 needs to do something truly special to take the podium again. Gran Turismo is no longer a revelation or a torchbearer, it’s simply part of a larger pack of realistic racing games all jostling for pole position. In 1997 there was really nothing like it, but in the 2020s that’s no longer the case.