Kazunori Yamauchi is a very special man. In addition, he is calm, his forms are always impeccably correct, including what he looks like in the Japanese and his attitude halfway between society and enthusiasm is unique in its kind, which we undoubtedly wanted the protagonist, because its protagonists are different. It’s his game, no doubt, and he saw him in the middle of an empty nave answering questions from the press through a frugal videoconference from a minor rabbi, as it should be noted that they would like to reach out to each other, share impressions and play it all to the people. It sounds proud, as I said, but also concerned, because the real girl in their eyes has always been cars. The automobile as an experience, as a culture, as a passion that believes in its loss and considers its mission as a defender. Yamauchi isn’t a rock star, just a guy who loves what he does and wants to convey that confidence: although his job is to design car games, he’s one of the few developers who doesn’t seem to try to sell a motorcycle.
Gran Turismo 7 is, like everything that has come before it, above all a love letter to what its creator considers the most fascinating mechanical engineering that mankind has ever imagined, and for love sometimes does jokes. If I’m starting to talk about it, it’s because it’s precisely this attention to detail and it’s worth going even further, making the extra effort, those that turn Gran Turismo into a special product, although visiting another person would be very easy to confuse them with bravuconad. This is what happens, for example, when listening to Yamauchi talk for several minutes about the water cycle, interrupting his presentation behind closed doors to explain in the present tense how clouds are formed, how heat is trapped in the atmosphere after humidity. altitude, how air currents work. Where we wanted to hit it, we’ll test it a few moments later, when we present a simulation that includes all of these factors, including geographic location, temperature, and time of day, so that media skies at Japan don’t see the same as Californians.
Where others would have opted for a few undamaged cloud textures, Gran Turismo 7 features a complex system that only exists because it does in reality too, because capturing the thrill of driving a Lamborghini in Suzuka involves capture the car, the circuit and the reality. But it’s not just a matter of aesthetics: a few minutes later we see one time lapse of the same circuit which is flooded and dried on the ground, and we observe that the hot asphalt also comes into play in the simulation, dynamiting before the most exposed zones and interacting with the future of the neumathic agar. Similarly, later we discover that the starry sky is not an artistic license, but that the nights of Gran Turismo 7 are governed by an astrophysical model that includes stars and includes individual planets based on rendered data public by NASA. Appreciating it, comments Yamauchi, is almost impossible in photo mode, but if we play with the aperture settings of the optics and are lucky, it is possible to appreciate even the outline of the Láctea road. Like he said, crazy.
Crickets who remain phenomenal on paper, but who are more likely to show commitment following the anecdote. Undoubtedly nobody recovers the love for the cars thanks to the physically correct coordinates of Pluto, and therefore it is an alivio that these curiosities vinieran accompanied by real measurements. The first, obviously, is through a ride model that we haven’t been able to experience first-hand, but which promises to show the same attention to detail, and in the way it makes systems comfortable even in the humidity of the environment, the aerodynamics of the vehicle or the distances from the asphalt that generate the suspension are determined by factors that determine the ride. The most comprehensive way to demonstrate this is a suite of customization and brings it to a more complex point than ever, and a paradigm shift that promises, with new real-world simulations; Until now, comments Yamauchi, the result of these adjustments and the famous performance points that the system conferred on each configuration were measured by a simple comparison between weight, power and agar, something that Gran Turismo 7 decides in favor of a button that allows us to launch a physical simulation in the background each time we modify a parameter. The depth is as overwhelming as it seems, and that’s why it’s appreciated that real-world tests are offered: for example, an on-screen race starts when a prepared Volkswagen Beetle barricades the ground with the face of its serial counterpart. Both were expensive, so we chose the theme.
In this aesthetics and automotive pornography also help graphics, as realistic as trailers and now likely to receive criticism for their excess from fans of hypersaturation and post-processed effects. Gran Turismo 7 is not effective, it is real, and I particularly appreciate this natural lighting and these gloomy colors which opt for consistency with a philosophy before deciphering the mandibles. Additionally, the game features authentic infarto timbres, especially during rehearsals which have been redesigned to use cameras that procedurally accompany the soundtrack; this is so, and in others like the newly amplified photographic sequence, where the graphics engine allows to aggregate effects such as the laser trace, because in a new exercise in honesty and commitment to its principles during the races, the 60 frames per second are non-negotiable. Yet, and by virtue of that same honesty, I would say that the difference is minimal, and sometimes inappreciable. Undoubtedly, the theme will bring cola, but from the results point of view, it is clear that the radiation during the gameplay it was the most sensible option.
The second important proposal comes in the form of numbers, because always a bright theme in the genre: Gran Turismo 7 will compete with more than 400 launch cars, and on the lands of the circuit will host more than 100 events concentrated in 34 different locations with 97 independent tracks. It is a more respectable number than on this occasion it is intended to express by offering different associated tests on each track, and it is to be hoped that it will be useful according to future updates. In addition, and according to the figures, the soundtrack will have around 300 themes with a load of 75 artists who will be divided among the genres suitable for this type of production: jazz, hip hop, electro, lounge, classical… and therefore on a relevant theme is music, since most of the procedural cameras mentioned for rehearsals have another novelty with a strong melodic component: the Music Rally mode, a lucky hybrid between Gran Turismo and Guitar Hero in which there is no meta line as such, but a time-governed accounting bpm of its own theme. The idea is to enjoy the music and the track, and the goal is to reach the end of the song before leaving without Beatsenjoy subjects faster and calculate different points on the track to refresh our meter.
And as we talk about its apartado, it also makes sense to do with 3D audio, one of the great workhorses of Sony’s new generation and a technology that polyphony seems to have mixed with enthusiasm. New attention to detail and an almost obsessive realism, now embodied in a small demo visibly focused on every point of the scene that the audio engine considered an emitter in the mix: every point of contact of each wheel with the asphalt , each exhaust pipe, each engine of each vehicle on the track … a sea of cones of varying intensity and orientation which, united to the study recordings which have been made individually for each car (a titanic area , across time) following a truly percussive soundscape.
But the sound at the end is nothing but a vibration of a determined frequency, and with that we come back to the holes: for everything that remains below 100Hz, that is to say for all physical phenomena related to a race that cause vibrations below the Shadow more immediately perceptible to the human eye, Gran Turismo 7 uses the touch of Dual Sense: the characteristic touch of ABS on the brake pedal, the deceleration of a pneumatic block on the asphalt, the vibration of the car… details, details and more details that the team sought to reproduce using the sense of touch and this range of low frequencies. Sounds promising, and even I should say what I need: it will be time for someone who is not Astro Bot the real sass to participate in a vicious circle like Dual Sense.
And when it comes to game modes, after selecting vehicles the real cargo mainstay of what Yamauchi defines as a “sandbox of life with cars”, good and better news. The first are rhythmic: the more casual multiplayer returns, with races on the match screen, online lobbies and tools to share creations, but also a sports mode to determine what makes it possible to stay in this Grand Touring truly more official and competitive. Sport. Licenses associated with time trials or chess are also available in the form of races of derivative and again, a classic yard campaign mode is back in that it starts with a more modest vehicle and goes a bit further to our garage. With all this we have already taken into account, and therefore the surprise is the Gran Turismo Café.
It is the neurological center, the heart of this life simulator with cars and of Yamauchi’s mission, of his intention to transmit his passion to new generations. Structurally, the Café is exactly that, a local coqueto that sometimes concentrates and organizes its challenges in turn into menus, with small restaurant menus that you will taste test to test until you complete more than thirty categories. In the sentimental, without restriction, there is interest: each of the cards is a tribute, and is accompanied by small charms, images, chronology, and a tribute to the philosophy of each car which implies to many times that its own designers are talking to you with the player and waving their hands through their story.
This is Yamauchi’s bet, and it is, among all the technological innovations that put on the table a dress as complex as it looks in Gran Turismo 7, the idea that makes the eyes shine the most: talk about cars, get to know them, to whom someone transmits this culture to children. Personally, and always with honesty by the flag, I must say that it is a world that has always aroused the most absolute disinterest in me. So far. Today I like the cars a little more than yesterday, and the credit is mine alone. Test superada, Yamauchi friend. Mission accomplished.
